Writers Police Academy, 2015
(This blog's been simultaneously published on the Long Island Romance Writers' blog.)
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| Where unruly passengers are dealt with. |
I only need one word to describe the Writers Police Academy
held this past weekend in Appleton, Wisconsin, and that is AWESOME. Take
roughly 300 people, put them together for four days of seminars and demonstrations
about law enforcement, criminal behavior, things that blow up, a couple of
amazing German Shepherd dogs, a jet (yes,
as in “airplane”), and hands-on workshops about guns, blood, fire and EMT
practices, and forensic psychology, and you get AWESOME.
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| Karen Slaughter does stand-up |
Add in generous sponsorship by the Sisters in Crime, guest
speakers from the ATF, FBI, police forces (Ohio, California, Wisconsin,
New York to name a few), the Secret Service, forensic specialists,
firemen, and
one (I heard) hunky SWAT team – plus the bonus of hearing from
down-to-earth and funny Alison Brennan and hysterical,
riffing-on-my-dysfunctional-Southern-roots
Karen Slaughter – and about 300 raffle baskets, and you’ve got the kind
of
exhaustion that comes from a full mind and shared laughter. And there’s no way I’m leaving out one kickass
female officer who thrilled us with her fierce respect for the law and her
responsibility and drive to uphold it. Also because she rocked the uniform,
drove like an ace, and made us all want to be her.
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| Colleen Belangea, Lee Lofland, Joe LaFevre |
Lee Lofland, who originated the Academy and is a former
sheriff, is warm and organized and funny, and there’s a camaraderie among the
instructors revealed by their mutual teasing. One of former Secret Service
Agent Mike Roche’s classes is Romance Behind the Badge and he’s known
affectionately as The Love Doctor; John Gilstrap gleefully taught us how to “blow
shit up”; and Marco Connelli, former NYPD detective, took us through his days undercover
and explained “defenestration” (look it up!). Joe LaFevre, our man at the brand
new Fox Valley Technical College and Public Safety Training
Center, made sure
every one of us had our questions answered and was a terrific host. Dr.
Katherine Ramsland explained psychopathy in both children and adults,
and Instructor Colleen Belangea (our hero!) talked about what it was
like to be one of
the few females on the force when she started in the mid 1980s.
There were so many possibilities for research that I’m sorry if I leave
any out. There were jail tours, police ride-alongs, simulated and real
firearms training , crime scene photography, forensic procedures and
portraiture, and methods of handling everything from handcuffs to light sources
to martial arts moves to intercepting a fleeing vehicle.
Every day I met someone new, from every corner of the
country. Some of the attendees had been coming for years (WPA is in its seventh
year), but many of us were newbies – it didn’t matter how many times you had
been to the Academy before; everyone was excited. Although the conference was
centered around getting your story – thriller, mystery, procedural, romantic
suspense, spy novel, noir – right, many of the writers crossed genres. I met
many writers who were part of Sisters in Crime, but many as well who were RWA,
or completely unaffiliated.
Some of us occasionally pointed out where it would be a good
place to hide a body (but only theoretically, since Appleton's actually a
very nice town -- check out FatGirlzBakin for amazing cupcakes or the
Appleton Brewery for great brews and snacks), or asked how you could
(again, just theoretically, we promise) blow up a cottage
from a mile away, or how relationships worked between members of
different
branches of law enforcement. We learned about biological dangers and
what the
term “badge bunny” meant, how luminol reacted when bleach was used to
clean up
a crime, and how witnesses could be coaxed to recall the criminal’s
features or
suspects to confess. If you wrote about good guys versus bad guys, this
was the
place to be.
Lee told us near the end that the planning for next year’s
event would be starting shortly after he got home from this one.
If you’re
interested in finding out more, look for the Writers Police Academy online and
join their mailing list. Or try #2015WPA or www.The GraveyardShift.com, which is
Lee Lofland’s blog.
I’ll be watching and waiting to return, when I’m not
writing more realistic sleuthing…
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| "The pool closes at eleven" |
