DAYTON POLICE HISTORY FOUNDATION INC

Dayton Police History Foundation, Inc. (DPHF) was chartered by the State of Ohio on January 1, 2010. It was an outgrowth of a six-month "Patrolling the Streets of Dayton" police exhibit held in 2008 at Carillon Historical Park in Dayton, Ohio. At the time, this was the largest temporary exhibit held at the park's newest facility, the Dicke Family Transportation Center. As far as the organization is concerned, in its short run, the attendance by over 20,000 children, alone, made it a success.

DPHF had the good fortune of creating this exhibit in partnership with the experienced staff of Dayton History, the official historical organization of Montgomery County, Ohio. Dayton History operates the 65-acre campus of Dayton’s acclaimed Carillon Historical Park (est. 1950).

The "Patrolling the Streets" exhibit inspired a vision of a $1.5M law enforcement museum facility at Carillon Park. Years in preparation, the start is at hand. In cooperation with Dayton History’s professional conservators, design renderings of some of the museum exhibits within the proposed law enforcement facility was initiated with Exhibit Concepts, Inc., an award-winning company that produces branded environments. It has done so many times at Carillon Park.

Why this project? The Dayton Police Department has been at the cutting edge of law enforcement, most notably in transportation and communications technology. It was the nation's first department to install two-way radio transmitters in a police fleet (at President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1940 visit) and the nation's first to install high-capacity cruiser keyboard data terminals (at President Ronald Reagan’s 1986 visit). Dayton developed the world’s most advanced police computer-aided dispatch system, recognized for its many technological firsts. And, on the transportation front, Dayton police wrote the world’s first speeding ticket in 1904. In 1911 Dayton, established its motorcycle patrol, arguably the nation’s first, and in 1991 became the international leader in police bicycle patrol, now a standard method of operation worldwide.

Currently, the first exhibit of an envisioned 10-component facility is undergoing planning and will open in early 2019. It will be assembled in the Quinter Family Exhibition Gallery in the main building add Carillon Park. The $50,000 exhibit will feature numerous artifacts from an incredible time in U.S. history ... a 20-year period of Prohibition and the Great Depression. This is a significant law enforcement era in combatting bootlegging, highway robberies and bank hold-ups. Known as "The Gangster Era," the exhibit gallery will also feature historical treasures related to three key figures in U.S. History: Chief Rudolph Wurstner, John Dillinger, and George 'Bugs' Moran.

Dayton is uniquely positioned to tell their stories: Chief Wurstner had a legendary career beginning in 1902 (Chief of Police: 1925-1949) and was recognized by J. Edgar Hoover's FBI as the "Nations Dean of Police Chiefs" beginning 1935 and for the next 15 years. Officers under his command arrested the notorious gangster John Dillinger in 1933. A decade later, their investigation of a local hold-up brought the end to the crime career of infamous mobster 'Bugs' Moran, who was Al Capone's intended target in the 1929 "St. Valentine's Day Massacre." This era also produced some of the most compelling accounts of heroism by Dayton African-American patrolmen, including Sgt. Lucius Rice (shot in 1926 and 1939) and decorated WWI combat veteran, Ptl. William 'Tom' Wilson (shot in 1928), both fatally wounded in the line of duty while protecting the citizens of their community. The names of both men are engraved on the blue-gray marble wall of the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington D.C.

The permanent "Gangster Era" exhibit of an incredible episode in Dayton and national law enforcement history will draw a captivated public and open the door to the much wider story of statewide, national and worldwide accomplishments on either side of this period. This is the centerpiece launch to the larger goal of a $1.5M building and the fuller 220-year account of Greater Dayton expressed through many law enforcement experiences that began in 1797.

The Dayton Police Department celebrated its 150th anniversary last year (est. 1867). Challenging the young police force in 1874, the consequential path of the Women's Temperance Crusade traveled through Dayton, Ohio, the first major U.S. city targeted by its dry campaign. American soldiers traveled the same path, urgently deployed in 1913 to assist frontline Dayton patrolmen during one of the United States' worst natural disasters and, again, as the fierce strife of labor and civil rights movements drew national attention (and National Guardsmen) to Dayton in 1984 and 1966.

The entire community and visitors to the Greater Dayton area will be served by achieving the larger goal of a law enforcement museum, especially thousands of children that annually tour Carillon Historical Park during school field trips and with their families. Policing stirs the imaginations of our kids! Police officers have a special bond with youngsters and for decades have thrilled our kids with acts of heroism and entertained them with the Cop’rz band, McGruff the Crime Fighting Dog, and mounted patrol horses. They encourage our kids participating in Scouting programs, AAA traffic safety patrol, and P.A.L., the Police Athletic League. They profoundly influence our children’s lives by focused exposure to D.A.R.E., Child I.D., School Safety and other police initiatives.

Dayton Police History Foundation is intent on recounting the many consequential stories and exhibiting the many artifacts in local hands, many scattered throughout the community ... artifacts that must be centralized and preserved.

The men and women who serve our communities in law enforcement share their lives to protect the community, to support those in need, and to place their lives in harm’s way if necessary for the welfare of others. To tell their story not only honors those policemen who have come before us, but also those men and women who wear the uniform today. The efforts by DPHF is an opportunity to pay tribute to heroes past and present as well as offer a fabulous introduction to a national story in a Midwest setting that is often missed.