Deputy While Immigrant

This is a very enjoyable read, told from the heart, of the author's life and personal struggles, emigrating from Germany to the USA. A good insight into policing in Arizona and I highly recommend the read. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

Thank you Netgalley and BooksGoSocial for access to this arc.

This sounded interesting. Tom Peine was born and raised in Germany. met his US citizen second wife there, ended up immigrating to the US and after leaving a corporate job, finally realized his long held dream of becoming a law enforcement officer. With his wife's blessing, and at age (almost) 41, he signed up to go through the challenging application process of the Pima County Sheriff department before being accepted into the program.


I enjoyed his account of the even more grueling 20 week long training course followed by twelve weeks of apprenticeship with experienced deputies before going out on his own. His sense of pride and accomplishment were palpable. After years as a deputy, he shifted over to becoming a detective (finance crimes followed by sex crimes) and later a public relations officer for the department.


During his training days, he recounts how he and another trainee discussed how one officer had stated his (personal) view of law enforcement in that people were either sheep (average citizen), sheep-dogs (law enforcement) , or wolves (criminals) and how they disagreed with that view that set LEOs apart from the people they swore to protect. If a police force drifts to only being a force, then this is not the best thing for the populace at large. People must trust the officers who uphold those laws that society has chosen to live under. Officers must enforce those laws equally and fairly for the protection of all the people.


The recollections that Peine mentions vary from humorous, tense, frustrating, to heartbreaking. He advocates for mental health for LEOs and talked about a school visit he made - in full uniform - in Germany with English language students who were astonished when they discovered where he was born (he said that his accent was guessed to be more Canadian than German). He also talked about how coming from a country that (today) more strictly follows rules but that had a past when this was taken too far had affected his view of how to judge when to take a more lenient path with suspects he encountered.


Getting a viewpoint from someone who didn't grow up in one's country is, I think, a good thing. Seeing how Tom was embraced and supported by his new colleagues was heartwarming. This definitely falls under "job I could never do." I think the residents of Pima County, AZ were lucky to have Tom looking after them while he did.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC.

Having spent my own time involved in Criminal Justice (also in Arizona, but in Phoenix) I fully enjoyed Mr. Peine's account of his time of as a "DWI".

I especially enjoyed his support for decompression and stress-management for officers.

Thank you so much for this five-star wonderful read.

Coming from a law enforcement background, 7 years of it as a Deputy Sheriff, I was looking forward to reading this book. And I am very happy that I did get approved for a copy by NetGalley, as it was a very good read.
The author came from Germany as an account manager, he really must have had a midlife crisis, as he did not become a law enforcement officer until he was already 40 years old! Honestly, to go through a police academy in your 20's is a physical challenge, but to do it at age 40 is crazy (?), hard, and very commendable. Hired on by the Pima County Sheriffs Department, he brings the maturity and thoughtfulness that an Officer should have.
Peine is also an excellent writer. You can feel yourself in the patrol car with him, at incident scenes with him, and afterwards at home with him. He vividly describes scenes, emotions, and situations he experienced. And, rare in this type of book, he does not come across as trying to be a Superman/John Wayne type. He's a real person, full of real emotions and doubts and opinions. And he is secure enough to show that he was not always right, that, like a real Officer, there were plenty of times he messed up (and was told so by supervisors, which was probably not easy to take at that age).
This is a good, honest look at a career in law enforcement. People wanting to go into the field would be well served to sit down and read it. It would help prepare them well. As well as people who have a distrust of the police, it would help disabuse them of the opinion that Officer's are all bad.
It's just a really good book! Best of luck to the author!