ABSTRACT
Sometimes, during my office hours, one of my students will point to the badge displayed on the wall and ask, “Do you ever miss being a cop?” I have a standard answer: “I miss the camaraderie among police officers. But I don’t miss witnessing the tragedy of crime. In many ways, being a professor isn’t all that different from being a police officer. Conducting research is just like conducting a criminal investigation. And I like to think that my research, like my job as a police officer, makes us safer.” The similarities underlying research and policing are apparent in the true story below.
