The National Law Enforcement Museum in Washington, D.C., opened its doors to the public this weekend following nearly three decades of work to make the dream a reality.
The 57,000-square-foot, $103 million museum is located in the downtown Judiciary Square neighborhood, between the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial and District of Columbia Courthouse. Walking past the venue, one might not realize there’s even a museum there. The three-story building has a ground-level entrance and exit, both of which are enclosed in large glass rooms, but the rest of the museum remains out of sight.
All of the exhibits are located on the lowest of the three underground levels; the other two hold a gift shop, donor wall, and balcony overlooking the bottom floor. Visitors can learn about the 400-year history of law enforcement in America, see pieces of evidence from famous cases, discover how crime scenes are investigated by forensic experts, and pay tribute to recently fallen officers. […]
Items on display from local crime events include U.S. Park Police helicopter “Eagle One,” which was used to rescue five people from the iced-over Potomac River in Washington when Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into the 14th Street Bridge and sunk in the frigid waters on Jan. 13, 1982.
The rifle used in the infamous “D.C. sniper” shootings in 2002 is another one of the 7,000 items on site for visitors to see. When asked if families of the 17 people killed during the murdering spree were offended or upset about the gun being on display, Small said she was not aware of any complaints.
“No, not that I’m aware of,” Small said. “All of our collection comes from Prince William County for the sniper. They gave us all of the evidence in the case.”
Nonlocal items include a red desk phone that sits near the entrance in the main room. It was the first phone to ever receive a 911 call in 1968 and is on loan from Haleyville, Ala., where the call was placed.
The bulletproof vest that gangster Al Capone wore and the desk that belonged to the FBI’s first-ever director, J. Edgar Hoover, are also housed in the museum. An additional 14,000 items are located off-site and will be switched out with current exhibits in the coming months and years.
A “Reel to Real” theater and exhibit rooms show how members of this profession have been portrayed in famous movies, TV shows, and books, then explains how law enforcement would have actually handled that situation. An adjacent pop culture room holds a suit from the “RoboCop” movies, Jack Bauer’s sweatshirt from “24,” and dozens of other items.
The space is filled with vehicles for people to sit in and snap a selfie, as well as firearms, though those are locked up behind glass. […]
Before leaving, visitors are able to pay their respects to the approximately 700 recently fallen law enforcement officers whose names and photos are on display in a private room off the main hall. Nearly 19,000 federal, state, and local officers in the U.S. have died since the first documented line of duty death in 1792, including 108 in 2017. In 2018, there have been 110 law enforcement officer fatalities, according to the National Law Enforcement Officer Memorial Fund.
