Latest Posts

From the museum’s collection, we are happy to show a two-piece radar system used to catch speeders.

It was manufactured by Kustom Electronics of Chanute, Kansas and used by the Minneapolis Police Department in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The cone bracket (as pictured in the photograph above) fit over the the squad car window and the receiver sat on the dashboard. The driver’s speed was displayed in the small window of the receiver.

This radar system could be used in a stationary mode or could be operated when the squad car was moving.

We are fortunate to have in our collection a 1942 version of the Harger Drunkometer which is featured in the photograph above.

The Harger Drunkometer was the precursor to the Breathalyzer.

Professor Rolla Neil Harger of the Indiana University School of Medicine invented this device in 1931 to help law enforcement test people for suspicion of drunk driving.

Later, in 1938, Mr. Harger was one of five people chosen for the Subcommittee of the National Safety Council which drafted legislation defining blood alcohol content limits for drunk driving.

In the photograph below, M.A. Berglund (left), who was a salesperson with the Stephenson Corporation, demonstrates the use of the Harger Drunkometer to Aldermen Lund (center) and Hendricks (right) of the Minneapolis City Council’s Police Committee.

Drunkometer from the Collection of the Minneapolis Police Museum
Photograph of Drunkometer demonstration courtesy of Hennepin County Library

How many times have your heard this phrase and thought of the many busy women you know who can always be counted on to make time to help their families, friends, and communities?

We are fortunate at the Minneapolis Police Museum to be the archive for the papers of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Minneapolis Police Federation.

The Ladies Auxiliary was founded in 1922, by women who were wives, mothers, sisters, aunts, cousins, and friends of Minneapolis Police Officers.

The Ladies Auxiliary provided its members an opportunity to socialize, learn, and serve the city.

Through its monthly sewing days, especially during the Great Depression, it was a driving force in providing good clothes for women, children, and infants living in poverty. The Ladies Auxiliary supported the work of the Michael Dowling School – the first school in the city to serve the needs of students with disabilities – with the proceeds from its many pancake breakfasts, spaghetti suppers, and holiday dances.

The Ladies Auxiliary began with 70 members who paid an initiation fee of fifty cents and a membership fee of one dollar per year.

We are happy to share with you the List of Officers and the Minutes from its very first meeting in 1922.

Appointed: June 18, 1956
End of Watch: September 30, 1972

Today we are thinking about Lieutenant Inno Suek.

Lieutenant Suek was 41 years of age when he was killed in the line of duty.

He was off duty, working part time as a security guard at Hum’s Liquor Store at 2125 Lyndale Avenue South on Saturday, September 30th.

Around 10:00 pm, two suspects entered the store. One suspect walked up behind Lieutenant Suek and pointed a gun at his head. As Lieutenant Suek turned around and fought for control of the gun, he was shot in the chest with a .38-caliber handgun.

Lieutenant Suek died at the scene.

The suspects were apprehended and convicted and the gunman was sentenced to life in prison.

Lieutenant Suek began his career with the Minneapolis Police Department on June 18, 1956 when he was assigned to the Bryant Station as a Patrolman. He was promoted to the rank of Sergeant in 1966 and to the rank of Lieutenant in 1971.

He was very proud of his promotion to Lieutenant and was especially pleased to be returning to the Bryant Station as a Lieutenant after having also served in other precincts. In the words of his former partner, Patrolman Don E. Harju, “It had been his dream to go back to the Bryant Station as a Lieutenant. He got the shift he was hoping for. He really liked the precinct and he liked the men who worked for him.”

One of Lieutenant Suek’s major interests was working with Midwest Challenge which was a halfway house for recovering drug addicts located at 3045 Columbus Avenue.

Jim Good, a counselor at Midwest Challenge said that Lieutenant Suek was instrumental in helping remodel the house.

Only three weeks before he was killed, Lieutenant Suek had donated his time to remodel the kitchen at the Halfway House. Mr. Good said that the thing he liked about him was that “he wasn’t sharp with us when we were doing something wrong. He would take the time to show us how to do things. He was very creative and willing to lend his support. He was not only concerned with the building but with the program itself”.

Lieutenant Suek’s wife Mrs. Rita Suek said that helping at the Halfway House “was just something he saw as an opportunity to help and he took that opportunity. That’s the way that you could characterize him.”

Lieutenant Suek was survived by his wife Rita (married October 24, 1959) and their four children: Peter (12), Peggy (11), Thomas (9), and John (2) in addition to many members of his extended family.

Lieutenant Suek was active with the Scouting Program at the Church of the Visitation in South Minneapolis. He was a former Marine and a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. He was also a member of the Minneapolis Police Officers Federation and the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association.

Funeral services were held at the Church of the Visitation on the morning of Wednesday, October 4, 1972 for Lieutenant Suek. He was buried later that day at the National Cemetery at Fort Snelling.

Please take a moment today to remember and honor Lieutenant Inno Suek.

Source and photograph: Minneapolis StarTribune of October 2, 1972

Here, from the collection of the museum, is a Smith and Wesson Breathalyzer Model 900 which was used by Minneapolis Police Officers in the 1970s and 1980s.

We visited with Retired Officer J. J. John and Retired Officer Larry Wilkens to learn more about how the Breathalyzer 900 operated.

The Breathalyzer 900 used a chemical contained within two ampoules to measure a subject’s blood alcohol level. The driver would blow into a tube attached to the machine, which mixed the breath sample with the chemical.

The resulting reaction enabled the Breathalyzer to determine the alcohol content of the driver’s breath, which it then converted to the blood-alcohol level.

The machine then transferred the results of the subject’s test to a read-out card.

Both officers reported that the machine was simple to operate.

Many thanks to Retired Minneapolis Police Officers J. J. John and Larry Wilkens for providing context for this article

Here is a camera that was used in the jail in the 1970s to take mug shots.

Many thanks to Retired Minneapolis Police Officers John Culhane and Chuck Donaldson for explaining the camera and its use to us.

To create a mug shot, an officer would type the name of the person who was being booked onto a card, slide the card into the machine, and then take a front and a side photograph of the person.

Along with the images, the typed information would appear on the negative.

While the negative was being processed, the officer would type up an envelope with the same information as on the photograph and then, once it was ready, place the photograph in the envelope.

The officer then filed the envelope in the Bureau of Identification drawer by its case number and also placed a copy in the line-up file for use by Minneapolis Police Detectives.

Many thanks to Retired Minneapolis Police Officers John Culhane and Chuck Donaldson for providing context for this article