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    Riding with the Blues
    Riding with the Blues
    Riding with the Blues
    Ebook68 pages37 minutes

    Riding with the Blues

    By Jeff Widmer

    ()

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    About this ebook

    From Ferguson to Baltimore to Hattiesburg, police officers face an unprecedented challenge—how to keep the law while maintaining public trust, as well as their own safety. Theirs is a balancing act that largely goes on behind closed doors.

    With its Citizens Academy, the Sarasota Police Department has opened those doors. Through a twelve-week program of hands-on instruction, the SPD allows residents to see what it’s like to work in law enforcement, to understand the skills officers need and the challenges they face.

    From investigating homicides to deciding when to use deadly force, those who enroll in the academy quickly learn that the people behind the badge are just that—people, with all of their strengths and faults.

    Based on a journal Jeff Widmer kept in class and in the field, Riding with the Blues explores the often hidden world behind the badge, taking readers beyond the front lines of law enforcement to see how officers work and hear how they feel about their jobs and the people they protect.

    It’s a ride you won’t want to miss.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJeff Widmer
    Release dateAug 10, 2015
    ISBN9781311681775
    Riding with the Blues
    Author

    Jeff Widmer

    Jeff Widmer is the author of the CW McCoy and the Brinker series of crime novels and well as numerous standalone novels and non-fiction books. A former journalist, advertising executive and nationally syndicated reviewer, his work has appeared in publications ranging from Advertising Age to US Airways magazine to National Geographic World.

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      Book preview

      Riding with the Blues - Jeff Widmer

      Riding with

      The Blues

      Behind the Badge at the

      Sarasota Police Department

      JEFF WIDMER

      ALLUSION BOOKS

      RIDING WITH THE BLUES. Copyright © 2015 by Jeff Widmer. All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this book. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the author.

      Published in the United States in 2015 by Allusion Books, Sarasota, Florida. Allusion Books and the Allusion Books colophon are registered trademarks of

      Jeff Widmer.

      http://jeffwidmer.com

      FIRST U.S. EDITION

      ISBN 978-0-9964987-2-2 (print)

      ISBN 978-0-9964987-3-9 (e-book)

      DEDICATION

      For those who serve.

      CONTENTS

      Acknowledgments

      1. Simulated Fear

      2. Across the Great Divide

      3. There is No Such Thing as a Victimless Crime

      4. Train for the Worst, Hope for the Best

      5. Beyond the Gun

      6. For K-9 Squad, a Badge and a Bond

      7. Damned if You Do, Dead if You Don’t

      8. Inside the Yellow Tape

      9. Not Just a Gun and a Badge

      10. Street Fighting Women and Men

      11. At the Gun Range, A Cautionary Tale

      12. Traffic Stops: the Good, the Bad, the Nightmare

      13. With Drug Trade, Big Wheel Keeps on Turnin’

      14. Riding with the Blues

      15. Behind the Badge

      About the Author

      Books by Jeff Widmer

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      Many thanks the people at the Sarasota Police Department who shared their expertise for this book: Chief Bernadette DiPino; Deputy Chief Pat Robinson; Public Information Officer Genevieve Judge; Officers Jeff Dunn, Kim Stroud and Bryant Singley, and all of the staff and volunteers who made the department’s Citizens’ Academy a rewarding experience.

      Front cover photo by Officer Jon Vanik, Sarasota Police Department.

      1. SIMULATED FEAR

      My partner and I sweep into the office building, weapons held in firing position, stomachs bouncing like trampolines. There’s an active shooter in the building. People move in and out of the frame, a jumble of corridors and desks, the wounded lying on the floor, workers, police officers, some calling for help. We have no time.

      A tall man with shoulders rounding a white polo shirt crosses between several desks and turns into an office. He raises his arm and fires. We edge closer. As the man backs out of the office he spots us and, half-turned, starts to raise his pistol. My partner and I yell Police! Drop the weapon! but he doesn’t and we fire, hitting him several times. As he goes down, silence crowds the air, and as we inch forward, a dark figure climbs from behind a desk.

      Is he a shooter, a victim, a hostage? Is he armed? We’ve been briefed about the law, how shooting unarmed civilians can land us in jail, how hesitating may get us killed. As the man rises, we have a nanosecond to make a

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