Category: History

Appointed – February 18, 1943
End of Watch – June 6, 1945

You may recall reading about Officer Marwin A. Wicklund on our website previously.

Officer Wicklund was the only member of the Minneapolis Police Department ever to be killed while on military duty.

Officer Wicklund joined the Minneapolis Police Department on February 18, 1943. Because he was married with three children, and because being a police officer was considered a vital occupation, Officer Wicklund was unsuccessful in his first three attempts to enlist to fight in WWII. On August 1, 1944, he was finally accepted by the Marines.

Officer Wicklund was assigned to Company H, Third Battalion, 29th Marines, 6th Division. He took part in the invasion of Okinawa. In action against Japanese forces on June 6, 1945, he was killed by a sniper. Officer Wicklund was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, Victory Medal World War II and a Presidential Unit Citation with ribbon and star for “extraordinary heroism in action.”

Officer Wicklund was 30 years old at the time of his death. He lived at 3923 Upton Avenue North in Minneapolis with his wife, Mina, and their children. He was buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl.

We are pleased to show the clipping above of Officer Wicklund on the job.

The clipping was recently found by Retired Minneapolis Police Officer David Niebur while engaged in historical research on the Department.

A sincere thank you to Retired Officer Niebur for sharing this clipping!

In 1982, the Minneapolis Police Band celebrated its 65th Anniversary.

As part of the celebration, band members were featured in a story in the Minneapolis StarTribune.

The band was comprised of police and civilian musicians and was led by Officer Robert Falk.  

Of the band, Officer Falk said as he poured coffee in the band office at the Bryant Precinct Station, “It’s a labor of love, it really is.  We have a good band because of the dedication of the members….The members do it for fun, so you have to maintain the enthusiasm, and you have to let them know that they are needed.”

One of the civilian members, Valerie Cowdery, was a young woman of 27 years of age.  Women had only been admitted to the band in 1969 and so she was asked about her experiences.  Ms. Cowdery said that the fact that she is a woman had never been a problem in the band and that she found a degree of friendship amongst the musicians that had been missing in the community bands that she had played with previously.

Ms. Cowdery also said that joining the Minneapolis Police Band had expanded her horizons.  She said that she found that police officers were just like anyone else.  Of the Minneapolis Police Band she said, “There are people of many age groups and socioeconomic backgrounds in the band, and I learned that you have to respect the opinions of people of all groups.”

The longest-serving member of the Minneapolis Police Band in 1982 was J. Emmett Hannon who had joined the band in 1919 only two years after its founding. 

Mr. Hannon was the retired president of a small private detective agency.  At 88 years of age, he had given up marching in parades but still played in every band concert because, in his words, “the Minneapolis Police Band is just too much fun.”

This year, the Minneapolis Police Band celebrates its 101st Anniversary!

Stories and photographs from the Minneapolis StarTribune of August 14, 1982

On Tuesday, July 13, 1965, Minneapolis Police Officer Richard Gardner was off-duty and out walking on the Lake Street Bridge near West River Road.

Listening to the All Star Game on his transistor radio and enjoying the day, Officer Gardner suddenly noticed a woman walk to the river’s edge, drop her coat and purse on the ground, and jump into the Mississippi.

Officer Gardner ran down to the river bank, jumped in and swam approximately 35 feet to the woman who was by then floating face down and unconscious. Officer Gardner took hold of the woman and shouted to some nearby teenagers to run for help. They ran to a nearby gas station where the attendant called for an ambulance.

After carrying the woman to shore, Officer Gardner administered artificial respiration until she regained full consciousness. He stayed with the woman until an ambulance arrived and she was given further help.

Photograph and story from the Minneapolis StarTribune of July 14, 1965

In the 1930s, during the during the famous hunt for John Dillinger, police actively tracked the notorious gangster from city to city. No more had he left the scene of a crime than police radio operators were broadcasting the route he was traveling.

But other ears besides those of the police were able to listen in on the communications.

Numerous amateur operators and police radio fans were able to follow the trail of John Dillinger by short-wave radio as law enforcement officers pursued him. When orders went out to squad cars and sheriff patrols to guard certain sections of the highway over which the gangster was expected to travel, hundreds of persons knew exactly where law enforcement was located.

And it was also evident that John Dillinger himself had only to tune into the short-wave radio to be able to listen and evade law enforcement.

In 1936, experimental radio frequencies were allotted to police radio systems in Minneapolis, Detroit, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Davenport for testing of the practical application of radio-telegraph code. The new code system of radio-telegraph would mean that gangsters and other underworld characters would have less chance of obtaining police information than they did under the short-wave radio telephone system.

When writing about the new technology, the Minneapolis StarTribune noted: “The criminal whose head is already bowed by the use of modern crime-fighting equipment and operations by police throughout the country will have just another worry to add to those that keep him awake nights.”

In the photograph above, Howard Kelly, Minneapolis Police Radio Superintendent, stands at the police radio system which is set up to start broadcasting messages in code.

Story from the Minneapolis StarTribune of April 11, 1936

Photograph of Howard Kelly on April 10, 1936 courtesy of Hennepin County Library

From 1972 through 1977, the Environmental Protection Agency embarked upon an effort to photographically document subjects of environmental concern.

The photographic project was called “DOCUMERICA”.

This photograph of two Minneapolis Police Officers was part of the “DOCUMERICA” project.

It was taken on Nicollet Mall in June of 1973 by the the photographer Donald Emmerich.

It is catalogued in the National Archives under the number 551464 and with the caption, “REGULAR POLICE PATROLS HELP KEEP DOWN THE NUMBER OF BICYCLE THEFTS ON NICOLLET MALL.”

The squad car is from the Sixth Precinct and it is very hard to read but it may be squad number 2429.

Photograph from the U. S. National Archives

Detective Martin Dougherty was given a potentially explosive assignment on September 20, 1922.

Minneapolis Police Officers had made several arrests for attempted safe burglaries over a period of months.

Nitroglycerin and stick dynamite had been confiscated as evidence in these attempted burglaries and was accumulating at the Courthouse.

In the 1920s, the Minneapolis Police Department had no Bomb Squad and no robust protocols for managing explosives.

Accordingly, Captain of Detectives Frank Brunskill – who was getting worried about the safety risks of storing these explosives at the Courthouse – assigned Detective Martin Dougherty the job of transporting the explosives down to the Mississippi River for disposal.

Detective Dougherty took the explosives carefully in hand and walked from the Courthouse to the Third Avenue Bridge. When he reached the west end of the bridge, he walked down to the river bank, stopped under the first arch of the bridge, donned hip-boots, and with a small spade dug a hole underneath the water and buried the explosives.

We can only imagine that Detective Dougherty felt more relaxed as he walked back to the Courthouse than he had earlier as he made his way to the river.

Photograph courtesy of Hennepin County Library
Story from Minneapolis StarTribune of September 21, 1922

In the photograph above, taken in 1947, Minneapolis Police Officer, V. S. Kaufman, prepares to climb a utility pole to rescue a dog from the roof of a low building at 21st Street and Cedar Avenue.

In 1946, three Pekingese dogs and a canary are shown recovering on the front step of their house after being rescued by the MPD. The pets, belonging to Mrs. Marvin Hansen of 4119 Bryant Avenue North, had fallen unconscious due to a leak of refrigerator gas which occurred when Mrs. Hansen was out downtown.

In 1941, Mrs. Flatz of 737 14th Avenue East holds onto Bonnie and Midgie, her pet dogs. She had locked herself out of her apartment leaving Bonnie and Midgie stranded inside. Minneapolis Police Officers arrived on the scene and reunited Mrs Flatz with Bonnie and Midgie.

Here is another photograph of Officer Kauffman taken as he climbs the utility pole to rescue the dog.

Photographs courtesy of Hennepin County Library

On Monday, May 15, 1950, four Minneapolis Police Officers were commended for their service by Minneapolis Police Chief Thomas R. Jones.

The four recipients of the monthly commendation awards were Future Chief E.I. “Pat” Walling, Officer Merton W. Palmer, Officer M.J. Ward, and Officer R.F. Phillips.

Future Chief Walling led a special detail and received the Efficiency Award for his team’s work in lowering the incident rate of gambling and vice in Minneapolis.

Officer Palmer received the Courtesy Award on recommendation of Captain Roland who was head of the Traffic Division. Officer Palmer was mentioned in several citizen letters for his courteous actions while on traffic duty at Sixth Street and Hennepin Avenue downtown.

Officer M.J. Ward and Officer R.F. Phillips served in the Second Precinct. They each received the Efficiency Award for their work in apprehending two armed men after a hold-up.

The four officers and their wives were further honored at a celebratory dinner the following Monday evening at the Nicollet Hotel.

Photograph and story from the Minneapolis StarTribune of May 15, 1950

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