Witness to History:

Assassin in the Crowd: Protecting President Reagan at the Hilton

Join the National Law Enforcement Museum at the Washington Hilton Hotel where on March 30, 1981, John Hinckley Jr. tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan. Former Secret Service Agent Tim McCarthy, who was shot by Hinckley while protecting the President, will talk about his experience.

Learn more about this event.

Law Enforcement Across the United States

This year the National Law Enforcement Museum will be quizzing you on law enforcement history in all 50 states, featuring different states each month, in alphabetical order. This month, we're featuring Florida, Georgia, Hawaii and Idaho.

How many can you get right?

Wyatt, the K-9 in Training

For the museum’s K-9 exhibit, The National Law Enforcement Museum’s audio visual production team at Richard Lewis Media Group has begun filming Wyatt, a Belgian Malinois, as he trains with the Boston (MA) Police Department.

Stay tuned to the Museum Insider for updates on Wyatt’s progress in the coming months.

Don Usher Oral History

Retired Pilot Don Usher talks about his career flying for the US Park Police’s Aviation Unit. Usher famously flew the Park Police’s helicopter, Eagle One, to rescue survivors from the January 1982 Air Florida Flight 90 plane crash into the Potomac River. 

View Donald W. Usher's Oral History.

March 1982 | Broken Windows Theory

“Arresting a single drunk or a single vagrant who has harmed no identifiable person seems unjust, and in a sense it is. But failing to do anything about a score of drunks or a hundred vagrants may destroy an entire community.”

George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson, 1982

Let's travel back to March 1982 to learn about a moment in law enforcement history.