Police Stories: Making One Bit of Difference

Did anyone ever tell you that despite all of your hard work in law enforcement that nothing you did would make one bit of difference?  Well that’s what one officer told a young Steve Dixon at the beginning of his police career but he didn’t believe it, and spent the next 36 years proving he could make a difference.

Steve had a long and varied career starting with 5 years in the Military Police.  Then after he got out of the Army he spent 11 years working for the Santa Clara Police Department in California, and he finished his career working for the San Jose Police Department in California for over 20 years.  He retired in 2008 as a Sergeant from San Jose PD.

Now that he is retired, Steve has written a book to prove that he did make One Bit of Difference, and with the book he is motivating all the rest of us to examine our career and for us to make a difference in our careers as well.

In “Police Stories: Making One Bit of Difference” Retired Sergeant Steve Dixon offers us a collection of stories and anecdotes from his career about the good and bad of police work.  The book, while written for cops, is not just for people in law enforcement and tells things like Steve saw them over 36 years as a cop.  Steve doesn’t pull all of his punches either, as he talks candidly about lazy cops and poor leadership in law enforcement.

Steve tells stories of shootings and high speed chases, of dangerous criminals and ineffective cops.  He describes a situation where he was holding a very dangerous suspect at gun point after calling for backup and then noticing that he wasn’t hearing any sirens coming to his aid.  He also describes the chaos of a robbery, homicide scene and the sometimes humorous activity from the many law enforcement agencies that responded.  He also explains a situation where he was in a standoff with two armed suspects, across the hood of a car after a high speed chase,… and thought he had a fellow officer backing him up only to find out that the first person to arrive at the scene was an unarmed security guard.

Steve describes humorous as well as tragic situations and uses the opportunity, and his many years experience teaching in the police academy, to educate young officers about the real values of police work like treating suspects with respect and dignity.

I encourage you to buy a copy of Steve’s book and also to listen to our 39 minute interview below.

Learn more about Steve’s book by CLICKING HERE and find Steve on FaceBook by CLICKING HERE.  Order the book on Amazon.com by CLICKING HERE.

You can listen to our 39 minute interview here:

Or you can download the 7 MB mp3 file by RIGHT CLICK HERE to download (that’s CONTROL CLICK if you use a Mac then SAVE LINK AS…) a copy of the mp3 file.

CopsAlive.com was founded to provide information and strategies to help police officers successfully survive their careers.  We help law enforcement officers and their agencies prepare for the risks that threaten their existence.

We do this by Helping Law Enforcement professionals plan for happy, healthy and successful lives on the job and beyond.  We think the best strategy is for each officer to create a tactical plan for their own life and career.

The Law Enforcement Survival Institute (LESI) works with individuals and organizations to help them create and sustain success in their lives and careers as law enforcement professionals.  It is the primary goal of The Law Enforcement Survival Institute to become the preeminent source for training, resources and information about how to create and sustain a happy, healthy and successful life and career while providing superior law enforcement service to your community.

About Editor

John Marx was a Police Officer for twenty-three years and served as a Hostage Negotiator for nineteen of those years. He worked as a patrol officer, media liaison officer, crime prevention officer and burglary detective. Also during his career he served as administrator of his city's Community Oriented Governance initiative through the police department's Community Policing project. Today John combines his skills to consult with businesses about improving both their security and their customer service programs. John retired from law enforcement in 2002. When one of his friends, also a former police officer, committed suicide at age 38, John was devastated and began researching the problems that stress creates for police officers. He decided he needed to do something to help change those problems and he wanted to give something back to the profession that gave him so much. He started a project that has evolved into CopsAlive.com. Put simply, the mission of CopsAlive is to save the lives of those who save lives! CopsAlive.com gathers information, strategies and tools to help law enforcement professionals plan for happy, healthy and successful careers, relationships and lives.
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One Comment

  1. I’m really looking forward to reading this one. As I’m wrapping up my career, I struggle with the very same question.

    As everyone in the business knows, there are incredible highs, and deep lows, and unrepairable damage that comes from extended time in the job regardless of who you are, so at the end I think everyone must ask, was it worth it? I look forward to this one.

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