The Spokane Law Enforcement Museum is in the market for some new real estate, says Susan Walker, secretary and treasurer.

Since 2010, the nonprofit museum had occupied 2,400 square feet of space on the lower two floors of the Parsons Hotel building, at 1201 W. First, but it had to move out when its lease expired in April.

The building owner, Spokane Housing Authority, plans to convert the space to low-income housing, which the rest of the five-floor building already is used for, she says.

The museum is in the initial stage of a capital campaign to raise funds for a new home.

Dave Thompson, who is vice president of the museum board and is heading the capital campaign, says the museum would prefer to buy rather than lease a site.

“That’s the purpose of the capital campaign,” he says. “We’re going to have to raise money for it.”

He says he anticipates the space will cost well in excess of $250,000.

“We need to look at structures, find what they’re going for and what our needs going to be,” he says. “I can guarantee it won’t be on Division. That would cost too much.”

Walker says the museum is seeking the services of a commercial real estate broker to assist in the search.

The museum would need more than 8,000 square feet of space to display all of its law enforcement exhibits, Walker says. The ideal location also would have free parking with enough space to accommodate school buses, she says.

“We’ve been open five years and have pretty good stats to prove ourselves as a viable entity and great tourist option,” Walker says. “If we can find a building to display everything we’ve got, it would be awesome.”

The museum had been open two days a week and had drawn about 600 visitors annually, she says.

“We would have liked to have opened it up more, but we were limited in space and volunteers,” she says.

Walker says she’s recruiting more volunteers.

“A lot of guys are retiring and are interested,” she says.

The museum board also has an open seat, and it’s looking to create an eight-person advisory committee to help with the capital campaign, she says.

Meantime, about a third of the museum’s items are on display at the Spokane Law Enforcement Credit Union, at 924 W. Sinto, and at the Hallways of History, in the Spokane County Public Safety Building, at  1100 W. Mallon.

“The credit union has some of the prime, unique historical items we didn’t want to put in storage,” Walker says.

A few of those exhibits include uniforms and memorabilia from Spokane’s William H. Lewis, who was Spokane’s first uniformed police officer in 1887; original badges from 1880s police chief Joe Warren; and an invitation to one of only three official hangings held in Spokane.

Most of the museum items currently are in storage, including three vintage police vehicles that have never been on display, Walker says.

Thompson says the Spokane Law Enforcement Museum is responsible for more than just the museum operations. “A committee is working on the fifth book in the series ‘Life Behind the Badge,’” he says. Book sales help fund the museum.

Museum volunteers also handle the Law Enforcement Memorial Project, which honors officers killed in the line of duty in Washington state with annual memorial services.