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.