CODE 4 Quotes

“and”
― Terry Smith, CODE 4: True stories from a 37-year police veteran

“He told me about an incident that had happened to him immediately after one of his heists. He had pulled a cash robbery and was a few miles from the scene, feeling good about having gotten away. He still had the money in a bag on the front seat of his car and the gun on the floor. He was driving in traffic as he came to a red light with several cars already stopped in front of him. As he waited for the light to turn, he looked in his rearview mirror and his heart stopped. Several police cars had pulled up behind him; the cops had bailed out and were running, with drawn guns up alongside his car. “I’m busted,” he thought and quickly put his hands up. The cops ran right by him to the car stopped in front of the line, where they hauled the driver out in what he took to be a drug bust. He said he shakily put his hands down and drove away when the light turned. I wondered if I had ever come that close to a good pinch and gone right on by.”
― Terry Smith, CODE 4: True stories from a 37-year police veteran

“Sometimes, when we didn’t have information to go after specific drug dealers, we still messed with them. The dopers were always poised to flush their drugs when they thought the cops were coming. Any night of the week, we could go into one of the ramshackle apartment buildings in Minneapolis, pound on the wall, shout, “Police,” and hear ten toilets flush simultaneously.”
― Terry Smith, CODE 4: True stories from a 37-year police veteran

“Recently my wife and I visited the Mall of America. I noticed that there were Bloomington police officers everywhere, in ones or twos, watching the crowds, patrolling the hallways, doing what cops do. Everyone looks young to me these days, but I doubt that any of the ones I saw were even alive when I and my compatriots directed traffic, or fought with drunks, or watched Harmon Killebrew hit one of his monster homeruns. I wonder if they’d like to hear about what used to go on here? I asked myself. Probably not, I answered, after a moment’s thought. So, I just sat on a bench and waited for my wife.”
― Terry Smith, CODE 4: True stories from a 37-year police veteran

“I seldom learned what happened to the victim after my job was completed. I showed whatever kindness I could to those still at the scene and left, ready for whatever came next. I will say, though, that some of these things transcend the years for me. From time to time, I can still feel a touch of sadness or grief when one of them comes to mind. I’m glad that I retained that much of my humanity.”
― Terry Smith, CODE 4: True stories from a 37-year police veteran

“Shift after shift, we responded to situations that, after a while, all ran together. Had I been in another line of work, any one of them would have haunted my thoughts for a long time. Here are a few that still stand out in my mind:”
― Terry Smith, CODE 4: True stories from a 37-year police veteran

“Many of the victims hardly knew what had happened to them or how serious their situation was.”
― Terry Smith, CODE 4: True stories from a 37-year police veteran