Inside city museum for tales of top cops on trail of criminals
FAMILIES URGED TO VISIT COLLECTION OVER THE
Crime Reporter HE story of Glasgow’s heroes and villains is being told to thousands of tourists daily – thanks to an independent city museum.
The Glasgow Police Museum, however, wants ordinary Glaswegians to take in its story, which is filled with the triumphs of the city’s great cops and the downfalls of the criminals who chose to break the law.
Former Glasgow inspector Alastair Dinsmor is one of the many retired police officers who help run the museum, which is opened seven days a week from April to October.
With the summer holidays coming up, he hopes city families will drop by and learn more about Glasgow’s fascinating policing past.
Alastair, who is chairman of the Glasgow Police Heritage Society, said: “A few of us who had been involved in the old Strathclyde Police Museum, which wasn’t open to the public, got together to create this.
“We wanted to tell Glasgow’s story and have it as a public museum.”
The museum opened in 2002 in the former Central Police Headquarters in the Calton before it moved to its current location in the Merchant City’s Bell Street in 2009.
Alastair, who started in the police in 1968 before finishing his career 30 years later, said: “I am passionate about the museum because we tell a great story here.
“The city of Glasgow had the first police force in the UK, that is important to us and this is the first thing we tell people who come in the door. It sets the scene for their visit.”
The unassuming museum takes visitors through the history of the police in Glasgow charting everything from the city’s first police dogs who were brought in to tackle housebreakings to the story of Scottish policeman John McAulay who was awarded a Victoria Cross during World War I in between his service.
The story of the Glasgow police, however, also has a dark side, and where the good guys succeed – the
Tbad guys follow including serial killer Peter Manuel, who features in the museum.
Alastair said: “The Peter Manuel case is one a lot of people in central Scotland remember and we always have people interested in that when they visit.”
Alastair, however, admits that his pride and joy is a collection of police badges and uniforms from every country around the world.
He said that tourists have even sent back their country’s badge or uniform after a visit – especially if they notice it has been missing from the collection.
Because of this, the collection has