Sunday, September 16, 2007

Police Books from Southern California

Editor's note: One of the authors is a former servicemember.

September 16, 2007 (San Dimas, CA) Police-Writers.com is a website that lists nearly 750 state and local police officers who have written books. The website added three police authors from Southern
California.

Jeff Cope retired from the Huntington Beach Police Department after 29 years as a Lieutenant in charge of the Investigation Bureau. He is a POST Master Instructor and is Program Manager for the POST Institute of Criminal Investigation Instructor Development Program and is a consultant and expert witness specializing in Force Issues, Police Practices and related topics. He has taught at the Criminal Justice Training Center at Golden West College for 22 years and also teaches in the ICI Instructor Update Workshop Jeff Cope is the author of Weaponless Control: For Law Enforcement and Security Personnel.

Currently an investigator with the California Department of Insurance, Fraud Bureau,
Tony Alvarez’s law enforcement career began with the Los Angeles Police Department and spanned more than twenty-six years. For twenty-one of his twenty-six years with LAPD, he was a detective assigned to Narcotics Division. As a Detective supervisor assigned to the Major Violator Section of the Narcotics Group (LAPD), Detective Tony Alvarez gained extensive experience in the field of undercover operations, surveillance and informant control, development and management.

Tony Alvarez has been a contributing writer for the California Narcotic Officer's Association quarterly magazine. He is an instructor for the California Narcotic Officer's Association on Narcotic Officer Survival and has made his training presentations at the FBI Academy in Quantico (Virginia); and, has also instructed local, state and federal officers nationwide. In 1995, Detective Tony Alvarez was awarded the DEA Award of Valor, the INEOA Medal of Valor and the Al Steward Memorial Award (California Narcotic Officer of the Year). In 1996, he was awarded the LAPD Medal of Valor. He is the author of Undercover Operations Survival in Narcotics Investigations.

According to the book description of Undercover Operations Survival in
Narcotics Investigations, “undercover work is one of the most dangerous yet challenging types of police investigation, requiring extensive tactical preparedness and close continuing assessment throughout the operation. If proper planning is lacking, explosive conflict can occur without warning. The author presents the wide range of considerations necessary to execute safe undercover teamwork, eliminating complacency, demonstrating how to seize contraband, obtain evidence and arrest violators. Conducted properly and safely, investigations provide immediate gratification to all involved. Furthermore, the techniques and procedures outline in this book can be easily adapted to any undercover operation.”

Ralph Askew was born in 1937 in Cleveland, Ohio. He spent a total of 10 years in the Ohio National Guard, the California National Guard and the United States Marine Corps where he developed an interest in military history. After graduating from UCLA, he joined the LAPD where he spent most of his patrol time at the Newton Street Patrol Division as a training officer. He retired from the Los Angeles Police Department after 21 years. He is the author of Battleslave.

According to the book description of Battleslave, “Chrisinda Balderack, a battledroid, was artificially produced in a laboratory solely for the purpose of fighting wars for the Galaxy. The production of battledroids meant that planets associated with the Galaxy did not have to provide the Galaxy with their own men to be killed in a far off war. Very few battleroids ever returned home. Many of the missions the battledroids were sent on were without support. They were trained to kill their wounded to prevent them from falling into enemy hand, and revealing the objective of the mission or slowing down its completion. Battledroids were trained to have no feelings. After meeting a young girl her own age, Chrisinda develops emotions and feeling for her own fellow battledroids and finds that she cannot bring herself to kill her fellow wounded.”

Police-Writers.com now hosts 741 police officers (representing 344 police departments) and their 1581
police books in six categories, there are also listings of United States federal law enforcement employees turned authors, international police officers who have written books and civilian police personnel who have written books.

New Sailor Finds Focus, Direction in Joining Military

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

Sept. 16, 2007 - Members of Scott Harpley's Ringgold High School graduation class in northern Georgia probably wouldn't recognize the driven young sailor squeezed into seat 51F on an airplane yesterday headed here to his first duty assignment. At age 22,
U.S. Navy Fireman Apprentice Harpley is much more – and in some cases, much less – of a man than the one who took more than four years to finish high school because he so often simply didn't show up.

"I was bored," said Harpley of his high school days. He said he spent a lot more time in front of the TV than in the classroom, and packed on so much weight the
military wouldn't consider taking him.

After high school, Harpley bounced from one job to another, dishing up fast food, working retail, stocking warehouse shelves and even driving cross-country selling magazines. Nothing kept his interest for long.

But yesterday, as he prepared to begin his first military assignment, as a weapons mechanic aboard the
Navy submarine USS Pasadena, Harpley said he thinks he's finally something he'll be able to stick with for the next 20 years.

Harpley dropped 170 pounds over a year-and-a-half to join the Navy. He started by eating just a single granola bar each day but started to get sick. So he reverted to a regime of healthy eating and demanding workouts while pulling 10-to-14-hour workdays in construction.

"I'm a lot more active now," said Harpley, whose 6-foot-2-inch frame now carries 212 pounds, about half its former bulk.

Since enlisting into the
Navy submarine force in January, Harpley's performance has demonstrated a dramatic turnaround, too. He's excelled at everything he's done. He was the top graduate in his boot camp class at Great Lakes Naval Training Center, Ill., then earned the Number 2 spots in both his basic mechanic and "A" schools.

His class standings earned him the chance to choose a coveted first assignment aboard a sub homeported in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Already, when his Honolulu-bound plane had barely left the U.S. mainland, Harpley was setting his sights on what he wants to accomplish when he arrives. The first order of business, he said, will be to earn the submarine warfare pin that means he's a fully qualified submariner.

Although the qualification process typically takes about nine months, Harpley's committed to finishing it in six months, max. "It's another step in my
training. I know I can do it if I set my sights on it," he said. "I'm quick."

Not yet with his unit, Harpley said he has "no idea" when he and his crewmates will deploy together. He said he's ready to go and anxious to see as much of he world as the
Navy can show him.

"I'm looking forward to going and doing my job and do the things I've been
training for months to learn how to do," he said.

"I'm going to give them the hard work they want, and they're going to do a lot of things for me too," he said. He rattled off the long list of benefits that will come with his service: medical and dental care and educational benefits, among them.

"I'm going to go as far as I can until I retire or they kick me out," he said with a smile. "I'm ready to go."