Off the 'Cuff

Earlier today, one of our Facebook friends drew our attention to this amazing little video about museums and it’s been watched and rewatched by our staff who think it’s both hilariously funny, and painfully close to the mark. (Thanks to Carolyn Posynick for drawing this video and this blog post to our attention!) Much of [...]

“Only a fool like myself would have done it” -Robert McBeath, when asked why he stormed a German machinegun nest Last week the museum had the pleasure of hosting a small group of high school students from a tiny village in Scotland, and I was lucky enough to spend some time with them. Vancouver’s Police [...]

This summer, our summer students are regularly updating this blog with their experiences working at the Police Museum. Please be sure to check out Jessica’s personal (non museum-affiliated) blog called “Madness and Beauty“. Since becoming a tour guide for the Sins of the City Walking Tour, I have developed a passion for Vancouver’s heritage that [...]

A few weeks ago, we went out with a GPS device (Global Positioning System) and a few magnetic key boxes, hiding them around the city. This marked the start of our participation in a little sport/hobby called geocaching. What is geocaching? According to Wikipedia: Geocaching is an outdoor activity in which the participants use a [...]

By Kristin & Joanna Milling about outside the Penthouse Nightclub before our (a group of us staff from the Police Museum) Heritage Vancouver-arranged tour, it was interesting to note how many different kinds of people had gathered for a peek inside one of Vancouver’s most notorious hot spots.  The crowd was definitely what you’d call [...]

This past week, we paid tribute to a woman who served as Vancouver Police Department’s first female Sergeant. Phyllis Mortimore passed away two weeks ago at the age of 92, after both a long and distinguished career and also a long and distinguished retirement. She helped pave the way for the 316 women that currently [...]

Last night, we hosted a special “Tweetup” for our many friends on Twitter and (we hope) a great time was had by all! (We know we had a blast!) The people who came out include: @mojaveband, @gusf, @russbystarlite, @abc4, @gusgreeper, @staciebee, @rott1058, @bluey037, @emmerogers, @trishussey, @raincoaster, @hummingbird604, @dale42, @atomicfez, @jonjennings, @tofufighting, @anthonyfloyd, @owlex, @jpadamson, @johnbiehler, [...]

Checking YouTube last week, we came across this little jem. It’s a music video filmed in the building that later became our own Police Museum. The band, Images in Vogue, used the autopsy space, the morgue and the courtroom for the video. The courtroom in the video is now our main gallery… only a few [...]

The Vancouver Police Department’s Annual Reports had, until the 1960s, short descriptions, usually only a paragraph long, of many of the big crimes, murders and suicides that had occurred during the year. These descriptions were thumbnail sketches of the passions and pains that drive humans to commit such acts. Extreme poverty, drug addiction, drunkenness and [...]