Off the 'Cuff

It was the most hideous thing I had ever seen in my young life. Its name, printed in black ink on a little white card affixed to the gallery wall was ‘Confedspread’.  And to my eight-year old mind it was downright hideous. My grandmother, an avid fan of all art but more specifically the often [...]

This summer, our student interns are regularly updating this blog with their experiences working at the Police Museum. Julie-Ann is one of our fantastic curatorial students who is working hard at becoming ‘Vancouver-edgy’ before returning to her studies at the University of Alberta this fall.   Natalie, another of our awesome curatorial students, we’re sure, [...]

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“. I’ll admit it – I’m new to the world of museums. That’s not to say that I haven’t long been an enthusiastic [...]

Movie stars! High society! Theft! San Quentin penitentiary! Europe! The USA! The Orient! Oh, and Vancouver… This case had it all. And the Vancouver Police Department helped to crack it. The 1940 Vancouver City Police Department Annual Report outlined a case with all the drama and sexiness of a Hollywood movie pitch. First, the set-up: [...]

Throughout history, there are countless hardworking individuals in careers who performed important tasks that made lives better and safer but will never get a mention in the history books simply because their job was not alluring enough to gain attention. Such was the state of food inspectors in Vancouver, until now. This blog takes us, [...]

The item below was researched and written by museum staff and board member and was originally published in the Vancouver Police Department’s 2008 Annual Report. The tradition of going Beyond the Call has very early roots in the Vancouver Police Department. As far back as 1917, no one believed in the principle more strongly than [...]

The item below was written by us and was originally published in the Vancouver Police Department’s 2007 Annual Report. “The truth is not always pleasing–and it is the truth that during the last ten years the drug evil has required more strenuous handling by the Force in Vancouver than in any preceding years…The illicit drug [...]

The item below was written by us and was originally published in the Vancouver Police Department’s 2006 Annual Report… No one said that becoming a police officer would be easy, but for Constable Lurancy D. Harris the challenges were unique. By 1912, the city had grown to the extent that women were becoming more often [...]