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Craig Johnson

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About the New York Police Department (NYPD):

The first law-enforcement officer began to patrol the trails and paths of New York City when it was known as New Amsterdam, and was a Dutch settlement and fort in the year 1625. This lawman was known as a "Schout – fiscal" (sheriff – attorney) and was charged with keeping the peace, settling minor disputes, and warning colonists if fires broke out at night. The first Schout was a man named Johann Lampo.

 

The Rattle Watch was a group of colonists during the Dutch era (1609 - 1664) who patrolled from sunset until dawn. They carried weapons, lanterns and wooden rattles (that are similar to the ratchet noisemakers used during New Year celebrations). The rattles made a very loud, distinctive sound and were used to warn farmers and colonists of threatening situations. Upon hearing this sound, the colonists would rally to defend themselves or form bucket-brigades to put out fires. The rattles were used because whistles had not yet been invented. The Rattle Watchmen also are believed to have carried lanterns that had green glass inserts. This was to help identify them while they were on patrol at night (as there were no streetlights at that time). When they returned to their Watch House from patrol, they hung their lantern on a hook by the front door to show that the Watchman was present in the Watch House. Today, green lights are still hung outside the entrances of Police Precincts as a symbol that the "Watch" is present and vigilant.

 

When the High Constable of New York City, Jacob Hays retired from service in 1844, permission was granted by the Governor of the state to the Mayor of the City to create a Police Department. A force of approximately 800 men under the first Chief of Police, George W. Matsell, began to patrol the City in July of 1845. They wore badges that had an eight-pointed star (representing the first 8 paid members of the old Watch during Dutch times). The badges had the seal of the City in their center and were made of stamped copper.

 

Source:

nycpolicemuseum.org

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Craig Johnson is a former New York Police Department police officer who worked both the 23rd and Central Park Precincts.  He has received both critical and popular praise for his novels The Cold Dish and Death Without Company with starred reviews in Kirkus and Booklist. The Cold Dish and Death Without Company have been made Booksense 76 selections by the Independent Booksellers Association, and Killer Picks by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. On its day of release in Penguin paperback, The Cold Dish began a six-week run on the Barnes & Noble top-fifty best-sellers list.

 

Death Without Company was selected by Booklist as one of the top-ten mysteries of 2006 and has been nominated for the Wyoming Historical Society as it's fiction book of the year. His first short story, Old Indian Trick, won a Tony Hillerman Mystery Short Story Award and appeared in Cowboys & Indians Magazine.

 

Craig Johnson’s third in the Walt Longmire series, Kindness Goes Unpunished, was released March of 2007. According to Booklist, in Kindness Goes Unpunished, “Absaroka County, Wyoming, Sheriff Walt Longmire goes on a rare road trip in this third entry in a consistently entertaining series. The trip has two purposes: visit Walt's daughter, Cady, a lawyer in Philadelphia, and support his best friend, Henry Standing Bear, who is the guest of honor at the opening of an exhibit of Native American photographs. Plans change quickly when Cady, the victim of a vicious attack, hovers near death.”

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