Steve Osborne

I'm not quite sure how it happened, or even why, but a few months after retiring from the New York City police department, I picked up a pad and pen and started writing. Like most cops, I had stories to tell, and for some reason I can't explain, I felt the need to put them on paper. I had no training in writing, other than police reports, but that little voice in the back of my head — the one that kept me safe all these years — was now nagging at me to tell my stories.
- Steve Osborne, The Job: True Tales from the Life of a New York City Cop

Sometimes I would share some of the funny stuff about the job, but the blood and gore, and especially the danger, I needed to keep to myself. When my wife would call me at work and ask how things were going, I would always tell her I was having a nice quiet night. Even if I was sitting on some dark street, armed with two guns strapped to my hip, waiting for some perp wanted on a homicide to show up so we could jump him. My answer was always the same. I'm having a nice quiet night.
- Steve Osborne, The Job: True Tales from the Life of a New York City Cop

When I entered the police academy an old-time instructor told me, "Kid, you just bought yourself a front row seat to the greatest show on earth." What he was telling me wasn't anything new. I think every old cop has used that line on every new cop in every city and every small town in every corner of the country. And the reason it's used so much is, because it's true — every word of it. I don't care if you work in Manhattan or in some tiny village out in the middle of nowhere with just one lawman in it, we all have stories. I wish all of them would put them on paper, because there's nothing funnier or more terrifying than a good cop story.
- Steve Osborne, The Job: True Tales from the Life of a New York City Cop