American Police Hall of Fame & Museum

American Police Hall of Fame & Museum

Flags at half staff to honor the late John Glenn, astronaut

One of the outdoor water features

A touching K-9 Memorial

American Police Hall of Fame & Museum
6350 Horizon Dr,
Titusville, FL 32780

(321) 264-0911

www.aphf.org

AT A GLANCE:  American Police Hall of Fame & Museum
Date of Visit:	Saturday, December 17, 2016
Parking	Plentiful and free, onsite parking.
Amount of time needed to peruse exhibits:	60 – 90 minutes.  Allot a couple of additional hours if you visit the shooting range.
Amount of time needed for gift shop	30 - 45 minutes
Dress code	There’s no dress code here, but dress as to not offend the general public.
Be sure to…..	Check out the law enforcement badges from the Wild West.
Nearby/other establishments to visit	·         Astronaut Hall of Fame ·         Kennedy Space Center Advice:  plan an entire day for the Kennedy Space Center
Walkability, general downtown area / amount of traffic	You’ll need a car or other transportation.
Safety, in terms of type and number of crimes committed in general area	Generally safe.  Even though you are a distance away from any crowds, practice the normal precautions of stowing your valuables out of sight and locking your car, even at a police museum.

“Honor our Heroes”

“… every 57 hours, a police officer is killed
in the line of duty somewhere in America”

(From the HOF website aphf.org)

There’s been several recent incidents involving the police and citizenry, and the media has many times portrayed police in a negative way.  Sometimes either the officer or the alleged bad person might get injured.  They may die.  You may or may not paint all police in a similar way; I’m not here to change your mind.  The fact that you’re visiting the Police Hall of Fame & Museum (HOF) tells me that you are open-minded, and with that, let’s enter the building.  You know that you are in some sort of police museum as soon as you walk through the front doors, because you see a sign stating “Police checkpoint ahead” instead of the usual “tickets for sale.”  The sign is positioned next to the full-size Robocop figure.  The gift shop is in the front corner of the museum, behind the area where the ticket counter is located, and is fully visible because it is an open-air gift shop.  I see t-shirts and a quick additional glance tells me that there will be quality shopping opportunities here.  But, first, let’s take a stroll around the museum.  Gift shops seem to make better sense after you’ve seen the exhibits. 

Police cars are displayed along with a police motorcycle, Jet Ski, boat, and bicycle.  There’s even a police snowmobile.  Yes, it’s from Alaska, but because the HOF is the nation’s first museum honoring law enforcement, it seems fitting even when you have the typical Florida weather of 75+ degrees.  You’ll see a memorial to the police officers who perished during the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States.  This is next to a display explaining the different levels of the nation’s terrorism advisory system together with additional information on how to prepare for terrorism attacks.  Not to be forgotten, a piece of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building is near the 9/11 memorial.  I think that sometimes we forget that terrorists can be American, as this sad event reminded us. 

Moving on, we step into the history of the police department.  Of course, we wouldn’t need a police department if all all the bad people are already locked up.  They aren’t, so there you have it.  I enjoyed reading about the crime and criminals prevalent in the 1930s:  Ma Parker, John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, Al Capone, and others.  Naturally, where there are criminals, there are guns.  Lots of guns.  I’m not against people having guns; they just don’t interest me.  The gun collectors and enthusiasts will likely spend a goodly amount of time here. Transitioning from the criminal and gun displays, we come upon methods to detain prisoners and ultimately how they were put to death.  These displays may disturb young children.  The HOF has puppets and a puppet theatre handy if you’d like to have a way to explain this to your children by yourself or by an officer.

I also liked the forensic displays, especially the crime scene display showing the use of luminol.  If you aren’t aware, luminal is a substance that, when in contact with blood, glows bright blue under alternative light sources.  Watch a few episodes of “Forensic Files (on HLN channel), and you’ll understand.  My husband calls this show one of my “murder shows.”  I remind him that there’s also one called “Wives with Knives.”  I like to think he takes my meaning.  I additionally played around with fingerprint imaging and de-coding and matching DNA results.

The HOF has a chapel dedicated to fallen offers, which is beautiful yet somber.  We visited the HOF near the Christmas holidays, and the museum had a Christmas near the entrance to the chapel.  It was decorated with crystal angel ornaments and police-blue round ornaments. 

American Police Hall of Fame & Museum

Robocop next to the police checkpoint sign.

 

 

9/11 Memorial

Oklahoma City / Murrah Building Memorial

Before jails, law enforcement used the Traveling Chair pictured here to retain criminals.

Luminol shines blue when activated with blood.
Look in the corner wall and the end of the couch to see luminol.

Anatomy of a fingerprint

Puppets and a puppet theater to help explain things to children.

Memorial to fallen police officers

Now that you have the police vibe going, let’s visit the gift shop.  Children and men love patches and medals, and they will be in total shopping bliss.  Let them browse on their own while you take a look at the rest of the shop, because there are some great gift opportunities.  How can you not like a cookie jar made to look like a quaint police department or the police/robber salt and pepper shakers?  If those don’t inspire you, move on to the display of police garden gnomes.  In case you’re keeping score, the HOF gift shop has the souvenir trifecta of refrigerator magnets, shot glasses, and branded wearables.  You also recognize that everything in this gift shop supports the museum’s vision of police.  They do a tremendous job with their variety and display of merchandise.  You are quite the perceptive shopper.  One of my favorite items is located near the garden gnomes, which is a bright yellow scarf printed with “CRIME SCENE DO NOT CROSS” designed to look like crime scene tape.   

Are you seeing possibilities for souvenirs and/or gifts?  How about a baseball cap?  You have options as to what you would like printed on your hat:  Police, SWAT, Security, K-9, or CSI.  I’d be torn between “K-9” and “CSI.”  T-shirts and sweatshirts are for sale too, sporting the HOF mission statement, “Honor our Heroes.”  I was tempted to buy one of the pink branded sweatshirts, but I know my shopping floodgates would burst open and I’d be making more than one trip to the car to carry out the shopping bags.  That’s shopping bags, plural.  I enjoyed this gift shop, and it was another one that I had to walk around twice to ensure I saw everything.  I saw admired the tote bags and coffee cups, but it was the imaginative and original items that made me smile.  I loved the SWAT rubber duckies.  I was at the end of my second walk-through when I discovered a section that I had missed, and it was a good one, because they had 30mm A-10 ammo shot glasses.  Do you remember the key chains made from ammunition that we saw at the Navy Seals UDT Museum (Navy SEAL UDT Museum).  If you regret not buying one at that time, you have another chance here.  If you wish you had purchased an item after you’ve left, the HOF has a thorough online shopping page in their website.

“Honor our Heroes.”  Say it with a t-shirt, hat, key chain or scarf, but please say it.  They are the ones that protect us and our families.   

As you finish your shopping, you have a decision to make.  The HOF has a highly rated firing range adjacent to the museum displays.  As I mentioned before, guns don’t interest me, so we skipped this part of the museum.  Or, you could skip this like we did, and go to lunch. 

Gift Shop

Patches

Cookie jar (top) and cop/robber salt & pepper shaker

Garden gnomes

Crime scene scarf

There are several hat options

SWAT rubber duckies

The glass counter.  This would be the only area of improvement I'd recommend for this gift shop.

Shotglasses are in the Ammo box on the left. 
Displayed next to that box are desktop pencil holders shaped like a gun's chamber. 
Ammo key chains are on the top right side.

Let’s do lunch.  

Dixie Crossroads has billboard advertising up and down I-95; it’s the one with a shrimp wearing a chef’s hat.  I originally thought that animals wearing hats was cheesy advertising, until I learned how to interpret the hidden meaning of BBQ restaurants.  I’ll share that with you now.  The majority of BBQ restaurants in Florida feature a pig as part of their signage, and you can determine the quality of the restaurant from how the pigs are displayed. 

•  If it’s just a pig (or shrimp, in the case of Dixie Crossroads), it’s an “ok” restaurant. 
•  It’s a better restaurant if the pig/shrimp wears a hat.
•  Next in the hierarchy, a pig planning a banjo is an even better restaurant.  The more human characteristics the animal has, the better the restaurant.
•  A pig eating ribs is a darned good place to eat. 

Dixie Crossroads (http://dixiecrossroads.com/)  is a popular restaurant, so the parking lot may be close to full.  Park anyway.  There’s a cute photo opportunity even before you walk in, and another one in the restaurant’s lobby (see photos).  As full as the parking lot is, you’ll be seated almost immediately. This place is huge and could probably seat the Michigan State University football team, both offense and defense.  Special teams, too, would be able to find a seat.

Sit down, order an adult beverage if you’d like, and peruse the menu.  Your waitress / waiter will come to your table and introduce herself.  It’s what they’re carrying that will grab your attention:  complimentary hush puppies, which are basically fried dough balls.  Let me offer some advice:  limit yourself to two or three hush puppies.  It would be incredibly easy to eat them all, but you would be too full for lunch.  Order one of the many shrimp dishes, and savor the freshness of the shrimp.  The Royal Reds (shrimp) are large shrimp with a slightly sweeter flavor.

This place has its own gift shop, which is small but well done.  My favorite is the glittery branded apron.  Keep in mind that you’re a visitor to Dixie Crossroads, and as such I’m almost certain that you’d like to show your good manners which you do by shopping here.  They have shrimpy t-shirts, ornaments, mason jars, and bee glasses.  Florida is gently urging you to shop on, and I am urging you to practice good purchasing.  When you buy a gift for someone, you need to buy something for yourself.  It keeps the universe in balance, and I would like to personally thank you for balancing my universe.

Dixie Crossroads

Photo opp #1

Photo opp #2

A glittery and branded apron

Shrimp ornaments

Shrimp merchandise

I'm thinking these two stained glass windows are custom-made, since
I've never seen anything like them in shops selling stained glass.

You’ve had a full day visiting the United States’ first ever Police Hall of Fame & Museum.  I hope you stepped out of your comfort zone and visited the shooting range.  Looking back, I wish I had.  And always remember: 

“Honor our Heroes”