AMERICAN POLICE COLLECTIBLES (Dark Lanterns and Other Curious Devices), Matthew G. Forte, 1998
In this country police have existed for over three hundred and fifty years. Where is all the equipment they carried when on patrol? The second half of the 19th century was one of the most prolific times for inventors of police equipment. How different was early equipment from what is currently issued - prior to flashlights, police carried oil burning dark lanterns; before radios, officers used wooden rattles to summon help; the moderm handcuff wasn't invented until 1912.
Hundreds of patents were issued for handcuffs, clubs, mechanical and chain nippers, police lanterns and police rattles.
A growing number of collectors are intrigued by early police equipment and uniform insignia. Museums devoted totally to police history are increasing in number. A long overlooked field for collectors and historians has begun to emerge, but to date no single reference source about early police equipment has existed.
This brand new book, American Police Collectibles, is the first such reference to be published. It traces the development of this early police equipment through over 150 patent drawings, black and white equipment photos, early illustrations of police officers in uniform and original advertisements of police equipment.
About the author:
Matt Forte is a retired training director and manager of national accreditation for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police. He created the first police command college to be run at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Mr. Forte is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the American Society for Industrial Security. He has been published in the Police Chief and Transit Policing. Bill Bratton, the former Police Commissioner of the City of New York says: "Matt Forte's American Police Collectibles is one of the more entertaining and certainly one of the most informative, in the new and relatively small genre of books dealing with the evolution of police and police equipment. It's an interesting read and should appeal to the "buff", the serious collector and the historian."
6 1/4" " x 9 1/4", 248 pages, 248 B&W photos & drawings , hardcover BA8725 / $9.95
PHOTO OF POLICE CLUB WARNING!! 100,451 bytes
PHOTO OF HANDCUFFS 15,859 bytes
PHOTO OF RATTLE WARNING!! 103,386 bytes
PHOTO OF NIGHTSTICKS WARNING!! 72,454 bytes
RELATED MATERIAL: AMERICAN POLICE EQUIPMENT (A Guide to Early Restraints, Clubs and Lanterns)