Vancouver Police Museum

by Jenavieve

Activity:

Hi, my name's Jenavieve and I'm here to tell you about the neatest field trip our class went on.  Believe it or not we went to the Vancouver Police Museum.  The tour was part of our career development program at school.  We had a tour guide (I forgot his name) who showed us through the entire museum, plus he let us try solving a whodunnit mystery.

Our first stop was a big room with half a vintage police car in it.  We all took turns sitting behind the driver's wheel to have our picture taken. There's also half of a horse (luckily the front half), and lots of memorabilia like clothes, newspaper articles, and weapons.  The one I kept staring at was a baseball ball with five inch nails hammered in it.  Our tour guide said a twelve-year-old boy made it.  Hey, I'm twelve-years-old!  I saw a bunch of street narcotics like crystal meth, cocaine, and marijuana.  Some of that stuff looks just like sugar.  Our tour ended at the city morgue.  My Mom was shocked to find out the morgue was not at the hospital.  It looked just like the movies:  huge silver drawers sliding in and out of a wall.  The room next door had an examining table with samples of various human body parts (don't worry they were inside jars).

I haven't told you about the crime stories.  They were creepy.  Some of them dated back to the 1950's.  There was one about a man who slowly poisoned his wife by putting weed killer in her drinks just so he could marry his girlfriend.  They even had the actual evidence and pictures on display.  One mystery the police never solved was finding out who the two dead children were found in Stanley Park.  How weird is that!  Mom said, "these are so gruesome," but I noticed she couldn't stop reading them either.  

Speaking of crime cases, we got to be private eyes for an hour and do things like analyze ink samples, fingerprints, and a crime scene.  We had to figure out what evidence to bring back to the crime lab, and who did it?  I cracked the case--but that doesn't mean I want to be a policewoman when I grow up.  Although, I have to admit, out of all the field trips I've ever taken, the Police Museum is at the top of my list.  My older brother Nathe should definitely visit the Vancouver Police Museum.  Maybe then he'd find out there's a lot more to becoming a cop than meets the eye.

Details:

240 E. Cordova St (cross street is Gore Avenue).  If you've never been there, Cordova runs parallel with Hastings in the eastside of downtown Vancouver.  It's close to Gastown and Chinatown.

Open Tuesday to Saturday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM all year round.  Check their website for admission costs.       

If you'd like to find out more or arrange a tour call (604) 665-3346 or visit their website at www.vancouverpolicemuseum.ca

Close to Chinatown and Gastown.

Area:

Vancouver 

Season:

All seasons