Tampa Police Museum
Tampa, Florida
Opened in 1998, but the collection began 40 years earlier and has items dating to the 19th century (Tampa's had a police force since 1886).
The museum is particularly proud of its rouge's gallery of original mug shots and fingerprint cards of famous criminals, but it also has badges, uniforms, helmets and hats, old electronic equipment and Most Wanted posters, a mini-helicopter, a motorcycle, a 1924 Model T Tampa police car, lots of seized weapons, and an barred door from the old Tampa jail that you can pose behind for novelty photos.
One unique artifact is the tombstone of John McCormick, died Sep. 26, 1895, the first Tampa policeman killed in the line of duty.