Museum Highlights Los Angeles Police History, Hollywood Connections (1/3)

The Los Angeles Police Museum is housed in an old station house, and it tells the story of a lawless western town that slowly developed into a modern city.

Los Angeles got its first paid police force in 1869, and part of the department's early history is shown in an exhibit of handcuffs, locks and other restraints. Glynn Martin, executive director of the Los Angeles Police Historical Society, points to three exhibit cases, opposite a row of empty jail cells.

"Some great stuff, and it dates back well into the 1800s at the start of handcuffs, we've got things like balls and chains. And we've got foreign and domestic handcuffs, and different types of restraints used throughout more than a century of the history of handcuffs."

Martin, a retired LAPD watch commander, points to a police radio from the 1950s, and a modern vehicle-mounted computer. Further on are the lights from a police patrol car and, upstairs, old uniforms. One from the 1890s features a helmet like those still worn by some British police patrolmen" class="hjdict" word="patrolmen" target=_blank>patrolmen.