Kevin Foster Collection

Tarrant County Archives > Holdings > Named Collections > F > Foster, Kevin

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Kevin Foster is a retired sergeant of both the Fort Worth Police Department and the Texas Christian University Police Department. After retiring, he took a position as a deputy sheriff in Tarrant County. Foster is a researcher of law enforcement in Tarrant County. He has served as the Research Director of the Fort Worth Police and Firefighters Memorial and chairman of the Memorial Committee. In addition, he has been a volunteer researcher for the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, the Texas Peace Officers' Memorial, and the Texas Sheriffs' Association's Lost Lawman Memorial. He authored the rules for inclusion and exclusion of names for the Fort Worth memorial as well as the process for conducting and submitting research to create inclusive policies that reconcile the differences between the Texas memorial and the National memorial criteria. He also served as chairman of the Texas End of Watch Program regarding the state memorial. Foster published his research on local law enforcement in multiple books, including Written in Blood: The History of Fort Worth's Fallen Lawmen, Volume 1, 1861-1909 co-authored with Richard Selcer.

SCOPE AND CONTENTS

The Kevin Foster Collection contains his books on Fort Worth and Tarrant County law enforcement as well as digital files of photographs, images, letters, clippings, and documents. The materials are dated from the 1870s to 2025.

 

View the Kevin Foster image gallery.

Monochromatic collage of nine portraits of the men in the Fort Worth Detective Department, dated 1910

Fort Worth Detective Department, 1910.  Starting in center: L.J. Polk, Chief.  Beginning at the top center and going clockwise: Lee Tignor, M. J. Williams, Rufus Porter, J. A. Connelly, Sergeant Tom Haynie (Bottom Center), Ben U. Bell, Abner Speight, Tom Jackson.  

Materials in this collection consist of the following:

Books

  • Fort Worth Cops - The Inside Stories, by Kevin Foster, J. C. Williams, Jr., and Kathy Sanders, Fedora, LLC, 2024
  • Fort Worth Cops - The Early Years, by Kevin Foster, Fedora, LLC, 2025

Digital Documents

  • Ben U. Bell death announcement, "Pioneer Peace Officer Dead," Dallas Morning News, March 24, 1927
  • Fort Worth City Detective, Lee Tignor, Statement on shooting occurrence at Cosey's saloon at Jones and Ninth Streets, January 10, 1909
  • Letter from Justice of the Peace Walter Prichard to A. C. Howerton, January 13, 1933
  • Letter from A. C. Howerton of the Fort Worth Police Officers Association to Amon Carter, February 11, 1952
  • "Veteran detective recalls when gambling flourished and police payroll was $705," Fort Worth Star-Telegram, June 11, 1922
  • Spreadsheet containing a list of law enforcement deaths in Texas from 1870s-2016

Digital Images

  • Fort Worth Police Department group photograph, circa 1887
  • Fort Worth Police Department group photograph, by Swartz, 1901
  • Fort Worth Police Department portrait collage, 1910
  • Fort Worth Detective Department portrait collage, by Carter, 1910 (shown above)
  • Portrait of Ben U. Bell, undated
  • Painted portrait of Marshal Samuel Farmer, by James R. Spurlock, 2009
  • Photograph of Marshal Samuel Farmer as an older man, undated
  • Texas City Marshals and Chiefs of Police Convention, group photograph, Fort Worth, 1911
    • Additional digital images of individuals cropped out of the Convention photograph: Chief Polk, Miss Florence Dibrell Probation Officer, Ollie Hargrave, Nolan Maddox , Mrs. Eva McCorrle, Mrs. R. C. Vernon
  • Image of the Texas City Marshals and Chiefs of Police Convention badge worn in the group photo, 1911
  • "Fort Worth's Finest in Annual Review," Police Band assembled outside of the Fort Worth Post Office, by United Photo Service, June 24, 1927
  • Arlington Downs Race Track Police, group photograph on the spectator stands, 1933
  • Photographs of men and women in the City Jail cells, 1960s
  • Diagram of the City Jail before it was moved to the County, by Eddie Lee, 1960s-1970s