June 2015 Dallas Police Shield

 

On May 26, 1968 there was an article in the Dallas Morning News written by James Ewell, a well liked and respected DMN police beat writer. As a young rookie in 1977-78 I remember seeing him with the white Stetson hat that all the detectives wore regularly at 106 S. Harwood. I always thought that he was a DPD detective.

On this day he wrote about Officer Jerry North, a supervisor in the DPD records unit. For some time, Jerry had been collecting artifacts from DPD history from different back rooms, closets and the attic of 106 after finding many items stored in a seldom used storage room behind the jails maximum security blocks on the fifth floor in 1962. North told Ewell that decay had already taken place and the artifacts must have been placed there many years prior. To North, these were priceless artifacts that belonged to a bygone era of the Dallas Police Department. He believed that they should be preserved and exhibited in a safe and proper manner.

North apparently took it upon himself to try and preserve many of the artifacts including polishing many of the brass items such as plaques and trophies won by the department’s pistol teams. He also said that there are stacks and stacks of departmental records that were damp and falling apart from the moisture in that storage room. One of the most valued mementoes is the last portrait made of the entire Dallas Police Department. It sits in a frame 10 feet long and 5 feet wide. The picture was made for the 1936 Texas Centennial at Fair Park. The image was taken in front of the Scottish Rite Cathedral which still stands to this day.

North’s boss in 1968, Chief Charles Batchelor could be seen as a young rookie in the back row of the portrait. Ewell writes that North believes that the records and historic artifacts could only be saved by the creation of a DPD police museum.

The excuse in 1968 was the same that it had been for many years before and since. There was no money and no room outside of the jail to display the items.

We actually owe a lot to Jerry North. If not for him and others, including the unknown persons who had the forethought to gather and house the artifacts in that original storeroom in the first place prior to North finding them, we may not have anything that points to our early history. Sadly Jerry North passed away in 2014.

In the late 1970’s a civilian who worked in the quartermaster unit took it upon himself to gather these items once again. He thought that the area that he worked would be an ideal place to display DPD history. This effort failed.

A more organized effort happened in the 1980’s when a DPD retiree, Dennis Dozier and several others formed a committee to explore the idea of having the artifacts moved and displayed at 2014 Main Street. After several stops and starts, this failed as well. Space and funding seemed to be the major obstacles as had been the case before.

One thing that we should be thankful for however is that the “Dozier Committee” had the foresight to ask the Dallas Public Library to store the by now hundreds of departmental and personal pieces of DPD history.

The library did agree to store them in a secure and dry place to wait for a time when they could be displayed properly.

In 2001, plans for the new Headquarters Building were in full swing. Jess Lucio approached Chief Greg Holliday, who was project liaison for the new building, to ask if a space could be reserved for a police museum. Chief Bolton was asked about the idea and he agreed that a place was needed in the new building.

Jess Lucio was then asked by Chief Holliday to transfer to Special Projects to begin the archiving of what the department already had, and advertise for additional historic artifacts to be donated or put on loan to the future museum. Many of the items that had been stored at the library were transferred to the new building on Lamar Street after it was completed.  Jess has been a great steward of the department’s acquisitions and should be thanked for this effort!

Soon a DPD museum board of directors was established. The first chairman was the late Murphy Martin who was a well- known television and radio personality in Dallas. This first board worked hard and convinced the department to officially designate the museum space in the building as such and that nothing else could ever occupy that area.

The first board of directors thankfully accomplished this task and now that space on the second floor is where the museum will be located.

When Jess Lucio retired in 2013, Senior Corporal Rick Janich took over as museum curator. So we now had hundreds if not thousands of historic artifacts ready to be displayed. Rick tells me that some of the most recent and now permanently displayed  large artifacts in the headquarters building include a DPD helicopter, police car, a Harley-Davidson Servi-car and a Kawasaki police bike, all of which actually served the citizens of Dallas. One of the first Harley-Davidson police bikes (2006) that took the place of the Kawasaki’s during the transition will also be displayed soon.

Many rare and historic smaller items are stored and are now ready to be shown to the public for the first time. These include Chief Elmo Straight’s (Straight Lane?) gold badge and revolver. Probably one of the most interesting is Captain Will Fritz’s Thompson sub-machine gun. There is also another Thompson that was found in a landfill, actually in pretty good condition!

These and many, many other personal and professional items from police officer’s families have been donated or put on loan for the museum’s use.

The current museum board of directors include current police officers including two chiefs as well as retiree’s.  Recently Chief Brown agreed and signed off on the plans for a media center on the second floor of the headquarters building where citizens could learn about the history of the Dallas Police Department. There are also plans to safely and securely display the 10’x5’ picture of the department from 1936 previously mentioned that thankfully has survived all these years!

As we all know, tradition and its history are two things that police departments all over the world can point at with pride. I like many of you have had the opportunity to visit many police museums and have always been somewhat surprised and dismayed that we, as a large department with such a rich history, have never had a proper museum to house and display artifacts. Even small and medium sized police

artments have found a way to fund such museums. Even our Dallas fire Department has had a fine museum for years at Fair Park.

As before, our major problem now is not space, or lack of historic artifacts, or even lack of trying. It’s funding! Chief Brown is committed to having the museum become a reality in the next few years. There are plans in the works that will make this a reality. Let’s all do what we can to help in this endeavor!