Cops

Right now I am watching a documentary on Channel 4, Coppers, about well, the UK police force. It is a world I am both foreign to and familiar with. I first got into the police world through fiction, via the crime novels I was reading, then the TV dramas I became a fan of. It probably really started with Omertà at home, when I really started to be interested about the work of police officers. There was also the gang war of the 90s which set Montreal ablaze, and which made me more aware of the admirable work of the SQ and the SPVM (except that muppet). I blogged about it here. I became fascinated with real crime history and crime news.

A friend of mine, an army officer, once told me, when I was unemployed, that I should consider a career in the police force, since I was so much into it. It was a ridiculous suggestion. Police officers are to me what birds are to ornithologists: a subject of study and observation, but nothing I could ever think to be a part of. I love to go to crime museums (I dragged my wife to the one in Vancouver), I once chatted with two patrol officers of the SPVM in a café and asked them what type of guns they had (I learned that the SPVM cops have Walthers, the SQ ones have Glocks), I can question a police officer in details about police procedure, ranking, etc. I am fascinated with the little details of a cop's life, the lingo they use, the uniforms, the reports they have with the medias, with the judiciary, etc. I think I could write a convincing picture of police life, if I had the discipline to put my mind into it.