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Law Enforcement 101

February 21, 2018 by Jim Potter Leave a Comment

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·  General Law Enforcement Terms  ·

Having worked in law enforcement for over three decades, I tend to take some things for granted when it comes to terminology and police procedure.

This blog entry will be the first to focus on law enforcement, with the idea that it may be helpful to some writers who occasionally create stories about “cops and robbers” in their fiction.

In your writing it’s important to get the details correct because they’re important to the reader. When you’re setting a scene, you don’t want the reader to stop and say, “Wait! There’s no way that would happen!”

On this blog entry I’m going to cover some real basic terms and definitions. I intend to help writers, not insult them, so please, this is where I’m starting. If you find it too basic, then check back another time when I’ll be focusing on police procedure, technology, weapons, going to court, etc.

Police and cops are generic terms meaning law enforcement officers. One of your fictional characters might look out the window, see the good guys approaching up the road or down the sidewalk, and blurt out, “The cops are here! Hide the dope!” The anxiety is high as the cops (or police) approach the house.

Once the cars are in sight of the occupants, the suspects might identify the actual law enforcement agency by the vehicle’s decals or maybe by recognizing an officer from a prior arrest. These vehicles are often considered patrol cars, because they are marked.

Patrol officers regularly work traffic meaning they are working vehicle accidents and writing tickets, but they are also on the lookout for stolen cars, wanted criminals, and suspicious activity.

They’re multitasking as they check buildings (night shift) and businesses, take reports (lots of reports), eat donuts, and occasionally, if there’s time, run a personal errand.

Your writing might show detectives wearing civilian clothes and driving unmarked cars as they follow a dastardly drug dealer downtown.

If you need to report a crime, and you live in the county (outside the municipality), then your county sheriff’s office (or central dispatch) will notify, assign, or dispatch an officer to talk to you.

When the officer arrives, the person reporting the crime might announce, “the sheriff’s here.” The first time I heard this, I was a bit surprised, because to me the sheriff meant my boss, the number one guy, our CEO.

So, if you’re in the county, the officer taking the report could generically be called “the police,” but more than likely the law enforcement officer would be referred to as “the sheriff,” or “deputy sheriff.”

In the city, the sheriff’s deputies aren’t making a lot of house calls unless the officers are following up a lead in a criminal investigation, or making an arrest on a warrant (a document issued by a government official authorizing the police to make an arrest).

It all comes down to jurisdiction. If you live in Cottonwood County, Kansas, in the town/city of Prairie Grove, the Prairie Grove Police Department has jurisdiction. This means they have the authority to enforce the laws for that municipality.

Being a sworn police officer, the police can also enforce city ordinances (ex. junk cars parked on property, music that is too loud at a party which is disturbing the neighbors) and state laws. But these same city cops cannot leave the city limits to enforce laws. They don’t have the legal authority.

However, deputy sheriff’s can enforce county ordinances and state laws anywhere in their county, including in towns and cities.

To take this a few steps further, the state highway patrol enforces laws anywhere in their state, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation or FBI, a federal agency, enforces laws all over the nation.

If you’re writing a police thriller, you might have a city cop attempt to stop the speeding suspect, maybe with a county officer as his or her backup.

(Here’s a common jurisdictional question that I’m asked: “What if an officer is chasing a speeding car and the car leaves the city, or county limits, does the officer need to stop at the boundary?” Answer: No, as long as the officers are in pursuit of a person who has committed a crime in their presence.)

In a future blog I’ll begin with a quick look at the difference between jail and prison, and how your fictional characters should not go to jail on an infraction violation, but how they might be locked up on a misdemeanor.

If they’ve committed a felony, then they should go directly to jail (without collecting $200), and later to prison, if they are found guilty.

Until next time, happy writing and reading!

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Filed Under: Blog posts Tagged With: backup, cops, detectives, dispatch, FBI, felony, highway patrol, infraction, jail, jurisdiction, law enforcement officers, misdemeanor, ordinances, patrol cars, police, prison, suspects, take reports, the sheriff, warrant, work traffic

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What People Are Saying

Denise Low, author of Jackalope (Red Mountain Press)

Jim Potter is a cop, retired, but he brings deep understanding of this job to his novel Taking Back the Bullet: Trajectories of Self-Discovery. This layered novel has literary dimensions as characters explore crisis situations. Congratulations to this fine writer for his debut novel.

Rebecca from Proud Police Wife

Taking Back the Bullet is an emotional, yet captivating novel. Jim Potter does a superb job of intertwining each character and putting their individual identities on display. All law enforcement storylines are a true reflection of Potter’s years as a police officer because they are realistic and relatable. This is a book I highly recommend.

Dennis Perrin, educator

Masterful storytelling, exquisite character development, so real as to HURT and HOPE, a real page turner. Begs for stage, screenwriters, and visual episodic development a.k.a. TV series . . . Thanks Jim Potter for telling it like it is AND providing us visions of how it could be. Well done!

Rebecca Schillaci

As a former law enforcement officer, I found the story very relatable as it details the life of a law enforcement officer and the struggles some face throughout their careers. . . Taking Back the Bullet is a journey of understanding, respect, and forgiveness . . .

Sheryl Remar

I enjoyed the different stories of this book because Tom, James, and Suanna, the three main characters, represent in their own way the different struggles with themselves and society’s idea of what is normal.

John & Cindy Morrill, 20 years Air Force retired, 17 years law enforcement

I enjoyed your book. When I am looking for a new read, I always read the first page, last page and choose a random page somewhere in the middle before I decide to buy it. You had me on all three pages. I also like reading a book where you can relate to the characters and the settings in which they live and work. It makes a story more realistic if you can say, I am familiar with the area; I know where that town is or I have traveled that street. It was easy to relate to the characters. In one way or another, I have met them all somewhere in my journeys.

Judy Hawk

. . . I was impressed with the Native American information as well as the depth of character development . . . .

Wynona Winn, PhD, retired school superintendent

Three main characters walk different paths but with the same destination – each coping with his or her self-discovery, self-identity, and self-realization. Much like their earlier counterparts – Huck Finn and Holden Caulfield – their journeys are often joyous, often tedious and often tragic.

Diana Dester

Good story line, building the characters along the way. Great job!

Deb Theis, LSCSW, clinical therapist/hypnotherapist

Jim Potter has done it again! After his book, Cop in the Classroom: Lessons I’ve Learned, Tales I’ve Told, Jim has written another great work. In Taking Back the Bullet: Trajectories of Self-Discovery, Jim Potter takes us on an insightful journey into the lives and relationships of numerous characters. Jim is such a talented storyteller that the reader quickly becomes immersed and has a ‘bonding experience’ with each of the characters, feeling their joy, fear, passion and pain. Jim’s novel speaks to the empowerment of persistence with the characters as they work through their trials. As a therapist, I appreciated the heartfelt struggles from each of the characters and their diversity. I also found value in the novel’s understanding of society’s misunderstanding of both mental health and other conditions in which people struggle. The novel contains rich exposure to various realities that many of us do not know about . . . but should. When I finished this captivating novel, I was wanting to read the sequel! It was an honor and a wonderful, mesmerizing experience reading this book. Congratulations, Jim!

Jane Holzrichter

I finished it last night around midnight. What a great piece of work. It kept me intrigued all the way to the end.

Sean McArdle, Winchester, England

Retired police officer Potter’s novel centres on very disparate characters and through the tried and tested means of gradually introducing each one, builds a sense of anticipation about what is going to happen to them. This often used methodology is not easy to do well but is superbly handled by Potter who knows how to give enough detail to bring the characters to life, yet not too much so as to slow down the pace of the developing story. A climactic event affects the main characters and it is at this point Potter’s deep knowledge of people and police procedures really hits home; page by page we read how a seemingly simple, though terrible occurrence, can have huge consequences. To Potter’s credit the story does not have a completely conclusive or simplistic ending. Instead it leaves the reader thinking about how the events of a single minute can affect lives forever. I would whole heartedly recommend this book not as a crime novel or even as a novel about crime but as a beautiful and positive affirmation about what it is to be human and how ultimately it is relationships which matter more than events.

Morgan Penner

Taking Back the Bullet is a novel that provides the reader with a window into the world of law enforcement. As the novel unfolds, the reader is able to see how split-second decisions alter the lives of the main characters in the story. Taking Back the Bullet also explores how humanity is impacted by mental illness. One of my favorite quotes from Taking Back the Bullet is “We’re all just a critical moment from being disabled or mentally ill, and we don’t want to think about it.” The novel also provides the reader an opportunity to gain a better understanding of how mental illness impacts the individuals, their family, friends, and society. Taking Back the Bullet is a story of forgiveness and overcoming life’s struggles and tragedies.

Steve Becker

I’m impressed. It was an excellent read. . . . I hope you continue with more projects in the future.

Larry Kruckman, anthropologist

Jim Potter displays ethnographic skills in Taking Back the Bullet: Trajectories of Self-Discovery, creating vivid scenes and fascinating characters. The Greeks had a word for subcultures and people’s behavior: ‘ethos,’ or ‘ways of being.’ In colorful, sometimes marvelous detail, this novel captures various people and settings . . . the ethos of rural Kansas: a jail, art fair, powwow, rehab center, courtroom, albinos, and even someone in the throes of postpartum depression. So detailed are the descriptions that they must be drawn from the author’s personal experience. Besides the artfully created characters such as the struggling jailer and husband Tom Jennings, local artist Jesse Thomas, and Native American Joe Morningcloud, there is a tight story line that grabs your attention and won’t let go. Human tensions, love, conflict, joys and sorrows are all there. Magically, all the many pieces come together in a final crescendo, giving hope that even when we find ourselves in big trouble we can survive. This is a novel I highly recommend!

Larry Kruckman
Anthropologist
Karleen Wilson-Moon

Terrific story relevant to today’s social issues . . . well written . . . likable characters . . . insightful perspective from an insider in law enforcement.

Karleen Wilson-Moon

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