Name: Walk the Blue Line
Rating: 4.4 (10 reviews)
Author: James Patterson and Matt Eversmann

What’s in it for me? Understand how it feels to be a US police officer.

Is there any subject more controversial than policing in the United States?

Protests to defund the police have been met by equally passionate calls to expand their reach. Policing is a sensitive and often violent topic, but far from the politics are the men and women who believe they’re doing their best possible to keep communities safe.

Sometimes, it’s the daily hunt for hardened criminals. Other times, officers intervene to protect citizens against themselves. Police officers might remind you to wear your seatbelt, but they can also be the midwife during an unexpected delivery.

In this Blink, we’ve put together some of the best stories from Walk the Blue Line. Whatever you feel about the uniform, you’ll get an immersive insight into the vocation and the people navigating that thin line between good judgment and the risk of public outrage.

You’ll obviously make your own judgments about what police officers go through but you’ll also learn about how they’ve been transformed by their experiences.

An alcoholic, a brave dog, and respect

Jock Condon is a police officer working in the Midwest. Before coming to the US the Scot served as a cop in the UK’s Royal Air Force.

On this occasion, he’s sitting alone in his car, in the pouring rain at 2:00 a.m., when he’s dispatched to an ongoing burglary in a home close to where he’s parked.

As he steps out of his car he hears gunshots from inside the house. As he goes in, he’s gripped by images of the time he served in Iraq and in Afghanistan. He wonders if this time, his luck will run out? His mind racing through images of his son waking up the next day without a father.

He looks inside a Jack and Jill bathroom and sees a chubby guy with a huge white beard lying inside, bleeding through a wound in his chest. He doesn’t look like a threat. Jock walks into a bedroom where an inconsolable man is lying on the bed, his terrified wife by his side.

It turns out the man with the white beard is an alcoholic who got drunk and walked into the wrong house! Jock manages to keep him alive till the medics come. Thankfully, he lives.

Seven months before the house incident Jack was called to put a fatally-wounded deer out of its misery and was transported back to Afghanistan as he pulled the trigger. It wasn’t his first flashback – they kept coming – and he knew they’d continue. He sought help from a psychologist and was diagnosed with PTSD. The medication and therapy he received help him recover. Now he’s helping other cops get help, too.

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Brian Sturgeon is a K9 handler – he uses dogs to find and arrest offenders.

One particular night, he’s outside a house waiting for a suspect with Argo, a brave police dog, when the suspect appears. Argo darts over a fence and drags him down. As they tussle on the ground the craziest thing happens – another dog appears and attacks Argo. Brian tries to shoot the other dog but his weapon malfunctions and then the other dog starts to attack Brian too.

As the two men and two dogs struggle, the suspect takes out a box cutter and starts tearing at Argo. Eventually, Brian manages to shoot the other dog. Brian’s team arrives on the scene and arrests the suspect.

Argo is taken to a vet where he’s treated for his bad wounds. Ten days later, he's back to work.

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Tim O’Brien left the mortgage business to join law enforcement. As a Boston kid who knew a lot of people in the civil service growing up, he’s drilled his sense of respect into his kids. If they ever disrespect a cop, he tells them, this strict policeman and his wife won’t take it.

Tim’s sitting at his mother-in-law’s house one dinnertime waiting for his wife when he gets a call. The officer on the phone tells him that his son was inside a car that’s been pulled over. There were five kids in the car but Tim’s son wasn’t driving, and he was respectful.

Relief.

Fifteen minutes later Tim’s phone rings again. It’s the same cop. He sounds amused. The reason? He’s just pulled over Tim’s wife and daughter for overspeeding on the same road.

A gorilla, a pep talk, a fire, and the aftermath of a shooting

Meet Laura McCord. She works for a police department in the South. After Laura McCord was the victim of a violent crime in high school, it was the female investigator on her case that inspired her to become a police officer.

Today she’s observing keenly as the lead investigator interviews a 12-year-old whose stepdad shot his mom. The boy, Trevor, is in shock and keeps staring at a small stuffed purple gorilla on the sergeant’s desk.

A family business, a case of sexual abuse, and a waiting game

For Patrick Dugan, police work runs in the family. His father, grandfather, great-grandfather, uncle, and cousin were all cops. On his first day of work as an FBI agent, he’s sent to work with a team investigating a bank robbery in Baltimore.

Bank robbers, he finds out, relish in the execution of their crimes. Bank robbery also runs in the family, often passing down from father to child. This particular bank robbery in Baltimore is part of a series of hits across the state.

Final Summary

Although these stories only scratch the surface of what it’s like to be a police officer in the US, we’ve covered quite a range of occurrences – from encounters like Pat Welsh’s talk to a boy running with the wrong crowd to Mitchell Wido helping colleagues and parents deal with the aftermath of the Columbine shooting.

The officers’ stories raise issues which range from coping with PTSD to communities that don’t trust them and sometimes even side with suspects.

Key ideas in Walk the Blue Line

About the Author

James Patterson is one of the biggest names in publishing with over 400 million books sold. Some of his most popular books include titles in the Alex Cross, Women’s Murder Club, and NYPD Red series. He’s partnered with best-selling writer Chris Mooney and army veteran Matt Eversmann of Black Hawk Down fame to publish real-life stories from nurses, soldiers, and police officers.