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TORONTO The police HQ atrium.

Professional Development

A Moose Guards the Hoose Peter Jeal, West of Scotland Branch

The entrance to the police museum

I enjoyed watching the Canadian TV show, The Murdoch Mysteries, based on a fictional 19th-century Toronto detective. It came as no surprise to learn there had been lots of collaboration with Toronto’s Police Museum about the historical aspects of the show. T he museum, housed in the foyer of Toronto’s Police Headquarters, is a treasure trove of artefacts, ranging from badges and uniforms, to items connected with the city’s more notorious crimes. Norina D’Agostini from the Toronto Police Service Many of the early uniforms worn by Toronto officers were exactly the same as those worn by London Bobbies of the period. Often cash-strapped in those early times, items such as greatcoats were handed on to members of the next shift to wear, even if they were dripping wet from hours spent in the rain during the previous shift.

runs the museum. She said that the most challenging part of her job can be presenting details of the more gruesome crimes. The museum is open to the public and often hosts school visits, so the displays need to be kept appropriate to the audience. For this reason, nothing too macabre is publicly displayed, which does not detract from the interest in the displays. I was fascinated by the crime scene model of a building, where a young child was murdered in the 1980s, and the shell casings from a four hour shoot-out in another notorious case. Happily though, Toronto is the 5th safest city in the world according to statistics. Our own capital city of London is 14th, which is clearly a feather in the cap for Toronto’s finest. The museum is housed in a working Police HQ, so visitors have to go through security to enter the light and airy atrium, where the extremely well laid out museum is housed. The first thing I met was a full-sized moose in Police uniform, which you don’t see every day. Once past the moose, the exhibits include a Police cruiser and motorbike, a mock-up of a 19th century Police station complete with a jail (complete with prisoner and rat) an Emergency Task Force (ETF) figure abseiling down a wall, and a bizarre Cossack-style uniform worn in the early days of the force.

I was caught out by one of the interactive displays, where I had to choose between real guns and their matching fakes. “Don’t worry,” said Norina reassuringly, “a lot of visiting cops get this one wrong,” as I identified all the fake ones as real. Toronto has notched up an impressive list of Policing firsts including: • 1911 First force in Canada to use Police motorcycles to enforce the then 15mph speed limit. • 1913 First Policewomen join the service. • 1922 First patrol cars. • 1923 First bulletproof vests issued to detectives. • 1925 First electric traffic control signal installed in downtown Toronto (on display in the museum). • 1935 First in-car radios (one-way only, from dispatcher to car). • 1952 First use of a helicopter by Police to search for the notorious Boyd Gang of bank robbers. • 1953 First radar system for traffic enforcement. • 1968 First in-house computer installed for processing law enforcement data. The museum is funded entirely from private donations and a gift shop. It is well worth a visit if you are in the Toronto area during a trip to Canada.

Peter presents a Metropolitan Police helmet plate and IPA patch to Norina D’Agostini of the Toronto Police Service

A memorial to officers killed in the line of duty

TORONTO Peter with a Toronto patrol officer and his new-style cruiser

Peter on the TPS  Harley Davidson

POLICE WORLD Vol 65 No.3, 2020

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