NCJ Number
225016
Date Published
2002
Length
284 pages
Annotation
Out of hundreds of stories of police heroism above and beyond the call of duty, this book selected 26 to represent the “uncommon valor that is very common among our Nation‘s law enforcement officers.”
Abstract
In one story, an officer in Oakland, CA died in the smoke and flames of a raging forest fire engulfing a residential neighborhood after a succession of trips to evacuate residents. In another story, a New York City police officer defused a deadly bomb in a Planned Parenthood office just seconds before it was timed to explode. Two Kansas Highway Patrol officers risked their lives to save fellow officers and citizens from death and/or serious injury on an ice-covered stretch of highway that caused multiple cars to lose traction at high speeds. In other stories, an Alaska State Trooper single-handedly captured five dangerous gunmen; a Las Vegas police officer faced down a gunman; an Arizona deputy sheriff rescued the injured victim of a plane crash, holding him in a harness under the rescue helicopter while it traveled a mile to a safe spot; and a Newark (New Jersey) detective nearly died from gunshot wounds caused by a domestic-violence perpetrator as the detective accompanied the victim back into her house after she reported a violent incident. These and other stories in this book show how officers daily place themselves in high-risk, life-threatening situations in service to the public. A 134-item bibliography