Sometimes a man will collect items or mementos that have to do with his line of work.
A fine example can now be found mounted on a wall in the police chief’s office at the Houston City Hall.
Prior to taking the position as chief of the Houston Police Department a couple of years ago, Jim McNiell spent 33 years serving as an officer for the Missouri State Highway Patrol. While living and working in Sikeston, McNiell traveled to the MSHP academy in Jefferson City in the spring of 1996 and saw a collection of small, metallic cars on display. The 1/43rd-scale cars were made by a company out of New Jersey by the name of Road Champs, and bore accurate colors and emblems from each of the country’s 49 state police agencies (Hawaii doesn’t have one, but instead has a statewide law enforcement agency called the State of Hawaii Sheriff’s Office).
McNiell was hooked.
“They were such neat little cars, with metal and plastic, and they looked just like what we were driving out on the roads at the time,” he said.
McNiell and a group of seven colleagues and friends set out on a quest to compile similar collections of their own, and for about the next three years looked in every nook and cranny where there might be a new-in-the-box Road Champs toy state police car.
“We’d go to Walmart, K-Mart, Toys-R-Us or any other place that was making these cars available,” McNiell said. “As you shopped around, you were paying different prices. What started out at $3.27, became five, six, and seven dollars per car as they grew in popularity. And when you ordered them online, they were being inflated in cost.”
When his collection reached the 40-plus range, McNiell had to put forth some extra effort to reach the end goal. But he was determined not to have a collection of “almost” every state police car, and he eventually made it.
“We sometimes worked hard to find particular cars, but over a period of time, I was able to complete the collection of all 49 states,” he said. “It was a lot of fun while it lasted.”
As a kid, McNiell always enjoyed watching TV shows depicting black-and-white patrol cars.
“I’ve always been partial to the black-and-whites because they symbolized law enforcement back then,” he said. “By doing this collection, I learned that out of the 49 states, eight had true black-and-white patrol cars. The one that stood out the most was California, which to this day still has black-and-white patrol cars. Another interesting thing I found is that several of the states’ car colors matched their uniform colors.”
It’s safe to say that cars driven by officers with state police or state patrol agencies are highly recognizable to most people. Most of the cars from the era of McNiell’s collection are either Ford Crown Victorias or Chevrolet Caprices (1994-1998 models). They’re neatly displayed in a specially designed plastic case, and clearly labeled with the appropriate state’s name, so viewers don’t have to stare close at an tiny emblem on a small door or light bar.
“It’s a nice looking arrangement,” McNiell said, “and they’re easy to look at.”
McNiell’s first assignment with the MSHP was with Troop G in 1978. During that time, he and his wife, Wilda, resided in Houston, and the couple decided to return here when McNiell retired from the patrol in 2010.
Until recently being granted a spot in the chief’s office, the car collection sat tucked away in a closet. McNiell said he’s glad it’s now displayed where it can easily be seen, and that the cars represent more than a just bunch of cool looking toys.
“At that time, the highway patrol car is who we were,” he said. “Most people are familiar with the Smoky Bear hat, but they also realized that the cars we drove were state troopers’ cars. It’s the same way today; when you see that emblem and that car, something makes it stand out versus a county or city car.
“I always took a lot of pride in my car, because it represented me as a person and an officer.”
McNiell’s collection has been featured before in a southeast Missouri newspaper, and even on a TV piece aired by a Cape Girardeau station.
“It’s kind of a neat human interest story,” he said. “This shows there’s another side to us, as far as things a law enforcement officer does. A lot of us like sports, a lot of us like playing golf or coaching, and then some have collections.”
Not surprisingly, McNiell has had some fairly hefty offers from men who not only liked his collection when they saw it, but desired to own it.
“I haven’t sold it yet, but I foresee maybe someday offering it online and seeing what it brings,” he said. “It’s a neat collection, based on history.”
––Cars are 1/43rd scale.
––There are 49 state police agencies in the United States. Hawaii has a statewide agency called the State of Hawaii Sheriff’s Office.
––Prices of the cars ranged from $3.27 to $7 apiece.