Book Review: 101 Road Patrol Tales From A Chippie Of The California Highway Patrol

Veteran Perry Edwards has submitted to us a book review on this book by E.W. Tompkin Jr.

According to Perry “I just finished reading an iBook downloaded from Apple to my iPad. It is entitled “101 Road Patrol Tales” (Memories of a Chippie of the California Highway Patrol), by E.W. Tompkins Jr., CHP ID 6902 Rtd. It is a cut above a lot of law enforcement memoirs; quite well written and consisting of fairly brief anecdotes ranging from the humorous to the poignant. One of my favourite stories summarized:

Patrolling in farm country south of Fresno, he stopped a rattletrap two-axle farm truck with a loose load and multiple equipment deficiencies. When asked for the vehicle registration, the elderly driver produced a bulging wallet apparently serving as his “personal archive” (I’ve seen a few of those!). He eventually came up with a ten year old registration card and it became apparent he had never bothered to transfer the registration from the previous owner. After digging much longer for his driver’s licence, he produced an ancient ‘photostat’ of a D/L type not used in CA for decades. Specifically, it had expired in 1944 .. and this was 1979! The driver then provided a copy of his 1946 discharge from the US Army, which by law extended the D/L’s of returning soldiers long enough to give them time to obtain new ones. When informed he would have to go to the DMV to deal with both the registration and driver’s licence, he responded: “Yes sir, I understand. That’s where I was going when you stopped me”!

On the poignant side, anyone downloading the book should have a look at “Definitely Not a Diamond Day”, another Fresno area incident. A four person fatal (car over a bridge into the San Joaquin River) .. leading to a near riot by onlookers along the river .. ended by a loaded tractor-trailer also plunging off the bridge into the river and burning right in front of the attending CHP members and crowd. Unbelievable ..”

We have also included an Amazon book review on this book as follows:

Covering offbeat events to serious object lessons, Tompkins conveys what it feels like to deal with the innocent and the guilty . . . and concludes with what to do if an officer stops you . . . which alone more than justifies buying the book.

This book can be purchased an e-book or a paperback book ($13.83) from Amazon here.