Old Station to Showcase LAPD Artifacts

The abandoned brick police station in Highland Park stands as a dilapidated monument to the Los Angeles Police Department’s forgotten past.

Soon, however, it will become a well-known reminder of it.

The razor wire, garbage and weeds that now surround the 73-year-old building will be replaced by neatly landscaped grounds. Its boarded-up walls will be refurbished and painted.

And, within a year, old Police Station #11 will become a 15,000-square-foot museum, housing memorabilia from the LAPD’s colorful and sometimes controversial history.

“There’s been bumps down the road, but it’s a great history,” said Richard E. Kalk, a retired LAPD sergeant who has spent the past 10 years trying to open the museum. “It’s important for people to see the history of the LAPD. Our profession truly affects the temperament of society.”

As envisioned, the LAPD museum will cover every era of law enforcement in the city, from 1869 when it was a six-man police force to its modern-day incarnation of 9,700 officers.

“The LAPD has a rich tradition and history, and it’s important to capture our past for future generations,” said Cmdr. Dave Kalish, a spokesman for the department. “We are very excited about this project.”

Many of the artifacts that will be exhibited have been in storage for years, waiting to be showcased.

Antique badges and guns are kept in a safe at Kalk’s office. Old department uniforms, police sirens, handcuffs and billy clubs are locked in a closet. In another room, hours of early LAPD training films are preserved, along with boxes of department newsletters and photographs.

In storage sheds throughout the city, the Los Angeles Police Historical Society houses old LAPD squad cars and paddy wagons. There’s a 1909 bicycle used in the department’s first bike patrol, a 1921 Studebaker “beat wagon,” and the 1996 Ford LTD that was peppered with bullets during the North Hollywood bank shootout.

“Having a static display of a uniform is one thing, but we want the people to really get the experience of what it’s like to be a police officer,” Kalk said.

There are plans, he said, to have an interactive “Shoot, Don’t Shoot” police simulator where visitors can test their judgment and aim. They may also be able to experience a police roll call and ask questions of former and current department leaders via a computer.

“We already interviewed some past chiefs like Daryl Gates,” Kalk said.

If the museum is a success, Kalk said there are already hopes for a possible expansion at an additional site.

Planners of the Highland Park facility say there will also be an educational component to the facility, where community groups, students and “at-risk youths” can meet and learn about the department.

They will learn that the first black officer joined the LAPD in 1886, that the first “police matron” was appointed in 1888, and that in 1914 all police stations kept a police car parked outside with its engine running 24 hours a day so officers could respond to a call quickly.

And the past won’t be sugarcoated, Kalk said.

Scandals, from the 1951 “Bloody Christmas” incident in which officers beat jail inmates, to the beating of Rodney G. King in 1991, will be noted.

“It’s an embarrassment, but it’s part of our history,” said Kalk, 59, who used to be a homicide detective. “You can’t cover it up.”

The former Northeast Police Station in Highland Park still has work to be done before it opens to the public. Despite breaking ground on the project two years ago, the station still shows the signs of years of neglect. Shuttered in 1983, the City Council leases the facility to the Historical Society for $1 a year.

“They realized that this will be a tremendous benefit to the public,” Kalk said. “It will also be free.”

A number of local philanthropists are helping raise the more than $5 million needed to transform the police station into a museum. The city also floated a $3-million bond to help with the costs, Kalk said.

On Thursday, a fund-raiser will be held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel to benefit the museum project. The event, dubbed the Jack Webb Awards, honors service to the Los Angeles Community.

“This museum is something that is truly needed,” said Arthur M. Kassel, the executive producer of the fund-raising event. “It’s going to be state of the art.”

He added that Los Angeles is the only major city without a museum to honor the history of its police force.

Anyone who wants to contribute to the museum project can send a donation to the Los Angeles Police Historical Society, P.O. Box 86105, Los Angeles, CA 90086-0105.