Vancouver Police Museum - Soul Food Introduction

Welcome to the first collaboration between VanWalks and the Vancouver Police Museum and Archives. When I first created the VanWalks Gastown route, the Police Museum was closed for the pandemic. It wasn’t until about two years later that I actually visited the museum for the first time. It was also when I found out about their walking tours, which were on pause, also because of the pandemic. I contacted them to see if they would be interested in digitizing their routes and making them available on VanWalks. Of course, they were very excited for the opportunity to have more people learn about the museum’s amazing story.

Before we delve into the history of the Police Museum, it's important to acknowledge the traditional rights of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations, who have had ancestral ties to this land for thousands of years. This land is their unceded territory, which means that they never ceded or legally signed away their lands to the Crown or Canada.

The building that holds the Vancouver Police Museum and Archives was built in 1932. It was built after John Vance lobbied for a structure that could hold the City Analyst Labs and Coroner’s Court. Vance was known as Canada’s Sherlock Holmes, because of his work in forensic science.

As the City Analyst, Vance and his team worked with the VPD from 1914 to 1949, solving many of Vancouver's and Canada's most baffling mysteries. The Courtroom, Morgue, and Autopsy Suite were in use from 1932 to 1980, processing over 20,000 bodies during that 48-year period. Vance's lab, located on the first floor, remained in use until 1996.

The museum was founded in 1986 by police officers who formed the non-profit Vancouver Police Historical Society. They were passionate about the history of the police force, and the museum's collection now boasts over a century's worth of artifacts and archival material.