Published: May 11, 2008 12:35 am         

Patroling the past: Detective turns donations into police museum

PALESTINE, Texas — Recognizing Det. Charles Steen’s office at the Palestine Police Department isn’t difficult for first-time visitors.

The historic photographs from the department’s past, lining the painted cinder block walls, serve as framed welcome signs leading to his office door.

When Steen, a former motorcycle officer nicknamed “Officer Long Barrel” for his extra-long pistol, swings open the door, visitors can step back in time to a long-gone Palestine where officers walked downtown beats and kept an eye out for a red light signaling trouble.

A time when the city’s police chiefs had the titles of city marshal or superintendent, and could be spotted by their longer neckties, rather than the bowties worn by patrolmen.

A time when the police superintendent could walk into the city council meeting and tell the city fathers that he’d purchased a motorcycle for the department’s use and he needed reimbursement.

Nearly 200 photographs, memorabilia, an old siren and the red light fill the small, windowless office, making Steen’s flat screen computer monitor and desk phone look out of place.

Welcome to the Palestine Police Museum, one of the city’s best-kept secrets.

“What Palestine knows is I’m working on a book on the history of the department. That was in the paper,” Steen said. “But I don’t think I really went into the fact that I was making a museum.”

Built by Steen, the museum commemorates the department’s past back to its inception in 1871 through photos, badges, equipment and even a uniform, donated by officers’ family members and community members who heard of his plans to write a book chronicling the department’s history, with biographies of the various police chiefs.

When the city council voted to have a police department in December 1871, the department was set up with a city marshal and two policemen, according to old council minutes. The marshal title remained until 1909, when the city adopted a commissioner form of government and changed the title to police chief.

Making the time and extra effort to collect and chronicle the department’s history isn’t an easy feat, police chief Larry Coutorie said.

“I think it’s something that frequently in departments — because we become so involved in day-to-day activities policing an entity — goes unattended,” Coutorie said. “I think it’s good that Detective Steen has dedicated himself to digging out the past, documenting it and preserving it.

“I’m very impressed,” Coutorie said. “He’s very tenacious. That’s why he’s a good detective. He’s done this completely on his own.”

Every photograph and item has a story, which Steen gladly shares with visitors.

Take the story of the city’s first police motorcycle, purchased in 1913 by police superintendent Turner Parker Moore.

“This shows how much power police superintendents had,” Steen said, pointing to a photo on his office wall displaying the motorcycle. “He showed up and announced summarily to the council and the mayor that he had bought a motorcycle for the police department and he needed a check from the council that night to pay for it.

“What we got , in 1914, was our first motorized vehicle, which was a 1914 Indian motorcycle. Palestine at that time still had no (police) cars.”

Not until 1930 did the department get its first patrol car, a Model A Ford, Steen said. The department’s prior car, bought in 1918, wasn’t fit for patrol use and was instead used by the police superintendent to go to work.

“Up until that time, most traffic enforcement was done by the motorcycle officer because all of the other officers were either on horseback or were still walking the beat on foot,” Steen said. “They got that Model A Ford and they were really proud to have that.”

Which led Steen to a photograph of a 1934 Ford, a vehicle whose photo had been missing from the collection until Palestine resident Lynda Sansom and her aunt, Nelda Mack, brought it in. One of the officers standing by the car was Mack’s father, Ira Cook, the second-ranking officer at that time.

In addition to the photo, Sansom also loaned Cook’s 1927 badge, whistle and slapper to be displayed in a glass case Steen obtained when a local downtown retail shop closed.

“Those are some wonderful artifacts we’re glad to have on loan,” Steen said.

As word has gotten out about his police project, people have sought him out with more photos, artifacts and information.

“Right now, everything kind of feeds on itself,” he said. “As the continued research and writing of the book is going on, I’m getting more photographs, and from photographs, I’ll find out something more to put in the book.”

He hopes to have the book ready for print by September, and ready for sale by the Dogwood Trails Festival in late March 2009.



Beth Foley writes for Herald-Press in Palestine, Texas.