Behind the Badge

Behind the Badge is a collection of true stories and stories drawn from true experience and fictionalized as necessary, by a cop who worked the streets for 30 years You will experience what it is like to go on some of the funniest, saddest, and most exciting radio calls that can be imagined This is about how physically dangerous and mentally draining a cop's world can be Names have been changed to protect the guilty and the innocent, and particular incidents have been adapted to protect privacy while still conveying the essence of a police officer's life and work CAUTION: Adult language and graphic, sometimes very disturbing, content.

Behind the Badge is a collection of true stories and stories drawn from true experience and fictionalized as necessary, by a cop who worked the streets for 30 years You will experience what it is like to go on some of the funniest, saddest, and most exciting radio calls that can be imagined This is about how physically dangerous and mentally draining a cop's world can be. Go behind the badge with Mike Garner, a thirty-year police officer who saw it all on the streets of Sacramento. From the anxiety of training, through the terror of facing armed criminals who have nothing to lose, to the horror of gruesome crime scenes, Behind the Badge takes you into the real world of police work. Straight from the heart, self-described “crazy cop” Mike Garner shows you what it’s like to serve and protect the public. Whether it is the comedy of after-hours horseplay, the tragedy of telling a parent about a child’s death, or the grim evidence at a violent crime scene, Mike Garner lays it all out. You will never look at a cop on the street the same way after reading Behind the Badge. Learn why police officers do what they do and see why even the simplest traffic stop can become a life-or-death moment. Live through academy training, bomb squad experience, chases and arrests, triumphs and disasters, and the inner turmoil of responsibility for citizens’ safety and well-being. Learn through a cop’s eye view why so many police officers are at risk of stress-related illnesses, divorce, alcoholism, and suicide. In Behind the Badge, you’ll learn the cold truth of what it’s like to be a cop. Names have been changed to protect the guilty and the innocent, and particular incidents have been adapted to protect privacy while still conveying the essence of a police officer’s life and work. Adult language and graphic, sometimes very disturbing, content.

Mike Garner was a Sacramento, California, police officer for thirty years. He worked in K-9, bomb unit, street patrol, training, and more. He is retired, but still helping to train police officers while also being the chief caregiver to his elderly mother. The self-described "crazy cop" was an adrenaline junkie who in his career pursued the most challenging and dangerous assignments and accumulated a vast store of knowledge and experience shared in his memoir, sometimes fictionalized slightly for narrative purposes.