Police Procedure and Investigation

The entertainment industry has taken a great deal of interest in law enforcement in recent years, with police procedural dramas, crime scene investigators, and courtroom dramas saturating the prime-time airwaves. Unfortunately, while these shows are careful to cultivate an image of realism, they're often not as accurate as they'd like you to believe. Sometimes the entertainment factor trumps realism.

I'd like to think that the readers of the world are looking for more credibility in fiction than in TV shows and movies. That means lots of research for the writer who wants to depict law enforcement in their book or story.

Police Procedure is a great desk reference, covering topics from procedure to police academy to courts to prisons and jails. Lofland makes this easy reading with anecdotes from his decades of police experience. He also points out many of the common fallacies that have been spread by pop entertainment.

This book is a must-have for murder mystery writers, but I recommend it for any writer who plans to incorporate a police perspective in their work. It will be invaluable when you can't remember what rank a homicide detective is likely to be, or how many weeks it takes to get through police academy, or what the difference between prison and jail is.