Years ago, I found this really great book titled Boot: An LAPD Officer's Rookie Year by William Dunn. (I just popped over to Amazon and it doesn't look as if it's available new any longer.) The book is a string of anecdotes that the author experienced and he includes his mistakes.
At the time I bought it and read it, I had no characters or stories in mind that it could help me with, but it just sounded like too good an reference to pass up. I'm glad now that I have it. Deke is a private investigator, but he was an LAPD officer. It's his backstory, so it's not something I'll be spending a lot of time on--I don't think--in the WIP, but it's nice to have the background and an idea of what that time in his life was like. I'm thinking about rereading the book, but probably I don't need to do that since it's not something I'll be dealing with directly.
Speaking of the LAPD, there used to be this great website that broadcast police radio. Not just out of Los Angeles, but several other police forces as well. It's gone now, which is a shame because it was very interesting, but that too, is all background I can use for Deke. You know, being a writer is really cool because everything is research.
And as much as it hurts me to be brief, I need to get going. It was snowing yesterday evening which means I need to leave early today in case the roads are icky. Yes, it's just another day in paradise.
