The Funniest Cop Stories Ever Paperback – September 1, 2006

This book sure has garnered some mixed reviews. I enjoyed it, had a few laughs, but had to think of it as fiction.I don't think it really deserved the drubbing it got from some folks. You had to take it with a grain of something!I was expecting something more like  The Badge, Stories and Tales from both Sides of the Law  by Chuck Klein, which dealt with small town law enforcement in a more realistic way, where the humor wasn't quite as forced and there was a lot more honor and respect built in.Nevertheless, this book was a mildly entertaining quick read. I hope the authors, in pursuing followup collections will cover a little less of the absurd, and a little more of the humanity of law enforcement.

The first story literally made me laugh out loud; others not so much. Overall this is a funny book - some of the stories do showcase really, *really* dumb criminals. I particularly liked the "Entry Questionnaire" devised by a smart alek cop - some of the criminals actually filled it out! Hilarious.On the other hand, some of the stories were sad. I know cops see it all, and they were trying to relate the funny side of things that can be really tragic. I am sure for every story they related about moving the body of the homeless person from one side of the street to the other, or moving one from the subway platform into the train, there are hundreds or even thousands that they took care of without pause. Still it is disturbing to read about it. I just don't have the perspective they do. I am sure a cop reading those stories finds them humorous in the way an office worker reading about someone slipping extra work in a co-workers inbox might find that amusing.Overall, I recommend this book (especially at the free level!). Most all of the swear words were replaced by [bleep] and [bleeping] etc., so there was little print pollution. I agree that there are some formatting issues for the Kindle version. I think it's probably because the little vignettes were written with different typefaces to indicate a change in story. This works well in print, but not so well in the Kindle. You end up with some stories that are very difficult to read while others are perfectly clear.

I bought  The Funniest Cop Stories Ever  by Scott Baker and Tom Philbin as a Kindle edition with the idea of seeing how good it was, as I wanted to get the printed edition as a gift for a friend who is a retired police officer, one who was wounded and decorated a few times for his service to his community.Sad to say, this book, which had been recommended by another friend, turned out to be not only disappointing, but it can be disturbing in places as well.I had to pick an entirely different book for my friend. As I said, he's a decorated officer, but when people ask him if he's Italian, he quietly states that he's Latino, referring to the fact that his parents came from Puerto Rico. His wife of twenty-some years is of Asian background, and I didn't think this book would have been appropriate under the circumstances considering some of the ethnic references, to put it mildly.I've had enough friends in law enforcement over the years to have heard quite a bit of station-house banter, and some of it can be quite funny. Granted, there are some parts of this book that are humorous, witty anecdotes collected by an ex-NYC police officer, and there are things about "the job" that can give one who serves a dark sense of humor if only to relieve the the tension and the pressure from this line of work. Anyone who has served in the military and been in harms way can understand this. Some of the anecdotes can be light and innocuous, such as this from where an old-time cops says:"Today I hear cops complain about having to make five or six runs a night. In the late '80s, when I was on the job, we made fourteen, fifteen runs a night, and half of those were gun runs. It was either shots fired, man with a gun, or when we'd get there we'd see bullet holes, blood, or a body. Listen, let me put it this way: When I was on the job it was so dangerous the Statue of Liberty had both hands up!"However, the same two authors have written another book,  A Lighter Shade of Blue: Weird, Wild, and Wacky Cop Stories , released in 2011, and that one is truly funny. It can be a bit sketchy in places, but the sense of humor in this one is definitely there. It's the title that I did get for my friend, and it was appreciated. Should note that I also have a copy of my own. As a reader, I cannot recommend the title that I'm reviewing here, but if you enjoy police humor or know someone that does, the newer title, "A Lighter Shade of Blue" is a good one.9/30/2012

If the book was a fictional story no one would be upset about a body being dumped back and forth, or a woman searching a transsexual, you would all be laughing. Most fiction has some truth to it. Unless you have walked in the shoes of a NYC cop I think you need to cut the author some slack. Most of their daily interaction is with the criminal element , people who commit far more horrible acts then what the officers are doing. Everyone also needs to lighten up on the "political correctness" the author is telling the story of events that happened, that includes dialog people, if he changed it to be politically correct the stories would then be fictional.

Really not that funny. The stories are not that funny and the formatting of the fonts etc are sophomoric and amateurish at best. Reminds me of many papers that were written in the mid 80s when computers were first introduced with more than one font and everybody went nuts trying to use as many features as possible with the idea that more was better. In this case, as then, less would have been more.

I spent just shy of 33 years in law enforcement and found this book to be just OK. Very basic and not very colorful. The writing is not what one would expect from a book of this nature. I was wanting more and never got it. Basic and almost boring. OK for the bathroom but not a relaxing day at the beach or lounging in the woods or on the couch.

As is often the case with collections of stories from different sources the content in this book is uneven. There are some absolutely hilarious anecdotes. I'm sure many of the occurrences that were included actually were funnier to observe or participate in at the time than appreciate from the written page. Nevertheless, this is still a worthwhile quick read. I enjoyed it.