REPORT

DALLAS, LIKE ANY DENSELY POPULATED AND COSMOPOLITAN CITY, HAS A RICH AND DISTURBING HISTORY OF CRIME

ON THE SECOND FLOOR of the Dallas Police Department’s Jack Evans headquarters is a room piled high with boxes containing a century’s worth of incident reports and arrest warrants, department newsletters and newspaper clippings. Vintage badges, patches and patrolman caps fill several glass display cases. Books containing city code and local true crime stories line metal shelves, and a heavy, rusty ball-and-chain leg cuff occupies a dark corner.

DALLAS POLICE SENIOR CPL. RICK JANICH, curator of the forthcoming Dallas Police Museum, is working to transform these artifacts into a proper exhibit. Meanwhile, when his schedule permits, he shows visitors around, allowing them to sift through handwritten records and black-and-white photos. He might even show off the collection of handguns and badges, stashed under lock and key, that once belonged to famous lawmen such as Prohibition-era police chief Elmo Strait.

THE MUSEUM WILL be a popular attraction — after all, the Dallas Police Department has groupies, Janich explains.

FANS OF THE SHOW ‘DALLAS SWAT’ will show up at police headquarters looking for stars of the reality TV show, he says, “hoping for an autograph.”

PERUSING THE EVIDENCE, there is no reasonable doubt that our neighborhood has been the scene of some of the worst criminal offenders and best detectives in history.

THESE ARE THEIR STORIES.