Todd Shulman has gone back in time.

For the past six months, Shulman, a Napa police detective, has thrown himself into preserving the history of the 131-year-old Napa Police Department.

"Other than a few photos and newspaper clippings, there weren't any other artifacts or memorabilia to document the history of the department," Shulman said. So Shulman has spent more than 500 hours of his own time surfing the Internet, reading old newspaper articles and interviewing about 70 Napa police retirees and others who could aid his cause.

He has started the Napa Police Historical Society. As of now, the nonprofit organization only has one member -- Shulman -- but he is optimistic and hopeful the word will spread and the organization will take off.

Shulman has three goals: To preserve the history of the police department; to honor the officers and employees who have worked there, and to educate the public about role the department plays in the community.

"The idea of preserving our history came to me when I was at the sheriff's department museum, in the downstairs of their new facility near the airport. Napa Fire has a large building filled with their history," Shulman said. "I thought it was a real shame the police department didn't have something, as well."

The Napa Police Historical Society is off to a humble start.

It has a glass display case filled with memorabilia in the lobby of the police station on Second Street. Inside are a collection of decades-old silver and gold police badges, including a replica of the first badge issued. Also on display are police batons, handcuffs and leg irons, which were found during a construction project at Main and Pearl streets in the early 1980s.

"It is thought maybe there may have been a jail there or a holding tank at one time, and the leg irons were discarded there," Shulman said.

When Napa PD was founded in 1875, the department consisted of a police chief, a marshal, three officers and two night watchmen. The chief was more of a ceremonial head and the marshal duties were more civil than criminal. He collected taxes, served civil papers and rounded up stray animals. Basically, city police protection was left in the hands of the three officers and two night watchmen.

Today, the department has 72 sworn peace officers, 49 administrative employees and 27 part-time employees.

The first chief of police, Jerome Walden, served from 1875 to 1876 at a salary of $100 a month.

"We have no information between 1876 to 1909," Shulman said. "I would really like to find something or someone who knows what happened during that period."

In 1909, the first police badge, bearing #1, was issued to Officer George Secord.

During World War II, there was a shortage of police officers. Most of the young men in town had been drafted or joined the military. So, the Napa police force had to hire men who were past their physical prime.

Police dispatchers didn't come on scene until the 1970s. Before then, a department secretary communicated with the officers over the radio during the day until an officer came in and took over for the night shift.