Country Cop: True Tales from a Texas Deputy Sheriff
Barry Goodson
May 2020 · North Texas Crime and Criminal Justice Series Book 11 · University of North Texas Press
Ebook
408
Pages
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About this ebook
The deputy sheriff or sheriff of a county often is perceived as the lone officer protecting the citizens of a small town. Country Cop is the riveting story of one such deputy sheriff, Barry Goodson, and his experiences with the Parker County Sheriff’s office in the 1990s and early 2000s in North Texas. Goodson was required to answer any call for service within an area roughly the size of Rhode Island (just under 1000 square miles), where a backup officer could be many miles away, and so he often patrolled and handled calls alone in a county renowned for being a haven for drug manufacturers and dealers. Goodson puts the reader in his patrol car to vicariously share what it is like to be in county law enforcement. He reveals his officer’s skills, which include the ability to identify an offender immediately, to assess that offender’s immediate intent (apparent or not), and to decide on proper action before the offender can unleash his or her attack on that deputy or against the originally intended victim. More often than not, he employed “verbal judo” to de-escalate a situation instead of drawing his gun. Calls from dispatch ranged from a simple need to clear livestock from the highways to shots fired or a 150 mph high-speed auto chase of drug dealers. More often, drug dealer attacks erupted during a perceived normal traffic stop with the offender suddenly producing a weapon, forcing Goodson to use force to subdue the individual. During one domestic violence call Goodson and another officer forced entry to stop a violent father from extreme violence against his wife and two teenage sons, but then Goodson had to intercept the wife as she lunged forward with a pair of long scissors in an attempt to stab the other officer in the back. Country Cop gives the inside story of county law enforcement and will prove a valuable resource for those in criminal justice, those who aspire to a career in law enforcement, and to all who enjoy a good police story.
About the author
Barry Goodson is the author of Cap Môt, the story of his Marine service in Vietnam (UNT Press). Following retirement from the Parker County Sheriff’s Office, he created and taught a criminal justice program for Springtown ISD before he accepted an assignment in Afghanistan as the Central Region Commander of the ANCOP program. Today Barry serves as a full-time professor of criminal justice and homeland security with Columbia Southern University and adjunct professor of criminal justice with the University of the Virgin Islands. Additionally, he serves as the Executive Director of Caribbean Crimes with the Human Trafficking Investigations & Training Institute (HTITI).
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