400 Things Cops Know by Adam Plantinga

400 Things Cops Know: Street-Smart Lessons from a Veteran Patrolman by Adam Plantinga offers a gritty and humorous look at the life of a street cop in San Francisco, CA.

The book gives a policeman's perspective on all aspects of life and provides real life examples of why firing bullets at a car won't stop it.  Cops fired over 400 rounds of ammunition into a car as part of a training exercise.  The car started and could be driven after this abuse. Only 25% of bullets hit the target at 5 feet during a live fire incident and less than 10% hit the target at 25 feet.

Cops get to view the rougher parts of society seeing people living in the worst conditions, with very complex mental health issues.  Maintaining a professional demeanor while taking verbal and physical abuse and making split second life and death decisions can be very difficult. He describes a split second decision to use the butt of his gun to disable a suspect moving towards him.  He later found out the man was unarmed.

Adam gets a few digs in at the expense of fire fighters.  Both groups deal with public safety but fire fighters are generally more well received.  He also describes a narrow escape when he and his partner arrest a man inside a solvent filled drug house.  They were lucky to get out of the space without it blowing up.  I came across a similar situation at work when an employee took a drag of his cigarette, flipped the ash on the ground and asked, "Where's the natural gas leak?"

400 Things Cops Know (radio interview) - 54 minutes