In June, Ford Motor Co. invited the heads of some of the nation’s largest police fleets to Dearborn to talk about the future of police cars. For nearly two decades, that market has belonged to Ford’s Crown Victoria — a vehicle that departments from coast to coast have come to respect for its toughness and…
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The traditional “6-pack” is flawed because people will pick the person mostlike the suspect. Showing pictures one-by-one is supposed to change there. Here’s an AP story by Jeff Carlton about the Dallas P.D.
Check out this video. New Mexico is crazy, man (and I say that only because my wife is from there, ese)!
More Gates fallout. Police are and should be held to a higher standard. But I’m pretty much an absolutist when it comes to free speech. I don’t think you should be fired for what you do and say at home. (But on the other hand I wouldn’t want a nazi or klan leader to be…
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Should being an a-hole to police get you locked up? Seriously. Remember, being an a-hole isn’t technically a crime. But many people have talked their way into handcuffs. Police can always get you for something. I ask this because my wife seemed vaguely bothered by this concept. But it doesn’t bother me. John Van Maanen…
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In the academy we were taught to always double lock our cuffs. Usually I didn’t. But I should have. And so should you.
Maurice Punch has written another excellent book on policing: Police Corruption: deviance, accountability and reform in policing. More than anybody else, Maurice Punch inspired my policing career (well, maybe Punch and John Van Maanen share top prize). Punch’s wonderful and classic study of the Amsterdam Police, Policing the Inner City inspired me into the whole…
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I was required to carry my gun off duty within the city limits and permitted to carry (and did) within the State of Maryland. So yes, I carried my Glock 17 when I went jogging and when I took out the trash. Generally it’s strongly discouraged for police to take action off-duty (in the next…
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I’m back from two weeks in Spain… but I’ll spare you the details except to say there was hiking in the Alpujarras involved. And very sore feet. And lots of pork. Meanwhile, I was just quoted in a widely read article (the AP is great for that) about dirty narcs in NYC. Though I don’t…
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The glorious genre of Cop Lit has many notable contributors. The writing ranges from the driest academic tome to the cheesiest pulp fiction. There a pretty extensive list of police books at police-writers.com. A lot of them are crap. But many are good. Two of the best older police books are Jonathan Rubinstein’s City Police…
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