Many people ask me how I became interested in true crime stories of the 1930s. My stock reply is always the same. "I'm a cop's daughter from Brooklyn." No further explanation seems necessary - at least, not in New York!

The cop I am referring to is my father, Leo A. Poulsen. He was a creative force during the years that he served on the NYPD - from 1959 until he retired in 1980, which was the year he died. He wrote the gossip column for the 73rd Precinct in the Department's monthly trade press, Spring 3100. Leo's Spring 3100 columns fictionalized the patrolmen of the 73rd Pct. into deranged horsemen of the British Empire, and the precinct a fictitious battleground called "Fort Z." It is a nickname the Brownsville precinct holds to this day.

Here are some selections from Leo's Police Artwork. Many of these pieces appeared in a handbook entitled Crime Prevention Program: NYPD - Office Building Security in the 1970s. Leo depicted the many elements of the job through humor. Some of it might be considered politically incorrect today - but I believe that some of the guys & dolls depicted here were a reflection of the NYPD of another era.
- Ellen Poulsen





























My Brooklyn Neighborhood


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