(Part 4) Top products from r/ProtectAndServe

THIS. Use your words. I'm about an inch taller and about 10 lbs heavier than OP, hoping to become an officer but I'm a part-time jail guard in the meantime. Learning to deescalate a situation using your words is always a good idea!

Get yourself a copy of Verbal Judo, read it, use it. If you can find a copy of the 5 minute Policeman, that's also incredibly helpful. Take an improv class to get good at speaking with authority, even if you are just making the shit up as you go along.

And of course, keep working out, train, find things that use your size to your advantage, because that bad day might still happen.

I used this book back in an introductory class, it was pretty good. It's one edition older, but the 8th is like 250 bucks, so I wouldn't recommend that. This one is pretty reasonably priced and I found it to be a damn good primer on the relevant aspects of CJ. Let me know if you're interested and I can probably take pictures of the table of contents to get you an idea of what's inside.

Hey guys,

I made it past the initial screening and on to the first step of the hiring process for one of the Federal Law Enforcement Agencies, and now have to schedule my SA exam and Applicant Assessment for the upcoming months.

Has anyone had any experience with this process? I recall one of the Agent's recommending that I purchase one of the exam prep books for Treasury Agents (the old test), since the exams remain pretty similar. Does anyone have recommendations as to what test prep book to purchase? How's this [one] (http://www.amazon.com/Master-The-Special-Agent-Exam/dp/0768927951)?

Thanks for the help!

May I recommend "Cop in the Hood" and that former officer's well made podcast Quality Policing.

Basically, Peter wanted to do graduate research on cops by working with an academy class in the Baltimore Police Department. The funding was pulled last minute but the Lieutenant working with him said he should just join the police if he wanted to understand cops. So, he did. The book is an interesting take on Policing since he was never intending on being a cop and was well educated on the academic side of the criminal justice system prior to joining.

The FBI BAU (where the profilers are) is one of the most difficult to obtain jobs in the agency.

First you get hired as an FBI agent. Then you distinguish yourself in your field office doing "regular" FBI agent work. Then you start assisting them with cases from your field office after you have a few years on.

Then you can become a regional case agent for them. Most of that (from what I understand) is keeping track of files and sending information back and forth to the unit at Quantico.

Then if you do a good job there, you intern with them. This involves working with medical examiners and homicide squads in the DC/Baltimore area.

Then and only then can you "become a profiler."

So my advice is don't put the cart before the horse. You need to become an FBI agent first, so focus on that. Lots of really really smart and put together folks apply to them and don't get hired. You can worry about getting into BAU after you're hired.

There is a great book about the BAU that was written by John Douglas called Mindhunter that does a great job of talking about the unit and what it takes to get in.

No book will prepare you for law enforcement, it has to be touched, smelled, heard, and seen. If you're already a cop then the best thing you can do to be better is to be a well rounded human being and books can help with that.

Here's the recommended reading from some of the prior threads I was able to find in the sub.

1. On Killing
   
2. On Combat
   
3. Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement
   
4. Intro to Criminal Evidence
   
5. Blue Blood
   
6. 400 Things Cops Should Know
   
7. Cop: A True Story
   
8. [Verbal Judo] (https://www.amazon.com/Verbal-Judo-Gentle-Persuasion-Updated/dp/0062107704/)
   
9. [What Cops Know] (https://www.amazon.com/What-Cops-Know-Connie-Fletcher/dp/0671750402/)
   
10. [Into the Kill Zone] (https://www.amazon.com/Into-Kill-Zone-Deadly-Force/dp/0787986038/)
    
11. Training at the Speed of Life
    
12. Sharpening the Warrior's Edge
    
13. The Gift of Fear
    
14. Deadly Force Encounters
    
15. The Book of Five Rings
    
    I've read a good portion of the above listed. I highly recommend Emotional Survival and going to see one of Gilmartin's talks if he's in your area. Below are a few of my personal suggestions.
    
    
16. Meditations
    
17. Blink - Not sure if I buy it, but interesting to think about.
    
18. [Armor] (https://www.amazon.com/Armor-John-Steakley/dp/0886773687/)
    
19. Iron John: A Book About Men
    
20. The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics
    

We used this book in my Criminal justice class. Pretty good.

What Cops Know - absolutely fucking fascinating. You will learn so much. If you're a LEO with 10 years on the job, I'll bet you will still learn a ton of stuff you didn't know.

Tales of the Stakeout Squad - If you don't know who Jim Cirillo is, you really need to.

No Second Place Winner - If you don't know who Bill Jordan is, you need to.

I'm pretty sure you can get the FM on Amazon...

https://www.amazon.com/Explosives-Demolitions-5-25-Pentagon-Military/dp/0975900951

In Defense of Flogging makes the case a little less seriously, but Moskos is still pretty on point.

The Making of a Cop is very good. Gives an insight of the NYPD academy.

This is a good one I read a long time ago.

A People's History of the United States.

I've not yet read it, so I can't tell you if it's any good, but I've got the book "Diary of an On-Call Girl", which is written by a female police officer.

Joseph Wambaugh wrote a good book about a fire investigator that was a serial arsonist in CA. The book is titled "Fire Lover".

True story

I asked for a home invasion kit for my roadtrip to NOLA and got the same thing but with a different book! /S

Tater Salad.

I use this one Dyna-Living Tourniquet Case Molle Tourniquet Holder Pouch Storage Box Tourniquet Carrier for CAT Outdoor Hunting https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JNBDH54/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_Q4LiDbV06TGDS

I realize the Wikipedia article isn't terribly helpful, which is why I linked the story about the NYPD case. I, and many many others (unsurprisingly!) find that case to be extremely disturbing. And of course, there is the infamous Rampart Scandal in the LAPD, involving over 70 officers accused of some form of misconduct (and many felonies), with several cases still being unsolved today. I also read a book many years ago called Gang Leader For A Day, where a U of Chicago graduate student embeds himself within a gang of drug dealers in the local projects, and witnesses rampant police brutality (including instances of robbery and unwarranted searches and beatings).

Of course, I'm sure you can come up with excuses as to why these examples don't worry you (NYPD/LAPD cases were exception, the book is just anecdotal and probably full of lies to sell more copies or whatever). And that's fine, I can't change your mentality. But I think it is important for LEOs to understand that these narratives are out there, that they are very convincing to the general population, and that they're not going to go away.