Gunfights and Kisses: A Police Officer's Journey

Police Officer John W. Howsden patrols the streets of Fremont, California, with a different perspective than most cops. As a nineteen-year-old college student, he was arrested on rape charges and spent three hellish days in jail before being released for mistaken identity. Experiencing “the other side” of the badge helped him show compassion and understanding to others throughout his thirty-year career.

This suspenseful memoir details his painful arrest and his journey to becoming a respected police officer. Follow along as he engages in a shootout with a robber who is thought to be a serial killer, stops a father from murdering his children, tries to reason with a man wearing scuba gear in a hotel’s hot tub, and even runs after a graffiti artist whose pants are falling down.

It’s a wild, dangerous, heart-wrenching ride with sweet and silly moments. After reading this book, you will have a new appreciation for police officers and what they endure.

It is my hope that these stories help you feel the emotional roller coaster ride a police officer encounters on any given day. Although police officers are discouraged from revealing their emotions, they bleed and weep the same as you.—John W. Howsden