Book Review: 400 Things Cops Know by Adam Plantinga

Every crime writer has a research shelf. This is the book on mine I’d rescue first. 400 Things Cops Know is exactly what the title promises — four hundred numbered observations from Adam Plantinga, a veteran patrolman who worked Milwaukee and San Francisco — and it surprised me by being full of heart and human interest, not just procedure.

The format is one part memoir, one part reference book: what a foot pursuit actually feels like, what a veteran notices in the first few seconds of a traffic stop, what the job does to a body and a worldview over the years. The Wall Street Journal blurbed it as “the new Bible for crime writers,” and for once the cover quote undersells.

What I Loved About 400 Things Cops Know by Adam Plantinga

The humanity is what got me. I expected facts about policing, and those are here in ruthless, usable detail. But the entries that stick are the ones about people — the small kindnesses, the absurd calls, the way tragedy and paperwork share a shift. It’s surprisingly moving for a book you could reasonably shelve as a reference manual. I write mysteries myself, and this is the texture you can’t fake: the details that make fiction feel true come from books exactly like this one.

What I Didn’t Love About 400 Things Cops Know

Nothing. It does exactly what it promises, four hundred times.

Final Thoughts on 400 Things Cops Know

If you’re a thriller writer, you need this book. (That sentence is verbatim from my 2022 Goodreads review, and it has aged fine.) Pair it with yesterday’s A Burglar’s Guide to the City for the other side of the law — and if you want proof that I practice what I research, my own detective novels live on my Amazon author page.

My final score: 5 out of 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Do I recommend this book? 👍 Yes!

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