Police Procedural Quotes

“The police have lost sight of the fact that they are public servants.”
― Steven Magee

“…but his problem was infinity; his problem was time running along the x-axis versus stress running along the y-axis, and there never seemed to be time without stress. Stress was a constant.”
― Andrew Barrett, The Third Rule - The Complete Story

“Surrender is no guarantee that an armed police officer will not shoot you.”
― Steven Magee

“A Spanish poet, Antonio Machado, once said: ‘Dijiste media verdad. Dirán que mientes dos veces si dices la otra mitad.’”
“Translated means…”
“You told a half-truth. They’ll say you lie twice when you tell the other half.”
― Olga Núñez Miret, Teamwork

“Police officers are among the most corrupt people that I have encountered in life.”
― Steven Magee

“You know that when a police officer refuses to produce formal identification on request, they are probably engaging in some form of corruption.”
― Steven Magee

“The Democratic Party would like to be re-elected so that they can continue to uphold almost no Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) whistle-blower complaints, enforce hardly any police internal affairs allegations, and corrupt corporations with lobbyists can continue operating outside of the law.”
― Steven Magee

“If you have bought the law enforcement department, then you have done nothing wrong when you willfully break multiple laws.”
― Steven Magee

“When you realize that incompetent police officers are harassing you, you need to call 911 and demand that a police supervisor be immediately dispatched to the scene. In the mean time you need to be video recording everything, as police officers are known for their blatant lies and fabrications.”
― Steven Magee

“Great detectives are extremely rare. I believe they are the products of thousands of years of evolution. Their abilities to perceive and understand cannot be learned or taught. We can only wait for them to appear. It is unfortunate they are so few, and even more tragic that fewer still ever find their way into police work.”
― Laurence Giliotti, Gambrelli and the Prosecutor

“Police not enforcing laws results in a high crime rate that is formally reported as a low crime rate in police statistics.”
― Steven Magee

“The police are often as corrupt as the corporate government that employs them.”
― Steven Magee

“The writing gets easy once your characters trust that you will not only report what they say but convey what they mean and feel.
~ Michael Kent”
― Michael Kent, Twice Dead: A Lieutenant Beaudry Novel

“If you have dealt with liars, even pathological ones who pass polygraph tests, you know the signs to look for. The liar blinks just before the end of the lie, or he keeps his eyelids stitched to his brow. He folds his arms on his chest, subconsciously concealing his deception. The voice becomes warm, a bit saccharine; sometimes there's an ethereal glow in the face. He repeats his statements unnecessarily and peppers his speech with adverbs and hyperbole. The first-person pronouns 'I,' 'me,' 'mine,' and 'myself' dominate his rhetoric.
Conversely, the truth teller is laconic and seems bored with the discussion, not caring whether you get it right or not.”
― James Lee Burke, Robicheaux

“You came to France to find out about our methods, and you will have observed that we don't have any.”
― Georges Simenon, My Friend Maigret

“That part of her life she kept locked up in a dark closet at the back of her mind and, the truth was, she didn't want to ever have to open it up.”
― Liz Mistry, Unbound Ties

“She had a face that had had lived a thousand stories and none with a happy ending.”
― Jim McGrath, A Death in Winter: 1963

“The boy loved his parents more than anything on this Earth. And so he had to kill them.”
― Mark Hill, The Two O'Clock Boy

“There’s a storm brewing - I can feel it - but it’s got nothing to do with the weather.’ - The Nor'easter - Shaun Young, Book #2”
― Tom Grove, The Nor'easter

“Well, he'd gone this far, animated by nothing more noble than curiosity, he told himself as he studied the face of the man in the mirror, pushing his collar down over his neatly knotted tie. The man's mind slipped into English: The cat's got your tongue. Curiosity killed the cat. To stay in vein, the man in the mirror gave a Cheshire smile, and Brunetti left the house.”
― Donna Leon, The Golden Egg

“Parrott, hate to disturb you on your day off. Need you to check out a death at the Campbell farm. Lots of important people at a weekend party. Looks like natural causes, but--"
“Okay, Chief. I’m on it.” Parrott shut down his computer and put on his heavy coat. He glanced back at Tonya’s picture before he stepped out and closed the door.”
― Saralyn Richard, Murder in the One Percent

“The two bodies lay in plain sight of the shuttered Salt Bingo Casino, though there are no witnesses other than a coyote and its jackrabbit prey. The two bodies lay still until the sun-cracked it is light over the Arizona desert like a sky egg.”
― Jennifer Leeper, The Poison of War

“Minerals mock us.

DCI Tony Forward. A Single to Filey. Michael Murray”
― Michael Murray

“Bosch let her go. For a long time, he didn't move. Her words had gone through him like the sounds of a roller coaster. Low rumbling and high shrieks.”
― Michael Connelly

“The ritual had been far harder than he'd ever imagined, and the moment of death was almost a relief.”
― Gaynor Torrance, Revenge

“Debra Bokur has written an immersive, thoroughly researched tale of mystery and mythology that will enlighten as well as entertain. It’s honestly been a while since I’ve wanted to be able to physically join the cast of a novel I’m reading, but The Fire Thief had me longing to solve mysteries with Kali and crew in the flesh. Kali herself is a terrific addition to the world of police procedurals, an original and unconventional heroine who is easy to root for. I can’t wait to read more about her!”
― Criminal Element

“I feel death and pain like a tickling pleasure caressing my cheek with a loving, outstretched finger. The sane are troubled by this. The insane thrive on its liberation.”
― Jack De'Lacy, A String of Eagles

“(No, I didn't kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn't dump the body in the station mall, for fuck's sake.)”
― Martha Wells, Fugitive Telemetry

“...I didn't feel overly safe and secure in the hotel, even with cops in the kitchen and cops in the dining room and cops in the alley out back. Hell's bells, I was a cop, and I sure wouldn't have depended on me for anything more than a neatly written parking ticket.”
― Joan Hess, Maggody in Manhattan

“Skin color matters,” Deputy Chief Oliver Gosden said from the passenger seat.

“Yeah,” Chief Ron Ketchum agreed. “Mostly because people won’t let it alone.”

“Some people can’t let it alone.”
― Joseph Flynn, Nailed