The psychologist on the other end of the phone line said, “Oh no, they weren’t supposed to say you failed.”

“What were they supposed to say,” I asked.

“They should have said that the testing showed personality traits of the applicant were not congruent with that of a successful police officer.”

“That’s funny,” I said. “Right now, I am putting on my uniform for the 3-11 shift for the department I’ve worked with for over a year.”

The backstory is that a friend of mine from the police academy class I graduated from worked at the department I was applying to. After a year on the job, he had a lot a great things to say about his department. I had passed the written test with flying colors, passed the physical and was getting ready for an oral interview until I hit this speed bump. I worked in a four-stoplight township in Montgomery County, PA and his department, still in the county, bordered the roughest part of Philly with more action, more specialized units and better pay. It was the summer of 1977. I was feeling claustrophobic in my fourteen-square mile slice of horse farms and suburbia.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

Having minored in Psychology, I wasn’t finished with him yet. “Who made up the comparison group demographic?”

He wasn’t ready for that question and coughed. “The cohort were successful police officers who were promoted to Sargeant.”

“Where?”

“Milwaukee, Wisconsin.”

“When?

“Ugh, 1957.”

“Any college graduates represented in the cohort?”

“No.”

“Any Blacks?”

A little more uncomfortable now, “Don’t think so.”

“Women? I remember when I sat for the written test there were blacks and women in attendance,” I said.

“All male,” he said.

“A mid-Western town, pre-civil rights, pre-Vietnam war medium-sized city?”

“Yes, he replied.”

“Sorta like Happy Days with Richie Cunningham and the Fonz,” I said recalling the hit TV show at the time.

“I can’t argue with that comparison.”

“Probably a lot of veterans from World War II and Korea,” I added.

“Most likely, veterans tend to gravitate to police work.

“I agree, I have several Vietnam vets on my PD. Average age?”

“Early thirties,” he said.

“And you think this is a valid test?” I know it was like I was asking a barber if I needed a haircut.

“The personality traits test transcend age, ethnicity, education, geographical location….”

“But not life experience. Don’t you think fighting in a war and several years on the streets of the beer capital of America forges a personality? I don’t want to get into the whole nature versus nurture debate.”

“I cannot disagree with you,” he said.

“Safe using a double negative there, Doc. Well, I have to get my young, Dean’s list, East Coast suburban ass in gear if I don’t want to be late.” I had learned previously challenging a township’s hiring practices was satisfying, but in the end I was still the little kid looking into the candy store window. That story is for next week.

“Again, I am sorry for the letter,” he said.

“Not as sorry as you will be if any black females go to the Civil Service Commission.” The Federal Judiciary was keen to address years of institutional discrimination. “Maybe, it is time to design a new test.” I hung up before he could get the last word in.

Second Chance Vest went over a white T and under a short-sleeve uniform shirt; put pants on next with a skinny black belt followed by a Sam Browne belt holding all the town-issued lethal, non-lethal and restraining tools of the trade, black socks and matching spit-shined leather shoes with rubber soles completed this flunky’s ensemble. I stared at the pimply-faced policeman in the mirror. I failed a f-ing personality test. That’s BS!

As I hurried to the station, my father’s words rang in my head when I told him six years earlier I wanted to take Criminal Justice at Indiana University of PA. (great school, great program to this day) He said, “you don’t need to go to college to be a cop.”

Fifty years later, I have the benefit of hindsight. Now, I realize three things:

1. I benefit from White Privilege, White Male Privilege specifically.
2. I was surfing with the first wave of college-educated cops, and I fell onto the hidden reef. (remember, during the Vietnam War, many college students hurled profanities and other things at the bearers of riot shields and batons, not a real Kumbaya time in our history)
3. The transition from being a war fighter to a public servant has its own issues, but police organizations still hire followers (of orders and chain of command,) and not outspoken independent thinkers (visit most state or large municipal police training academies).
4. Another piece of advice from my father was, “You have to go along to get along.” Easier said than done for my hard-drinking, untreated, and undiagnosed ADHD stubborn-to-a- fault self.

So the psychologist was right, my personality wasn’t a good fit. It took years in corporate life to realize finally I was better off working for myself and in 1997, I created my first private investigations company. My father was somewhat right, I could have saved him my tuition, room and board, but the education was priceless. I learned how to be a team player, more like an owner-manager of my team.

Regrets?

Some.

But I learned how to swim in open water and not the safety of the lagoon and I wouldn’t trade that experience for a twenty or twenty-five years to get a pension from a police department where I would have been miserable.

How about some hard-earned advice on navigating the turbulent waters of modern-day policing?

1. Act like your immediate supervisor and their boss are the smartest persons in the room- nobody likes a show off.
2. Technical or tactical ability is less important than working on your relationships–nobody likes a smart ass.
3. If your goals don’t mesh with your organization’s–you are the square peg–soften your edges or get out and find your own square hole.
4. Clearly be grounded in the Oath you took, (recite it tonight before bedtime), step back and assess situations and ask if you are being drawn to a solution where you will tarnish your badge. Come up with a better solution. You will be better prepared the next time.

Katie studied Film and English at Carleton University, TV Broadcasting at Algonquin College and filmmaking at the prestigious Summer Institute of Film and Television and Women in the Director’s Chair. In the two decades that followed, Katie enjoyed an award-winning career as a screenwriter and director, collaborating on projects in animation, television and motion pictures. Supported by the Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts, her films screened at the San Francisco International Film Festival, Sudbury Cinefest, Local Heroes International Film Festival and the NSI Film Exchange.

In 2013, Katie’s first-ever manuscript, Gone Monday, won top prize in the international Mslexia Women’s Novel Writing Competition. Buoyed by this unexpected success, and with her trusty golden retriever, Levi, by her side, Katie began writing another novel that was to become her publishing debut. The thriller Dark August is set in the Wellington West neighbourhood where she lives with her husband, Andy. The novel became an international bestseller and inspired a sequel. The follow-up to Dark August brings back her feisty protagonist for another cold case in the novel, Poison Lilies. Katie’s beloved Levi lives on in both novels.

https://katietallo.com/

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There’s always murder and mystery in the works for Sarah. #FollowMe for Murder, first in the Trending Topic Mysteries, shines the spotlight on a social media influencer after she discovers a dead body in her clients’ store, forcing her to untangle a web of secrets in her small, beachside town.
Sarah is also the author of the award-winning paranormal cozy mystery You Can’t Candle the Truth, first in the Glenmyre Whim Mysteries. Readers are introduced to candle shop owner Hazel Wickbury. Hazel has a secret. She knows when someone is going to die. This power, known as a “whim,” helps Hazel uncover a murder in her hometown. Together with her aunt, Hazel aims to shine a light on the killer before they snuff her out.
Sarah’s latest Court of Mystery novel, Innocence Imprisoned, features her fearless heroine, Duchess Jacqueline Xavier, first introduced in The Ducal Detective Mysteries. This is the eighth book in the Court of Mystery series.
Sarah is a member of Sisters in Crime, currently serving as the social media guru for the NY-TriState Chapter. She is also the creative mind behind BookstaBundles, a content creation service for authors. When she’s not spinning up stories, Sarah is singing Broadway show tunes, video gaming, and enjoying walks with her dog, Eevee.

https://www.saraheburr.com/
https://www.instagram.com/authorsaraheburr/
https://www.facebook.com/authorsaraheburr/

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Catriona was born in Scotland and lived there until 2010, then immigrated to California where she lives on Patwin ancestral land. A former academic linguist, she now writes full-time. Her multi-award-winning and national best-selling work includes: the DANDY GILVER historical detective stories, the LAST DITCH mysteries, set in California, and a strand of contemporary standalone novels including Edgar-finalist THE DAY SHE DIED and Mary Higgins Clark finalist STRANGERS AT THE GATE. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, The Crimewriters’ Association, The Society of Authors and Sisters in Crime, of which she is a former national president.

http://catrionamcpherson.com/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063049789492

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Lori Duffy Foster is a former crime reporter who writes fiction and nonfiction from the hills of Northern Pennsylvania, where she lives with her husband and four children. She was born and raised in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State, where a part of her heart remains.
Her short fiction has appeared in the journal Aethlon, and in the anthologies Short Story America and Childhood Regained. Her nonfiction has appeared in Healthy Living, Running Times, Literary Mama, Crimespree and Mountain Home magazines.
A Dead Man’s Eyes, the first in the Lisa Jamison mystery/suspense series, is her debut novel.  Book two in the series, Never Broken, came out in April of 2022. Her first standalone thriller, Never Let Go, releases in December of 2022. She is also author of Raising Identical Twins: The Unique Challenges and Joys of the Early Years.
Her nonfiction book, Raising Identical Twins: The Unique Challenges and Joys of the Early Years, is available from Amazon.
Lori is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, International Thriller Writers, The Historical Novel Society and Pennwriters. She is also vice president of the Knoxville (PA) Public Library board.

https://loriduffyfoster.com/author/loriduffyfoster/
https://www.facebook.com/loriduffyfosterauthor
https://www.instagram.com/lori.duffy.foster/

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Ausma Zehanat Khan is the author of The Unquiet Dead, published by St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books, and winner of the Barry Award, the Arthur Ellis Award and the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award for Best First Novel, as well as a 2016 Macavity Award finalist. Works in Khan’s critically acclaimed Esa Khattak/Rachel Getty mystery series include The Language of Secrets,  A Death in Sarajevo, Among the Ruins, and A Dangerous Crossing. In A Deadly Divide, the fifth and latest book in the series, Detectives Khattak and Getty investigate a mosque shooting in Quebec, and explore the after-effects of a rising tide of Islamophobia in both the province and the nation.  CrimeReads named Khan one of the Rising Stars of Crime Fiction in the 2010s, and both CrimeReads and Library Journal named A Deadly Divide one of the best crime novels of 2019.
Khan has been featured in a Shondaland profile of Muslim Women Authors Everyone Should Know, and as Ms. Chatelaine in Chatelaine magazine. Most recently, she was profiled on Public Radio International. She frequently appears on CBC Radio, and has been interviewed by the BBC World Service and BBC Radio Woman’s Hour, as well as appearing on CTV Your Morning, CBS and The Agenda.
The Bloodprint, Ausma Zehanat Khan’s fantasy debut, has been hailed as “one of the year’s finest fantasy debuts”. Published by Harper Voyager US & UK, The Bloodprint is Book One of The Khorasan Archives, a four-book epic fantasy series, that was followed by The Black Khan in October 2018, and The Blue Eye in 2019. In 2019, Khan was a Sirens Guest of Honor. The Bladebone, the epic conclusion of The Khorasan Archives was published in October 2020.
Khan’s non-fiction book, Ramadan, for middle-grade students, was published by Orca Books as part of the Origins series in Spring 2018.  It was selected as a Children’s Book Council Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People 2019, and as the Children’s Literature Roundtable of Canada’s 2019 Information Book Award Honour Book.  Ramadan has also been nominated for a Hackmatack Children’s Choice Award.
Khan’s nonfiction essay, “Origins and Destinations”, was published by Seal Press in the crime writers’ anthology, Private Investigations, edited by Victoria Zackheim, in 2020. She also has the short story, “The Once and Future Qadi”, forthcoming in the Sword Stone Table anthology, and a crime story in a new BAME anthology.
A frequent lecturer and commentator, Khan holds a Ph.D. in international human rights law with a research specialization in military intervention and war crimes in the Balkans, from Osgoode Hall Law School. She completed her LL.B. and LL.M. at the University of Ottawa, and her B.A. in English literature & sociology at the University of Toronto.
Formerly, she served as Editor in Chief of Muslim Girl magazine. The first magazine to address a target audience of young Muslim women, Muslim Girl re-shaped the conversation about Muslim women in North America. The magazine was the subject of two documentaries, and hundreds of national and international profiles and interviews, including CNN International, Current TV, and Al Jazeera “Everywoman”.
Khan practiced immigration law in Toronto and has taught international human rights law at Northwestern University, as well as human rights and business law at York University. She is a long-time community activist and writer, and currently lives in Colorado with her husband.
Khan has a new crime series forthcoming with Minotaur Books which features American Muslim detective Inaya Rahman. Inaya investigates homicides in minority communities in Colorado with her partner Catalina Hernandez, and independent monitor Areesha Adams – a trio of Muslim, Latina and Black investigators who work to change a system impervious to reform from both the inside and the outside. The series debut, Blackwater Falls, will be published in 2022.

https://www.ausmazehanatkhan.com/

Twitter: @ausmaehanat

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Paula Munier is a literary agent and the USA TODAY bestselling author of the Mercy Carr mysteries. A Borrowing of Bones, the first in the series, was nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award and named the Dogwise Book of the Year. Blind Search was inspired by the real-life rescue of a little boy with autism who got lost in the woods. The Hiding Place debuted in March, 2021. Her latest Mercy Carr mystery, The Wedding Plot, releases July 19, 2022 through Minotaur Books. Paula credits the hero dogs of Mission K9 Rescue, her own rescue dogs, and a deep love of New England as her series’ major influences.

Paula has also written three popular books on writing: Plot Perfect, The Writer’s Guide to Beginnings, and Writing with Quiet Hands, as well as Fixing Freddie and Happier Every Day.
https://paulamunier.com/

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New York Times bestselling author Marc Cameron’s Jericho Quinn Thriller Series debuted in 2011. Since then, he’s written eight Quinn novels and four Arliss Cutter novels featuring a deputy US marshal based in Alaska, including the most recent Cutter, BONE RATTLE, and the upcoming COLD SNAP (April 2022 from Kensington Publishing Corp.)  Marc is the author of five Tom Clancy/Jack Ryan novels for the Tom Clancy estate, including the most recent, SHADOW OF THE DRAGON and the upcoming CHAIN OF COMMAND (November 2021 from GP Putnam’s Sons/Penguin Random House.)

A retired Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal, Marc spent nearly thirty years in law enforcement. He holds a second-degree black belt in jujitsu and is a certified law enforcement scuba diver and man-tracking instructor. The job of a deputy US marshal is extremely varied. Marc’s career focused primarily on dignitary protection and fugitive operations. As a member of the rural Tactical Tracking Unit for the US Marshals District of Alaska, Marc routinely tracked lost hikers, hunters, and fugitives in the vast Alaska bush. His assignments have taken him from Alaska to Manhattan, Canada to Mexico and dozens of points in between.

Originally from Texas, Marc is an avid outdoorsman, sailor, and adventure motorcyclist.  He and his wife live in Alaska where they raised their three children.

https://marccameronbooks.com/

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Barbarajean Magnani, PhD, MD, FCAP—Professor of Anatomic and Clinical Pathology, and Medicine, and the former Chair of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA—is internationally recognized for her expertise in clinical chemistry and toxicology. During her career, she received three Outstanding Speaker Awards from the Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC); and from the College of American Pathologists (CAP)/CAP Foundation, the 2012 Outstanding Communicator Award, the 2014 Distinguished Patient Care Award, and the 2014 Gene and Jean Herbek Humanitarian Award. Dr. Magnani also received the Distinguished Career in Teaching Award from the Tufts University School of Medicine in 2019.  In addition, she has been named a Top Doctor in Boston magazine and was included by Castle Connelly in Exceptional Women in Medicine. Dr. Magnani was also named one of the Top 100 Most Influential Laboratory Medicine Professionals in the World by The Pathologist.

Dr. Magnani—the former Chair of the CAP Toxicology Committee and member of the CAP Council on Scientific Affairs—has served as the member-at-large of the TDM and Toxicology Division of the AACC and as an editor of Clinical and Forensic Toxicology News. Dr. Magnani is also one of the editors of The Clinical Toxicology Laboratory: Contemporary Practice of Poisoning Evaluation, 2^nd edition (AACC Press), and Clinical Toxicology Testing: A Guide for Laboratory Professionals, 2^nd edition (CAP Press).

Her works of fiction include Lily Robinson and the Art of Secret Poisoning (nVision Press), and the Dr. Lily Robinson series, The Queen of All Poisons, The Power of Poison, and A Message in Poison (Encircle Publications).

https://www.bjmagnani.com/

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Mariah Fredericks was born and raised in New York City, where she still lives today with her family. She is a graduate of Vassar College with a BA in history. Her novel Crunch Time was nominated for an Edgar in 2007. Her Jane Prescott series, set in 1910s New York, has twice been nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award. Her next novel, The Lindbergh Nanny, will be published in November, 2022.

Mariahfredericksbooks.com

Today’s episode is brought to you by John’s full series of crime thrillers available right now. You can get them through Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/John-A.-Hoda/e/B00BGPXBMM%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share  You can also sign up for the newsletter at http://www.JohnHoda.com to get a free copy of John’s new novella Liberty City Nights.

Thank you for listening. If you have a moment to spare please leave a rating or comment on Apple Podcasts as that will help us expand the circle around our campfire. If you have any questions please feel to reach out to me via my website http://www.johnhoda.com