Detroit, Beverly Hills and Westerns

Police-Writers.com is a website dedicated to listing state and local police officers who have authored books. Three police officers to the website: Johannes Spreen, Clinton H. Anderson and Dick Clason.

Johannes Spreen, B.S., M.P.A., and Ph.D. (ABD) was in law enforcement from 1941through 1985. He began his career as a New York Police Department police officer, rising to the rank of Inspector. He then served as a Detroit Police Department Commissioner; and, was the Sheriff of Oakland County Sheriff’s Office (Michigan). He has also been a newspaper columnist, and a professor at John Jay College and Mercy College. Johannes Spreen is the author of five books: Who Killed Detroit?: Other Cities Beware; Who Killed New Orleans?: Mother Nature vs. Human Nature; The Saga of Thundercloud and Dancing Star; American Law Enforcement: Does Not Serve Or Protect!; and, American Police Dilemma: Protectors or Enforcers?

According to the book description of Who Killed Detroit: Other Cities Beware, it “explains how the automobile industry, migration of blacks, housing segregation, riot of 1967, rise of radical groups, and the resulting reactions since then have left this great city in shambles. No other American city has offered so much to so many in the first half of the twentieth century. And no other city has collapsed as completely as Detroit in the second half of the twentieth century. Who Killed Detroit explores what can be learned to prevent a similar fate in other cities.

After a 30 year law enforcement career, Clinton H. Anderson retired as the Chief of Police of the Beverly Hills Police Department. A respected law enforcement official of his time, he was also the founding president (1966) of the California Police Chiefs Association. His book, a memoir, has a rather interesting title: Beverly Hills is My Beat: A Famous Career Policeman Recalls His 30 Lively Years on the Police Force of a Unique City That Has more of Everything ... More Money, More Celebrities .. More Glamour, and More New-Making Crimes.

After serving in the Navy, Dick Clason joined the Beverly Hills Police Department. He was on the job for 34 years (1956 – 1990). During his career, he worked a number of assignments including records technician, patrol officer, officer-in-charge of the Identification Bureau, fingerprint expert and as a consultant in the examination of questioned documents. He is the author of three historical westerns; two of which are series called the “Clason Westerns.”

According to the book description of his first western, The Kid from Custer, “A band of rustlers kill a rancher. One rustler marries the rancher's wife; another is named deputy sheriff. The rancher's grief-stricken son eludes stepfather and deputy by escaping into the wilds of the Black Hills. Set in the Dakota Territory in 1880, this tense and gripping adventure is well-grounded in history and generously seeded with humor, violence, romance, and sex.”

Dick Clason also authored a police related book, Echoes from the Beats: Beverly Hills Cops Tell Their Stories, which is a compilation of stories by and about Beverly Hills Police Department police officers. According to David Snowden, Chief of Police of the Beverly Hills Police Department, “Police Officers, both current and retired, will enjoy this book very much. I am sure it will encourage many more stories and perhaps another book. The Beverly Hills Police Department has a long and proud history. Some of it can be relived through these stories.”

Police-Writers.com now hosts 455 police officers (representing 192 police departments) and their 957 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.