Here is a photograph of a Minneapolis Police Officer helping out during the Community Fund Drive. Note how different the uniforms looked in 1924.
Photograph courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society
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serving others: on and off-duty
Here is a wonderful montage of photographs from 2012 of Minneapolis Police Officers gathering to donate their hair to the Pantene Wonderful Lengths Program to be used to create wigs for women who have suffered hair loss from cancer treatments.
Photographs courtesy of Beth Mota
thank you to cathy buda!
Cathy Buda is the daughter of the late Lieutenant Clinton A. Benson who retired from the Minneapolis Police Department in 1979.
Lieutenant Benson had saved MPD manuals, books, and training materials from the early 1960s. He was careful to specify that these should not be thrown away but should instead be donated somewhere.
We are grateful to Cathy for thinking of the Minneapolis Police Museum and for her generous donation of these materials which are so important to understanding the evolution of the department and the city.
upcoming podcasts: your feedback is requested
As you may recall, production of our podcasts was halted with the onset of COVID-19.
We just received the good news that we will be able to resume production of our podcasts at the MCN Channel 6 studios beginning the week of May 25 in conditions which are in conformance with the Governor and his Commissioners’ guidance on public health safety precautions against COVID-19.
As we plan the work ahead, we would love hear your feedback on some ideas for podcasts we are developing. We are interested in learning if you think that these topics will be compelling, and also if they will be helpful in encouraging an understanding of the role of policing in the development of our city and in the development of our city on the role of policing.
Our thought is to create a “Our Neighborhoods: Then and Now” podcast series. The idea would be to capture the memories of officers and community members who remember the neighborhoods as they were in the 1960s and 1970s and include officers and community members who are working and living in these neighborhoods today. This would be a way that we could approach the idea of neighborhood transitions and also bring different generations together in discussion. Amongst others, we would include in this series such neighborhoods as:
- Northeast Minneapolis
- Cedar Riverside
- North Minneapolis
- Whittier
- Phillips
- Loring Park
- Downtown
- Warehouse District/North Loop
- Dinkytown
- Lake Street
- Nokomis
- Powderhorn
Another idea is to do single topic podcasts. Some suggestions for this series are:
- Northside Riots of July 19-21, 1967
- Vietnam War Protests at the University of Minnesota
- The Mayoral Administration of Charles Stenvig
- The Tony Bouza Years
- Women in the Minneapolis Police Department: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
- Racial Diversity in the Minneapolis Police Department: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
- Protecting National Political Candidates: From the 1960s to Today
- Changes in Technology and the Impact to Communications on the Ground
- Gun Proliferation and the Impact on Policing Our Neighborhoods
- Changes in Crime Scene Investigations Since the 1960s
- Are We Warriors or Are We Guardians? – Minneapolis Policing Mindsets through the Decades
- My Time as a Rookie – What They Don’t Teach in the Academy
- The Story of the Model Cities Precinct
Yet another idea is to focus on crimes and criminals that have figured prominently in the history of the City. These could include:
- The Ozark Flats Murder
- Arnold Axilrod and the 1955 Murder of Elizabeth Moonan
- The Murder of Stanislaus Bilanski
- The Murder of Walter Liggett
- Augie’s Theater Lounge & Bar and Minneapolis Organized Crime
- Kid Cann (1900-1981)
- Deuce Casper (1936-2003)
- Perry “The Scholar” Millik (1944 – 2003)
- The Alexander Brothers
Are there additional topics that you would like us to pursue? Would you like to be a part of this effort either by participating in a particular podcast or by helping with research for a podcast?
We would love to hear from you and invite you to comment directly below or by writing us at: info@mplspolicemuseum.org
Major League Baseball All-Star Game: July 11 – July 15, 2014
Here is a story for baseball fans from the “Minneapolis Police 150th Anniversary” book published by Acclaim Press (currently out of print).
It was almost as if the cops themselves wrote the Star Tribune headline on July 14th, 2014. The words jumped off the paper: “Cops are a big hit with All- Star baseball fans in downtown Minneapolis.”
It was validation for the team of more than 30 officers working the command center in the shadows of Target Field. They were faced with the daunting task of welcoming thousands of visitors to the city, which included world-class ballplayers and entertainers in town to take in the festivities. Officers and deputies from more than 20 different agencies came in to help out by patrolling downtown on foot.
“Our cops, and officers from other agencies, were very visible. Our residents and visitors could see we were out in full force,” Assistant Chief Matt Clark said. Clark and dozens of other officers had been planning for this event for months.
“Every street corner, people were asking us, if they didn’t understand (where to go) we escorted them with our bikes,” Rich Sheldon, a BRRT Sergeant at the time, recalled.
Inside the stadium, Sergeant Jeff Waite led the teams securing the Home Run Derby and the All Star game. There were eight cops on the field and an- other 40 securing gates and walking the concourses. Waite made sure all officers assigned to the stadium’s interior had a chance to spend some time on the field.
“It was basically a Twin game on steroids,” he remembered. “They had a rain delay during the Home Run Derby for an hour and nobody complained. They probably sold a half a million dollars-worth of beer at that time.”
On the field, the Major League All-Stars were fist-bumping the cops and the fans were singing their praise. “People would come in and say ‘man, there are cops everywhere.’ I remember a lot of people coming up and saying we really appreciate you guys being out here and making sure we’re safe,” Sgt. Waite concluded.
officer riley gilchrist
Here is a 1982 photograph of Officer Riley Gilchrist. At the time, he was serving in the Third Precinct.
How did the squad cars of 1982 differ from those of today?
office harold cronquist helping with the school patrol
Here is a photograph from our archives of Officer Harold Cronquist helping with the school patrol. We believe that this photograph was taken at the corner of Central and Lowry Avenues in Northeast Minneapolis.
Officer Cronquist’s two daughters, Lynn and Gail, went on to become officers of the MPD.
Can you help us to date this photograph?
thank you to Cathy Roehl Peterson!
The Minneapolis Police Museum received a wonderful gift today from Cathy Roehl Peterson!
It is a beautiful cloth souvenir from the Annual Minneapolis Police Picnic of July 10, 1895.
We have only ever seen one of these before, and it was not in very good shape and it had no year on it, so this piece is a real treasure for the museum.
Cathy’s father, Arthur John Roehl, was a Minneapolis Police Officer for 36 years.
We are grateful to Cathy for her generous donation.
take a moment to reflect
Who was the most influential person in your work/life in Minneapolis? What lessons did that person teach you?
If you would like, we invite you to share a story about your most influential person by commenting directly below or by writing us at info@mplspolicemuseum.org
Hennepin County Law Enforcement Memorial Ceremony To Be Hosted On Facebook on may 15 at noon
Every year, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and the Minneapolis Police Department host a joint ceremony during National Police Week to honor our officers and deputies who have fallen in the line of duty.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s ceremony will hosted on the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page on Friday, May 15th at noon.
This annual event is part of the National Law Enforcement Week to recognize and remember officers who were killed in the line of duty in Hennepin County and Minneapolis.
To view the event, please visit: Facebook.com/HennepinSheriff