Pray for Law Enforcement

Scrolling through posts on Facebook after the first of the year, there were a lot of people happy to see 2016 go. There is so much hope in the turning over of a new year. Hope that things will be better, that all the really bad times are behind us. That is certainly my hope …

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Blue Lives – Every Life Matters

In the aftermath of the horrible tragedy in Dallas there is so much commentary out there, some informed, some completely uninformed. The video that recorded the tragedy pretty much sums it up. All of those people on the street protesting the cops, cheering the thought of killing police, when the shooting started, who did they …

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Current Events and Fictional Stories

Maybe it’s macabre, but I think real crime stories are a gold mine for fictional story ideas. I get a lot of ideas from current events and from true crime programs like Cold Case Files and Forensic Files. In my Cold Case Justice series (Drawing Fire, Burning Proof, and Catching Heat), I drew not only …

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Unarmed Does Not Mean Not Dangerous

There has been so much negative news lately about police officers and the use of deadly force. When someone is in police custody, or has contact with the police, and they appear to be unarmed, and the contact ends badly, the news media seems to bold the phrase “unarmed” as if unarmed means ‘docile and …

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Justice – Cold Case and Other wise

One of the first arrests I made as a police officer was of a man who’d just murdered his live in girlfriend. He dragged her out into an alley and shot her in the head, many people witnessed the crime. He actually turned himself in to me, handed me his gun and confessed. Later, I …

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The Cold, Odd Case of Robert Durst

Robert Durst  is the reason that I developed an interest in cold crime cases. The frustrating, twisted story of his life journey actually reads like a novel with the bad guy always getting away with it. Death follows this guy but he seems to be made of Teflon, nothing sticks. His story starts years ago, …

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Celebrating Jury Duty

Two high profile trials are in the news today, the Chris Kyle murder trial and the Boston bomber murder trial. In the Kyle trial they managed to seat a jury but as I write this, they have not yet seated a jury in the Boston trial. It’s tough going for jury selection in the Boston …

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Teenage Naivete in a Dangerous World

The other day there was an article in the paper about two teenage girls who ran away from home. The story first appeared on the weekend, only it was regarding one missing girl. As the police began to investigate and ask questions, it turns out the girl, and her friend decided to run away from …

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Cops And Cameras

Cameras are everywhere now a days, they’re on everyone’s phone, at ATMs, banks, parking lots, shopping malls, etc. If you spend any time at all on Facebook you know exactly what I mean because it seems like there are always videos being posted of one thing or another. Police activity is a favorite subject of …

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Police Work : Fact or Fiction

I don’t watch much TV.  One show I do enjoy is Castle. While at a writer’s conference some one made a statement and asked me a question, “But it’s so fake as far as law enforcement is concerned, don’t all the mistakes bug you?” The question brought me back to my writing beginnings. So many …

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