Featured podcasts - Author Interviews

Alexia Jones Helsley explores the history of crime and vice in a renowned South Carolina city in "Wicked Columbia: Vice and Villainy In the Capital." She tells POLICE Magazine about a deadly duel over a piece of trout, prostitution taxis from Fort Jackson, and the murder of the county coroner by a former officer.

Dan Schultz recounts the 1998 manhunt for the three men responsible for killing Cortez (Colo.) Police Officer Dale Claxton in "Dead Run." More than 500 officers from at least 75 local, state, and federal agencies searched for the suspects, who appeared to have vanished into the desert near the Four Corners region. The suspects were eventually found, most recently in 2007.

The history of the Houston Police Department is chronicled in "Houston Blue" by Mitchel Roth and Tom Kennedy. Roth speaks with POLICE Magazine about the South's largest law enforcement agency—its origins, oil-boom crime spike, links to the Ku Klux Klan, story of the first female officer, and the impact of Hurricane Katrina refugees on the city's murder rate.

Three authors, including a retired detective, tell the history of the New York Police Department using more than 196 images including an illustration of mid-19th Century uniforms and photos of vintage vehicles, riot response, dramatic resues, and the first African-American and female officers. "New York City Police" also includes a forward by current Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.

John Wills, a retired Chicago Police officer, talks to POLICE Magazine about his "Women Warriors: Stories from the Thin Blue Line," an edited collection of stories about female officers told in their own words. The stories include a dispatcher trying to remain calm while her husband is involved in a gun battle, a search for a missing child in a storm, and an officer staring down the barrel of a gun inside a crowded department store.

Los Angeles of the 1940s and '50s is the setting for "Gangster Squad," which tells the story of the Los Angeles Police Department's covert unit of eight officers that targeted gangsters such as  Mickey Cohen, Bugsy Siegel, Jack Dragna and others. The unit created a hostile climate for gangsters to prevent East Coast organized crime from taking root in the city. Warner Bros. plans to release a movie based on the book in January.

Sgt. Rory Miller, a retired Multnomah County (Ore.) Sheriff's corrections deputy, wrote "Facing Violence: Preparing for the Unexpected" as a follow-up to his earlier "Meditations on Violence." In his interview with POLICE, he explains "the monkey dance," provides a counter-ambush strategy, and discusses how officers can break "the freeze" that may occur when engaging a violent suspect.

A deeper look at the Oklahoma City Bombing on April 19, 1995 is provided by Andrew Gumbel and Roger G. Charles in "Oklahoma City: What the Investigation Missed and Why It Still Matters." The authors construct a detailed account of the attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building by Timothy McVeigh and others, as well as giving new details about one of the most wide-ranging federal law enforcement investigations in history.

San Bernardino (Calif.) Police Sgt. Dwight Waldo, one of law enforcement's foremost graffiti enforcement investigators, discusses the five types of graffiti, explains how to gather intel to identify messages, and tells patrol officers what they need to include in a vandalism report. Sgt. Waldo's book, "Taggers and the Graffiti Culture," is proprietary training material. To reach Sgt. Waldo, send an e-mail to editor@policemag.com with "graffiti" in the Subject Line.

New York City has long been a breeding ground for spies, saboteurs, and terrorists who view it as a top target. In his "Battleground New York City," Thomas Reppetto covers post-9/11 police strategies and recounts law enforcement's efforts to thwart terrorists and covert operators since 1861. Reppetto focuses on the coordinated efforts of the NYPD, Secret Service, and FBI to counter these threats.