An Interview With Author and Retired Police Officer Mark Bergin

by Grace Topping

 

Saint Michael's Day

Patrolman John Kelly saves people every day for a living, but he can't accept that maybe, just maybe, God saved him during a vicious machine gun attack. His friends think so, and the crucifix-shaped pattern of bullet holes in his cruiser is hard to ignore. But Kelly has work to do, finding the gunmen, training a young recruit, and working to protect a foreign-born mother and her sickly child caught in the uncaring criminal justice system. Kelly's wife Rachel Cohen is a public defender, drafted to defend a murder suspect whose hatred violently and, ultimately, fatally erupts against her.

Apprehension

Kelly was a pro until his niece was murdered right before his eyes. His family says he failed her, but Kelly can't share his one shocking, secret, criminal act of vengeance. Now, fellow detectives digging into another case can end Kelly's career and send him to jail.

 

It’s annoying to read a book and think, “A police officer wouldn’t do that!” It shouts that an author didn’t do enough research about police procedures. Author Mark Bergin brings a level of authenticity to his books about the police. As a retired police officer, he knows firsthand how things are usually done and aren’t done. 

 

Mark works not only to ensure police involvement is portrayed accurately in his writing, but he also advises other authors, answering their questions. His first book, Apprehension, won an award in 2022 from the Public Safety Writers Association and was a finalist for the Silver Falchion Award at the Killer Nashville Conference in 2021. His second book, Saint Michael’s Day, comes out in September.

 

I asked Mark about some police procedures and crime solving that authors should be aware of. Here are just a few. 

 

 

Welcome back to Writers Who Kill, Mark.

 

Thank you so much, Grace, for the chance to talk with you and your readers. Getting published, especially with a second book in a series, has given me greater visibility and access to writers whom I can advise on cop stuff. I love this. Getting police details right satisfies most readers and, better, doesn’t turn off persnickety readers like me. 

One thing that writers frequently get wrong is the type of gun used as a weapon, often referring to a gun, pistol, automatic, revolver, Luger, Derringer, etc. Is there a default weapon a writer can safely use not to get it wrong?

 

Gun. Leave it at that. Gun details matter to fetishists and to police evidence technicians but, in most of our writing, gun or pistol is enough. Your average event planner or dog groomer doesn’t know manufacturers or calibers, so if they see one, all they need to think is GUN!

 

Does a silencer completely muffle the sound of a gun being fired?

 

No. Big myth. It can, if you are an assassin or government agent and have one specially built. Three main issues with silencing a gun. Bullets are often supersonic, so they make a little sonic boom as they exit the barrel. Some ammunition is subsonic, like an Army 45-caliber pistol. But a semi-automatic pistol makes a racket because the steel slide, barrel, and breach are pushed back by the firing of the cartridge with a clatter, then clack forward to pick up a bullet coming from the magazine. Revolvers don’t have moving slides that way, but almost all have a gap between the cylinder and the barrel, from which the detonating powder explodes with a great deal of noise. An assassin might fire a subsonic round from a gun fixed not to cycle through the unloading- reloading movement. 

 

That’s a long way to go to show my favorite point of discussion here. What do you, the writer, want to happen? We can craft a perfectly silent gun, or one nearly so, or have an inept killer use the wrong equipment. As long as we the writers hint what we’re up to. Give us some explanation, and you can get away with, um, murder. 

 

A writer once asked, would a police chief handle a murder suspect interview? My question back to them was, what do you want to happen? Because in the real world, no, chiefs write budgets and meet with mayors and review staff reports. They don’t do nuts-and-bolts police work. But if you want her to, make her the only senior officer on duty during a blizzard, on a small department, with the victim a close friend or relative. Or block the chief because the victim is a relative and it’s a conflict of interest. What makes the story most interesting? 

 

When a crime is reported, does a police detective automatically arrive on the scene?

 

Actually, they show up in very few cases. Detectives might be called out for serious crimes like murder, sexual assault, or bank robbery, but usually they just read and respond to reports the next day of events that were handled by patrol officers or deputies the night before. 

 

In a cozy mystery, the police frequently warn the amateur sleuth to stay out of a case. Are there ever occasions when police would solicit help from someone to help solve a murder?

 

In my 28 years on the job, it never happened. We don’t want to admit we need help; we don’t trust anyone without a badge. They complicate chains of custody for evidence. But, in the Rabbi Small series, written by Harry Kemelman, Chief Lonigan spent time talking with Rabbi David Small about people and psychology and philosophy, and then the Rabbi fell into solving the crime(s). Kemelman was one of my favorite writers, and maybe the first cozy writer I ever encountered, long before the term was coined. (The rabbi in my new book Saint Michael’s Day is named Klein, which means small. I’m interested in how many folks pick up on it. Oops, now all of you will.)

 

Saint Michael’s Day, the second in my John Kelly Cases series, keys on issues of faith and predestination or preordination. My cop survives a shooting that should have killed him, and his survival is attributed to the hand of God. He and his wife spend some of the book ruminating on that issue with a priest, a rabbi, an imam, and their opinions are interesting. I wrote them to examine my own thoughts on the issue, and it’s up to readers to decide if I came to useful conclusions. 

 

We talked about guns earlier. My new publisher, Level Best Books, has picked up on the coincidence that each of my four books in this series keys on a different gun. Apprehension features a police shotgun, so one appears on the cover. Saint Michael’s Day involves an Army Thompson submachine gun, so that will show on that cover. The Desert Eagle 50-caliber and the Nazi Schmeisser will show up down the road. Not an intention but, maybe, a sad function of my style

 

Cases are frequently solved by the use of DNA. Do the results of DNA testing come back that quickly to help solve a murder?

 

Oy. Ninety minutes in the magic lab on tv, 48 hours in a monster real-world rush, or weeks, or months. We would like to have results in a rush, but so would the other fifteen agencies submitting DNA samples to the state lab, or to their own large-department lab. Again, what does the writer want? But realistically, a week is common in reality.

 

What is the difference in using the term police and sheriff? 

 

Police work for a chief hired by a jurisdiction’s government structure, the mayor, or the town council. Deputies work for a sheriff elected by a jurisdiction. Sheriffs are state officers, and deputies thus have statewide powers. Police are limited to their own jurisdiction and a short distance outside, so we can chase people. 

Do police procedures differ much from one jurisdiction to another so that a writer can never get the procedures totally accurate?

 

No. The basics are mostly the same. We all have to respect the Constitution and citizen rights, we can’t just shoot people (though it seems some can), people are interviewed gently, or interrogated with more anger and the advisement of rights under Miranda. I tried extremely hard to portray police procedures accurately in my first novel, maybe to the detriment of smooth and entertaining storytelling, because I saw the book as a teaching experience for the public. My new book is looser, but no less accurate, and with fewer boring details. 

 

Many cases have been lost in court because the chain of custody of evidence became compromised. What would you recommend to a sleuth when they find incriminating evidence?

 

Leave it there and call the actual cops. Hahaha. That never happens in books. And yes, it complicates things in court. But we can write past that. Improperly seized evidence can still be used in court if the circumstances of its seizure can be explained. This is key to my third book, now being written and tentatively titled Jig. 

 

We’ve heard of writers doing a “ride-along” with police to learn more about police procedures. Is this method worth doing, or are there better ways to learn what police do to make their books more authentic?

 

Absolutely nothing better than that. A ride-along lets writers see the moment-by-moment day of a cop or detective, maybe answering specific questions but more likely prompting spontaneous police details. The stuff you never thought to ask. 

Tell me, is there such a thing as a someone making a citizen’s arrest?

 

It’s a myth. There is really no such thing, though the internet search I felt compelled to undertake says they exist in some jurisdictions. But what’s an arrest? A seizure of a person accused of a crime, leading to a criminal charge and trial. Nothing stops Neighborhood Jane from grabbing a person stealing bicycles, but then what? How does Jane hold him? (Calls the cops.) How does she bring charges? (Goes before a magistrate to swear out a warrant or tells the cops enough that they do it for her.)  But, what if it’s not Jane’s bike? Or she hurts the suspect, or gets hurt herself? 

 

Process servers, bail bondsmen, bounty hunters make what could be called citizen’s arrests but are generally based on the suspect being wanted by a jurisdiction and arrest warrants being issued. It is still much more rare than popular fiction would have it, but fun. 

 

Are the police willing to share information with writers? If so, who on the police force should a writer contact for information? 

 

Start with the public information officer or spokesman, or if there isn’t one, with the chief’s office. Explain you would like an interview or a ride-along. Most departments allow or encourage this. And all of you good folks reading this, please don’t hesitate to make contact with me. I am at mbergin01@aol.com. I would love to talk with you and talk is the right context. Write to me with the basics of what you are working on, and I will set up an opportunity to talk on the phone or do a video call. Issues get complicated, and it’s easier to see you and share than send a dozen emails back and forth. No charge (though I have learned some do.)

 

Or meet me for coffee. Coffee is always good. I’m in Alexandria, Virginia. 

 

Thank you, Mark. I look forward to the publication of Saint Michael’s Day.