WD Editors

Police Procedure & Investigation (Howdunit series)
By Lee Lofland
Foreword by Stuart Kaminsky
ISBN: 978-1-58297-455-2
$19.99, 384 pages

Read an Excerpt Now!

Learn about what the first officer on a crime does. Click here to view or download an excerpt from Chapter 7: Crime Scene Investigation.

About the Book

Not everything you see on your favorite crime show is accurate. In fact, a lot of it is flat out wrong. Police Procedure & Investigation helps you get your facts straight about the inner workings of law enforcement.

With a career in law enforcement that spanned nearly two decades, author Lee Lofland is a nationally acclaimed expert on police procedures and crime scene investigations who consults regularly with best-selling authors and television producers. Now you can benefit from his years of experience with Police Procedure & Investigation.

This comprehensive resource includes:

• More than 80 photographs, illustrations, and charts showing everything from defensive moves used by officers to prison cells and autopsies
• Detailed information on officer training, tools of the trade, drug busts, con air procedures, crime scene investigation techniques, and more
• First-person details from the author about his experiences as a detective, including accounts of arrests, death penalty executions, and criminal encounters

Police Procedure & Investigation is the next best thing to having a police detective personally assigned to your book!

Praise for the Book

This book is a zinger! Police Procedure & Investigation is packed with all-you-need-to-know detail, yet it reads like a best-selling thriller. I know it’s a “Guide for Writers,” but I think anyone interested in the world of law enforcement should get a copy. Read it on the beach, read it on the train, read it on your way to a murder scene.
—Jeffery Deaver, author of The Bone Collector and The Sleeping Doll

Police Procedure & Investigation is an invaluable tool for writers of mystery fiction.
—J.A. Jance, New York Times best-selling mystery author

This book belongs in the library of every crime writer! More than merely a reference book for writers, Police Procedure & Investigation is also lively and entertaining, a fascinating inside look at law enforcement, told by a police professional with a writer’s eye for detail.
—Tess Gerritsen, author of The Mephisto Club

Lots of cops know a thing or two about police procedure, but I haven’t found anyone else who explains the things writers need to know with Lee Lofland’s economy and humor. This is one reference book you’ll use!
—S.J. Rozan, award-winning author of In This Rain

Lee Lofland has written the ultimate insider’s guide to police procedure, an invaluable cheat-sheet for crime novelists who want their fiction to feel as real as possible. Now every writer has a friend on The Force he can turn to for accurate information on how cops do what they do.
—Lee Goldberg, Edgar-nominated writer for the TV series Diagnosis Murder, Psych, Missing, and Monk

This is THE comprehensive guide to American police procedure that should be on every mystery writer’s bookshelf. Lee Lofland really knows his stuff.
—Rhys Bowen, award-winning author of In Dublin’s Fair City: A Molly Murphy Mystery

Lee Lofland’s Police Police Procedure & Investigation reads like a thriller. It’s every crime writer’s indispensable reference—packed with the kind of information and insider knowledge that make the police procedure in crime fiction feel authentic.
—Hallie Ephron, Edgar-nominated novelist and author of Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel

Forget making endless phone calls and begging for a moment of a police officer’s time for help with research for a book. Start here—Lee Lofland has done the work for you. Knowledgeable answers to many of your questions about law enforcement and investigations can be found on the pages of Police Procedure & Investigation. This is an essential reference work for any writer of crime fiction.
—Jan Burke, Edgar Award winner and the best-selling author of Bloodlines, Bones, and Kidnapped, and the founder of the Crime Lab Project

About the Author

With a career in law enforcement that spanned nearly two decades, Lee Lofland (www.leelofland.com) is a nationally acclaimed expert on police procedures and crime scene investigations. He consults for many best-selling authors, and is currently working with Stuart Kaminsky on the CSI: NY series. He is a regular speaker at writers conferences, including the Left Coast Crime Conference, Pennwriters Conference, Deadly Ink, and Willamette Writers Conference.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

Chapter 1: Law Enforcement in America

Chapter 2: The Police Academy

Chapter 3: Police Officers: Their Duties and Equipment

Chapter 4: Detectives

Chapter 5: Arrest and Search Procedures

Chapter 6: Homicide, Murder, and Manslaughter

Chapter 7: Crime Scene Investigation

Chapter 8: Fingerprinting

Chapter 9: DNA

Chapter 10: Autopsy

Chapter 11: Drugs, Not Money, Are the Root of All Evil

Chapter 12: Tell It to the Judge: Courts and the Legal Process

Chapter 13: Prisons and Jails

Chapter 14: Con Air: Coffee, Tea, or Handcuff Key?

Chapter 15: The Death Penalty

Chapter 16: C.S. … I Don’t Think So

Epilogue

Appendix A: Glossary of Terms
Appendix B: Police 10-Codes
Appendix C: Drug Quantity Table
Appendix D: Federal Sentencing Table