Everett Taylor: Taylor's Yarns

BY EVERETT TAYLOR

National Police Week events in Washington, D.C., just completed for 2008, have drawn a lot of interest and participation in recent years, but there should be a surge in 2011.

That is the year the National Law Enforcement Museum is scheduled to open in the Capitol and it is shaping up as a really big occasion.

More advanced than the building is the collection of American Law Enforcement artifacts that will present an expansive and interesting picture in the form of museum displays.

One of the more interesting artifacts among some 6,000 that will be in the opening display got recent attention in the Memorial News published by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

It is a bullet-resistant vest found in Al Capone’s Miami estate that may have been worn by Capone during his mobster days during the Prohibition era.

Bullet-resistant vests are standard issue for most law enforcement officers today, but apparently Capone was using one nearly a century ago. The vest was recently acquired by the museum.

As part of the museum’s collection, the vest will help tell the story of Prohibition-era gangsters and how federal agents, such as Eliot Ness of the Bureau of Prohibition and Elmer Irey of the Internal Revenue Service, among others, worked to bring them to justice.

The Capone vest is one of the recent exciting acquisitions for the first-ever congressionally authorized national museum dedicated to law enforcement.

The collection now contains approximately 6,000 items including historical artifacts, photographs and manuscripts, with new artifacts being added every week, officials said.

Among the older artifacts acquired by the museum is a set of nine 1880s photographs from the Carson City Territorial Prison in Colorado. The images show the prison grounds, inside the common areas of the prison, and inmates working at the quarry in striped uniforms.

The prison held both female and male prisoners, and often utilized prisoners for prison building projects and farming.

Prisoners sometimes were contracted for outside work, most notably to help build some of Colorado’s highways through the local mountains.

In recent months, officials said, several more contemporary donations have been received. Among them are two New Orleans Police Department badges, including a commemorative Hurricane Katrina badge.

Museum Program staff is continuing to accept donations and acquire artifacts that tell the story of American law enforcement. A want list of items the museum is still searching for is listed online at www.LawEnforcementMuseum.org.

Potential donors are asked to contact Jeni Ashton, Associate Curator, to discuss the donation process by phone at (203) 737-7787, or e-mail at jenifer@nleomf.org.

No items should be sent directly to the museum organization without first contacting officials.

A unique new program of the museum is Officer Roll Call, a program that allows law enforcement officers — current or past — to create their own personal profiles that will become part of history when the structure opens in 2011.

Any sworn law enforcement officer at the local, state, federal or tribal agency level is eligible to join. Both active and retired are encouraged to sign up at www.OfficerRollCall.org.

Everett Taylor
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