Modern police equipment is hugely varied, spanning from the simple baton all the way to high-tech body cameras and radar guns. But how much do you know about where they came from? Here are five everyday police tools and their surprising backstories.

Long before motorized vehicles, freeways and speed-measuring devices, people used to ride horses to their destinations, and law enforcement officers were no exception.

When you think of detective fiction, you will likely imagine Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘Sherlock Holmes’ or Agatha Christie’s ‘Poirot’. Although these 20th-century stories are classics, they’re also dated and there is a whole wealth of literature out there for readers who prefer something modern.

Scientific criminology goes back a lot further than the early 21st century and, were it not for Edmond Locard, a real-life Sherlock Holmes in 1900s France, we might not have a fraction of the resources we do today.

Upon hearing the word sheriff, you may imagine a showdown taking place several hundred years ago in a dusty forgotten town in the Wild West. However, the role of sheriff has an extensive history that dates back more than a thousand years to Medieval England.

Considering how primitive medicine was in 1918, as well as the fact that sophisticated police equipment was still a distant dream, it is easy to wonder how order was maintained during such a chaotic time…

Did you know that speed guns used by the police today were once developed for use in the war effort? There is quite a fascinating story behind the evolution of these clever gadgets!