Category: History

This photograph of Officer Alex B. Rising originally appeared in the Minneapolis StarTribune in April of 1948.

Officer Rising is shown depositing the first free ticket into the prize box at Samsted’s Gift Shop at 3011-27th Avenue South. Looking on is Neal Samsted, the owner of the shop.

Officer Rising was hoping to win the 1948 Deluxe Ford Sedan or any of the other valuable prizes that were being given away by the Minnehaha-Lake Businessman’s Association.

The drawing was held held at 9:00 pm on April 22, 1948. We do not know if Officer Rising won a prize but we sure hope that he did.

Photograph originally appeared in the Minneapolis StarTribune

This is a 1937 photograph of Andrew Crummy, investigator for the Hennepin County Attorney and former Minneapolis Police Detective.

In 1906, then Detective Crummy worked many long hours on the investigation of the mass murder case known as the ‘Macedonian Massacre.”

The number of Macedonians stabbed and beaten to death in a two-story house on Tenth Avenue South in Minneapolis varied between 6 and 15, according to different records and witnesses. Reports of the amount of money found on the bodies also varied.

The motive for the crime was never discovered but it was believed that it was neither love nor money. There were rumors – popular although unproven – that the murders were committed by Turkish agents seeking revenge for the war between Bulgarian and Greek bands within Ottoman Macedonia in 1904. 

In 1937, when this photograph was taken, the case had not yet been solved. Today, the case is barely known and seldom discussed.

Photograph courtesy of Hennepin County Library

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

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

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.

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?

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?

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

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

Upon arrival, there was nothing notable about the domestic call Officer Joe Schany and Officer Rod Rabine responded to on May 22, 2011. But shortly after stepping inside the front door of a home on the 3800 block of Girard Avenue North, Officer Schany heard something remarkable on his radio. 

“Dispatch asked ‘can anybody confirm a tornado in North Minneapolis?’ I stepped outside, and wow, it was right there. We saw the big swirling debris and we confirmed it!” he remembers. He stared down the twister from about 150 yards away. “We went down to the basement and actually the domestic kind of went away. The two people that were fighting started hugging.“ 

Officer Schany heard that “freight train” sound everyone describes on the news. It was followed by moments of silence before car alarms and sirens filled the afternoon air. “You walk into a house on a domestic and you come out… it’s a totally different landscape. Just the devastation the tornado caused, you had to be in awe.” 

The officer and his partner tried to navigate the streets, driving up on lawns at times to avoid massive trees that blocked Fremont Avenue. They helped folks out of their homes and quickly discovered one of the two people who were killed in the tornado — a man sitting in his car had been crushed by a massive fallen tree. 

3,700 homes were damaged that Sunday afternoon. The tornado cut a three-and-a-half mile path through North Minneapolis, tossing around 6,000 trees, destroy- ing 350 traffic signs, 75 street lights, and 1,600 sidewalk panels.

Sergeant Chuck Peter remembers the weeks following the weather event.  “A lot of officers were helping families gather belongings. Some people wanted to temporarily move out of the area and officers helped them load up their cars and trucks with boxes,” Sergeant Peter said. 

“It was a memorable point in my career, what happened. I got to see the good of people and what can come out of it. I’ve experienced a lot of incidents that have been bad, but this (the cooperative aftermath) definitely ended up being one of the good ones,” Officer Schany concluded. 

Article originally appeared in the Minneapolis StarTribune

This is the third 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 Hennepin County Library