August 1996


                                Book Review


To Serve and Protect: A Tribute to American Law Enforcement by Glenn Gamber and
Connie Clark, et. al., produced by the National Law Enforcement Officers 
Memorial Fund, Inc., Turner Publishing Company, Paducah, Kentucky, 1995.

The history of American law enforcement is a tale of triumphs and tragedies. To
Serve and Protect provides a concise but highly detailed account of policing 
from the colonial era to the present. The narrative traces the progress of 
American law enforcement from the first night watch established in Boston in 
1631 to the chaotic frontier justice of the 1800s, from the reforms of the 
early 20th century and the rise of professionalism in the 1930s to the 
technological advances and community-oriented strategies that mark policing 
today.

The focus of the book, however, is to commemorate the personal tragedies that 
have accompanied this progress. In addition to providing an updated listing of 
the names inscribed on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in 
Washington, DC, the book chronicles the lives and deaths of many of the officers
honored there.  

The remembered include U.S. Marshal Robert Forsyth, who became 
the first American law enforcement officer to die in the line of duty when he 
was shot while serving court papers to two brothers in Augusta, Georgia, in 
1794. From Forsyth to J.H. "Cracker" Johnson, a motorcycle officer with the 
Waycross, Georgia, Police Department, who died from injuries sustained when he 
was thrown from a moving car by bootleggers in 1931, to Gail Cobb, the first 
African-American policewoman to die in the line of duty, shot while apprehending
a bank robbery suspect in Washington, DC, on September 20, 1974, the stories 
trace the social changes that have impacted policing during the past 2 
centuries. They also serve as a testament to the selfless dedication to duty 
that characterizes America's law enforcement officers.

Some of the accounts illuminate the lives of officers whose heroism may have 
been overshadowed by the circumstances surrounding their deaths. Such is the 
case with J.D. Tippit, an 11-year veteran of the Dallas Police Department, who 
shortly past 1:00 p.m. on November 23, 1963, became the second person killed by 
Lee Harvey Oswald. Officer Tippit, a well-regarded patrolman, had stopped Oswald 
when he observed that the suspicious young man fit the description of the 
suspected assassin of President John F. Kennedy.  

The book also reflects the strange sense of irony that often haunts police work. 
On the wall of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, J.D. Tippit's name 
appears next to John Kennedy's_a New York City police officer killed in 1922.  

To Serve and Protect pays tribute to America's fallen officers by celebrating their 
lives and honoring their sacrifices through the remembrances of family members, 
friends, and fellow officers. The historical context in which the epitaphs appear 
strengthens the connection of these seemingly distinct tragedies by 
commemorating the shared sense of commitment that typifies the officers honored 
at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial.

Reviewed by
Andrew DiRosa
Associate Editor
FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin
FBI Academy
Quantico, Virginia