Customer Reviews

The Real Police

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4 star:		(1)
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For anyone who enjoys reading about adventure and about the many eccentric personalities you might pass on any given city street, I'd suggest that you read a really cool "page turner" (in biography detail but written with entertainment value) that I just finished reading called "The Real Police."

The compelling and gifted author, David Ziskin is a well-seasoned Seattle Police Officer who shares fascinating policing details in the most compelling manner. With topics ranging from drunks, cadavers and violent crime found in both Skid Road and China Town (in Seattle) to what the life and attire of a professional police officer actually has looked like -- "The Real Police" is a must read!

By the time I finished reading Ziskin's hardback, I felt as though I had a new friend in the police business (okay, so I've known a couple of cops in person who I really liked, but Ziskin's book gives so much more intimate policing details than what most law enforcement officers will share while standing on a street curb with you).

Below is a very short excerpt from Ziskins masterpiece. I offer it here in an attempt to reveal his pleasurable writing style; which is consistent throughout his self-published hardback. The following is not at all the BEST story in "The Real Police" - but it is certainly one of Ziskin's shortest stories, and it remains very entertaining, besides.

"A lot of cops are great story tellers. At coffee one night, a middle-aged officer told us dryly that he had gone out to dinner with his wife on a recent furlough night. They were seated at a downtown restaurant when a hooker walked by their table and slipped a folded note to his wife. The note said "You're sitting with a cop."

"At first I got real mad," he said. "But then I thought, you know, my wife does look kinda cheap."

Repeatedly, each time I picked up Ziskin's book to read (one does have to work, and therefore must set the book down, regrettably) I'd find his words so entertaining I'd have to laugh out loud.

Thank you Ziskin for writing such insightful detail about the police force in such a rivoting and entertaining manner. There remains so many fascinating tales in your book, it is nearly impossible to write about so much adventure in reading here on Amazon.

Blessings!

David Ziskin writes with the insight of someone who has been there, because he has. In addition to the humor and pathos of any 18 years of street patrol in a good size city, he saw a dramatic evolution in technology, though not in management. From harmless, but highly eccentric "street characters" through one of the worst mass murders in US history, it's all here. Anyone interested in police work should read it. Everyone except aspiring police administrators will enjoy it.

How often do you read a book where the writer describes drinking a cup of coffee while sitting across a restaurant booth from a corpse writing a death report and waiting for the medical examiners to arrive. David Ziskin brings his 20 years of street cop experience into his book with incisive wit and compassion. He also offers provocative ideas on the state of modern policing. A fine book. Lowen Clausen

I was born in the Seattle, but raised elsewhere. My family had lived in that area for a long time before I came along, and a former Seattle Chief of Police was a close life-long family friend. I picked up David's book just to see if he happened to mention this man. I had only known that during the Seattle Police Scandal of the '60's, the chief had lost his job by "Pleading the Fifth" rather than divulge any of the confidences with which he had been entrusted over the years. In the mid-70's, while I was away in Seattle attending the University of Washington, "Ed" (not his real name) was making visits to our family home on Moses Lake, fishing off our dock and trying to relax. David's book taught me so much more about what was actually going on at that time.
It is so refreshing to find an author who can tell such a complicated story as his twenty grueling years on the force in such an understated, objective fashion. David did not "drop" the full name of a single co-worker or associate, or any other person, for that matter; but this did not detract from the quality of his story.
David's case for reform of the law enforcement hierarchical structure makes obvious, logical sense. Teaching new officers by way of mentors is a time-honored concept which works very effectively in many fields where "learning the ropes" is necessary. I hope this first book of his is read by enough citizens and especially law enforcement officials that it will affect the beginning of a change in the way new officers are trained and departments are organized.
As for our dear beloved friend "Ed", it appears that David's years on the force were spent, in part, under his command; and yet, he had the decency not to soil his name. I am so impressed!

This is an excellent book. A no nonsense straighforward cop book without all the glitz and glamor.

The Real Police is proof that the similarities among police officers and their departments far outweigh their differences. David Ziskin and I began our police careers around the same time; however, we were three thousand miles apart, and we never met. It's difficult to keep this review brief, because The Real Police is deserving of extensive praise. David Ziskin is an exceptionally good writer...a circumstance which places this book firmly in the "page turner" category. As you read The Real Police, you'll lose track of the fact it's a work of non-fiction. David's use of character profiles, and the conversational tone gives it the feel of a novel. But...make no mistake, there's nothing fictional about this book, and its title is most appropriate.

Dave has written a very accurate and professional portrayal of what police work is like. It is obvious that personal experience is used to backup his observations and statements. I, as an author, give him accolades.

Richard Neal Huffman
Retired police officer
Author of Dreams In Blue "The Real Police"
ISBN# 1-4137-9073-9

centers more around the history of police than the real effects of police staying on the "beat". I think the book rambles in different areas and does not center on the idea of policemen staying in "patrol" so that they can become familiar with thier beats. The premise is that the citizenry will comunicate better with a beat cop they know than just some uniform that shows up on call. Sorry it missed the mark.