A museum honoring American law enforcement is set to open in Washington on Oct. 13, with the goal of honoring fallen officers and explaining what it’s really like to be on the force. Its opening comes at a time when the relationship between police and some minority communities remains strained, both in the city and across the country.

The National Law Enforcement Museum is aptly located in Judiciary Square, around the block from the Metropolitan Police Department headquarters and across the street from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial.

Here’s what you’ll find in the museum—and what you won’t.

Where Did This Museum Come From?

“Everyone’s intrigued by law enforcement,” said Craig Floyd, the CEO of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, who spearheaded the museum’s development.

Its goal, according to Floyd and other members of the museum’s leadership team, is give visitors a day-in-the-life experience of being a cop at a time. Negative narratives about the profession often dominate the media, he said.

The $100 million museum was funded by private donations from individuals, associations, and corporations including Target, Glock, Verizon, DuPont, and Panasonic. The California Correctional Peace Officers Association, a trade union, donated $1 million to fund a permanent exhibit on correctional officers.

Motorola Solutions was the largest donor, to the tune of $18 million. The company sells communications equipment like car radios and walkie talkies to law enforcement agencies across the country. Its donation landed it naming rights: The museum is officially called the National Law Enforcement Museum at the Motorola Solutions Foundation Building.

What You’ll See A Lot Of: The Daily Routines Of Cop Life

“Citizens of our country I really don’t think understand the history or the complexity of the profession,” said David Brant, the museum’s executive director.

The museum does have plenty of elements that portray the flashier—and more violent—aspects of cop life, from a bullet-ridden pickup truck involved in a shootout to guns used by famous criminals.

But many of the exhibits emphasize the quotidian aspects of the force. Visitors can watch three videos that follow patrol officers for their full workdays. Lead exhibit developer Rebecca Looney called it “our anti-reality TV show area.”

An ampitheater plays a twenty-minute video that celebrates police departments across the country. Police chiefs and officers talk about how their teams have successfully built or improved their relationship with their community.

What You’ll See Less Of: The Minority Experience

Some police reform advocates say the museum presents a one-sided story.

April Goggans, a Black Lives Matter D.C. core organizer, said there’s no coincidence in the timing of the museum’s opening. According to a Washington Post database, 756 people have been shot and killed by police in 2018.

“This is about propaganda,” she said. “This is about providing a narrative and a picture of law enforcement that counters what we see in the news.”

She said she was disappointed to hear that the museum does not include any direct references to Black Lives Matter. An exhibit on Ferguson, Mo., focuses on the grand jury’s decision not to indict the white officer who shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, in 2014, and the increased use of police body cameras after his death.

In response, a museum spokeswoman said that the museum’s developers wanted to focus more on community building than controversy.

“As important as anything is to strengthen the bond between the public and law enforcement,” said Floyd.

Ron Hampton, a retired Metropolitan Police Department officer and the former executive director of the National Black Police Association, expressed disappointed with the absence of exhibits on the history of minority and women officers.

“People of color, African American people, Hispanic people, women, was not a part of policing in the very beginning,” said Hampton, who plans to go to the museum next week. “They were left out. It was a white male-dominated institution.”

In D.C., he said, black officers were not allowed to arrests white people until 1961. They were also not allowed ride in squad cards until 1969. Before then, they had to walk foot beats.

Hampton said he was involved in early conversations with the museum’s organizing committee, and he urged them to include that history. “If you’re going to tell the story,” he said, “you need to tell the whole story.”

Both the museum’s featured video and an exhibit on the history of policing make note of law enforcement’s historical foundations in enforcing slavery. A museum spokeswoman did confirm that there are no exhibits specifically dedicated to the experiences of minority and women officers.

Local Elements

The museum’s videos and exhibits feature police forces from across the country, but none from the Washington region.

The most locally-focused exhibit item is a gun used by the two D.C. snipers, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, when they killed 10 people in Oct. 2002. The museum has also acquired the snipers’ car and evidence used in their trials; they’re destined for a future non-permanent exhibit on the snipers.

Hanging from the ceiling is another artifact D.C. locals might recognize: the Eagle One helicopter that U.S. Park Police used to rescue five people from the Potomac River in 1982.

D.C. police chief Peter Newsham said he “couldn’t be more excited” about the museum.

“For folks who don’t know a lot about law enforcement, and particularly the strides that law enforcement has been making in recent years to try and develop trusting relationships with our community, I think that’ll all be illustrated in the museum,” he said.

How Much Does It Cost?

Tickets vary in price. Adults pay $21.95, while the price for police and military is $17.56. There’s a special $16.49 rate for survivors, though the ticketing page does not offer a definition of the term.

Tickets for children ages 6-11 are $14.95, and kids five and under can go in for free.

Floyd expressed confidence that people will pay those prices, citing Madame Tussaud’s and the Spy Museum as examples of other successful pay-to-enter D.C. museums.

“This will be a must-see destination here in Washington, D.C., I assure you,” he said.

This story originally appeared on WAMU.