The first formal mention of uniforms for the Minneapolis Police Department came from Mayor Ames in his inaugural address of April 11, 1876.
Mayor Ames said, “This important branch of the city government will, as the charter contemplates, receive my best personal endeavors to place it upon an efficient footing. As it is proposed to have all the officers in full uniform while on duty, I would recommend to your honorable body that an appropriation be made…”*
According to Eric H. Monkkonen on page 61 of his book, Police in Urban America, 1860-1920, just three days after Mayor Ames’s remarks, Chief Munger had the entire department kitted out in uniform, long before the city could decide on how it might pay for them. One month later Chief Munger himself appeared in “a nobby new blue uniform with buttons all over him”.
*Mayor Ames’s remarks from the Minneapolis Daily Tribune of April 12, 1876. Digitized copy courtesy of the Hennepin County Library and the Minnesota Historical Society https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn83016762/1876-04-12/ed-1/seq-1
Photograph showing Minneapolis Police Officers in uniform in 1892 courtesy of Hennepin County Library