400 Things Cops Know
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
Flip to back
Flip to front
400 Things Cops Know: Street-Smart Lessons from a Veteran Patrolman Paperback – October 1, 2014
 |
$11.25
FREE Shipping on orders over $35.
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Gift-wrap available.
NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE
Start reading 400 Things Cops Know on your Kindle in under a minute.
Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?.
|
Editorial Reviews
Review
[Plantinga's] observations about life as a street cop ... are practical and blunt when they aren't funny, heart-rending or chilling. My next manuscript with a police officer as a character will be checked against this book. I highly recommend it. --Warren Bull, Writers Who Kill
Loaded with insights, criticisms, witticisms, and inside references ... threaded into stories of driving fast, taking down tough guys and righting wrongs, a low-key morality surfaces. Delivered without a heavy hand and mixed with unrelenting honesty about police shortcomings, admiration for the profession is complex, but hard to resist. --Lou Fancher, Contra Costa Times
The author pulls no punches or keeps any secrets. "400 Things Cops Know" delves into topics not normally on most people’s minds, but at some point things they may have wondered about ... an intimate look at what really happens in police work. --John M. Wills, New York Journal of Books
"Every cop should read this book and so should anyone who wants an uncensored peek into the real world of street cops. It's wise and witty, fascinating and fun ... a lot of fun!" --Joseph Wambaugh
Truly excellent, and much more than a list -- this reads like a mix of hard-boiled autobiography and streetwise poetry. Certain to be one of my books of the year. --Lee Child, bestselling author of the Jack Reacher thrillers
"A precise, concise, interesting, insightful and a necessary read for police officers, those contemplating police work, as well as those wanting to understand policing in society today. Written by a practitioner with experience and knowledge of policing who put put his observations, interactions and insights into the written word. Once you begin to read this book you continue to want to hear more. Well worth the readers time and money." --Michael G. Krzewinski, Ph.D., retired director of training, Milwaukee Police Department
"400 Things Cops Know" is by turns funny, harrowing, insightful, chilling, and unrelentingly honest. Most books, the writer Richard Russo once said, "aim for the head, the heart, the gut, or the funny-bone." The best books, he continued, go for all of them. This is one of those books. --C.J. Hribal, author of "The Company Car" and "American Beauty"
If you are considering a career in policing, read this book. Read it before you start the academy, read it after the academy, read it all through FTO and probation. Read it as you go through your career. It's that accurate. This book might very well save your life. --Pete Thoshinsky, retired police lieutenant and author of "Blue in Black and White"
Loaded with insights, criticisms, witticisms, and inside references ... threaded into stories of driving fast, taking down tough guys and righting wrongs, a low-key morality surfaces. Delivered without a heavy hand and mixed with unrelenting honesty about police shortcomings, admiration for the profession is complex, but hard to resist. --Lou Fancher, Contra Costa Times
The author pulls no punches or keeps any secrets. "400 Things Cops Know" delves into topics not normally on most people’s minds, but at some point things they may have wondered about ... an intimate look at what really happens in police work. --John M. Wills, New York Journal of Books
"Every cop should read this book and so should anyone who wants an uncensored peek into the real world of street cops. It's wise and witty, fascinating and fun ... a lot of fun!" --Joseph Wambaugh
Truly excellent, and much more than a list -- this reads like a mix of hard-boiled autobiography and streetwise poetry. Certain to be one of my books of the year. --Lee Child, bestselling author of the Jack Reacher thrillers
"A precise, concise, interesting, insightful and a necessary read for police officers, those contemplating police work, as well as those wanting to understand policing in society today. Written by a practitioner with experience and knowledge of policing who put put his observations, interactions and insights into the written word. Once you begin to read this book you continue to want to hear more. Well worth the readers time and money." --Michael G. Krzewinski, Ph.D., retired director of training, Milwaukee Police Department
"400 Things Cops Know" is by turns funny, harrowing, insightful, chilling, and unrelentingly honest. Most books, the writer Richard Russo once said, "aim for the head, the heart, the gut, or the funny-bone." The best books, he continued, go for all of them. This is one of those books. --C.J. Hribal, author of "The Company Car" and "American Beauty"
If you are considering a career in policing, read this book. Read it before you start the academy, read it after the academy, read it all through FTO and probation. Read it as you go through your career. It's that accurate. This book might very well save your life. --Pete Thoshinsky, retired police lieutenant and author of "Blue in Black and White"
About the Author
Adam Plantinga holds a B.A. in English with a second major in Criminology/Law Studies from Marquette University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude in 1995. Plantinga’s short story “Untitled” was included in the anthology 25 and Under/Fiction and Washington Post book critic George Garrett called it his candidate for the best story in the book. He has written thirteen nonfiction articles on various aspects of police work for the literary magazine The Cresset, published by the Valparaiso University Press. Plantinga was a City of Milwaukee Police Officer from 2001 to 2008, including time spent as a Field Training Officer. He is currently a sergeant with the San Francisco Police Department. He lives in the Bay Area with his wife and daughters.
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By
C. M. Roeda
on September 20, 2014
Format: Paperback
Comment
Sending feedback...
Plantinga reveals in the introduction that he went into police work in part because he figured the experience would yield some good stories. Indeed it has. The question, of course, is how will they be told? What kind of storyteller will the experience make him? Having seen what Plantinga has seen, dealt with humanity at its worst the way he has, you might expect to hear them in the voice of someone quite jaded and cynical, someone dismissive of both criminals and law-abiding citizens who don't understand what law enforcement entails. Us vs. them type stuff.
That is far from the case here.
David James Duncan offers a metaphor for a "technician." He is like a miner who digs a hole. The deeper the hole the more precious the gems he finds, but the more confined he becomes to the hole and the further he is from the surface. Plantinga is no technician. He has managed to inhabit both environments, to dig deep (unearthing 400 gems) and yet enjoy the fresh air and sunshine of the surface.
The book is pitched primarily at cops or those preparing to be cops. At a time when so many questions are being raised about the nature of police work (Trayvon Martin, Stop and Frisk, Furgeson, etc.) it seems to me to deserve a much wider audience. I read this and think, "This is the kind of cop we want on the street. How do we get more of them like this?"
That is far from the case here.
David James Duncan offers a metaphor for a "technician." He is like a miner who digs a hole. The deeper the hole the more precious the gems he finds, but the more confined he becomes to the hole and the further he is from the surface. Plantinga is no technician. He has managed to inhabit both environments, to dig deep (unearthing 400 gems) and yet enjoy the fresh air and sunshine of the surface.
The book is pitched primarily at cops or those preparing to be cops. At a time when so many questions are being raised about the nature of police work (Trayvon Martin, Stop and Frisk, Furgeson, etc.) it seems to me to deserve a much wider audience. I read this and think, "This is the kind of cop we want on the street. How do we get more of them like this?"
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By
Peter Moskos
on September 16, 2014
Format: Paperback
Comment
Sending feedback...
Not only does Plantinga "tell it like it is," he tells it well. If you want to become a police officer, read this book. If you just want to understand policing better, read this book. If someone you love is a police officer, read this book. I say this as a former police officer, an author, and a professor who teaches college students interested in law enforcement careers. 400 Things Cops Know will become very popular in my policing classes!
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By
Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.
on September 27, 2014
Format: Paperback
Verified Purchase
Comment
Sending feedback...
The book pulls you through. Not a dead page in the whole thing. Chases, gunshots, investigations, take-downs, PR dilemmas, hookers, thugs and drugs--they're all here as you would expect, but so is much you wouldn't, including plenty of razor wit and blooming irony. This is the kind of book you want to carry through the house and call out to listeners: "Hey, listen to this!" Especially if you're the author's Dad. Way to go, Son!
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By
Elizabeth A. Ashton
on October 1, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition
Verified Purchase
Comment
Sending feedback...
Sometimes I buy a book because I think it will be good for research in the future. I usually scan it, pick up and read random chapters and put it on the shelf. Then I bought 400 Things Cops Know: Street-Smart Lessons from a Veteran Patrolman by Adam Plantinga, I thought I'd follow the same pattern. So did not happen.
For a writer, Plantinga's blunt and often humorous style should help us be better writers. Why? Because for one thing, he takes us inside a cop's head so we can look at the world through his eyes. Because he debunks so much of what we watch on television. It should come as no shock that the needs for visual drama trump policing procedures.
Chasing a perp isn't high on Plantinga's list of preferred activities. Many reasons. You don't usually stand a chance of catching a fleet-footed youth. You don't know what's around the corner and down an alley. You may have spent too much time at the Donut Diner. And female cops and detectives NEVER, EVER chase a suspect in high heels. Sure way to break an ankle. Besides, you won't catch him.
I ordered this before it was released. When it arrived, I fell on it like a starving person finding a chocolate cache.
For my mystery writer peeps out there, stop reading this and order it. Read it. Return to it often. I plan to.
For a writer, Plantinga's blunt and often humorous style should help us be better writers. Why? Because for one thing, he takes us inside a cop's head so we can look at the world through his eyes. Because he debunks so much of what we watch on television. It should come as no shock that the needs for visual drama trump policing procedures.
Chasing a perp isn't high on Plantinga's list of preferred activities. Many reasons. You don't usually stand a chance of catching a fleet-footed youth. You don't know what's around the corner and down an alley. You may have spent too much time at the Donut Diner. And female cops and detectives NEVER, EVER chase a suspect in high heels. Sure way to break an ankle. Besides, you won't catch him.
I ordered this before it was released. When it arrived, I fell on it like a starving person finding a chocolate cache.
For my mystery writer peeps out there, stop reading this and order it. Read it. Return to it often. I plan to.
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Most Recent Customer Reviews
