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In August of 1939, Minneapolis Chief of Police Frank P. Forestal received a letter from a Mrs. Frank Thissen of Ellendale, Minnesota.

Mrs. Thissen had a problem that she thought Chief Forestal might be able to help to her solve.

She had six small children, all nine years of age and under. They lived on a big farm and she found it nearly impossible to shout loud enough for them to hear that it was time to come in from the fields and meadows where they were playing to do their chores or eat their meals.

They just couldn’t seem to hear her.

Mrs. Thissen had tried using an official basketball whistle to call the children but to no avail.

Then it dawned upon her that a police whistle must be very loud and so she wrote to the Chief to ask if he might be able to send her a discarded police whistle or direct her to a place where she could buy one.

Chief Forestal handed Mrs. Thissen’s letter over to George Gee who was the Police Property Custodian. Mr. Gee searched through the property room and tested out various whistles before settling on a large antique one not used in decades and a slightly-used traffic whistle as being up to the challenge.

The Chief sent the two whistles to Mrs. Thissen with great confidence that they would save her voice and bring her children running in eagerly from their play to do their chores and eat their meals.

Photograph of Captain Oscar Bakken (right) and Chief of Police Frank P. Forestal (left) trying out a new motorcycle in 1937 courtesy of Hennepin County Library

Story from Minneapolis StarTribune of August 9, 1939

On October 8, 1950, Minneapolis Police Chief William R. Jones announced the Commendations for Outstanding Police Work for the month of September.

Those receiving this honor were:

Patrolman Ramon Cronin for the capture of a 20-year-old burglar and hold-up man. This man’s arrest subsequently cleared up 50 unsolved crimes. Officer Cronin made a total of 18 arrests in September and recovered $2600 in stolen goods.

Patrolman Bruce Ahr and Patrolman Frank W. Johnson for the capture of a man who shot Patrolman George Terp, stole a squad car, and a private car belonging to an FBI agent. Chief Jones said that “although the man fired at these officers in the process of his capture, Officers Ahr and Johnson courageously apprehended and disarmed a dangerous criminal with a long and vicious criminal record”.

Patrolman Kenneth Pearson for courtesy. This award was made on the basis of letters received commenting on Pearson’s “consistently courteous attitude in dealing with the public” Chief Jones said.

The four officers, along with their wives, were the guests of honor at a celebratory dinner on October 18, 1950 at the Minneapolis Athletic Club.

Photos and story from the Minneapolis StarTribune of October 8, 1950

The Bertillon System was invented by French criminologist Alphonse Bertillon in 1879. It was a technique for describing individuals on the basis of a catalogue of physical measurements including standing height, sitting height (length of trunk and head), distance between fingertips with arms outstretched, amongst other characteristics.

For thirty years, the Bertillon System was generally accepted as the leading method of criminal identification. With the advent of fingerprinting, use of the Bertillon System eventually began to decline.

In 1915, the Minneapolis Police Department used a combination of the Bertillon System and fingerprinting to record the characteristics of individuals who had committed crimes and then used these records to help solve crimes.

On the fifth floor of the Courthouse Building, the Minneapolis Police Department had a Bertillon Room which was managed by Sergeant Irvin P. Jones. In this room, the Minneapolis Police Department had the records of nearly all of the major criminals in the country and also those of lesser criminals who were active in the Twin Cities and throughout the Great Northwest.

The Bertillon Room was filled with cameras, fingerprinting equipment, scales, and other measuring instruments that were used in the identification process. All information was recorded on notecards which were then stored in filing cabinets according to the type of crime committed. There was a cabinet for forgery, for robbery, for murder, for larceny, and so on.

In 1915, the Minneapolis Police Department was said to have one of the most complete Bertillon departments in the country.

Top photograph of Sergeant Irvin P. Jones taking a mug shot

All photographs courtesy of Hennepin County Library

Information from the Minneapolis StarTribune of May 9, 1915

Appointed – April 23, 1962

End of Watch – September 25, 1992

Today we are thinking about Officer Jerome “Jerry” Haaf who was killed in the line of duty on this day in 1992.

Officer Haaf was working his regular traffic assignment in South Minneapolis when he stopped by the Pizza Shack – a well-known favorite spot of Minneapolis Police Officers – for a coffee break.

As Officer Haaf sat drinking his coffee and reading the newspaper, two men who were later identified as members of the “Vice Lords” gang working on an order from its leader to kill a police officer came up behind Officer Haaf and shot him several times in the back.

Officer Haaf called for help on his radio while patrons, including a retired Minneapolis Police Officer, came to his aid.

Squad cars and an ambulance arrived quickly on the scene to rush Officer Haaf to Hennepin County Medical Center where he died from his wounds.

A multi-agency investigation into the killing of Officer Haaf ensued and after months of investigation, the two men who killed Officer Haaf, along with the others who had helped them, were apprehended, convicted, and sent to prison.

Officer Haaf was appointed to the Minneapolis Police Department on April 23, 1962 and served for 30 years.

He was 53 years of age and was only months away from retirement at the time of his killing.

Officer Haaf was survived by his loving wife, Marilyn, their daughter and two sons, and their grandchildren.

Officer Haaf is still remembered and honored by his many friends at the Minneapolis Police Department and throughout the community. He is in our thoughts and conversations, especially on this day.

In the words of a friend of his this morning, “He was always happy and made the shift a good time for all. A gentle man and hard working. Missed very much for sure.”

In the early 1990s, Youth Personal Safety Workshops were held in the Elliott Park neighborhood.

In 1992, the workshops were expanded to include children residing at the 410 Family Shelter and also children in programs at Catholic Charities Branch III.

The workshops were sponsored by the Crime Prevention Committee of Elliott Park Neighborhood Inc (EPNI) with assistance from Community Crime Prevention/SAFE, the Elliott Park Community Oriented Policing Program (EP-COPP), and the Minneapolis Police Department.

Representing the Minneapolis Police Department at the workshops were Officers Mike Taylor and Wally Carlson.

On July of 1992, nearly 20 young people attended a workshop in Franklin Steele Park. On July 30, another 50 young people participated in a second workshop at Elliott Park.

Prior to the workshops that July, the young attendees were asked to write a short essay for a book about their feelings and thoughts on crime and safety. Volunteers helped to record the thoughts of children too young to write their own essays, so the essays contained in the book represented young people from the ages of 3 to 15.

Today, we are sharing all of their essays here with you.

Elliot Park Youth Speak Out on Crime and Safety book courtesy of Hennepin County Library

On this day in 1963, the columnist George Grim wrote about the good work of the Minneapolis Police Reserve.

He encouraged the community to do its part by supporting the Reserve Officers in their effort to get uniforms for all of their members.

Article from the Minneapolis StarTribune of September 23, 1963

Ray Harrington was the well-regarded Head of the Minneapolis Police Bureau of Identification during the 1930s.

He was responsible for establish the Minneapolis Police Detection Training School to train Detectives in the various methods of gathering evidence. In his opinion, Detectives needed to understand something of physics, chemistry, geology, pathology, handwriting, and fingerprint classification. They also needed to be able to establish a rapport with people.

In the training sessions of April of 1938, Mr. Harrington met with Detectives three days per week to teach them about the tools and machinery of the Bureau of Identification. He instructed them in the fingerprint system and taught them how to obtain, determine the value of, and eliminate fingerprints.

He also taught them about something called the “portrait parle” or the “talking picture.” This was the term for the process of obtaining a complete description of a perpetrator from a victim.

Detectives were also trained in gathering blood, soil and metal samples.

The mission of the Detection Training School was to place the full power of Science into the hands of the Detectives with the goal of helping them solve crimes more quickly and with greater ease.

Photograph courtesy of Hennepin County Library

Appointed: January 1, 1948

End of Watch: May 11, 1959

On Monday, May 11, 1959, Minneapolis Police Sergeant William F. Herkal, Jr. was shot and killed in the line of duty.

Two men, one who had just been released from a Montana State Prison, attempted an armed robbery of the Red Owl grocery store in the Hi-Lake Shopping Center at 2124 East Lake Street.

A grocery clerk triggered a silent alarm and within minutes Detective Wayne Leonard and Officer Durwood Witt appeared on the scene through the front door of the Red Owl.

Detective Leonard and Officer Witt grappled with the robbers inside the store. One of the robbers, Jerry Gowdy, pulled out a gun. Detective Leonard told him to drop the gun and Gowdy replied that Detective Leonard would have to kill him first. Then, he and Detective Leonard exchanged gunfire.

Gowdy ran out of the store as Sergeant Herkal approached the scene in his squad car along with two other officers. Sergeant Herkal got out of the squad car and before he could raise his gun, Gowdy ran towards him and shot him at near point blank range. Sergeant Herkal died before an ambulance could arrive on the scene.

Sergeant Herkal was 35 years old at the time of his death.

Sergeant Herkal had been a member of the Minneapolis Police Department for eleven years since his appointment on January 1, 1948. He had served in the US Navy during WWII. He loved music.

Funeral services were held for Sergeant Herkal at the Church of St. Helena on May 14, 1949. He was buried at Fort Snelling National Cemetery.

Sergeant Herkal was survived by his wife, Marie and their four children: Steven, 8; Charles, 7; Judy, 12; and Susan, 2. He was also survived by his mother and two sisters.

Officer Charles Wallace was a Minneapolis Police Department School Safety Patrol Officer in the 1980s.

In its November 1980 issue, The Wedge community newspaper published a feature on his recent visit to the Jefferson Elementary School.

Here is Wedge Reporter Janet Swan’s story:

Officer Wallace: “Where’s a good place to play? Your yard?”
Class: “Yes!”

Officer Wallace: A friend’s yard?”
Class: “Yes!”

Officer Wallace: A stranger’s yard?”
Class: “No!”

Officer Wallace: An old garage?
Class: “No!”

Officer Wallace: “A new garage?”
Class: “Yes!”

Then laughter, when the first graders realize Officer Wallace has tricked them into giving a wrong answer.

Safety in traffic, bicycle riding, playing, dealing with strangers, and Halloween are some of the topics covered by Minneapolis Police Department School Safety Patrol Officer Charles Wallace in his annual fall visit to kindergarten and first grade classes at Jefferson.

Eighty first graders sit with quiet and rapt attention while he goes over safety rules that seem to go in one ear and out the other when promulgated by mom or dad. Wallace’s friendly, positive dialogue with the kids reinforces reasonable and necessary precautions as well as a positive image of the police.

The good feelings are summed up by a boy who said as Officer Wallace left his class, “I wish he were my Dad.”

In the photo above, Officer Charles Wallace and his friends at Jefferson Elementary School. From L to R: Ceridwen Christensen; Alice Swan; Cedric Reason; Kevin Carr; Katie Hatt; John MacRae; and Michael Freeman.

Photograph and article from The Wedge of November 1980 courtesy of Hennepin County Library

In the 1920s, Michael Grenlund was a well-known tailor in Minneapolis with a thriving business.

Around noon on Monday, December 23, 1929, his badly-battered body, along with that of his pet bulldog, was found in his tailor shop at 741 Adams Street Northeast. From the condition of the bodies, it was believed that the murders would have occurred on the evening of Saturday, December 21st.

Immediately, the Minneapolis Police Department’s Bertillon expert Ray Harrington, Detective Frank Munson, and Detective William O’Rourke were on the case.

Mr. Grenlund’s shop had been ransacked. The detectives methodically examined and finger-printed objects in his workrooms and living quarters that might have been handled by the murderer in the hopes of finding a clue to his or her identity.

They found cigarette ashes in the kitchen which were thought to be those of the murderer because Mr. Grenlund did not smoke and only rarely since his divorce 15 years earlier was known to have visitors to his living quarters.

The detectives subjected a stained hammer to chemical tests and after more closely examining the head wound ruled out the hammer as the instrument of murder and determined that Mr. Grenlund’s head wound was likely caused by the butt of a pistol.

The detectives interviewed scores of neighbors but were unable to develop any meaningful leads. They had two suspects: one a man who was thought to have recently robbed two businesses in the neighborhood; and the other a man who had been hanging around the tailor shop and then disappeared after the murder of Mr. Grenlund. In the end, the evidence around both men was found to be circumstantial.

Based upon the disappearance of a diamond ring, detectives believed that robbery was the motive for the crime. After the diamond ring was found in a glass in a cupboard six months later by the new owner of the building, robbery was ruled out as a motive.

After some time, the case went cold and today the murder of Michael Grenlund remains an unsolved mystery.

Top photograph of crowd gathering outside Michael Grenlund’s tailor shop after the discovery of his body courtesy of Hennepin County Library