Make a donation
As a charitable organisation we are very appreciative of your donations. Whether it's a financial donation or a item we can use in our collection, your help is invaluable.
Donate money
As a charitable organisation, we need to raise £40,000 every year so that we can continue our work and so we rely on donations kindly made by members of public.
Every single penny of the money donated to the Essex Police Museum goes towards our work to preserve and share the history of policing in Essex.
There are a number of ways you can make a financial contribution.
As a registered charity we are enrolled in the PayPal Giving Fund. Through this service you can make a one-off donation or a monthly donation. If you are eligible you are also able to gift aid your donation too.
Standing order
if you visit us at the museum or see us at an event, we have a box for cash donations. We're also able to accept donations using or cards and mobile phones.
Leave a legacy
If Essex Police has been important to you, or those close to you, a gift in your will is another way you can help us to continue the work we do.
With your support we can not only continue to run our museum and education programmes, but also our work to support vulnerable adults too. This includes delivering our reminiscence sessions in care homes.
Your will is a private and confidential matter. If , however you would like to talk about your plan, we are happy to help.
You may want to know more about supporting specific areas of our work or discuss specific wording.
If you are planning to make a substantial gift you may also want to talk about opportunities to recognise your kind donation.
Whatever your query, please do not hesitate to contact us in confidence.
There are two main ways of leaving a legacy to Essex Police Museum. To help, we have included information you might find useful when visiting your solicitor when making or updating your will.
A residuary legacy is the gift of the remainder of your estate, or a percentage of the remainder, after all other gifts to family and friends have been distributed and all debts and expenses have been paid.
Suggested wording
Subject to the payment of my debts, funeral and testamentary expenses, I give free of tax the whole of my estate or [add percentage] percent of my residuary estate not otherwise disposed of by this my will to the Essex Police Museum and declare that the receipt of the authorised officer of the Museum shall be a full and sufficient discharge.
A pecuniary legacy is the gift of a specific sum of money.
Suggested wording
“I give free of tax to the Essex Police Museum the sum of £[amount] and declare that the receipt of the authorised officer of the Museum shall be a full and sufficient discharge.”
Donating an item
We are very grateful to those who donate items for our collection.
If you would like to donate something please contact us. It would be useful if you can include as many details as possible and photographs of the item(s).
Each donation is considered on a case-by-case basis according to our collection policy and our resources. If we are unable to accept your donation we will do our best to suggest an alternative home for it.
Accepting an item
If we are able to accept your donation, we will arrange an appointment for you to bring it to the museum. We will need to confirm your contact details, your ownership, usage permissions and copyright details (if known).
We will also note the condition of the item(s), its background and function. You should expect the process to take between 15 and 30 minutes, depending on the size of the donation.
At the end of the appointment we will confirm the details with you, ask you to sign (transferring ownership to the Museum) and give you a copy of everything.
Unfortunately we are not to put everything on display, but we will discuss this with you during the appointment.
What are we looking for?
We're always looking to fill gaps in our collection or enhance the items we already have.
These are the items we are currently seeking. Please get in contact with us if you think you can help.
When it comes to telling the history of policing in Essex, we're already thinking about the future. We appreciate this sounds strange. But it's up to us to make sure future generations can experience what policing is like now, because one day it will be history to others.
We'd like to bolster our collection to do with our Force Control Room (FCR) from 2000s, body worn video equipment and how we've used mobile phones to help us do our job.
We have a gap in our collection around police buildings and police housing. We're interested in photographs or building plans of any police buildings in Essex. This includes former police stations or ex-police houses. We're also interested in buildings that use to belong to Essex Police, but are now in areas looked after by other police forces, and ex-police houses.
Photographs are always useful, especially if names and/or context are available.
This includes photographs up to the present day.
When it comes to policing in Essex, we're keen to hear from anyone who has a story to tell. Whether it's a memory of a particular case, recollections of day-to-day police work, or a funny anecdote, these are the things help us to bring the history of Essex Police to life. It's no surprise that these are a visitor favourite.
Usage
Unfortunately we are not able to put everything on display. But there are lots of ways we can utilise your donation.
Some of our displays are permanent but on occasion we may add or replace items within them.
Essex Police has a vast history. Unfortunately it's not possible to cover everything in our small space. But we want to share as much as we can, so create temporary displays, which usually run for a year.
So that we can reach as many people as possible, we sometimes host exhibitions. These could be at another police station or somewhere else in the community, like a community centre or library. We also sometime loan items to other museums. We always make sure the items are kept safe and displayed properly.
We have a handling collection made up of replica or surplus original items. We allow people to handle these items under our supervision.
Some items are used for dressing up. And some objects are shared with our visually impaired visitors to feel. We often use items as educational resources or as a talking point to engage with our community.
We may use your photographs or stories on our social media pages or in publications to help us to tell the story of Essex Police. This is subject to our privacy rules (please see below).
Our collection is available to private researchers and cold case review teams.
We do not allow the use of items (including records of service), names or personal information (including photographs) unless:
- We have the permission of the person(s).
- The person(s) is deceased.
- We can reasonably assume the person(s) are deceased. Our policy is if the person(s) would be around or above 100 years old.
- We can redact identifying factors.
If you would like us to use your item(s) but put measures in place to anonymise information please let us know when you donate it. Examples include:
- We are able to anonymise quotes, memories and stories.
- We can cover the face of person(s) in a photograph.
- We can redact identifying factors in written information.