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![]() Exterior in 2024 | |
Location within Washington, D.C. | |
Established | October 13, 2018 |
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Location | 444 E St NW, Washington, D.C. |
Coordinates | 38°53′48″N77°01′03″W / 38.8967°N 77.0176°W |
Type | History museum |
Executive director | Thomas Canavan |
Public transit access | ![]() |
Website | nleomf |
The National Law Enforcement Museum is a museum located in Washington, D.C. It opened on October 13, 2018, and covers American law enforcement through interactive exhibits, historical and contemporary artifact collections, with a dedicated space for research and educational programming. It is a mostly-underground facility located adjacent to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C.'s Judiciary Square near several district and federal courthouses.
The architect for the museum was Davis Buckley Architects and Planners, the firm that also designed the Memorial. The museum is composed of permanent galleries and one changing exhibitions gallery. The design of the permanent galleries was first undertaken by Christopher Chadbourne & Associates of Boston. When that firm closed, the design effort was completed by Studio 647 of Washington D.C. (exhibition design) and One By Design of Gloucester, MA (graphic design). Media elements were produced by Richard Lewis Media Group and Donna Lawrence Productions. The exhibits were built and installed by Design and Production Incorporated of Lorton, VA.
The building is located below ground with two entrance pavilions with 55,000 square feet (5,100 m2) of interior space. The excavation for the building is 60 feet (18 m) below the surface.
The design was completed in 1991 but not completed for several years, pending funding and other hurdles. In 2000, the United States Congress authorized the establishment of the National Law Enforcement Museum, to tell the story of law enforcement in the United States. Stories of the fallen will be featured in the Museum's "Hall of Remembrance." The bill, signed into law by President Bill Clinton on November 9, 2000, authorized the planning for the museum. The public review process to authorize construction at the site took five years. [1]
On October 14, 2010, Attorney General Eric Holder, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and others broke ground on the construction of the museum. [1] As of October 2012, over $58 million in private donations have been raised. [1]
On February 28, 2014, Rep. Steny Hoyer introduced the bill To amend the National Law Enforcement Museum Act to extend the termination date (H.R. 4120; 113th Congress) into the United States House of Representatives. [2] The bill was signed on May 16, 2014, and extended until November 9, 2016, the authority of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, a nonprofit organization, to construct a museum on federal lands within the District of Columbia honoring law enforcement officers. [3]
The museum opened October 18, 2018. [4] In 2019, Bloomberg Businessweek reported that the museum defaulted the $103 million it borrowed in 2016. [5] [6] After the default, there have been no repayments made by the museum, and the outstanding debt is still reflected on their latest financial statement from 2020. [7]
Due to the pandemic, the museum closed temporarily to the public on March 15, 2020. [8] During this time, the museum served the public through online educational programs. The museum reopened on August 27, 2021, after being closed for 18 months.
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The museum's collections include:
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A review by The Washington Post in 2019 acknowledged the Law Enforcement Museum's value in presenting the perspective of police officers, but described its "focus on the dramatic and violent aspects of law enforcement seems to spill into glamorization at times". The review also criticized the exhibits for lacking context, which it said causes the museum to "leans more toward propaganda than education". In particular, the museum's exhibit about the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown was characterized as a "missed educational opportunity" to mention the ensuing protests or "continuing problem of police violence in black communities". [9]