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Sheriff museum chronicles 160 years of crime fighting
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The San Diego Sheriff’s Department is keeping a record on itself and it’s as long as your arm. It starts with the first sheriff, Agostin Haraszthy, who served a one-year term in 1850, and ends with Sheriff Bill Gore who recently succeeded retired Sheriff Bill Kolender. In the 160 year span of time separating the two sheriff’s a chronological record exists of just about every aspect of the department. .jpg)
Who was the first woman deputy and what was her name? Answer: Olive Belle Chambers, appointed in 1913. When were helicopters introduced into the department? When were deputies sent to Palm Springs to quell a riot? When were two-way radios first introduced?
Strikes, riots, deaths, equipment changes, jail openings and closings, first use of canines; events that shaped the department don’t go unnoticed and are meticulously recorded. And if warranted, they may become a display item at the San Diego Sheriff’s Museum in Old Town.
Opened in 2001, the museum chronicles the fascinating and varied history of the department. A history marked by a succession of colorful sheriff’s like John Duffy who paid homage to his Irish roots by changing the department colors to green. 
The museum is housed in a gated two-story office complex on San Diego Avenue and is free to the public.
Besides honoring the department’s heritage it also sends an important message says Dorothy Strout, Executive Director. "It’s a wonderful educational tool," says Strout. "We bring in 14,000 4th graders through the museum."
Part of the museum’s mission statement is to bring awareness of social dangers to youths. "Kids have a lot of crap to put up with," says Stout who is the museum’s only full time employee. "It keeps me off the streets and out of the bars," she says with a smile.
Stout has spent most of her life creating law enforcement museums, mostly in the Los Angeles area where she first arrived with her parents in 1964. They left after a few weeks, but she stayed. She’s become a renowned expert on creating these museums and consults worldwide.
She encourages visitors to walk the exhibits and don’t forget to hop on the motorcycle and push the button on the left, which triggers the siren and lights.
The reality of the cost and danger of crime fighting is the underlying and unspoken theme at the museum. In the early days, criminals were given three choices says Stout. "They either hung em’, shot em’, or run out of town," she says.
Today the department employs 2,300 deputies with a budget of $579 million. It operates eight jails from which many fascinating items were confiscated and displayed in the museum's showcases. These include a cruel assortment of shanks (knives), "brass" knuckles, fake guns fashioned from soap, tattooing devises, and deviously inventive throwing objects.
These objects are a warning that jail is no place you want to be. Shanks and gangs aside, there’s the endless boredom of jail life. From this boredom a resourceful prisoner will take the foil from chewing gum wrappers and form animals, even make rope with it. It takes hundreds of these foil wrappers to make a single small object. A five-inch foil chair is displayed behind glass.
The accumulation of confiscated gang weaponry and drug paraphernalia being showcased in the latter exhibits underscores the vital role the Sheriff’s Department plays as crime fighters. The museum is not a gloss over of the department’s history, but a sobering and in your face hard look at the reality of crime in San Diego.
San Diego County Sheriff’s Museum, located at 2384 San Diego Avenue, San Diego, CA 92110. Phone: (619) 260-1850 and website at: www.sheriffmuseum.org
San Diego County Sheriff Department website: www.sdsheriff.net
Suggestions or Questions? Email Ken at brantingham1@earthlink.net
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