Walk The Blue Line: A Book Review & Recommendation

I had the pleasure of interviewing Patterson, and the honor of interviewing Eversmann (and interviewing them together is a unique experience), and thanks to the wonders of technology, you can see people as you interview them even when you’re in different parts of the country. As a veteran police officer, it was inspiring to see the obvious emotional commitment held by both these men as they built this book. Along the way, they interviewed close to one hundred law enforcement professionals and almost sixty of those true stories made it into the book.

The book itself is broken into three parts: Protect; Serve and Defend and is scheduled for release on February 6^th. In the first section, Protect, you meet a few officers from around the nation – and the world – and you can readily see that cops are cops are cops. It doesn’t matter where they are from, what their backgrounds are, or how they grew up. Somehow, they ended up with the drive to help others. They found a motivation to be the best they can be in some aspect of law enforcement and achieving their goals wasn’t always easy. What becomes obvious in their story is that the trials and tribulations they overcame on their path to being the best cop they could be inevitably was what kept them alive when a greater challenge came along.

During the interview Patterson commented that the book “holds some great stories,” and I commented, “Great? Some of them have to be truly scary.” He agreed and went on to add, “But heart warming as well.” From Chicago to Orlando to Los Angeles and places in Scotland, these are the stories that show all aspects of police work. They are the stories that demonstrate just how human we police officers, deputies, troopers, etc. are. These are the stories not only of our life but, quite often, how close we get to death. James Patterson is well known for his Alex Cross novels, but I can promise you: Alex Cross never smiled at death as much as the officers in Walk The Blue Line.

One story in particular really caught my attention for several reasons: 1) I’ve had the honor of meeting the deputy it’s about; 2) The incident itself clearly demonstrates the power of courage and determination over all obstacles or odds; 3) It’s a story that should be told and discussed in every police academy in the world during officer survival training.

That story is about Deputy Jennifer Fulford. One day while assigned a rookie and while on patrol, they get a call that seems “routine.” There is no such thing as routine in police work and she finds that out as the call sees her ultimately facing two armed subjects intent on killing her. Hit ten times during the shootout, Fulford stayed in the fight, kept herself focused and functioned as best she could given the injuries she sustained. Hers is a true story of officer survival as she demonstrated every skill and tactic taught in the police academy. Driven to help people, after she recovered from her injuries, she went back to work. Even her own father was amazed and surprised. Why did she do that? “Because I want to help people,” was her answer. Remember above where Patterson said the stories were heartwarming? There you go. That’s the perfect example.

Eversmann is an Army Ranger combat veteran.  He has “seen the elephant” as they say. As such, he has a keen sense of when he’s hearing BS or he’s hearing the truth from someone who has also seen that elephant. It’s in their demeanor. It’s in their choice of words. It’s in the inflection of their voice. It’s in their eyes. “It takes one to know one,” is a common phrase and his ability to recognize fellow warriors played a key role in the creation of this book, in this compilation of achingly true stories.

Before I could finish reading part one… tears were flowing. As a forty year veteran of law enforcement, having spent all of it just outside the eastern border of our nation’s capital, there have been experiences that will never be forgotten. The stories in this book make the memories fresh and the emotions flow. It’s moving in a way that no fiction can be – and that was just part one: PROTECT.

Part two: SERVE has tears flowing before the end of the first story. Should a retired police officer be ashamed to cry? Not in the least. The tears result from feeling the hard reality of a described incident followed by the courageous outlook and actions of a responding officer; an officer who experiences the same ache, shock, anger, etc. and holds it all together to care for a now orphaned child. If you don’t believe in angels, I defy you to hold that same conviction after reading this book.

Part Three: DEFEND gives a view of law enforcement experiences from a different perspective; one that shows the sacrifices often made either by the officer involved or someone they are close to. These stories make it abundantly clear how important investigations, thinking like a criminal and being able to take appropriate preventative actions can be.

Throughout the book you’ll see just how often law enforcement professionals grew out of our military’s ranks. A significant number of police officers and deputy sheriffs are former military. There’s a reason that so many state troopers used to be (still are?) Marines. There are stories about what motivated people to enter police work and how that motivation – inevitably about helping others – carried them through trying times. The reality of life and death is clear as the stories are told and offer a gritty insight into police work that is too often either ignored or glossed over by others. Patterson and Eversmann have compiled a harshly realistic yet heartwarming anthology of true tales that everyone should read and, perhaps more importantly, feel.