Police Psychology | Processing Under Pressure
A Book Review
I am probably the largest distributor in the world of two books, my own Keeping It Simple and Matthew Sharps’ book Processing Under Pressure. When a person comes into my office, there is a bookcase on the right with hundreds of books on policing. Topics like Chinese gangs, Mexican gangs, shooting well, booby-trapping, Intelligence, counterintelligence, etc. Keeping it Simple is a natural since I wrote it and is always there. I had bought back the rights in the late 90’s because the publisher could keep it in stock and get it to me when I was on the road doing speeches. Cops always pick it up and keep it, which is fine. They should. Processing Under Pressure is the other book everyone picks up and starts to read when I make my hourly trip to the bathroom and then they say “Can I borrow this book? I’ll bring it back.” Cops never bring it back. They talk about it non-stop for three or four sessions, but it never sees my office again. That’s not fine as I have to buy those copies.
How does Processing Under Pressure grow legs or wings or whatever? Well, the cops that take it, don’t want to give it up. The book is extremely engaging, explains a lot that cops see in everyday life, and it makes good common sense. I would say if you were only going to read one other book in policing, Processing Under Pressure is the one I would chose. How does one think, what do they miss, what are they likely to say when the situation goes bad, all things covered by Processing Under Pressure. It doesn’t matter whether you are a boss, dealing with a boss, you’re an ES guy dealing with an operation, a military man sizing up a mission, you are a shrink dealing with a client, or a guy or girl scoping out a Saturday night date (I know I am aging myself, young people don’t date anymore), this applies to your life. So read on, I have 900-1000 words to get you to read this book sooner rather than later in your life. (more…)