Foreword

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all of the hard working professional law enforcement personnel around the world, at whatever level they work at, especially the police on street and highway patrols. Each day these people go to work and put their lives on the line while not knowing if the next person they pull over or speak to will be some desperate criminal on the run or a crazy person out to harm someone. Yet they do this each day, and the great majority interact with people in a calm and friendly way, despite meeting people at some of the worst times of their lives.

I also wish to honour the paramedics, firemen, and ambulance crews who also risk their own lives and well being when they race to calls to help other people, and while they help them in dangerous situations.

From the bottom of my heart,

I thank you all for what you do.

Another Big Thank You

Law enforcement where I live, in New South Wales, Australia, is very different to how it operates in the USA. I wish to thank Captain Jack Oakman of the Henry County Sheriff’s Office for helping me to better understand how the law enforcement units in the Atlanta area are organised and how they interact. In order to better suit the story I’ve had to use some ‘poetic licence’ on the public information supplied to me. However, without his able assistance I would’ve had some very serious errors in that part of the story.

I found Captain Oakman to be very helpful and professional in my exchanges of emails with him. Henry County is well served to have officers of this calibre working in their law enforcement organisations.

Foreword

In most of the USA the head of the local law enforcement in an area is the County Sheriff, usually with a Sheriff’s Office employing deputies to do the hands on law enforcement work. However, in some areas they also have city, metropolitan, and special police forces; such as a college police force. There are also differences in the law enforcement structure which varies from State to State. In each case they have authority only in their area of jurisdiction, and they then also have jurisdictional issues with matters that may also fall under the legal authority of the other law enforcement organisations like the relevant State Police Force (usually called state troopers) or federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), US Marshals Service, Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Secret Service, and many others. In general, they all get along and work well together, but not all of the people involved get on well with those from the other groups; this is especially true for some of the local - federal people’s interactions due to their individual personal attitudes.

In Georgia, USA, the Sheriff receives his law enforcement authority from the State Constitution, along with approval to give this authority to Deputies. The Sheriff and his Deputies have county wide jurisdiction with some minor limitations while the police departments receive their law enforcement authority through their elected local governing body which is authorized via a Charter from the State government when a new city or county or special authority is formed. In general, the local police forces are limited to their legal jurisdiction under their authorizing charter. The Sheriff’s Office is not a department under their local county government, although they are funded through the county government.

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