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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

An arresting display of memorabilia

Museum provides view into Spokane’s history of law enforcement

Among the most curious of the many artifacts in the Spokane Law Enforcement Museum downtown is a deadly rosary.

The beaded prayer loop has a cross hanging from it, but behind the cross hides a sharpened blade that turns the rosary into a knife.

It is among a collection of handmade weapons on display at the museum at 1201 W. First Ave. that were confiscated by law enforcement. Also in that collection are knives known as shivs.

The museum is open to the public on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

In April, it will celebrate five years of operation through volunteers.

The museum’s two floors hold an array of items showing how law enforcement has evolved over the years. Extensive photo displays are found throughout the building. Photos of different styles of police cars are captivating by themselves.

By one estimate, there are more than 3,000 items on hand.

“We keep adding. It’s getting full,” said Sue Walker, one of the principal volunteers in the nonprofit organization that operates the museum.

“This is the best-kept secret in Spokane.”

Downstairs, there is an old-fashioned siren that was once mounted to the running board of a police vehicle. A few turns of the crank, and the siren comes alive with a sound of the past.

An 1895 jail ledger shows that inmates at the time were being held for larceny, vagrancy, being drunk or “insane.”

On display is the revolver of Spokane police Officer Alfred B. Waterbury, who was gunned down in 1909 when he tried to stop a robbery suspect.

When suspects were arrested, they were shackled with all manner of handcuffs and restrains, which are on display at the museum.

One set of cuffs was found in the remains of a jail that burned in the fire of 1889. The metal was fused by the heat.

Another curious piece is a flute fashioned from the barrel of a rifle and said to have been recovered at the Little Bighorn Battlefield by William H. Lewis, a former detective and inspector, who first joined the Spokane force in 1888. The flute is part of a collection of archival photos of Lewis in his uniform.

Law enforcement uniforms reflect the changes in style over the years. The museum has a big collection of them, along with helmets and caps.

There is the wool uniform of Spokane police Officer Eric Hage, who served from 1903 to 1924.

Spokane Officer Joan Schmick, one of the first three women officers on the force, joined in 1968 and had to sew her own blue uniform. She donated it to the museum for display along with photos of the three women.

Badges are another category of collectibles, including the one worn by Spokane Chief Joel F. Warren in the late 1800s.

The museum traces its roots to founder, curator and president Glen Whiteley, who began collecting law enforcement memorabilia in 1990 and pushed to form the museum as a nonprofit in 1996.

When Spokane’s Downtown COPS vacated its former space in the Parsons Hotel in 2009, it opened the way for the museum. The Southeast Lions Club helped prepare the building for the museum opening the next year.

The museum has benefited from corporate as well as individual support, including the Capt. Edmund “Corky” Braune Family Foundation, formed to commemorate the late Spokane sheriff’s deputy.

Nearly 50 museum members donate $35 a year.

Other funding comes from museum gate charges, which are $5 for adults, $4 for seniors or military personnel, $3 for students and $2 for children 12 and under.

While the museum’s collection focuses on Spokane police, it also has gained support and donations of items from local, state and federal agencies in the Spokane region.

A gift shop at the museum offers souvenirs, postcards and books on local law enforcement history.

Walker, who has done a lot of the research for the museum, said that much of the region’s law enforcement history was in danger of being lost as people cleaned out their storage spaces. “People were throwing things away,” she said.

Now, the museum provides a place to ensure that contributions of those in uniform are preserved. “That’s why we do what we do so that these people are never forgotten,” she said.