part of the Then and Now continuing series about the March of Time

Take a look at this Evansville police car from the 1920s, here parked in front of what we now call the old courthouse.

It’s a bit hard to envision transporting a “bad guy” to jail in this, or being pulled over for speeding by this, isn’t it?

Fast forward some 100 years for a look at this image of a K-9 unit.

This EPD school resource officer vehicle, each one painted to match its school’s colors and mascot, is even more eye-catching!  This one is assigned to Central High School.

Police officers themselves have changed over the years, too.  Contrast this image 1906 image, with Evansville Mayor John Boehne far right, to the one below it.

“The Southwest Indiana Law Enforcement Academy provides ILEA sanctioned law enforcement training for new police officers with classes held here in Evansville in the SWILEA classroom. The Academy provides approximately 600 hours of training in a variety of areas. Criminal and traffic law, firearms, emergency vehicle operations, physical tactics, EMS awareness and human behavior are some of the major areas of instruction during this course. A wide range of other police related subjects—accident investigation, criminal investigation, domestic violence and sexual assault, water rescue training, Standardized Field Sobriety Test, crime prevention, drugs and narcotics—are included in the areas an officer studies before graduating. The course of study is designed to incorporate practical as well as classroom exercises so the officers have a better idea of how they might react to situations they will encounter when they return to their departments.”

At the very least there are minorities and women represented here.