Books like Rise of the Warrior Cop — picked by fans

I love this book because it provides a broad, philosophical backdrop for questions about policing.

We often hear policy recommendations regarding how to improve the plight of the urban poor, but Shelby argues that the central problem is more about the state’s failure to adhere to basic principles of justice. Rampant criminality in impoverished communities can thus be construed as a response to systematic injustice.

This book is a fascinating study of the ways that injustice can limit the range of rational life choices.

How should theorizing about the police be reconciled with the practical reality of policing?

Jackall’s book illustrates the difficulty of answering this question by drawing on his years of fieldwork with New York City police detectives, illuminating the tension between theory and the rough-and-tumble world of police work.

It is one thing to ponder the justification of, say, deceptive practices from within the confines of the ivory tower and quite another to face that question in an interrogation room with someone suspected of a heinous crime.

The book is an engaging study of life on the street.

I love this book because it reminds us of the many ways that technology can affect justice.

It is tempting to think sophisticated tactics such as “predictive policing” can solve all problems relating to human bias. However, Brayne shows that data and algorithms do not eliminate bias and discretion. Instead, high-tech police tools simply make bias less overt and visible, which erodes the public’s ability to hold the police accountable.

I especially enjoyed how the book flips the script, considering diverse ways to use these tools to help the public. For example, how can municipalities use technology to analyze the underlying factors that contribute to policing problems in the first place?

This book is so unique because Brooks recounts her experience applying to be a sworn, armed reserve police officer with the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department.

The book thus provides a window into the typically closed-off life within the police institution. It’s a compelling account—based on first-hand experience—of how we can better understand and improve the police institution. Also, the book is simply chock-full of good storytelling.

In my book, a teenage Anthony Nelson is inspired to pursue a career at the FBI by an advertisement presenting the bureau as the hardest job imaginable. Heather Mac Donald offers up a powerful, data-driven examination that dramatically underscores this premise. 

Drawing on meticulous research, dogged field reporting, and interviews with an amazing cross-section of officers across the country, Mac Donald dispels myths as she reveals context and far-too-often-unseen challenges police confront daily. 

Today’s members of law enforcement face dramatic rises in violence, harsh public scrutiny, and undulating politically driven pressures, coupled with severe emotional and physical demands.

Unfortunately, there is a steady undertone of the public maligning of law enforcement evident today that Mac Donald plumbs in depth. What Mac Donald does is inject into this conversation undeniable data and dramatic details to bridge that wide delta between on-the-ground realities and public misperceptions, which ultimately assault the psyche of… show more.

Between 1960 and the 1990s, the budget, size, and power of LAPD dramatically grew in spite of attempts to use regulatory powers of the government to control the police. “Racial targeting was central to the LAPD’s expansion despite twenty years of liberal leadership of the city. The problem in LA, similar to most urban centers, was a reliance on the police to manage social problems that were “rooted in Los Angeles’ history of segregation, inequality, and poverty.” But such an approach “led to disciplinary practices of surveillance, harassment, and arrest that criminalized and excluded black and Latino/a residents.”

Black Los Angeles citizens were seen by the police as threats to public safety and not deemed worthy of the protection of the law. In its battle against crime, social movements, and drug gangs, the Los Angeles Police Department was able to legitimate their authority to use coercive power to control the… show more.

The first in Locke’s Highway 59 series, featuring African American Texas ranger Darren Matthews involving two bodies one black, one white that wash up in a small East Texas town.

The story combines procedural, western, and Southern gothic to give an entertaining, human, yet unflinching look at race both past and present. This book enlightened me on how much African Americans contribute to what we call Texas culture.

For me, reading a Harry Bosch novel is like inviting an old friend to dinner and catching up over beers. The Black Ice is the 2nd installment in Michael Connelly's Bosch series, published back in 1993, but recently re-released as a paperback.

Whether it's an old book or a new one, I can't get enough of Harry Bosch. There’re still a few stories I haven't read yet, but the television series has filled in a lot of the blanks. I think I've seen each episode at least five times now.

The Black Ice is a good story, about a Robbery/Homicide case that should have been assigned to Bosch, but he inserts himself into it anyway. The plot moves well and kept me interested throughout. And, if you're a really sharp detective, you might pick up on a couple of clues as to the major twist at the end.

This one is in my top ten books because of its “wow” factor, and its influence on me as a writer. It’s the first in the late, great Mo Hayder’s series featuring D.I. Jack Caffrey. He’s a character who is haunted by grief and guilt but driven to find out what happened to his brother, who went missing as a child, and to track down a present-day killer known as ‘Birdman’. How this maniac gets his nickname still makes my stomach churn.  

One of my favorite reads of all time is Abuse of Power because it gave birth to my inner conspiracy theorist. When a routine check turns violent, a reputable police officer does the unthinkable, and even worse, his brothers in blue follow suit, leaving the heroine trapped between telling the truth or staying alive. From this novel I learned if you want the truth out of someone, you have to ask the right questions, probing questions that require a specific answer other than yes or no, but even more than that, listen for inconsistencies.