Suggested Reading

Read this book!

If I could only suggest one book for Guardian Angels on Safety Patrol, this is the one I would pick, every time.

This is the first book I owned by Mr. Steven Albrecht. While I highly suggest owning it, I believe “Tactical Perfection” (above) is a better book to read first.

It’s a great book, and if you’re serious about patrol work, it belongs in your library.

This is the Contact & Cover book that really got law enforcement thinking and working towards a whole new dynamic.

This book is currently out of print, but it’s worth owning when you’re ready to track it down. I have a copy on my bookshelf at home, and I reference it regularly.

I will eventually own a copy of this book … and gosh darn it Mr Albrecht, how many awesome books are you going to write?

Facing Violence I met Mr Rory Miller for a training opportunity a few months after this book became available. He is a great, down-to-earth guy with a LOT of knowledge and experience, and I’m glad he shares it.

For a Guardian Angel on patrol, a lot of the concepts about Social Violence will be of significant value to you, as you will see these exact scenarios play out in front of you every day on patrol.

The “techniques” in this book are worth their weight in gold, too. Our tactics are designed for us to take control, but in “Facing Violence” you will see quite clearly what it takes to get there when the odds are stacked against you.

This is a must-read for everyone I care about. I hope you’ll buy it, and buy copies for your friends and family.

Meditations on Violence

If you are a martial artist AND you have an interest in practical self defense, this is the best book on the topic I have ever read.

Rory Miller’s first full length book on the topic, “Meditations on Violence” does such a good job at diving into the core concepts that as soon as I finished it the first time, I immediately read it again. And, I review my highlights and notes constantly. The entire time I was reading it, I was amazed to see in print the thoughts that nobody has said this well, until now.

Drills: Training For Sudden Violence

I’ve done some of these training exercises with the author, Rory Miller, and some of them with my martial arts students, and some with a few select groups of Guardian Angels as testing … and the evidence is clear:

These drills are awesome.

No matter how long you’ve been training, and no matter how long you’ve been teaching that training, there are some ideas in here that will make you better at what you do.

Why We Make Mistakes

This book on the psychology of mistakes will change the way you train. The stories and studies cited will entertain you. But at the same time, you will be challenged to face paradigm changing questions about why we do what we do.

A chapter from this book lead to the blog post on “Rare Items Often Missed in Visual Searches”

On Combat

While there seems to be a strong agenda at play in the latter portion of the book dealing with violence in media and modern technology, the rest of the book is a clearly presented and well positioned series of very important facts about how our bodies respond to the dynamics of violence.

My copy of this book is dog-eared, highlighted, underlined, and referenced often.

Training at the Speed of Life

This one is really aimed directly for those who offer training to others. Perhaps there is some value to a person attending a training seminar or workshop: this book will certainly help you ascertain the professionalism of the training staff.

If you do offer training or teach workshops on this kind of topic, this book is amazing and will make a huge difference in some detail areas that you might not have considered.

The Great Neighborhood Book

Well written, and full of inspiration and good ideas. This book will help you look at your neighborhood (or the neighborhoods you patrol) in a whole new way.

This book was a resource material for the blog post, Neighborhood.

How to Turn a Place Around

While I suggest starting with “The Great Neighborhood Book” (above) you will find some actionable specifics here.

When Brute Force Fails

Warning: This is NOT light, casual reading.The author is clearly brilliant, extremely educated, and even entertaining … but this is a book you should read for a strong education.

If you want to know “How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment” then you are going to love this book. It will transform what you think you know about law enforcement and criminal justice.

This book strongly influenced the blog post, “Broken Windows: Swift and Certain.”

Beggars and Thieves

This is a rare ethnographic approach to understanding the street life that we encounter on our Safety Patrols as Guardian Angels. This is not a typical topic for anthropologists, and author Mark Fleisher does a great job of bringing the characters to life, as if you were interviewing them and spending time with them as he did.

It’s an entertaining read, but it will leave you educated and informed. I had a hard time giving away my copy to all the “normal” folks I met, but the first Guardian Angel who took a quick look through it immediately asked me if he could borrow it. That says something about this book – it’s real, and you will enjoy it.

Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln

When we hear about guides for “public speakers” we normally think first of politicians, maybe motivational speakers from the business world, and maybe we consider managers and supervisors …

But, if you’re on Safety Patrol, and someone wants to speak with you about the Guardian Angels, suddenly you have the responsibility to communicate the mission and history of an international effort that is changing society, one neighborhood at a time. If you do it right, you might even convince someone to join in our mission.

Here’s a set of tools to do exactly that.

Lincoln on Leadership

Even if you only read the table of contents, you’ll learn more about leadership than you already know. You’ll have a better historical perspective without feeling like you went back to high school. And of course, the leadership lessons, and the clear examples shown, really will inspire you to be a better leader.

It’s hard to imagine that a book like this didn’t already exist. There are plenty of books on Lincoln and plenty more on executive level leadership strategies … but nobody before this book had thought to link the two. Be glad that he did – this book will be an important and helpful part of your library.