The Huntsville Police Department has enjoyed a long, rich history. Huntsville began a rapid growth in the early 1950's due to the influx of people to support the space and rocket industry. The department was forced to transform from a small town police department serving 16,437 residents in 1950 into one of the largest police departments in the state serving 123,519 citizens by 1964. This transformation was forced upon the department in just 14 years - an extremely short period of time in the life of an organization. The police officers and department staff of this era deserve a considerable amount of praise for managing the rapid growth of the department, continually expanding geographical area and exploding number of calls for service to become recognized as one of the premier police agencies in the state.
The Huntsville Police Department has continued to expand its community role to meet new challenges. Many ideas were adopted from other agencies and improved upon, others were developed locally and serve as models for police agencies throughout the nation.
Copyright © 2007 The City of Huntsville, Alabama
11-19-2008
