Toledo police department to reopen museum

9/29/2010

After nearly two decades in storage at several locations, memorabilia detailing the history of the Toledo Police Department will again have a home for the public to visit.

"We need to rediscover our history as a police department," said Officer Beth Cooley, president of the Toledo Police Museum Inc., which will operate the facility at the city-owned Ottawa Park Nature Education Center.

"We haven't been able to share that history, especially with our younger officers and with the city," she said. "I have been a police officer 17 years and the museum has been closed that whole time."

The Toledo Police Museum was formerly on the first floor of the Safety Building in downtown, but was shut down in the early 1990s by then police chief Gerald Galvin.

Dan Wagner, president of the Toledo Police Patrolman's Association, said people within the department have for years urged the city to reopen the museum.

"We have been trying to put this museum together and Chief [Mike] Navarre appointed a board," Mr. Wagner said. "I think it's great, and for anyone who has been to the Toledo Fire museum, we would like to accomplish the same thing."