Springfield Police Museum

The museum will be open this Friday from 6 to 9 PM for Art Walk.
Retired officer Brooks commented on a recent post about former Lieutenant Elwin Harmon giving an account of an exciting incident involving bravery and old school police work.
I located the newspaper article from 1972 about the incident and included photos of Lt Harmon and some other articles.
Here's the story from John Michael Brooks.
"There were several Korean War vets on the SPD when I started in May 1966. My Lt. (Harmon) and Sgt (Austin) were both vets. Sarge told me that our Lt. had fought in the worst part of it, forced to kill enemies in hand-to-hand combat.He was strict on adherence to policy, but the bravest man I ever knew. A local well known thug created a scenario where he knew Harmon would respond to. He refused to talk to anyone but Harmon. He “invited” Harmon inside and when Harmon entered the thug pointed a hand gun at him and pulled the trigger. It misfired and Harmon disarmed him immediately. This thug had sat and watched his wife die of an overdose and countless other major crimes. Several years later we were sharing beverages at a retreat (just he and I at the table) and I “had” to ask: Captain, why didn’t you kill that sob when you had every right to. He clearly reflected on it, then asked if I ever killed anyone. I told him I had not been in the military, so “no.”
He paused and said “ Of course I could have killed him! The reason I didn’t was because I didn’t have to! When you kill a man you take away everything they have or ever will have.”
My respect for him was sealed forever."

The museum will be open next Saturday for the Route 66 festival weekend from 10 to 2 PM. If you're out checking out C-Street or Artwalk come by the museum.
The McGruff family has grown. a 2nd fullsize McGruff, Robot McGruff, and a toy McGruff were located a few months ago.
Robot McGruff has a controller and a microphone headset to interact with children. He'll be patrolling the museum with his friends.
Springfield, MO Police Department
National Crime Prevention Council
Birthplace of Route 66 Festival

This is a photo of Sergeant Wade Hindman in 1913 brought back to life by AI from a grainy photocopy.
Wade Hindman was elected Chief from 1894 to 1896. A lot of employment at the PD in this era was based on which political party you supported. If you were a Democrat and a Republican Chief or Mayor were elected, you may not have a job. Wade Hindman started as an officer, became Chief, lost the next election, and years later, he was rehired. When he wasn't in law enforcement, he was a bartender or bar manager.

AI modified photographs can bring an old photo to life.
This AI image was created from a very poor photo of Chief T.J. Wright around 1890. The photo shows him with his gun belt and "come along" restraints.
AI restores the grainy black and white photo, colorizes it, and then modifies it so we can see a full version of him on the streets of an old west town.
This gives us a good version of what he looked like walking around the city square. His gun belt would probably have been inside and covered by his uniform coat. I think he's showing it off for the photo.
Chief Wright opened the Calaboose jail in 1892. The article shows that he put some of the prisoners to work.
Springfield, MO Police Department