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Published on Monday, April 19, 2004
in the Tampa Tribune Online
TITUSVILLE -
A solemn inscription lies above the entrance:
``Good Men and Women Must Die,'' it reads. ``But Death Cannot Kill Their Names.''
Inside, the memorial burns a candle for 7,200 law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty since 1960.
The names, chiseled into the marble walls at the American Police Hall of Fame & Museum, include Tampa police Detectives Ricky Childers and Randy Bell, Florida Highway Patrol Trooper James B. Crooks and Tampa police Officer Lois Marrero - all shot to death by desperados who killed themselves before justice was served.
Childers and Bell, killed by Hank Earl Carr in 1998, are remembered side by side, as they worked on duty.
Crooks, also slain by Carr, is on the next panel.
And Marrero, killed in 2001 while chasing robbery suspect Nestor Luis DeJesus, is on another panel a short distance away.
The floors beneath some of the walls are dotted with flowers and photographs left by grieving family and friends.
``We add names every year,'' says the museum's marketing director, Barry Shepherd. ``In 2003, there were 103 new ones.''
A year earlier, the memorial opened a Sept. 11 exhibit, which includes the names of the 71 law enforcement officers killed in the terrorist attacks.
``It's very emotional for the families that come here,'' Shepherd says. ``It doesn't take much for the biggest, strongest officer to come to tears.''
From The Beginning
The museum was the brainchild of the late Gerald Arenberg, whose urn-held ashes are part of one of the displays here.
Arenberg was a small-town Illinois police chief who wanted to do something to remember those who died in the line of duty and also provide assistance for their families.
He built the original museum in 1960 in North Port, near Port Charlotte.
At 3,000-square-feet, it was cramped compared with its successor, a 38,000-square- footer that opened in Miami in 1964.
``But tourism in Miami has changed,'' Shepherd says.
Titusville, on the other hand, is near tourist central - Orlando - and closer yet to Kennedy Space Center.
``This area is very patriotic, and that appeals to the kinds of visitors we draw,'' Shepherd says.
The new 50,000-square-foot building opened in May and has attracted about 150,000 visitors.
``In Miami in the peak, we did two or three times that,'' Shepherd says. ``But in the end it was less than half that. We expect to grow as more people hear about us.''
The facility is supported by donations and admission fees as well as organizations such as the National Association of Chiefs of Police and American Federation of Police and Concerned Citizens.
In addition to building and maintaining the museum, ``we raise money for the families of officers killed in the line of duty,'' Shepherd says. ``We currently have 2,000 kids in the program who get gifts for Christmas and birthdays. We have scholarship and summer camp programs, and grief counseling.
``We also have bullet-proof vest and canine programs to supply underfunded departments.''
Eye-Opening Displays
The museum's 10,000 exhibits range from somber to macabre.
Where else can you have your picture taken inside a built-to-scale electric chair, gas chamber or jail cell?
You can also see a guillotine, a dungeon and a hangman's hood and noose.
There's a one-of-a-kind Bricklin patrol car, one of the prop cars from the Harrison Ford movie ``Blade Runner'' and an iron ``tramp chair'' used to hold vagrants in the Old West.
In another area, a yellowed Indianapolis Times front page screams, ``John Dillinger Slain.''
Nearby, one exhibit has pieces of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which was bombed in Oklahoma City, and another contains pieces of one of the airplanes and one of the twin towers from the Sept. 11 attacks.
The museum also has interactive areas where visitors can build their own composite sketch of a suspect, match DNA, learn about fingerprint techniques or press buttons and watch clues materialize in a crime scene.
The clockwise tour route also passes a stock and pillory and collections of handcuffs, badges, knives and guns.
``Some of the items are purchased, but most are donated,'' Shepherd says.
``I have so much stuff I don't have floor space for it all.''
IF YOU GO
WHAT: American Police Hall of Fame & Museum.
WHERE: 6350 Horizon Drive, Titusville.
HOURS: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. Closed Christmas.
ADMISSION: $12 adults, $8 children 4-12. Free to police officers and survivors of those killed in the line of duty.
MORE TO DO: The museum also has police helicopter rides ($22 to $150) and an electronic, computerized gun range that's open to the public and offers instruction and an assortment of rental handguns.
TO GET THERE: Take Interstate 4 to Orlando and go east on State Road 528/Bee Line Expressway (toll road) to State Road 407, then go north to State Road 405. Turn right/east and go one mile. The Hall of Fame is on the right, next to the Astronaut Hall of Fame.