Police and Law Enforcement Books

This book is loaded with factual information that would be of value to any first responder, or anyone who just has an interest in learning more about potential hazards to local and national security. As a member of a local Medical Reserve Corps, I found this quite informative, and in some instances, detailed beyond my understanding. I did, however, think the author brought together a lot of valuable information in a solid one-stop resource.

Excellent compendium of TPD History and photos... Impossible to include everyone but missed a number of really good guys who will be purchasing this history.

Life in the Old West was perilous and uncertain. There were fortunes to be made in the gold fields and in the enterprises that followed the gold rush. Yet law enforcement was not well-established, and stagecoach and train robbers could wipe out a fortune as quickly as it was made. The Wells, Fargo Company needed a way to protect the great sums of money its coaches were responsible for delivering. It hired James B. Hume, a California lawman, to take charge of its detective bureau in 1873.

James Hume was a different breed from the stereotypical western lawman who winked at civil rights and abused authority. He was just as concerned that an innocent man be kept out of jail as he was that he find the guilty man. And he had an impressive record of catching the guilty man, the most famous being Black Bart, the "Po8" stage coach robber.

Pioneering methods of criminal investigation which are now used widely, James Hume dug pellets out of a dead stage horse in order to do a ballistics test, and he tracked down Black Bart with the laundry mark from his handkerchief. Determined but patient, he logged an impressive number of solved cases.

This biography by Richard Dillon reads as smoothly as a novel. He used James Hume's own letters and diaries, which are in the Wells, Fargo Museum in San Francisco, for his research as very little had been written about Hume's life. He not only relates the fascinating events of Hume's public life but mines his personality as well and finds a heroic and likable figure.

In a time when we could use more heroes, I enjoyed reading about a real-life hero who contributed to the colorful past of the West and still maintained his integrity.

Jon Shane's book is a timely contribution to the police administration and performance measurement literature. It is thoughtfully presented in a logical and readily understandable fashion, which may very well make these fundamental performance measurement and statistical tools available to administrators throughout the nation.

Admittedly, a technical book, with the preponderance of the text devoted to detailed explanations of the tools and techniques outlined. The book is subdivided into three sections - Performance Measurement, Statistics and Data Analysis and Management and Efficiency - Shane takes the reader through the maze of statistical tools and techniques that can be used by a Chief Executive to plan and then navigate the agency's progress. The book includes a CD that contains formatted spreadsheets, which with minimal work, can be tailored to the direct benefit of the reader.

This is not light recreational reading. Rather this book contains information that may yield direct and substantive benefits to the reader for some years to come. This book does deliver on the title; this volume provides the information that every Chief Executive should know. The book would be an appropriate text for graduate criminal justice/police administration courses, as well as a valuable addition to practitioners' bookshelves.

Buy this book, but more importantly put this information to use.

Jim Smith's life was the stuff of western legend. A railroad detecitvie, stock detective and nemesis to outlaws-all. Just a handful of serious historians were aware of smith's existence and it appears Bristow has tapped their work and uncovered new facts as well. I was particularly pleased Smith's civl war record has come otgehter to the point where the Department of Veterans Affiars will mark his grave in Denver.

Bob Rybolt

This book is ostensibly about crime. Specifically the amelioration of crime by a policy of zero tolerance of minor and petty crimes which became famous for the dramatic fall in crime in New York City.

This book has a slightly different focus. Rather than concentrating on what Zero Tolerance is and does, it seeks to place the crime figures and approaches to crime reduction in a broader context of community. The concept of community developed both in these pages and within a wider research agenda supposedly concerned with the development of a civil society in which the state plays a smaller and smaller role has a particular slant to it.

Zero Tolerance is the latest in a line of books from the Institute of Economic Affairs Health and Welfare Unit, now a free standing institute of it's own, CIVITAS, which postulate a decline in morals and behavious which result from a growing tendency in our society to becoming more individualsitic. The model of decency and good behaviour upon which this view is based is a rather idyllic view of the English working class family as portrayed by Norman Dennis in some of the earlier books of this series. Here it's scope is widened to incorporate views on how to tackle crime which involve the wider civil society. Policing in this view is both external and internal and the police forces themselves are seen as a legitimate part of the community, reinforcing the internal rules and moralities forged in the furnace of home and family. Headed preferably, of course, by working father, stay at home mother etc.

You will not find in this book any arguments about drugs save for the superior tone about how the use of drugs has grown in our society and is therefore bad. This cannot go unchallenged. In a passage devoted to the emphasis on education and development of working men's clubs and institutes the book praises them for their contribution to improving the moral fibre of those who participated. These clubs were segregated against women drinking in the public bar and fought hard to retain that position against equality laws and became more well known for the strong and cheap beers that they sold than for moral improvement. Their innate conservatism was a major contributor to why their customers deserted them and caused the closure of many in the North East of England. While the consumption of this legal drug is condoned, other recreational drugs are the cause of much petty crime. The book ignores the setting of the laws and blithley makes assertions about theft while ignoring the basic point that laws against drugs make them more attractive to the purchasers, more profitable to the suppliers and lead many who consume them to do things out of character in order to get their drugs. I could go on but this would be a book of it's own.

Zero Tolerance is a one sided book. It excludes any consideration of the diminishing role of the church in society as one of a number of relevant institutions, and it excludes any treatment of what changing structures in our society mean for those individuals who have previously been imprisoned by those structures, in particular, for women. The supposed golden age of the working class family is a modern myth, a sociological urban legend, which did not exist for many.

Ultimately, this is yet another attack on growing individualism in our society which begrudges any positive changes and which harkens back to an age which never really existed. The causes of crime run deeper than one parent families and tower blocks. The harsh reality today is that women are valued more by society than they were which is the real reason why female wage rates are increasing while male wages rates decline overall.

Perhaps we should be looking forward and not backward to see how a healthy individualist society might develop.

While I agree that this book is at times a bit long winded with perhaps too many anecdotes where a few will do, I'll stake my reputation as a New Yorker that Eddie Conlon gets his subject 'right.' This is the real deal. Although Law & Order is entertaining, it's basically fantasy. Eddie Conlon captures the personalities of his characters, the local political and personal politics of the inner workings of New York, and most importantly he writes very well--easily transitioning from capturing New York dialogue to using description in a near Henry Jamesian accuracy. He can convincingly transcribe a police's sergeant's seven-word sentence that contains the f word 4 times and on another occasion can use the verb 'gainsay' as though it were le mot juste. He puts it all together in an interesting if not exactly captivating narrative.

I don't follow best seller lists or follow any Oprah type trends, but I love reading crime novels, mafia type stories, true crime, etc.

My neighbor dropped this off as a recommended read so I got to it. I have to agree with the majority of reviews here that it would have been much better had it been shorter.

I enjoyed reading about the history of the Bronx, the corruption, and even his family background, but it was very disjointed. You go from reading about a buy and bust and the next page he's in a graveyard talking about his dead uncle. Then the next page he's talking about 9-11. Its pretty hard to follow.

The part I enjoyed the most were the politics and manpower involved in buy and busts, but it didn't have too many details with this. Every instance was short and small time stuff and usually his take was from a rooftop. There was only 1 case that lasted a few pages where there was actual weight involved with lookouts and door alarms but again ended quickly.

I guess I was expecting more detailed experiences, especially since he worked narcotics in the Bronx, but it just seemed unfulfilling. If it had been shorter and different experiences having their own chapters it would have been a much better read.

This book is less about cops and robbers and more about the author's family tree. Not that this is a bad thing, it just was not what I was expecting.

I won't bore you as long as this book bored me. Conlon spends far to much time reaching back through the generations of his family and not enough time telling us what it was like to be a cop in NYC.

It's not a bad book... unless you are looking for a book about what it's like to be a cop in NYC.

"Boot" is a far better book from the point of view of a rookie officer.

I was expecting much better. I was excited to read this book because I really like stories about the NYPD. I gat halfway through and put it down. I have not picked it back up. Too garbled and too much detail. I could not keep track of the characters.

This is one of the least political autobiographies of a public servant in a political position in Washington.

That's no reason, in my mind, to doubt the veracity of most of what Freeh writes. Those looking for conspiracy theores or outright condemnation of political adversaries will be disappointed. Freeh writes deeply of respect for a large number of persons, most notably FBI agents and fellow prosecutors.

It does make for an interesting, amusing, but very non-combative read.

Even Bill Clinton, who receives most of Freeh's ire for being more a politician than a manager, is also described as the most charming and disarming statesman.

It's not that Freeh is afraid to talk ill of any of his former co-workers, but rather this is an autobiography of his public career.

He doesn't take the opportunity to hammer home points about policy, but rather berates mismanagement, favoritism, and a lack of ethical focus.

This is a good read for someone looking for a shining hero. This is not a good place to find dirt.

In writing My FBI, Louis J, Freeh has given us a microscopic view of how the FBI works and the numerable problems he faced during his tenure. He comes across as honorable and hard working, telling the truth as he saw it. I couldn't put the book down. I highly recommend reading this book to learn about how the FBI operates and about the terroism that we face today.

Freeh comes across early on as pompous and a phoney and it carries throught the book. He keeps remniding us what a great father he is because he has his kids drawings in his office. He is twice politically appointed yet rails against Clinton for being a politician. He seeths about the investigation of a bombing on Saudi soil and why Clinton would not let him interview the suspects...? I kept thinking Federal applies to the United States, not Saudi Arabia. It's that kind of arrogance that makes this book easy to put down. Plus, He never goes into ANY interesting detail on ANY investigation. And he OFTEN points out how he never really knew FBI agent turned spy Robert Hanssen. Hanssen went to the same church, their kids were in the same school....YET the same Freeh who says his style was to be among the troops claims to have barely known who he was. (BS) He also rails against Anything Clinton yet, everything Bush is AOK... This book is nothing more than a Swift-boat FBI poison pen letter.

Louis Freeh provides an interesting look into the world of the FBI. The book takes an overview approach with specific vignettes of his time at the organization and how it evolved (or lack thereof) over the years. Freeh was director during a turbulent time when trust in the FBI was at a low and worked one of the toughest cases in its history with the Kohbar towers investigation. This investigation is the focal point of the book and done very well. He also covers a lot with the Bob Hansen treason as well as other stories. The main problem with the book is that it is light on details and the chapters often ramble on without focus. The book would have been better off from an organizational standpoint with shorter chapters more pointed towards the topics. I would like to have seen lesser stories but the ones told in greater detail. Overall it is a useful primary source but not the definitive history of his role in the FBI during those years.

"My FBI" was a quick read and a very interesting look behind the scenes at the FBI in the 1990s. Freeh discusses background on the major cases the FBI handled during his tenure. This book gives insight that you didn't get from the news stories. One of the controversial subjects in the book was Freeh's relationship with President Clinton. This subject may turn off certain people, but the bottom line is that Freeh did not like working for Clinton. That is not a result of politics- because Freeh went out of his way to be apolitical. Most of it stemmed from the many investigations into the Clinton administration like Whitewater, Travelgate, etc. Another small part of the book I found to be interesting was Freeh's take on former "Counterterrorism Czar" Richard Clarke. Freeh writes that Clarke was never a major player in national security in either the Clinton or Bush White House. Freeh writes that Clarke was a second-tier player that was rarely at any of the important meetings. This has somewhat of a ring of truth in light of the way Clarke has tried to recast himself as a modern day Paul Revere of terrorism, after the fact. Somehow I don't buy his self-promotion, see-I told you so attitude. Anyway, overall a solid book for those interested in the FBI and national security issues.

This book is good on two levels. On one level, it includes excellent story-telling and is just plain interesting to read as a memoir. From beat cop in the dysfunctional San Diego police department to Seattle police chief overseeing the security at the 1999 WTO summit (remember, the protestors won?) this is a page turner.

On a more important level, Norm Stamper provides a lot of valuable insights into police reform. Those cities fortunate enough to have a citizen's review board might take inspiration from Stamper's mostly progressive vision. Those cities without review boards might take inspiration to create some fast from Stamper's chapter-by-chapter accounting of abuse, misuse and incompetent leadership in policing.

The one rock Stamper leaves un-turned is, what is the root of crime in society? Progressive reforms would lead to more effective, less Gestapo management of crime. But folks will have to ask themselves about a society that produces so much physical and sexual violence in the first place...

Although I agree with several of Mr. Stamper's recommendations (legalizing prostitution, decriminalizing drugs), many of his assertions are straight out of the "I-Hate-America" handbook. All white, male cops -and even many black ones - are racsist, homophobic, women-hating thugs. What we need is a kinder, gentler way of policing.
Mr. Stamper had a brief career as a police officer before his real career of supervisory bureacrat began. He "confesses" that in his rookie year he was on his way to becoming one of the bad cops before he was set right by a straight-shootin' DA. It was apparently then that his liberal sensitivities kicked in, and soon he was a supervisor (all the better to control the average Joe).
The unfortunate thing about this book isn't the stories he relates, or even his recommendations (some good, some not so good), but the haughty way in which he relates it. Conservatives, Republicans - BAD! Liberals, Democrats - GOOD! (except for unions - bad!) If this book were written with respect not only for the majority of rank and file cops, but for the other half of Americans that Mr. Stamper obviously disdains, it may have been worth the money. As it is, if you are to the right of Hillary, take a pass on this one.

The book was extremely honest and forthright. More police officers should have the courage to write their own tell all stories to break down the "Blue Wall." The downside to the author is that he told this after the fact. However, the lessons learned will help new police officers coming on the job, realize that law enforcement is a different beast.

Norm Stamper, much like the late Seattle School Superintendant John Stanford was considered a cutting edge leader in the public sector during the '90s. This was an exciting period in Seattle history and featured the dot com boom and the rise of such businesses as Microsoft, Starbucks and this website.
Norm Stampers book offers his views of the problems faced by police departments, many of which were featured in the fictional 2006 Oscar winning movie Crash.
Norm present many of his ideas of reform, some of which I can agree with and some of which I cannot.
The book is hard to put down once you start reading it and I would recommend it to anyone.

Stamper doesn't hold back - he outlines his experiences, sucesses, and failures. The book is organized around issues that are important to Stamper, such as community policing, gun control, death penalty, and the like.

Even if you do not agree with all of his conclusions the book still makes for a great read.

This is a great story that needed to be told. The characters were characters in this book. The balance between bravado, conflict, greed, and power of the principles in this book were well defined. You get caught up in the action but also enjoy the author's commentary and sense of humor as he details events from their eyes. There is a disclaimer at the beginning of the book in which some have critiqued the authenticity of the source. I myself do not know about the status of the books claim to authenticity however I enjoyed the story, characters, and events portrayed in this book so much that it mattered little to me. But from reading this novel I can say with some certainty that the person who wrote this book definitely had knowledge of what happened and at minimum knew the true-life persons very well. This book was very easy to read and in fact I finished very quickly because the story was so interesting. I recommend this book very highly.

I found this story to be great reading. The characters were well written. The story was well spun. I stayed up late in to the night reading this book. I am not convinced about the inside story angle. Mr. Kelly is absolutly no where to be found in the telling of the tale. There was not one "I saw" or not one "I heard" in the entire book. While reading the book I was always thinking how could he know this or what was his take? It is apparent that during this time in SIU no one was immune from the corruption bug. Mr. Kelly where were you and what was your part in this mess? What did your testimony sound like? I'm sure you were questioned during the investigations. Are there no transcriptions from that event? I feel that information would have made the book more believable.

This is a fascinating account of a truly mystifying unsolved crime committed by members of the NYPD Special Investigating Unit. The best part is the controversial nature of this account. Whether you believe this version or not the book is so interesting to read and the depiction of the characters seems so precise it is truly worth your time. The fact that this version disputes many previously held notions about the steeling of the French Connection Narcotics from the NYPD Evidence room makes this a must read. Some of my friends dispute this account vigorously but this crime has never been solved so who can say for sure.

This book was a huge dissappointment. It begins with the disingenous disclaimer and ends with a fake court scene. In between, it only occasionally deals with facts of what is a remarkable true crime tale. Kelly can't seem to make up his mind whether he wanted to write nonfiction or a novel with some basis in fact. He tried to go somewhere in between, and the mess of a result abuses his readers. He changes some, but not all, of the names of those involved. The canonization of a crooked jerk like Bob Leuci (here called Bucci)continues unabated, probably because he was a primary source for Kelly. Cooperate with the author, and get sanitized. This case is 30 years old. All the participants are either dead, or long since paroled. Why not name names? Isn't that the point of an "insider" account? Another problem is Kelly himself. If he was working there, and this is supposed to be an insider's look, why doesn't he address his knowledge or role in a first person context in either the book itself, or an addendum? Further, he now receives a tax-free disability pension for "stress" he suffered as an NYPD detective. Meanwhile, he now runs a security business and had the time to write this. You can not accept the prattling nonsense on the dust jacket once you know this. Ultimately, this book is done by abysmal writing.The fake courtroom finale is the worst ending to any book I have ever read. Kelly should be forced to tell the real story-or give me a refund.

I stayed up all night reading this book. The further I got into the book the tougher it became to stop reading. The plot was full of unexpected twists with humor intermixed with serious situations. At first you needed to get to know the characters. They were described very well but there were many to get to know. Once you understood who everyone was the book came together. I became riveted to this story of scandal and corruption that was synonymous with the Special Investigation Unit of the NYPD. The stealing of the French Connection narcotics was a conspiracy of police and Mafia as told in this book. And what a good story this was!