This trophy was given to the champions of a police marksmanship competition held in July 1896. Back then, many police departments were officially arming their officers and testing them on their ability to shoot accurately. The name and location of this particular competition are unknown, but it’s not hard to guess why New York were the winners: as New York City Police Commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt started a “School of Police Pistol Practice” in 1895. It looks like those efforts paid off enough to make the NYPD champions at this competition one year later.
The National Law Enforcement Museum has thousands of law enforcement artifacts in our archives; too many to display at once. We offer this regularly scheduled blog to give you a peek into our archives.
