Howdunit Book of Police Procedure and Investigation: A Guide for Writers (Howdunit) | 
 enlarge | Author: Lee Lofland
Publisher: Writers Digest Books
Category: Book
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $5.75
You Save: $14.24 (71%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 31035
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 6 x 1.2
ISBN: 1582974551
Dewey Decimal Number: 363.23
EAN: 9781582974552
ASIN: 1582974551
Publication Date: August 8, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Book Description
Not everything you see on your favorite crime show is accurate. In fact, a lot of it is flat out wrong. Police Procedure & Investigation helps you get your facts straight about the inner workings of law enforcement. With a career in law enforcement that spanned nearly two decades, author Lee Lofland is a nationally acclaimed expert on police procedures and crime scene investigations who consults regularly with best-selling authors and television producers. Now you can benefit from his years of experience with Police Procedure & Investigation. This comprehensive resource includes: - More than 80 photographs, illustrations, and charts showing everything from defensive moves used by officers to prison cells and autopsies
- Detailed information on officer training, tools of the trade, drug busts, con air procedures, crime scene investigation techniques, and more
- First-person details from the author about his experiences as a detective, including accounts of arrests, death penalty executions, and criminal encounters
Police Procedure & Investigation is the next best thing to having a police detective personally assigned to your book!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
Lee Lofland is a great resource for writers July 2, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Today's readers are savvy and quick to pick up on inaccuracies, so it's important for a writer to be up-to-date on terminology and procedures. Police procedure, murder investigations, the straight dope on DNA, autopsies, prison terminology, and a whole lot of other areas in the crime and mystery genre, Lofland's book is one-stop shopping. Highly recommended.
Award Winner! June 30, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Lee's book is brilliant--filled with every piece of information a mystery writer could ask for. Mystery Readers International agrees--they just gave the book one of their 2008 awards for Best Mystery Non-Fiction!
Congratulations, Lee. You deserve it.
Discovering the right mystery/suspense moves April 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Lee Lofland brings his experience as a veteran police investigator, who worked his way from an officer in Virginia's prison system, then a sheriff's deputy, a patrol officer, and a detective to Police Procedure & Investigation. According to his web site, Lee solved cases dealing with narcotics, homicide, rape, murder-for-hire, robbery, and ritualistic and occult crimes. He was an undercover officer and even a narcotics K-9 handler. He's certified in the U.S. Department of Justice, Virginia State Police Academy, and the DEA, as well as continuing to be certified in Crime Scene Management and Crime Scene Investigations.
One major thing Lee lets readers know is not everything shown on TV and in the movies is correct or accurate. Much is completely wrong. The material in this book, including photographs and illustrations and detailed information, gives a firm basis for mystery/suspense/detective writers to incorporate reality in their stories and books.
Chapters include "Law Enforcement in America," with a breakdown of local, county, state, and federal law enforcement agencies; "The Police Academy," with information about the training and courses found in different jurisdictions; "Police Officers: Their Duties and Equipment," including job descriptions and equipment used.
Personally, I found the chapters "Detectives" and "Tell it to the Judge: Courts and the Legal Process" to the most helpful for me in my writing career at this point, but most of the information is useful and enlightening. An index at the back of the book and appendixes helps readers find itemized material.
Lee presents information in such a way that almost everyone can easily understand what he writes. He shares his mass experiences and research so that readers can know reality and authors can make their writing more interesting, believable, and realistic.
The material on the back of the book states, "Police Procedure & Investigation is the next best thing to having a police detective personally assigned to your book," and I wholeheartedly agree.
I advise that anyone interested in procedure and investigations find, and keep on hand, a copy of this book. Police Procedure & Investigation by Lee Lofland is one of the best written and most usable reference books for readers and writers interested in crime, mystery, police, and law enforcement.
Reviewed by Vivian Zabel
The Best March 2, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I had the pleasure of being in one of Lee's writer's conference lectures. I found his classes to be the most helpful of all the one's I'd attended (no small feat).
On the basis of what I saw in the lectures I later picked up a copy of his book. The ones at the conference sold out before I could get any.
Lee's information is the most thorough of any police procedural book I have come across, and he portrays the information in easy to read format that keeps the readers engaged.
Any failings are small enough to be overlooked (IMHO), though he should probably stay away from writing fictional scenes as samples. ;o) They tended to be a bit overwritten. Luckily, they are few and far between, and do NOTHING to diminish the value of this work.
You won't go wrong if you pick up a copy.
 great reading! February 26, 2008
i am so glad that i purchased this book. i just got it today and already it has been invaluable to me as a writer.
there is lots of info in this book that i didn't know and am being surprised as i read.
thanks, Lee.
mary speranza author (POOKIE)
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