10-8: A Cop's Honest Look at Life on the Street

Had Officer X written "10-8" later than 1994, it probably would have been a blog. As it is, this little volume includes ruminations, stories, experiences, advice from about a decade on patrol transferred to paper. None is longer than a page, and there is nothing deeply intimate about Officer X. It is not like a profound diary. But almost every page has something interesting, either a tidbit about how cops react to different situations or thoughts about rehabilitation, retirement, raising children. Most anything is grist to a cop's mill, because, as X says, it's about dealing with people. In theory, we are not supposed to know where Officer X works, but it is not hard to figure out from clues in the book that he is, or was, on the force of Glencoe, Ill., a small, almost lily-white and rich village of fewer than 10,000 people among the northern suburbs of Chicago. Now, I'm not a cop, but I have worked around them for a long time as a newspaper reporter, and what Officer X has to say has the ring of real cops. He says some of what he writes may offend some people, and that's for sure. To take an example, Officer X's particular passion is getting drunk drivers off the road, and he notes that Hispanics are way overrepresented in DUIs in his town. He explicitly denies having or offering any reason that should be so. Well, we track DUIs in my county, too, and Hispanics are way overrepresented here, too. Everybody knows it, but nobody is supposed to notice it, X is also frank about what cops I used to be around called `failing the attitude test.' In other words, beating up arrestees. Of modern law enforcement, Officer X says, "the fear of video cameras these days keeps a lot of scumbags from getting tune-ups they richly deserve." That's frank. There's plenty here to start a conversation with, presented in a graceful style that is definitely not usual for cops. One thought deserves special mention: "Watch out for terrorism. Being geographically isolated has helped us to a point. But a continuing high profile has brought us all kinds of attention we don`t need. Americans have simply been too lucky for too long. Perhaps some of that evaporating defense money should be earmarked for anti-terrorism. The local cops aren't equipped to handle or prevent that stuff." That was written in 1994. Officer X was a smart guy.