Customer Reviews

"...officer down, code three."

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This is a very good book which has several fictional stories about simple mistakes that can cause an officer their life either from their own mistakes or others.

One of the stories is about an officer who is riding shotgun with his partner driving and is constantly falling asleep in the car while on patrol. His partner tries to talk to him about it but gets rebuffed with the other officer saying, "It'll be alright." etc. Until one day, the sleeping officer is jolted awake by gunfire and a car speeding away. The officer jumps out of the car and rushes to his partner laying on the street in front of it and discovers two large gunshot wounds to his partners chest.

Instinctively he grabs his shoulder mike and says, "38-80 Officer down, code three!" The radio crackles back, "38-80, Your location?" The officer stands up, looks around and sees nothing familiar. Just a road surrounded in trees. Racing through his mind, trying to remember where he is. The radio crackles again, "38-80, WHAT IS YOUR LOCATION?" Looking down at his partner, literally dying in front of him, he cannot remember where he is or how he got there...

this book is a must for all new and old law enforcement officers. i stole my dad's copy several years before becoming a law enforcement officer. i make a point to read the book cover to cover every few years. the same principles still apply today. the book is very informative and entertaining at the same time.

I have my Dad's copy that he received from P. Brooks. I think it's a book every young officer should read. Even today, the points he made in all those stories are the same for cops everywhere.

A classic gem of the police procedural world and invaluable to authors and readers. I'm lucky to have a signed first edition copy and enjoy browsing through the stories of how an officer must always be on the alert for the unexpected.
"...OFFICER DOWN, CODE THREE." was for many years the only book out there for police training and in many aspects has not been surpassed by later efforts. Over and over Pierce R. Brooks stresses the refrain "use your common sense." The book is a gold mine for authors looking for story ideas of the period.
It was invaluable for us as our stories occured during the period when this was fresh information and it is sometimes difficult to obtain data about our recent past when computers were not an everyday tool.
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