Fiction and Reality in Policing

Police-Writers.com, a website dedicated to listing state and local police officers who have authored books, added three police officers to the list of authors: Christopher Garraty, Dennis L. Potter and Terry J. Manwaring.

Christopher Garraty retired as a lieutenant from the Brigantine Police Department (New Jersey) after 25years of service. Garraty spent the beginning of his career close to Atlantic City as the casino industry was in its infancy stages and watched the area change from a quiet seasonal destination to the year round attraction that it is now. In his book, Blue Undertow, “Drug busts, shady land deals, sex for jobs and an egg fight; that’s just Chapter One. All Officer Dick Cambridge wants is to go to work, enforce the law and have a little fun. Cambridge and his circle of friends while away the hours playing pranks and keeping the administration on their toes. When a routine car stop uncovers an up and coming organized crime figure, business turns serious. People die, others disappear. Follow Officer Cambridge and friends as they investigate who is behind the murders and a waterfront restaurant in the sleepy shore town before it’s too late. With mob hits, police shoot outs and flirtatious waitresses, Blue Undertow will keep you guessing and amused until the explosive ending.”

Dennis L. Potter and Terry J. Manwaring teamed up to write Law Enforcement Incident Command. Their book is designed to provide answers and tools for law enforcement in order to better function in a public safety environment using a command concept designed on the principles of a fire related emergency. It explores those compromises necessary to comply with, or add to, the National Incident Management model in order to ensure that law enforcement issues are addressed. According to the authors, “without these compromises, future emergency responses to critical incidents by all public safety responders will prove as confusing and frustrating as those incidents NIMS is trying to renovate.”

Dennis L. Potter retired in 2004 as a Captain with the Jefferson County Colorado Sheriff’s Department in Golden, Colorado. His assignment experience during his 33 years as a police officer includes Patrol, Jail, Homicide Investigations, Victim Services, Motorcycles, Forensic Laboratory, Evidence, Communications, Civil and Fugitive, Recruiting, Police Training, Dispatch, Records Management, Crime Prevention, Public Information Officer, Accreditation, Policy Development, Emergency Management, Staff Inspections and Director of the Law Enforcement Training Academy.

Dennis has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Colorado State University and a Masters Degree in American Military Studies from American Military University in Manassas, Virginia. His critical incident management experience includes police operations of the 2002 Hayman Wildfire, Colorado’s largest wildfire in history, Department manager for three police officer deaths, and Headquarters Supervisor and Operations Chief at the Columbine High School shootings in 1999.

Dennis is currently a college professor in criminal justice and criminology, a critical incident instructor for the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA), a certified incident command instructor for the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG), an instructor for the National Incident Management System (NIMS), and a certified critical incident instructor with the New York State Office of Criminal Justice. He has conducted critical incident management seminars for line, staff, support staff, and chief law enforcement executive officers in Florida, Colorado, North Carolina, Delaware, Oregon, Ohio, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey and Michigan.

Terry J. Manwaring is a Captain with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. He has thirty years of law enforcement experience, including fifteen years in managerial and command positions with the Jefferson County Colorado Sheriff’s Office, a dual Inter-National Accredited Agency. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Colorado Christian University in Organizational Management, and is a graduate of the Law Enforcement Staff and Command School of Northwestern University.

Terry has been assigned to various Sheriff’s Divisions such as Patrol, Investigations, Civil and Detention of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. In 1984, he was promoted to Sergeant and assigned to the Patrol Division, and later back an investigation position. In 1991, he was promoted to Lieutenant and assigned to Patrol as Precinct Commander of the Mountain Precinct (50,000 citizens), employing a full service law enforcement sub-station of forty Deputy Sheriffs and four sergeants. In addition to his patrol, investigations and management accomplishments, he was the commander of a 35 member regional SWAT team from 1994 to 1999. His is a Medal of Valor recipient.

Police-Writers.com now hosts 320 police officers (representing 138 police departments) and their 741 books in six categories, there are also listings of United States federal law enforcement employees turned authors, international police officers who have written books and civilian police personnel who have written books.