1.0 out of 5 stars
Worst book I have ever had to read!, April 17, 2011
This review is from: Effective Police Supervision, Fifth Edition (Paperback)
I couldn't stand to read more then a few pages at a time before it made my head hurt. The way the author throws words around and stretches out basic information will make you want to eat a bullet. For the love of god could he just get to the point! Most people reading this book are real cops trying to get promoted and all this book does is talk about theories from YEARS ago. Word to the cops out there, I wish you the best reading this garbage.
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2.0 out of 5 stars
Some good information, but very poorly written., February 9, 2011
This review is from: Effective Police Supervision, Fifth Edition (Paperback)
This book is commonly required for Police promotional examinations. It contains some very good concepts, however, serious issues with the writing and structure of this book make finding and learning those concepts difficult. If you can make your way through it, you can learn some useful information. Examples of problems with this book are:
1. It is riddled with basic, elementary-level grammar and spelling mistakes. Clearly editing was not a priority in the production of this work. At times the mistakes are simple grammar issues, and at other times entire paragraphs are obviously out of order.
2. Many diagrams are mislabled and vague.
3. The authors rely on excessive wordiness to reinforce points rather than creative writing. Many of the paragraphs are a virtually-endless string of simple declarative sentences stating "facts" with no rationale offered to back them up.
4. Clearly the authors did a lot of research and the book is ripe with cited references, however, many of them are from outdated research and at times refereces were conceptually mismatched with the points the authors were trying to make.
5. Many points in the book are stated "matter of factly" without being reinforced with real-world exmaples or experience.
6. At times the political or social leanings of the authors leaks through the writing, such as when dealing with minorities or organized labor.
7. Each chapter is prefaced with a "situtaional" setup. The setup, however, is very long with many useless details that do not pertain to the issue being examined.
8. Simply put, this book is just too long. The authors have bloated the writing, possibly, to lengthen the book and increase its sale price without any informational need to do so. This book could be about 50% its current length and be just as effective in communicating the needed information.
This book can be helpful during the supervisor selection process, however, if another text or reference is available it may be better to pass. The authors could work to make this much, much better and more useful and I sincerely hope they have done so in the new edition.
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1.0 out of 5 stars
Effective Bordom and useless information, October 6, 2010
This review is from: Effective Police Supervision, Fifth Edition (Paperback)
I have read this book, and it is terrible. The author does a terrible job at explaining the theories that he takes from others and pastis in his book. His writing style is very hard to read, and boring! He uses words and phrases that could be written in one or two sentences and takes up a whole chapter saying so. This book does little to nothing at helping a person learn good leadership skills. It is all a bout theories or what a leader might be, instead of real tips and help in supervision. Anyone that seriously reads this book without another reason is wasting their time!
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