California and Oregon

Editor's Note: One of the authors is a Vietnam Veteran.

Police-Writers.com is a website that lists state and local police officers who have written books. The website added police officer authors from California and Oregon: Kent Anderson; Bernard K. Smith; and, Robert Dent.

At the age of 19 Kent Anderson joined the Merchant Marines and traveled the world for two years. By his 23 birthday, he was a Special Forces sergeant in Vietnam, where he was awarded two bronze stars. In 1973, he joined the Portland Police Bureau, and worked as a street cop for 4 years before taking a leave of absence to earn an MFA in Fiction Writing from the University of Montana in Missoula. At the age of 37, he returned to police work and joined the Oakland Police Department (California). After two years on the Oakland Police Department he resigned because he was, “sick of making unnecessary arrests to fill out the monthly quotas.

According to Kent Anderson, “that winter, broke and jobless, out of sheer terror” he wrote the first complete draft of Sympathy for the Devil. Shortly thereafter, he obtained a teaching job in El Paso at the University of Texas and rewrote the book several times during his four-year stay on the border. He is also the author of Night Dogs and Liquor, Guns and Ammo: The Collected Short Fiction and Non-Fiction of Kent Anderson.

According to one reader/reviewer of Night Dogs, it “is a tough, gritty view of life on the streets and the way police officers deal with their constant exposure to this madness. It is very realistic and presents a variety of characters, some of which you might encounter in any big city.”

Bernard K. Smith as a police officer for the Portland Police Bureau (Oregon) for eleven years. He then continued with his career in criminal justice as a trial attorney. He is the author of seven fiction and or/science fiction books: Chris’s Cross; Hair Lock; Red Hats; Shark; Bear; Argo; and, Islands in the Sky. According to the book description of his most recent book, Islands in the Sky, “In a world with a great gulf between the haves and have-nots, one strong willed and resourceful man fights for his future. Cord is a man that is trying to survive and thrive. He finds a woman to love and protect to share in a battle to find a better place in a frightening world.”

Robert Dent is a 29 year law enforcement veteran and a recently retired Oregon State Police Senior Trooper. He has served in the Criminal, Narcotic and Patrol divisions of the Oregon State Police and is the Founder and President of the Constable Group, Inc. which is a privately held corporation that conducts training seminars and publishes language and communication training manuals, videos and educational materials for public safety and educational facilities, as well as private companies and corporations involved with executive protection, counter-terrorism and industrial security. He is also the author of: The Complete Spanish Field Reference Manual for Public Safety Professionals; The Multi-Lingual Field Manual for Public Safety Professionals; and, Silent Universal Signals for Public Safety and Education Professionals. He is also the co-author of 18 Silent Universal Signals for School Safety.

Police-Writers.com now hosts 674 police officers (representing 302 police departments) and their 1447 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.