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This is the first of three photographs of Chief Tony Bouza presenting awards to officers. In each photograph, a young Sergeant John Laux stands in the background assisting. Can you help us identify the officer who is receiving the award in this photograph?

Photograph courtesy of the Hennepin County Library

Here are some of the officers who worked in the old Sixth Precinct.

Pictured from left to right are: Jerry McFarlane; Roger Schmidt; Greg Smith; Rod Homstad; Riley Gilchrist; Bruce Lindberg; Luke Koerner; Chuck Donaldson; and Jim Howell.

Photograph from the museum collection courtesy of Cara Rule McGrath

We have another story to share with you from the “Minneapolis Police 150th Anniversary” book published by Acclaim Press (currently out of print).

“In the early morning hours of August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast of the United States with everything she had. Winds in excess of 140 miles per hour stretched 400 miles across. What followed was an unprecedented levee breach and massive flooding. Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated; many returned to rebuild, facing more than $100 billion in damage.

‘It was just a mess. The swampy smell still sticks with me to this day,’ Sergeant Brian Sand recalls. ‘You could see where the water lines were, there were fridges on the tops of homes. It was crazy. And the heat was just unbelievable.’

The MPD rolled down 20 deep, packed into SUVs towing trailers full of supplies, alongside teams of officers and deputies from Bloomington, St. Paul, Ramsey County, Roseville and Maplewood. The officers arrived a few weeks after the levees broke. Eighty percent of the city had been underwater and the cops encountered a ghost town. There was no electrical power, and the people and pets the officers did run into were powerless, dehydrated and devastated.

The MPD officers gave the New Orleans Police Department officers a chance to catch a much needed break. ‘By the time we got down there the New Orleans cops were just wiped. They were running on fumes. When we got down there it was kind of a relief for them because they were then able to go home and take care of their own families. The cops were finally able to collect belongings from their own homes; a lot of these guys lost everything down there,’ Sergeant Patti Hellen remembers.

The Minneapolis PD team was requested through MPD Sergeant Otto Wagenpfeil, a “Big Easy” native. After 23 days of work in difficult and devastating conditions, the group took a vote, and decided to stay another seven days to continue to help. The water in the Lower 9th Ward was just starting to recede.

Two thousand people died from this weather catastrophe that affected 90,000 square miles of the United States. It would be impossible to quantify, or assess a value, on how much the MPD’s presence was worth in the aftermath.

‘We just did it to help. I think the bigger sacrifice was people left their families behind for 30 days, but it was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. To say you were down there and able to help? That’s something that will always stick with me,’ Sand explained.”

Article originally published in the Minneapolis StarTribune

In this 1950 picture from our collections, University of Minnesota Police Chief E.B. Hanscom administers a polygraph test to Minneapolis Police Department Police Chief Tom Jones. E.B. Hanscom was widely considered to be an expert operator of polygraph tests.

When this captioned photograph appeared in the Minneapolis StarTribune on March 3, 1929, the Minneapolis Policewomen’s Bureau had been in operation for just one year. We are looking for more information about this unit and appreciate any assistance that you could provide.

Photograph courtesy of Minneapolis StarTribune

Here is a 1941 photograph of Minneapolis speed trap inventor, Mr. Ernest Dowden, showing his new invention to Officer Robert Bullock.

Photograph courtesy of Hennepin County Library

The MPD began testing the use of dogs in policing some time before 1970. Police Chief Gordon Johnson sent two officers, Welton Kopp and Mike Fisher, to Washington, D.C. where they trained with two German shepherd dogs. The officers returned to Minneapolis with their dogs and were successful in gaining city support for a K9 program. Officers Kopp and and Fisher recruited 8 officers from the MPD and dogs from private sector breeders for the first K9 class.

The original 1970 K9 Class had 8 teams.  They were: Officer William Lundquist and K9 Sergeant; Officer Mark Jacobson and K9 Rommel; Officer Phil Bishman and K9 Lance; Officer Dave Neibur and K9 Thor; Officer Richard Stahura and K9 Trooper; Officer Dick Morrill and K9 Rex; Officer Roger Fancher and K9 Clancy; and Officer Charles Adams and K9 Lance.

Here is a photograph of the late Lieutenant Mike Fisher, then commander of the MPD K9 Unit, and Officer Don Heitland taken in the late 1970s. Note the emergency telephone number on the back of the squad car. This photograph was taken before the advent of 911.

Here is a group photograph of the Minneapolis Police Motorcycle Patrol taken in front of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in 1955.

Photograph courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society