Police Craft

Adam Plantinga

Description

A veteran police officer gives his thoughtful, balanced views on police shootings, racial profiling, community relations, and every other aspect of policing―and he’ll change what you think about the police. From the author of the acclaimed 400 Things Cops Know, Police Craft is a thought-provoking and revelatory examination of policing in America, as seen by a working police officer. Adam Plantinga, a 17-year veteran sergeant with the San Francisco Police Department, gives an inside view of the police officer’s job, from handling evidence and conducting interrogations to coping with danger, violence, and death. Not hesitating to confront controversial issues, Plantinga presents the police officer’s views on police shootings, racial profiling, and relationships between police and the community―and offers reasoned proposals on what the police and the public can do better.

Sujets

• Violence in Society
• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• General officer
• Criminology
• General
• Violence

Informations

• Publié par: Linden Publishing
• Date de parution: 01 décembre 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781610353403
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

A DVANCE P RAISE F OR
P OLICE C RAFT
In Police Craft , Adam Plantinga provides an unvarnished and eloquent examination of what it s really like to patrol some of the country s toughest streets. It is riveting and refreshing. A must-read for anyone interested in policing. -Del Quentin Wilber , author of A Good Month for Murder and Rawhide Down
Adam Plantinga s second book is a gift to cops, citizens and crime writers. Adam writes with skill, wisdom, humor, and experience. He s both tough and tender. There s lots for everyone to learn from his behind-the-badge perspective. -Ellen Kirschman , PhD, author of I Love a Cop and I Love a Fire Fighter , and the Dr. Dot Meyerhoff mystery series.
For anyone who wants to understand law enforcement, Adam Plantinga is an essential resource: a cop who tells the truth about what it s like to police our streets. His eye catches everything and his prose rings with authenticity. Police Craft is a terrific read. -Andrew Klavan , bestselling author of Empire of Lies
Sgt. Adam Plantinga nailed it again with his second book Police Craft , a magnificent inside view of police work from one of San Francisco s finest an outstanding analysis of police work coupled with humility, humor and insight. -Paul Chignell , S.F. Police Department Captain (retired)
You will often hear cops say, I could write a book based on everything I have seen and done while on this job! There is no need to because Adam has done it for us! I encourage cops to read this book. I found it to be therapeutic and a reminder that the thoughts and feelings I wrestle with due to my profession are shared by others. It s also be a great read for anyone in the public because it gives a candid view of law enforcement that many do not see or understand. -Captain Aimee Obregon , Milwaukee Police Department
P RAISE FOR A DAM P LANTINGA S P REVIOUS B OOK
400 T HINGS C OPS K NOW
W INNER , 2015 K ILLER N ASHVILLE S ILVER F ALCHION A WARD B EST M AINSTREAM C RIME R EFERENCE
Truly excellent, and much more than a list-this reads like a mix of hard-boiled autobiography and streetwise poetry. Certain to be one of my books of the year.
-Lee Child , best-selling author of the Jack Reacher thrillers
Every cop should read this book and so should anyone who wants an uncensored peek into the real world of street cops. It s wise and witty, fascinating and fun a lot of fun!
-Joseph Wambaugh , best-selling author of The New Centurions, The Blue Knight , the Hollywood Station series, and numerous other crime novels
Gritty, funny, and truthful, 400 Things Cops Know will surprise you on nearly every page and give you a new respect for the cop on the street.
-Edward Conlon , best-selling author of Blue Blood and Red on Red
Essential for crime writers and anyone interested in the reality of police work.
-George Pelecanos , author of The Cut, The Double , and numerous other crime novels and producer/writer of HBO s The Wire and Treme
The new Bible for crime writers.
-The Wall Street Journal
Fascinating.
-David Granger , Esquire
Riveting and often humorous an unusually frank insider s view.
-The San Francisco Chronicle
Funny and rueful many fascinating trade secrets here.
-Boston Globe
POLICE
CRAFT
POLICE
CRAFT
What Cops Know About Crime, Community and Violence
ADAM PLANTINGA

Fresno, California
Police Craft:
What Cops Know About Crime, Community and Violence
Copyright 2018 by Adam Plantinga. All rights reserved.
Published by Quill Driver Books
An imprint of Linden Publishing
2006 South Mary Street, Fresno, California 93721
[phone] / [phone]
QuillDriverBooks.com
Quill Driver Books and Colophon are trademarks of
Linden Publishing, Inc.
Cover photo by
Rebecca Leimbach of Rebecca Leimbach Photography
ISBN 978-1-61035-331-1
135798642
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file.
For my parents, Cornelius and Kathleen Plantinga, the two finest people I know.
And for all officers, deputies, and agents who hold the line.
Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: Getting the Job
Chapter 2: Violence
Chapter 3: Addiction
Chapter 4: Policing the Community
Chapter 5: Street Crime
Chapter 6: Special Operations
Chapter 7: Collisions
Chapter 8: The Corner
Chapter 9: Safeguards and Dangers
Chapter 10: Death and Dying
Chapter 11: The Law
Chapter 12: The Kids
Chapter 13: Police Culture
Chapter 14: Predators
Chapter 15: The Station
Chapter 16: The Projects
Chapter 17: Being Off Duty
Chapter 18: Interrogation
Chapter 19: OGs
Chapter 20: Evidence
Chapter 21: Going Forward
Afterword
Further Reading
Acknowledgments
Index
Introduction
T his book is more or less a sequel to my first book, 400 Things Cops Know , or at the very least, a companion piece. Although I have dropped the bullet point format of 400TCK in favor of short essays, I have tried to write this work in the same spirit as the original. Why a sequel? Because you, the reader, demanded it. And by the reader, I am referring predominately to my mother and her loyal coffee circle. I wrote most of the first book while still a police officer. I have now been a sergeant for a number of years, although according to one of my old partners, this promotion was likely due to clerical error. But be that as it may, your perspective on the job changes once you become a supervisor. You are a step removed from the street. You must adopt more of a bird s-eye view. And if you are assigned to an investigative unit, as I was at the time of this writing, you become much more involved in casework, evidence, and interrogations. This book is reflective of those changes.
After 400 Things Cops Know came out, the response I received was gratifying. The other day I got an email from a cop in Australia. He s a constable in New South Wales attached to the Redfern command. He said the book had been helpful and aided him in avoiding injury. This made my week. But I also heard from officers and citizens alike who said the book was fine and all, but you left out the part about this. Or you should have talked more about that. A number of cops, noting that I wrote in 400TCK that police commandeer cars only in the movies, regaled me with accounts of vehicles they had commandeered. (With one or two exceptions, I found these accounts, even being kind, less than justifiable.) But point being, on other matters, I have listened to you. As such, this second volume contains things I left out of the first one and then some. It is made up of some material I had waiting in the wings, but a good deal of it comes from other cops, who are subject matter experts in everything from firearms to explosives. I have credited those officers contributions in these pages, unless it was a really interesting passage, in which case I pretended it was my idea from the start and then began an aggressive campaign to discredit the source. Like the first book, this second assembly is largely a collection of other people s wisdom on the craft of police work. I am merely the fellow who put it together. This has been a reoccurring theme throughout my police career; when smart cops do and say smart things, I take good notes. And that is what makes books like this possible.
I wrote the first book, and am writing this second one, in part to give the reader an insider s look into urban police work. Most folks contact with the police may stem from a traffic ticket or reporting an auto break-in. But I don t think most people know what cops do all day. Or what the job looks like. Or what it feels like. This book is about those kinds of things. And in presenting police work the way it actually is, I hope that the reader will understand and recognize the contributions of the men and women in law enforcement. Because it s a noble calling, if done right. It isn t always done right. I know this because I watch the news and read the papers. I know this because I don t always get it right. But I m not doing anyone a favor by serving up a sanitized view of how the job works. Life isn t always tidy. And law enforcement is one of the untidiest professions around.
So, the reader might wonder, is this second book going to be another bead on a string of never-ending sequels? Like the Godzilla movies? Will there be a Jungle Made of Concrete: 400 World-Weary Musings from an Administrative Lieutenant ? Nah. This is it. Police work is a rich, complex field and could likely sustain such a series. But that will have to be written by someone else, for my pledge is two and done. So I can still exit the room with some dignity.
The reader may notice I have included gentle jabs at firefighters in these pages, much like in the first book. I don t have anything against firefighters-in fact, they are some of the toughest, most courageous people I know. I write this the day after I dropped two cases of Gatorade off at my local firehouse as a thank-you after they battled back an intense grass fire that came uncomfortably close to my family s home. I also point out the flaws in my own profession far more than those of our fire counterparts. No, the jokes are here because cops and firefighters have a natural rivalry and because firefighters are big boys and girls and they can take it. And, truth be told, the jokes are also here because, after the first book, people have come to expect them.
As in 400 Things Cops Know , I make generalizations in this book, but they come from seventeen yea