Southwest PA Self-defense Network Blog

 Walk the Blue Line  by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann c2023, 341pgs Of all the first hand account books that I've read about being a cop, this one is the gold shield.  The  book is broken up into 30 -40 short 3-5 page stories of various officers in various departments.  Young and older, new patrolmen sometimes days on the job to 30 year veterans getting ready  to retire, detectives, sheriff's deputies, US Marshalls, state police and FBI so it's a very  nice cross section of people. The book doesn't go into, or maybe I missed it, of how the authors got the stories. Are these all first hand, interviewed accounts that they then took and wrote up using their own talent for creating drama ? Or are these written by the officers and the collected and edited by the authors ?  The stories they bring to the table are also varied but compelling.  Tense traffic stops that are de-escalated and everyone goes about their evening.. Foot pursuits... Pres...

The Unknown Darkness: Profiling the Predators Among us by Gregg McCrary c2003, 324 pages Another profiling book.  This author was a contemporary of John Douglas and although not one of the founding fathers, he was there in the beginning so all the information is almost 20 years old.  His writing style is simple and straight forward and doesn't jump around as much as Douglass so it was easy reading. He reviewed and highlighted several cases like the Buddhist Temple massacre, the Waco disaster, and the international killer Jack Unterweger.  He brings up some interesting bits of information like they DO do forensic profiling on arson, rape and other cases which I didn't know.  He brings up the 7% statistics that 7% of convicts are the bad ones who commit most of the crime, are the repeat offenders and simply can't be helped.  Overall a fine book for those interested in profiling.