My Road To The Badge

Ever since Brett Calman was a little boy, he dreamed of becoming a police officer. But over the decades the ordinary progress of life seemed to get in the way of that dream. As an adult, he found himself working as an upholsterer; he maintained a successful business for a few years, but, despite the name he'd made for himself and how far he'd come, something was missing from his life, and he knew exactly what it was. He just had to figure out how to get it. Brett didn't know anything about the process of becoming a police officer or about policing itself. He didn't know any cops. But he did know that he wanted to be one, and that he'd do whatever it took. It was ten years ago that Brett came to this critical decision in his life, and, within a short period of time, he realized his dream and became an active member of an Ontario, Canada, police force. My Road to the Badge is the story of how he got where he is today and the incredible insights, experiences, and information he collected along the way.

Introduces the history and culture of the nation's provinces and offers advice on accommodations, transportation, languages, restaurants, and interesting places to visit.

On a balmy April morning in 1954, James Moore was sworn in as a member of the Toledo Police Academys twelfth cadet class and began what would eventually become a twenty-six-year career with a police force intent on fiercely protecting the citizens of its beloved city. The Naked Badge shares powerful, hard-hitting anecdotes of the realities of Toledo, Ohio, law enforcement that took place from 1950s to the 1970s. With from-the-heart honesty that at times reads like fiction, Moore provides a compelling glimpse into a time when formal training was minimal and outdated; there were no such things as computers, portable radios, bulletproof vests, or air-conditioned vehicles; pay was minimal; and officers worked a forty-eight-hour week. While revealing the stark vulnerabilities of rookie patrolmen, Moore shares real-life cases that disclose his own failures and shortcomings as his career takes him from a patrolman assigned to walking beats in the toughest sections of the city to a veteran captain who prided himself on treating everyone fairly. The Naked Badge offers an enlightening and entertaining look into the intriguing world of police work during a period of great change in America.

"Set in Calgary in 1982, during the recession that arrived on the heels of Canada's National Energy Program, The Western Alienation Merit Badge follows the Murray family as they struggle with grief and find themselves on the brink of financial ruin. After the death of her stepmother, Frances "Frankie" Murray returns to Calgary to help her father, Jimmy, and her sister, Bernadette, pay the mortgage on the family home. When Robyn, a long-lost friend, becomes their house guest old tensions are reignited and Jimmy, Bernadette and Frances find themselves increasingly alienated from one another. Part family drama, part queer coming-of-age story, The Western Alienation Merit Badge explores the complex dynamics of a small family falling apart."--

Badge 112 is the story of a restless boy orphaned in high school, and his unlikely passage from juvenile delinquent to decorated police officer. When Peter Stipe finds his mother after her suicide, it leaves him scarred and isolated. After a couple of brushes with the law, his dad sends him off to Culver Military Academy to provide structure and discipline. In a whirlwind final summer, he found himself paired with the most beautiful girl on campus and clashing with the commandant. This pattern of behavior would define his years in high school. At 17, his father’s sudden death from cancer cast him adrift. After beginning work in a warehouse, Stipe is soon befriended by a firefighter who’d lost his only son to combat in Vietnam. The father figure took the aimless youth under his wing, instilling a tireless work ethic while suggesting a career in civil service. Though his spell of misdirection continued, Stipe heeded the advice and found himself working for the Building Department, enforcing city codes and inspecting houses. Trained in every aspect of code enforcement, his laid-back style was effective with business owners, landlords and residents. But he saw the grim effects of poverty first hand, exposed to wretched living conditions. The homes and apartments he inspected were so filthy, he had to strip his clothes off outside when he got home. However, assignments all over town enabled him to learn Ann Arbor like the back of his hand. His skill in code-enforcement led to a personal recruitment by Ann Arbor’s Police Chief to become an officer. A 29-year-old rookie, Stipe left his mark, combining instinct, orientation and superb fitness to catch criminals and save lives. He confronts the memory of his own mother’s death by handling the suicides of several more victims, many to gunfire. His negotiation skills spare the lives of many more. While on the force, Stipe embarked on a series of high-profile arrests, high-speed pursuits, foot chases, bank robberies, hostage situations, homicides, life and death struggles and harrowing rescues. In 1994, a serial killer investigation exposed the strained racial tensions between the police and the public they serve. Stipe and the killer confront one another in court. Stipe’s tactical training results in his assignment as the point man on the SWAT Team. He engages in a sequence of armed encounters, some at point blank range. The peak in his career is toppled by a turbulent marriage to an unfaithful wife, an ill-fated affair with an attractive partner, and the tragic drowning of two teenage girls, trapped in a submerged car. When the veteran officer bottomed out and became immune to hope and humor, he was rescued from the brink by a succession of intuitive patrol partners and the girl that sold him coffee. Badge 112 is about survival in the darkest corners of society, and about a cop turning tragedy and adversity into hope and redemption in the dim light of life on his patrol beat.