Blue Tears: This is the struggle for the soul of a police department.

by Steven M. Dewald

Overview

It is nearly impossible to follow the national news for a week without seeing conflicting descriptions of police officers in the media. Some stories show very dedicated and heroic officers saving citizens from certain death. However, there are also stories of officers who abuse their position and violate the public's trust in law enforcement agencies. The obvious question is how can both kinds of officers exist within our police departments?
The integrity of a law enforcement agency can be more fragile than one might expect. With the best of intentions, agencies require job applicants to undergo lengthy background investigations. Yet some of the people hired conceal weaknesses that reflect the flaws of any society. Although the vast majority of officers join law enforcement for the right reasons, a few of the people hired are not a good fit for the profession.
This is a story about the high personal cost to an individual officer who tried to do his job in an ethical manner while others did not. The story explains what can happen within a department when the wrong people are hired and one weak link in the supervisory chain prevents those people from being held accountable for their actions. Do veteran patrol officers in a department respond with appropriate peer pressure to discourage bad choices? Do all supervisors have the moral courage to hold accountable the small number of officers who put their individual desires before the needs of the department or its citizens? The fight for the soul of this police department hangs in the balance.
Author note: This is a fictionalized story based on actual events that took place during the author's career within the law enforcement community. The story is divided into three main parts representing various stages of one officer's career. The individual characters in the story are a broad composite of different officers the author encountered during his career. These characters should not be interpreted to represent any real individuals alive or dead. The names of the agencies involved have been changed as well.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781519799067
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	01/08/2016
Pages:	242
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.51(d)

About the Author

Steven Dewald has been a resident of Wisconsin for his entire life. He currently lives in the LaCrosse area with his wife and daughter. Following a B.S. degree from UW- River Falls, Steven began his law enforcement career working for the State of Wisconsin. Steven worked in law enforcement for more than 30 years including more than 22 years as a law enforcement supervisor.
Following his retirement in 2011, Steven began his career as an author. His first works consisted of two books of non-fiction law enforcement short stories titled, "Under a Poacher's Moon and Under a Poacher's Moon 2."
To challenge himself as a writer, he followed his two non-fiction works with a fictional romance/police story titled, "Angel at Arch Rock." The most recent work, "Blue Tears," has been a story the author found challenging to write because it required him to re-live difficult experiences from his law enforcement career. However he felt the story was important to write because it was a story other police supervisors could relate to as they encountered difficult challenges in their careers. The author also believes the story can help the public understand why some law enforcement agencies are successful while others fall short.