|
By Tom Kennedy
Exciting Exhibits
The Wall looms as one of the finest and most thoughtful museum exhibits of its kind in the United States.
The sights of HPD's first helicopter, a three-wheel motorcycle from the early days, the 1952 black Ford police car and the horse "statue" will immediately catch the eyes of museum visitors - each of whom must pass through security just as any civilian to 1200 Travis.
But these specialties only get you over the threshold.
Specially focused information on video screens will unfurl on the screens of each of the new kiosks along the southern flow of displays leading to the video screen designed to provide detailed information and even family updates on HPD's line-of-duty death officers.
This screen - located in what Chapman calls "the education area" - is the last one a visitor will see before rounding the corner to the Wall of Honor.
The Wall experience will be even more stirring due to the fact that standing nearby will be an HPD Honor Guard mannequin, one of about 12 that should be in place.
These renditions stand alongside a specially designed display that features the motorcycle ridden by Officer Jim Irby the day he was executed by lifelong criminal and current Death Row resident Carl Wayne Buntion.
Also along the kiosk path to the Wall will be special glassed-in displays of HPD uniforms throughout history from the 1840s through 1910, 1940 and the 1960s. On the walls above will be a display of more modern police uniforms, highlighted by what museum director James Chapman calls the "SWAT mannequin."
"The SWAT mannequin is a flexible mannequin that will be depicted climbing a wall," Chapman explained.
The museum director spent long hours taking extra care to get every detail correct and making sure the thought process was inclusive of appropriate people, including the surviving family members of fallen officers.
As one might expect, many displays from the Houston Police Museum at the L. D. Morrison Sr. Police Academy will be updated and placed in their original cases at the new location on the first floor of 1200 Travis.
Chapman carefully points out that "displays are going to be changed out all the time."
"It's not going to be the same museum all the time," he said. "If you come twice a year, the public will see a different museum."
"Change-out" is a readily applicable term for this new museum. Chapman often uses the term.
Each kiosk video will entail information about different historical aspects of Houston policing. These videos can be changed out to fit any special audience.
"We can use something appropriate for kids as opposed to older people who want more information," Chapman said.
‘Houston Blue' Granite
The same is true of the more traditional exhibits. Previously, it was a major hernia-provoking job at the academy to use suction cups to lift the heavy plate glass out of its groove in order to change a display. Such a task didn't lend itself to frequent change-outs.
Not so at the more highly visible, modern and innovative downtown location.
Chapman happily demonstrated the ease in which the hinged plate glass doors may be unlocked and pulled back in such a way to literally enable daily or weekly change-outs. Behind one of them will be the uniforms worn by Houston police chiefs throughout history.
"We could put in the uniform of a different chief any time we want to," he said.
On a tour of the still-under-construction Wall of Honor, one can feel a special reverence, a spirit that goes even deeper when you learn the thought and detail that went into the work.
Brent Flato, the project superintendent for the contractor, Jamail & Smith Construction, was present for every detail of the job, from manipulating the helicopter and 1952 Ford through an eight-foot door to the placement of the special "Blue Eyes Granite" used for the Wall of Honor.
"My sister's closest friend's father was Floyd Deloach," Flato explained. "Her name is Terri."
(Terri Lynn Deloach was five years old when her father was slain. Floyd Deloach was killed in the line of duty June 30, 1965 - shot twice and killed on the parking lot of a bowling alley at Shepherd and Crosstimbers.)
"They've been friends since college and my sister just turned 49. I'm a native Houstonian and I know how important police officers are and how dangerous their jobs can be. It's hard to put into words for me. These people put their lives on the line every day."
The small blue crystals in the granite are an easily recognizable shade of "Houston blue" that makes the Wall very special.
Chapman conferred with surviving families on practically every detail that went into the wall. Indeed, deep thought and concern went into the decision about the arrangement of the 110 names chiseled into the Blue Eyes Granite wall.
Chapman explained:
"The granite company representatives took the names. We wanted a random-filled arrangement. They chose their own random selection method. Altogether there are 144 spaces now filled with 110 names in random order.
‘Rubbing' Material
"We couldn't do it chronologically because someday research might turn up another early line of duty death and that would spoil the chronological order.
"We couldn't do it alphabetically for the same reason. The first time we had to insert a new name, it would spoil the alphabetical order."
The random method appears to be sound. "We wanted to make everyone comfortable and feel at ease with the placement because they're all family."
Chapman said he personally relates to at least two brave men memorialized in the Wall. "I rode with Jim Boswell and Jerry Stowe was the president of my Police Academy class."
Chapman posed for a picture of the under-construction "Wall" near his classmate, Stowe, who died Sept. 20, 2000 from injuries he sustained 14 years earlier in a policing incident. Boswell was murdered Dec. 9, 1989 by a drug informant.
"A special material will be available for visitors to make rubbings, as they do at the memorials in Washington, DC," he said. "The names will be etched at a level that allows for children and persons in wheelchairs to participate in this ritual."
Chapman said this special material will be available at the gift shop located at the main entrance of the museum and operated by the Public Affairs Division.
Schlitzberger and Daughters Monument Company built the granite wall and undertook the random placement of the names. This company - and this company alone - has the location on the monument of the name of any future line of duty death victim.
At a special grand opening ceremony to be held privately for the survivors of line of duty death officers, each family member will have the opportunity to place a replica of their loved one's badge in specially designed black velvet engraved displays. These actually will be in chronological order.
"There will be a sea of badges that's going to be an amazing thing," Chapman said. "It will be a very moving exhibit."
He said everyone involved has gone "above and beyond" their callings. Besides the ever-present Flato, he singled out Jamail & Smith and Kirsten Manning, the senior project manager.
He also singled out Greg Ryden, associate architect for Brave Architecture, and its owner, Fernando Brave. Brave's group designed the Travis museum.
The Houston Police Foundation is very supportive, and its support hasn't yet ended.
And the HPOU graciously donated $15,000 to help supply the new museum.
Chapman also assembled an unbelievable group of businesses who donated their time, expertise and products. They include:
- Houston Badge Company is manufacturing the replica badges that will be used in the exhibit.
- Planet Ford donated an all-new paint job for the 1952 Ford V8 "Customline."
- C & H Rigging removed the helicopter from the museum at the academy at no charge.
- Lone Star Uniforms is in the process of putting together the uniform replicas Chapman needs in the uniform display areas.
- Sugar Hill Studios will be donating the audio production needed for a special "roll call" tribute to each of the 110 fallen officers. Zen Films, which produced a recruiting film for HPD, is working with Sugar Hill in the production - also without charge.
· Audio Visual Solutions Inc. donated all the audio-video equipment and the installation at considerable expense for the Wall of Honor.
There also is yet another donor, longtime HPD friend Dave Ward, the KTRK/Channel 13 Eyewitnesses News anchor man.
The roll call audio-video tribute is being produced by Officer Mike McCoy of Public Affairs, who puts together the department's recruiting blog. McCoy, a relative of Deputy Chief William E. Murphy, the highest-ranking HPD officer to die in the line of duty (April 1, 1910) is working with Ward to provide an opening statement for the roll call of fallen officers.
The production will use 110 different voices for these HPD heroes, combined with a 21-gun salute and the playing of Taps.
Asking the Experts
A growing number of individual officers and divisions have been part of the process. After all, authenticity is utmost and who can best oversee authentic depictions than the officers who know the business?
Actual mounted officers - to cite just one example - will appear to answer the Frequently Asked Questions on the kiosk video about HPD's Mounted Patrol.
The HPD helicopter pilots tended to the helicopter safely suspended from the ceiling of the museum. Chapman said the guns in this exhibit are like every gun throughout the museum - "a $20 replica."
"Any exhibit that's accessible to the public will have plastic guns and nothing that would enable anyone to hurt themselves or the public," Chapman explained.
Chapman led the effort to take the devil out of the details. Parking is a great example.
He completed a thorough study of the downtown parking possibilities near the museum. Parking rates range from $8 to $20.
But with a 24/seven operation, museum visitors also can park free at many parking meters after 6 p.m.
Don't forget Metro. A $2 roundtrip gets an adult to the museum, which is only a two-block walk from nearby Metro train and bus stops.
|
