The Peace Officer's Companion: 365 Days Worth of Wisdom of the Ages with Modern Commentary for Today's Peace Officer

By J. Leith Harrell

Police work isnt for everyone. Those who choose to answer the call seldom realize what they are getting themselves into. Theyre drawn to the excitement, the pursuit of justice, and the thrill of the chase. Once in uniform, they are confronted by the worst humanity has to offer, departments that seem designed to frustrate rather than support their officers, and friends and family incapable of understanding what theyre going through. Being a cop is an incredibly rewarding way of life, but only if you can keep your head straight. This book aims to help you do just that.

Inside youll find 365 inspirational passages from historys greats. Each passage is accompanied by modern analysis from a street cops perspective. Its nothing fancy, just frank observations honed over almost two decades of working the road.

Whether you are considering a career in police work, or if you are already on the job, this book is for you. Read one passage per day as part of your beginning of shift ritual or devour it whole in one sitting. Either way, youll enjoy the advice of some of the greatest minds and most accomplished people in history as you find you own answers to the jobs most pressing challenges.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 18, 2011
• ISBN: 9781456724948

J. Leith Harrell

Leith Harrell has served as a peace officer in Central Florida for over 18 years. He is currently a Patrol Sergeant with the Orlando Police Department. Leith’s experience has been predominantly in uniformed patrol, with only three years spent off the street while he served as a Training Coordinator. He has also served as an Adjunct Instructor at area training centers for 15 years. He lives in the city he serves with his wife Kimberly and his daughters, Morgan and Aubrey. As a native-born son and lifelong resident of the Sunshine State, Leith is a proud “Florida Cracker.” Leith holds a B.A. in History from Stetson University.

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Contents

Special Thanks

For the record…

Sources of Quotations and Aphorisms

Other Works Cited

Special Thanks

To Meri Schneider and George and Elaine Harrell, for raising me. To Lieutenant Rick Gaylord (Ret.), Captain Jeff Goltz (Ret.), and Chief Pete Gauntlett, for their guidance and mentoring. To sergeants Danny Schad, Andre Tankovich, Jason Behrens, and Grace Peek for allowing me to keep their company. To Officer Ronnie Satallante and Sergeants Bill Cail and Jason Scott, for making the weight of the stripes bearable. To the men and women of the Orlando Police Department and the DeLand Police Department, for allowing me to work alongside them as I learned my trade. To the crew at my Starbucks, for keeping me caffeinated as I worked: Suzy, Rachel, Anna, Monica, Christina, Stephanie, Megan, Nicky, Mark, and Terry. To Ms. Heather Waters, for making sure I haven’t beaten up the English language too badly.

For the record…

I’m not sure anyone actually reads the foreword of a book, so I’ll be brief.

I’ve always been a sucker for aphorisms. Aphorisms get right to the point; they bring the big ideas into focus. In our short-attention-span age of too much TV and not enough reading, aphorisms offer the strongest possible dose of understanding. Though I do consider myself an avid reader (I usually make my way through 2–3 books per month), I still find comfort and value in reading aphorisms. The power of an aphorism lies not only is what it says, but also in the economical and often witty way it says it. And if they are effective, they weren’t easy to write. Any fool can make his point given 100 words, but try doing it memorably with only 10.

You might notice that men wrote the vast majority of the aphorisms I’ve sampled. Now, before you mount up on your high horse and start throwing labels at me, try to understand a few facts of life. Men have been writing for a hell of a lot longer than women. Accordingly, men have accumulated a much larger body of work than women. Also, women and men don’t write about the same things. So, when you start looking for aphorisms that speak to the modern peace officer’s experience, don’t be surprised to find ten or twenty written by men for every one you find written by a woman. Fair or not, that’s the way it is. And as the father of two daughters, yeah, it does affect me.

The commentary I’ve added beneath each aphorism comes from my experiences and nothing more. They reflect the attitudes and ideas I have found successful in my own career. Make no mistake: I am no guru. As I write this, I’ve been a city cop for almost 20 years. I’m college educated, but I’m no academic. I’ve had my fair share of successes and failures. I think I’m a good cop, but I’m a big enough boy to know I’ve worked alongside those better than myself. The only difference between you and me is that I took the time to sit down and write a book. As you read this, you may agree with me, or you may think I’m full of crap. Either way you’ll be thinking, and that’s a good thing.

If I seem to pick on managers at times, that’s not my intent. I’m not anti-management at all. They are a necessary part of any organization, and the good ones perform their duties effectively. On the other hand, the bad ones cause more aggravation within their agencies than all external factors combined. I do figure they should be at least as thick-skinned as those they manage.

I’m also not an apologist for every jackass who happens to wear a badge and carry a gun. Good cops are the noblest of God’s creatures. Bad cops, though I pray they are few in number, are the worst kind of hypocrites. They undermine the good work of conscientious officers as insidiously as any criminal enterprise.

If Sir Robert Peel, the Father of Modern Policing, says we should be focusing on crime prevention, then why in the hell are we still submitting arrest stats each month? What are we really trying to accomplish here?

If the bad guy were in her backyard, your average citizen would cheer along as she watched you beat the big, scary man to death—if that’s what it called for. If the same fight happened in someone else’s backyard, and your good citizen watched it on YouTube, then you would be a vicious, out-of-control brute who should be fired on the spot. That’s just the nature of people; don’t let it surprise you.

The formula for persuasion is simple: Convince the other guy that what you are saying is in his best interests. The trick is knowing what he’s interested in at the moment. What’s most important to him now?

Every time you say, I’ll try, you are admitting that you don’t expect to succeed. Saying, I’ll do it, makes a declaration, a commitment. It says you are going all in, and you don’t consider failure an option. Which is more likely to convince someone of your sincerity? Which is more likely to convince you?

You have no control over what management will do. You have no control over how the courts will rule. You have no control over what the media will say about you. You have total control over your attitude. If you let them get to you, they win.

Many of the great and accomplished people whose words appear in these pages cite persistence and tenacity as the biggest factors in their personal success stories. Prepare to see them again and again.

Gen. George Patton, Coach Paul Bear Bryant, Sun Tzu, and Col. John Boyd (the genius behind the OODA Loop) would all likely agree: A conflict’s outcome is decided before the adversaries ever meet.

From the Whiskey Rebellion of the 1790s to the L.A. Riots of the 1990s, American history is punctuated with example after example of the citizenry telling the government, No! Our ability to keep the peace, as agents of the government, is absolutely reliant upon the public’s approval of our efforts. If you doubt this, just try to enforce a law or enact a policy that much of the population is against. Let me know how that works out for you.

It’s easy to feel moved to action when evil just ran out of a jiffy store wearing a black hoodie and carrying a pistol and a pocketful of stolen cash. But what about when evil shows up wearing the same uniform you do and starts smacking around the homeless guys in the next zone just for fun?

You didn’t do anyone a favor by taking your job, so don’t think anyone owes you anything more than a paycheck. The only reason you should have taken the job was to answer the calling.

Imagine the type of guy who irritates you the most. Is it the skater punk with a bad attitude, or the street-corner drug dealer with the mouth full of gold? Maybe it’s the rich guy who likes