Cop Talk

About the Book

The work of a father and son, this lively word-book presents the slang of law enforcement officers, including prison guards, customs officers, and street cops. It includes language gathered both from working and ex-cops and from printed sources. It evokes the life of this key speech group in an America in crisis--the pride and solidarity, the shame of corruption and brutality, the horror and the excitement of life on the front of the thin blue line. It is the sixth of Lewis Poteet's slang dictionaries, the others having come out of Nova Scotia's South Shore, the Eastern Townships of Quebec, and the worlds of hockey, cars and motorcycles, and aviation. These words and definitions offer raw material for anyone interested in language and culture, and entertainment and enlightenment for anyone fascinated by the spectacle of this living busy world of law and outlaws. The main body of the book consists of words and phrases from police slang, followed by a personal account of Aaron's attraction to and formation in police work, a set of stories from Aaron's first employment in such work, an essay on Canadian, British, and American regional police cultures by Lewis, and a Poteet Cop Talk Quiz to test your knowledge of the slang.

About the Author

Authors Lewis J. Poteet and Aaron C. Poteet, father and son, also wrote Hockey Talk, a dictionary of hockey slang. This book was born out of the son's lifelong fascination with police, crime and justice, and his father's love of language. Lewis has written several slang word books including Plane Talk, Car Talk and The South Shore Phrase Book. Lewis taught English for 32 years at Concordia University in Montreal and in winter 2000, was adjunct instructor in English at Austin (TX) Community College. Aaron holds a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Northeastern University in Boston. He has walked the city streets at night as neighborhood patrol, Guardian Angel, even vigilante. His obsession with the street led to work in the most thankless profession known to man--law enforcement, working as a Special Police Officer in Boston and then briefly with the Austin Police Department. He now works for a large corporation in field collections.