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The New York City Police
Museum
 
The NYCPM celebrates the history and contributions of the New
York City Police Department since its establishment in 1845. Located
in Lower
Manhattan, near Wall
Street and the South
Street Seaport, the museum contains a wide range of information on
the history of the NYPD. The museum, which grew from a gallery housed at the police
academy, opened at 26
Broadway at Bowling
Green in January 2000. In January 2002, the museum re-opened in a new location on Old Slip,
closer to South
Street Seaport. The new premises, appropriately, were the First
Precinct Building, designed by the partnership of Richard
Howland Hunt and Joseph
Howland Hunt and built in 1909-11. The landmarked
building was a model precinct house in its time. From 1884 to 1973 this Florentine
Renaissance palazzo with its bold rusticated
facades was the home of what one historian called "the most important
police precinct in the world." That precinct closed due to a corruption scandal
in 1977, and museum officials saw a move to this location as an opportunity to
connect with the Department's history. Construction and renovation of the new
space cost more than $4 million and exhibition space grew by nearly 45%.
Its new exhibits included a 1972 Plymouth
Fury, a model of a jail cell, a timeline of transportation,
lock-picking tools belonging to Willie
Sutton, a moving exhibit on 9-11 that occupies half the museum's
third floor (own blog), the other half is the Hall
of Heroes that includes the name and badge of every NYPD officer
killed in the line of duty, starting with David Martin on the 6th of
August 1861.
 
All the Police Commanders from the first - Michael Murphy to the present - Raymond
Kelly, who took over just four months after
9/11
Bits of History: The familiar eight-point hats were
introduced in the early 1930's and replaced hats with circular crowns. The new
design had historical significance. The eight points commemorated the
eight-member Rattle Watch, the first officially recognised police force on
Manhattan Island. The Rattle Watch was hired in the 1600's by the Dutch to
patrol New Amsterdam. They carried no weapons, so unlike some of their
successors, could not rap nightsticks on curbstones to summon help. Instead,
when one of the force needed assistance, he would swing a
large wooden rattle through the air.
Rules of
the Rattle Watch. 1610-1664
1.
Watchmen to be on duty before bell-ringing, under penalty of six
stivers.
2.
Whoever stays away without sending a substitute, to be fined two
guilders.
3.
One guilder fine for drunkenness..
4. Ten
stivers fine for sleeping on the post.
5.
If any arms are stolen through negligence of the watch, the watchman
will have to pay for the arms and be
fined one guilder for the first, two guilders for the second, and the fine for
the third offence to be discretionary with the court.
6.
A fine of two guilders for going away from the watch, and one guilder
for missing turn.
7.
The watch is to call the hour at all corners from 9am until reveille,
for which they received an additional compensation of eighteen guilders per
month.
 
 
 
Confiscated Weapons
The New York City Police
Department was established in 1844. At the time, New York City's population of
320,000 was served by an archaic force, consisting of one night watch, one
hundred city marshals, thirty-one constables and 51 municipal
police officers. Those first policemen had no uniforms; officers simply
wore shiny metal badges on their own clothes to identify them as part of the
force. According to the museum, the badges were made of stamped copper, so the
public began calling them "coppers" and in time "cops". Some police officers in the 1870's; preferred to be assigned to the
seedier midtown neighbourhood running from 24th to 42nd streets, between Fifth
and Seventh Avenues. They nicknamed it the area "Tenderloin", because the
kickbacks they received there paid them enough to afford steak for
dinner.
This large camera was used to take “stand up” mug shots.
Bear...........................
 
 
The
Bertillion System.
Developed by Alphonse Bertillion in Paris, Bertillion cards featured face and
profile photographs of the suspect on the front of each card. On the back were
recorded a series of measurements unique to each individual and information such
as identifying scars and occupation. Bertillion’s system was used in Europe by 1888 and was adopted by the
NYPD in 1897. Hundreds of thousands of “Mug Shots” cards were produced between
1897 and 1902 making the system not only cumbersome but also time consuming –
often unreliable. The Bertillion measurement system for
identification was replaced by finger printing identification in
1903.
  
Around the turn of the century, the NYPD began to professionalise under
leadership of then Police Commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt. With new innovations
in both science and technology, the police force were able to establish new
units, such as the Bomb Squad in 1905, Motorcycle Squad in 1911, Automobile
Squad in 1919, Emergency Service Unit in 1926, Aviation Unit in 1929 as well as
the Radio Motor Patrol (RMP) in 1932. The department was also among the earliest
to implement fingerprinting techniques and mug shots. In 1896 Commissioner
Roosevelt authorized the purchase of a standard issued revolver for the NYPD. It
was the Colt New Police Revolver in .32 Long Colt caliber. He also instituted
required firearms training including pistol practice and qualification for
officers.
NYPD Women: In 1845 the New York City Police Department
hired its first female jail matrons. Legislation was enacted to appoint female
police matrons in 1888, and the first four were hired in 1891. In 1895 the first
woman to work at Police Headquarters, Minnie Gertrude Kelly, was appointed
Secretary to the Police Board. In 1912 Isabella Goodwin was appointed as the
first female first grade detective. In 1917 two unknown women were assigned
special patrolwomen's badges. In 1918 the first female Deputy Commissioner,
Ellen O'Grady, was appointed, and in August of that year the first group of
policewomen in the NYPD were appointed (there were six). In 1919 the title
"policewoman" was changed to "patrolwoman." In 1921 the Women's Police Precinct
was formed with 20 patrolwomen assigned; Mary Hamilton was assigned as director.
In 1924 the New York Police Department's Women Bureau was created. Also in 1924,
Mary Bembry became the first women shot in the line of duty. In 1934 female
officers began to have pistol practice with male officers. In 1938 the first
civil service exam for the title "Policewoman" was given. About 5,000 women took
the exam, with 300 passing it. In 1942, there began a requirement of a college
degree for female officers. In 1958, women and men began to train together at
the Police Academy. In 1961, Felicia Shpritzer of the NYPD sued to allow women
the right to take the sergeant's exam. As a result of this lawsuit, 126
policewomen took the Sergeant's exam for the first time in 1964. Spritzer and
another policewoman, Gertrude Schimmel, became the first female sergeants and
after suing again, the duo became the first female lieutenants in 1967. Schimmel
went on to become the first female police captain in 1971 and the first female
deputy inspector in 1972.
The Bomb Squad was created in 1903 and led by Lt. Giuseppe
Petrosino, was called the Italian Squad, then the bombs were sticks of
dynamite, nowadays the unit may operate from humble offices but they are highly
trained experts with robocop to help.
 
Alec Hoag was a New York City thief and con-man who pulled off countless
scams thanks to a pair of police officers who provided protection in exchange
for a piece of pie. However, when Hoag tried to cheat the officers out of their
share of the loot, they turned around and beat him at his own game - and "Smart
Alec" (as they sarcastically called him) ended up in jail. Eventually the name
became a generic term for an obnoxious know-it-all.
In the early 1970's, the 41st Precinct police station in the Bronx
earned its nickname. One chaotic evening a local resident used a bow and arrow
to kill a wig-stealing intruder. The station ended up with crowds of
protesters questioning the validity of the mans arrest. The arrow with the
attached wig ended up on Lloyd Gittens - the desk lieutenants desk; he
glanced up at the scalp-like evidence and referred to his precinct as Fort
Apache and the name stuck.
 
The funeral of Officer Edwin Fogel – NYPD Highway 1 - in
1979. Trainee Raymond Reddy escapes injury after
wrecking his bike at Randall’s Island training facility.
Work in
the Motorcycle Squad and Highway Patrol over the decades has often been
dangerous and many officers have been injured or narrowly faced injury. Some
have made the ultimate sacrifice. 39 year old Edwin Fogel (HWY 1) had been cited
for bravery four times in his sixteen year career before he was tragically
gunned down in upper Manhattan while attempting to apprehend a suspect. Dwight Yee
was the first Asian American to be hired in highway Patrol, in 1983; Rodney Chin
was the second in 1990.
Rodney Chin HWY 2 (left), and Dwight Yee HWY 1
The NYPD Counter-Terrorism Bureau was founded in 2002 as a result of the
9/11 tragedy and the threats to attack the city that followed. Budget cuts may have reduced the NYPD by 4,000 officers in the last
decade, but of the 210 cities with a population in excess of 100,000; New York
City ranked 194th, (with number one being the worst for crime). We have
certainly felt very safe in the city, largely put down to Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani's tough crack down on gangs and a much more visible force toting arms.
The reduction in police officers has been in some way offset by the setting up
of very specialist units; we watched a film showing a billion dollar investment
into a unit targeted at tracking terrorists through the internet, a team of NYPD
detectives in Israel, an in-house intelligence unit and several other
initiatives at street level.
The badge adopted in 1971 and the NYPD
flag.
In June 2004, there were about 40,000 sworn officers plus
several thousand support staff; In June 2005, that number dropped to 35,000. As
of November 2007, it had increased to slightly over 36,000 with the graduation
of several classes from the New York City Police Academy. The
NYPD's current authorized uniformed strength is 37,838. There are also
approximately 4,500 Auxiliary Police Officers,
5,000 School Safety Agents,
2,300 Traffic Enforcement Agents, and 370 Traffic Enforcement Supervisors
currently employed by the department.
 
NYPD Beanies for all five grandsons
and one for grandma - mine called Bobby - not for the obvious English reason,
but after the NYPD Detective played by Vincent D'Onofrio's character Bobby
Goren .
 
 
Manhattan’s Most Wanted - Big Bear “Dodgy Knee”
Millard, his accomplice and wife Pepe “Mama“
Millard.
ALL IN ALL I LOVED IT
UNEXPECTEDLY REALLY
INTERESTING
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