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According to the book description of 400 Things Cops Know: Street-Smart
Lessons from a Veteran Patrolman, "How does it feel to be in a
high-speed car chase? What is it like to shoot someone? What do cops really
think about the citizens they serve? Nearly everyone has wondered what its like
to be a police officer, but no civilian really understands what happens on the
job. 400 Things Cops Know shows police work on the inside, from the viewpoint
of the regular cop on the beata profession that can range from rewarding to
bizarre to terrifying, all within the course of an eight-hour shift. Written by
veteran police sergeant Adam Plantinga, 400 Things Cops Know brings the reader
into life the way cops experience ita life of danger, frustration, occasional
triumph, and plenty of grindingly hard routine work. In a laconic, no-nonsense,
dryly humorous style, Plantinga tells what hes learned from 13 years as a
patrolman, from the everyday to the exotichow to know at a glance when a
suspect is carrying a weapon or is going to attack, how to kick a door down, how
to drive in a car chase without recklessly endangering the public, why you
should always carry cigarettes, even if you dont smoke (offering a smoke is the
best way to lure a suicide to safety), and what to do if you find a severed limb
(dont put it on iceyou need to keep it dry.) 400 Things Cops Know
deglamorizes police work, showing the gritty, stressful, sometimes disgusting
reality of life on patrol, from the possibility of infectioncriminals dont
always practice good hygieneto the physical, psychological, and emotional toll
of police work. Plantinga shows what cops experience of death, the legal system,
violence, prostitution, drug use, the social causes and consequences of crime,
alcoholism, and more. Sometimes heartbreaking and often hilarious, 400 Things
Cops Know is an eye-opening revelation of what life on the beat is really all
about."
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| According
to the book description of Police
Craft: What Cops Know About Crime,
Community and Violence , "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.
Hard-boiled, humorous, and compassionate,
Plantinga wrestles with the complexities
and contradictions of a job he loves in
which he witnesses so much suffering.
Transcending today’s strident
pro-cop/anti-cop rhetoric, Police
Craft will give every reader a
greater respect for the police and
greater understanding of the job they do" |
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