The museum is located on the grounds of the former Augustinian monastery, in the Karlov neighbourhood in the New Town of Prague.

The monastery was previously the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Charles the Great.

When monastery was abolished by Emperor Joseph II, it passed into the possession of the state, and served at first as a warehouse, later as hospital for the treatment of infectious diseases, almshouse and during World War I a centre for army convalescents.

In the 1960s it was acquired by the Ministry of the Interior, which set it up as a state regional archive and later a museum.

In addition to permanent exhibitions concerning forensic science, criminal investigation, borders protection or history of petty crimes in Old Prague, the museum also has temporary exhibitions.