The Case of the Courteous Killer

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Because of the popularity of the “Dragnet” TV show, the Los Angeles police officer has become symbolic of all municipal police officers. Simultaneously the show has enormously increased the public’s interest in police work and its respect for policemen.

In doing the research for this book, it was my privilege to spend considerable time working with the Los Angeles police department and studying its methods. Prior to this assignment my only knowledge of the department was what I had seen of it on the “Dragnet” TV show, and I approached the study with the preconceived notion that the TV interpretation was probably a highly glamorized one. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I am not a novice at this type of survey. Los Angeles was the fourth major city in which I had made similar police studies. I know what to look for beneath the public-relations hand-outs in order to get a true picture of how efficiently a department functions. I talked and worked with policemen of all rank levels. I drew them out on their feelings about their work, the department, and their superior officers. And I came away from Los Angeles convinced that it probably has the finest, most modern, and most efficient police department in the country, and possibly in the world.

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