Adam Plantinga

My older daughter regularly wins at family games of Clue. I find this disconcerting because I have 20 years of experience investigating violent felonies whereas she is 11.

Hard Town is a mere $2.99 on Kindle for a limited time only. Buy it immediately. Or just disregard this and keep doing what you were doing. Either decision is a defensible one.

A prevailing police weakness is our unwillingness to seriously consider a viewpoint other than our own. The public might be wrong on some issues, or have unrealistic expectations of the police. But we have to listen to them. Atticus Finch said to really understand someone, you…

My brother & I were remembering a kid from grade school who used to see how far from the urinal he could stand & still pee in it. My brother claims his stream was so high, kids would walk 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟 it. This was 40+ years ago, we haven't seen him since, and he remains a legend.

One of the unfortunate side effects of police reform is some cops using lousy officer safety techniques with dangerous suspects to appease a squeamish public. I’ve seen that more than once. You don’t want police second-guessing themselves and getting hurt over politics.

A worthy outlook on road rage comes from comedian Dobie Maxwell, who said “Driving a crappy car changes your entire mindset. If someone cuts me off on the freeway, I can’t flip them off, because I may need that guy to jump-start me in a few minutes.”

Patience pays off: @AdamPlantinga's next Kurt Argento Book, HARD TOWN, is $2.99 today on Amazon US. Now I have something to read on the flight home. a.co/d/aPWglrC

Some cops get burned out. Too much blood and screaming. Time to step off line for a while. If that’s the case, there may be a place for you on a large department where you can still contribute to the department’s mission but be far from the madding crowd. I was reminded of this…

I once talked to a bomb squad sgt. about the scene from Lethal Weapon II where Murtaugh is sitting on an explosive-rigged toilet and Riggs pulls him into a nearby bathtub and pulls a bomb blanket over them. Both men survive the blast and live to crack wise some more. The sgt.…

Some repeat felons are quick to say they can’t catch a break. A gang member on one of my old unit's cases lamented “Every time I try to do good, something comes and messes it up.” Darn that luck. What was this “something” he referred to? A case of stomach flu that prevented him…

Sometimes my co-worker will tell me he's getting a search warrant reviewed by a judge & I say, "Don't you mean a search warrant affidavit. It doesn't technically become a search warrant until the judge signs it" and one day that co-worker is going to punch me in the face.

Especially these days, police academies place an emphasis on ethics training. It doesn’t get too deep; no invocation of Nietzsche or Aquinas. It’s made up of class lectures and scenarios, but it boils down to this: If it isn’t right, don’t do it. If it isn’t true, don’t say it.

Police officers have broad discretion as to whether to issue a traffic citation. Some cops are mainly looking for weapons, contraband, and warrants. If you don't have any of those, possess a valid DL, and didn’t commit a particularly heinous violation, they lose all interest in…

Winner of the best hard-boiled movie cop answering machine message comes courtesy of Bruce Willis as burned-out Pittsburgh detective Tom Hardy in the film Striking Distance. His machine wearily intones: “This is Hardy here. Go.”

Whenever I fill out the threat matrix for a search warrant, I think of John Matrix, Arnold's character in Commando, and then I think of the scene where he throws a steam pipe thru a bad guy in a chainmail-patterned vest. This has been a window into how my brain works.

In 1966, SFPD applicants had to be at least 5'8. I'm told one guy who applied that year was 5’7 so just prior to being measured by the dr., he whacked himself with a stick. When his height was officially taken, the knot on his skull put him at 5’9. He got the job.

Hey folks. I will be in conversation with author and renaissance man Brian Copeland @BrianCopie this Monday July 14th at 5:30 pm at Rakestraw Books in Danville CA regarding his latest thriller Shadows of Justice which has a strong SF connection. Come on down.

NEXT WEEK ON TheThrillerZone.com we welcome soon-to-be-a-household name (even IF I still fup the pronunciation) @AdamPlantinga to discuss his riveting read #HardTown. You won't believe this guy is nearly a "newbie." DON'T MISS EPISODE #235 Now in Season 9 + in vivid color!

You can sometimes play to a crook's ego. A detective I know openly doubted his suspect committed all the burglaries he was accused of in such a short time. The guy took issue with this & convinced the detective he sure could have and then laid out the details of a dozen B&Es.

In a homicide, legally, the prosecution just has to show Person A murdered Person B. Not why. The “why” is just a nice bonus. As Al Pacino’s detective explains to a murder suspect in the film Insomnia, “You're what I'm paid to do. You're about as mysterious to me as a blocked…

I once tried talking a suicidal jumper down with the promise of cigarettes & 2 donuts. It didn't work but a co-worker got him down by playing The Cranberries. And the man still got the donuts. Well, one of them, anyway. A cop ate the other one. You probably saw that coming.