POLICE BOOKS - best police officer books

The Sixth Session authored by Lieutenant Joe Hefferon, Essex County Sheriff’s Office, is the Police-Writers.com Book of the Year.

Lieutenant Joe Hefferon of the Essex County Sheriff’s Office is a 22 year veteran of law enforcement who is currently assigned to the office of the chief. He “has been a police officer for more than twenty-two years. His experiences have given him access to the scarier hallways of the human psyche, helping to layer his narrative with poignancy, grit, and dark humor. Joe Hefferon is the proud parent of two beautiful children, Jack and Kaitlin.” Lieutenant Joe Hefferon is the author of The Sixth Session.

According to the book description of The Sixth Session, “Newspaper man Carter Jackson forms an unlikely alliance with Detective Brooke Enright to stop the awful killing of children while reconciling their own inner torment. Carter is reeling over the death of his beloved wife and immerses himself in the brutal investigation, set against one bitter cold December. The Sixth Session will make you think about the best and worst of human capacities. It will make you want to fall in love again, even with all its tragic consequences.”

When we started working on Los Angeles Police Officers who had written books, we realized that many state and local police officers have shared their talent, experience and knowledge through books. And, what some amazing stories they have shared!

We (several police officers turned writers) kicked around the idea to create a website that hosted books written by police officers - but we had to have rules.

Being long-time slaves to bureaucracy we developed rules for inclusion:

The police officer turned author made probation. At a minimum this is the official bureaucratic measure of being a police officer.
The police officer had published a book. We decided that since the 21st Century is here we would include - police officer blogs, police officer websites and police officer magazine articles. Quite frankly, we found that many police officers have launched interesting post career businesses. However, we are only going to list book authors by name and devote a webpage(s) to them and their work. Blogs, Websites and Articles are listed as a category.
No charge for inclusion and no one gets turned away. Frankly, we don't always like what other police officers have written. Unless its obviously pornographic (we hope not), advocates the over-throw of the government; or, the return of liesure suits - its included.

If you would like to be included or have a recommendation email the editor here or visit our Unconfirmed Research page.

Jack R. Lundquist, Jr. was born and raised in the City of San Pablo, California, a suburb within the San Francisco Bay Area. His desire to be a police officer was formulated early in life. He became a police explorer scout, and later a reserve police officer with the City of San Pablo Police Department. At age twenty-one Jack Lundquist was drafted by the United States Army, and served as a Military Policeman at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland.

Upon being honorably discharged, Jack Lundquist returned to the San Francisco Bay area. After a brief stint as a Reserve Police Officer he was hired by the Oakland Police Department. During his tenure he attended the University of San Francisco, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts Degree. His love for basic patrol work kept him in a marked police car for two separate periods, totaling twelve years. The remainder of the time was spent as criminal investigator, ending with a seven-year period in Vice.

According to the book description, BeatCop is “a book filled with stories from the career of a BeatCop working the perilous streets of a dodgy city. The author is a retired Oakland Police Officer, who patrolled the streets for twelve years. His stories cover the good, the bad, and the oh-shits, as well as the humor experienced by a BeatCop working a large city police department.”

Annual Recognition

Police-Writers.com is a website that lists state and local police officers who have written books. Police-Writers.com announced the 2008 Book of the Year and 2008 Author of the Year.

What Every Chief Executive Should Know: Using Data to Measure Police Performance, (Looseleaf Law Publications, 2007) by Captain Jon M. Shane (ret.), was selected as the 2008 Police-Writers.com Book of the Year. Jon Shane’s book stood out among the entrants because it significantly advances management decision making in the field of law enforcement. The book provides models and mathematical approaches to management questions like: “How many officers do we need? Are we efficiently using the ones we have? Is there a relationship between the number of officers we have and our crime rate? What is the status of our patrol car fleet? Are citizens satisfied with our work? What is the cost of our special programs and what are the actual benefits?”

One Police-Writers.com judge noted that Jon Shane’s book “took a daunting subject and broke it down into pieces that anyone could understand and put to use. Not only did he give simple and easy to understand explanations, he also provides examples of types of data and how to work with that data to make intelligent decisions. Plus, he provides a CD with ready-to-use Excel spreadsheets for an executive to use right away.” A second judge noted, “Shane’s book goes beyond the use of math to solve management questions in policing. The hidden value in the work may be that it demonstrates new ways of thinking about crime. Potentially, it could help put the word “analysis” back into “crime analysis.”

James H. Lilley was selected as the 2008 Police-Writers.com Author of the Year. The author of the year selection was based in part on writing ability and in part on career and community service.

James H. Lilley began his lifetime as a United States Marine in 1961. Shortly after his discharge, he joined the Howard County Police Department (Maryland), graduating first in his class. During his career his received numerous honors such as Medal of Valor, four Bronze Stars, four Unit Citations and the Governor’s Citation. James H. Lilley has published six novels, articles in Police Chief Magazine and authored an International Association of Chiefs of Police training key. Moreover, he began studying Martial Arts in the early 1960s and is a 8^th Degree Black Belt in Shorin Ryu Karate; the first American to achieve this recognition and honor from Sensei Takeshi Miyagi.

James Lilley submitted as an example of his work The Eyes of the Hunter (PublishAmerica 1997). One of the Police-Writers.com judges said of James’ writing, “He is a mature writer with strong plot, character and story development.” Another judge said, “easy to read, and it was very good escapism. The writer has some absolutely beautiful passages wherein he describes a sound or a vista. The sex scenes are pretty hot, too.”

Police-Writers.com now hosts 839 police officers (representing 382 police departments) and their 1772 law enforcement books in 32 categories, there are also listings of United States federal law enforcement employees turned authors, international police officers who have written books and civilian police personnel who have written books.

Raymond E. Foster