The Minneapolis Police Museum is unique in its ability to promote a common understanding of the heritage of the Minneapolis Police Department and its contributions to the City of Minneapolis though the stories of our officers and the neighborhoods they have served.
We share our stories with the intention of fostering empathy, interest and understanding.
Photograph above of President Grover Cleveland’s 1887 visit to Minneapolis courtesy of Hennepin County Library
This 1960s photograph from the collection of the Hennepin County Library shows a School Safety Patrol class in session at Grant Elementary School.
Today, 57 Minneapolis schools have School Safety Patrols. Walking Patrol students guide and guard other students as they cross streets in and out of school. Bus Patrol students help the driver make sure the bus riding students behave and follow the rules. Bus Patrol students are taught how to do an emergency evacuation, turn off the bus engine, and use the radio to call for help.
The Minneapolis Policewomen’s Bureau was established in 1928. The duties of the Minneapolis Policewomen’s Bureau were handled by seven women, including five patrolwomen, an office assistant, and Lieutenant Blanche Jones.
They are pictured in this 1938 photograph from the Hennepin County Library. L to R (seated): Gladys Cooke, Carrie Bystrom, Mary Stolze, and Blanche Jones. L to R (standing): Edith Evans and Elsie Mueller. One policewoman, Minnie Staples, was not present when the photo was taken.
Minneapolis was chosen in November 1967 as one of sixty-three cities nationwide to participate in the federally sponsored Demonstration Cities (Model Cities) Program.
With funding from the Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD), the Minneapolis Model City Program concentrated its efforts in the Whittier neighborhood which at the time was a racially-integrated neighborhood that suffered from high unemployment, crime, poverty, and housing and educational deficiencies.
Continue reading “model cities police and community drop-in center”
On the evening of December 3, 1894, the body of 29-year-old dressmaker Kittie Ging was discovered by a passerby on the Old Excelsior Road near Lake Calhoun. She was a resident of Ozark Flats, the new luxury apartment building at Hennepin Avenue and 13th Street, where man-about-town, gambler and counterfeiter Harry Hayward also lived. The Minneapolis Police Department began its investigation and within one week Hayward and the building’s custodian, Claus Blixt, were arrested for the murder of Ging. In its day it was the most spectacular murder-for-hire trial Minnesota had ever seen and it was featured in newspapers across the country. Hayward was cast as a Svengali-like character. In the words of John West, a Hennepin County Jailer: “It is almost beyond belief the things that man would plan and think of. . . . He would spot a man as soon as he entered the jail to serve time and in a moment he would conclude as to whether he could use him or not. This jail will never have the likes of Harry Hayward again. He was simply and truly a marvel.” 1
1 http://mspmag.com/arts-and-culture/a-tour-of-a-forgotten-minneapolis-murder-scene/