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Book Tour: Virtual Sitdown with Daniel P. Smith

Who is Daniel P. Smith?

I’m a Chicago-based journalist and author of the recently released, On the Job: Behind the Stars of the Chicago Police Department.

How did your writing career begin?
Truth be told, I didn’t even know writing was a career option until my sophomore year in college. When you grow up in blue-collar Chicago, you’re surrounded by cops, fireman, tradesmen, and city workers, anything but writers and artists. The only people I knew who worked for the Chicago Tribune or the Chicago Sun-Times delivered or sold the newspapers; they certainly were not the writers.

In college, I pursued a practical profession, one that would pay the bills, and studied education. Still, I had a fascination with sportswriting and began writing for the student newspaper at the University of Illinois at Chicago during my freshman year. My sophomore year, I became sports editor and throughout my final three years of college I moved to writing an editorial column twice a week. That’s where I truly hit my stride as a writer and discovered my passion for the craft. I had the freedom to take a stance on any topic and then endure the challenge of developing an engaging, thought-provoking piece. From then on, I was hooked; writing had my soul. There was still that pesky matter of a practical profession, however. After graduating, I spent one year teaching English at a suburban public high school and realized how deep my passion for the craft ran. I left the stability of the academic world behind and tossed myself into these artistic waters.

Tell us about your latest work.
On the Job: Behind the Stars of the Chicago Police Department is my first book. Against the backdrop of the Chicago Police Department, its history, and culture, I share the stories of 19 individual officers and explore the work-life juxtaposition these men and women face. Ultimately, the book shares human stories on universal topics; it’s far more heart and soul than blood and guts.

What compelled you to write it?
The answer here is two-fold: first, I wanted to spark a degree of empathy for officers, an understanding of what these men and women face. Coming from a large Chicago Police family (4 of my 6 uncles were cops, my father was, and my brother is), I struggled to balance the public perception of Chicago officers, one that often held them up as unthinking, cynical souls, with what I knew of officers from my personal life. I knew officers that had their faults, yet still went about their lives with integrity and spirit. I wanted to share such stories.

Second, I wanted to break the Hollywood image of cops as tough guys or the profession as one with unending adrenaline and drama. I sought reflection and to provide readers a peek into the daily lives of these officers and the intimate issues that touch their work and life, including areas such as parenthood, faith, race, and finding a place in society.

How different is life when you grow up in a cop family?
My father was a Chicago cop, but my folks divorced when I was three. He left the department soon after that and has played little role in my life since. I wouldn’t say growing up in a cop family is different, but there’s certainly an awareness to crime that I think many of my contemporaries ignore. For example, I’m double checking that my car and house doors are locked. I have to sit in restaurants facing the door. I look in my rearview mirrors at stoplights. Such daily routines are entirely a product of my upbringing and the knowledge that crime can strike, particularly if one is careless. Other than that, growing up in a cop family led to some interesting dinner conversations; I got to know plenty about Chicago’s underbelly, civic landscape, and character.

Was the decision to not be a police officer difficult for you to make?How did your family take it?
Being a police officer has been the vocation of many in my family, but that’s simply not where my heart rests. I feel called to do other things in life. My mother may have breathed a sigh of relief, happy that both of her sons weren’t in such a dangerous profession. I fear my brother, however, may have been quietly disappointed. I think he wanted me at his side wearing the Chicago Police star.

There are many stereotypes out there about cops and their lives. Do cops generally fit the stereotype?
I’ve always believed that all stereotypes have some basis in reality. For instance, divorce and alcoholism appear far too often in the ranks of the Chicago Police Department. To characterize all cops as womanizing drunks, however, is as narrow-minded as turning a blind eye to that clear reality. So are there stereotypes out there about cops that have validity? You bet. But I’d warn of putting every officer you meet in that basket. In fact, one of the refreshing things I learned myself in conducting these private interviews was how many officers broke some of the most common stereotypes. I found men and women with reflective minds, advanced degrees, spiritual grounding, and without a trace of the tough-guy attitude.

I’ll add this, though. I believe that many of the negative stereotypes we hold of cops (prejudiced and cynical, for instance) are based in all human psyches. Yet, being police officers, seeing what they do on a daily basis, accelerates and heightens those traits. The intense environment in which so many officers work brings some of those human flaws to the surface at a rapid pace for so many, but being a cop does not alone activate those flaws. I think that’s an important distinction we all need to realize. These cops are just like us. They sat next to us in grade school, stand behind us in grocery lines, and pray next to us in church pews. They are among us, not distinct from us.

Is there a way, do you think, for cops to balance their work lives with family lives successfully?
Of course. I think reflection is a key component. I think a sound family life can help. I think a realistic perception of their individual lives is important. My two great uncles who were Chicago cops did a marvelous job of balancing work and life. They were tremendous fathers, decorated officers, and sincere men. I believe both of them did that by keeping those worlds separate as best they could, yet recognizing just how difficult a challenge that task would be. Ultimately, they challenged themselves to put their best effort forward each day and acknowledging that they would make their mistakes as both parents and officers. They put each role in its proper context and, more than anything, noted the carry over from one world to the other. For example, these are two men who realized that compassion was just as important as a father as it was an officer.

My biggest concern, however, is how so few officers take advantage of counseling or learn coping mechanisms to deal with the inherent stressors of the job. The cop culture has a general resistance to such help and that scares me because there are so many who need to discover positive outlets for the troubles of each day. The “macho” culture prevalent in so many departments restricts too many officers from resisting help.

Who is your greatest champion?
Without question, it’s my mother. She raised three of us after my father’s departure. I suppose our family would be considered a broken home, but we never wanted for anything. Two overwhelming issues arrive from my mother: first, her desire that each of us (my brother, sister, and I) find a life that provides us happiness; and second, her consistent reminder that we cannot nor will not please everyone, advice that any writer needs.

Who inspires you?
I could go on for quite a while listing a number of authors, thinkers, and notable individuals I’ve known personally who’ve moved me in some way to push along this path. Rather than bore you with that, however, I’ll settle with these two:

1.) I’ve long been inspired by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author of The Little Prince, who showed how complex and philosophical and real even a simple story and its characters could be. In all of my work, I seek to find the extraordinary in the ordinary much like Saint-Exupery.

2.) On a wider scale, I’m inspired by anyone who wants to share their story in a sincere, honest way. I love people who accept the vulnerability that comes with sharing a piece of their life so that I may take up the challenge of crafting a story around their words and experiences. It’s such people who guide On the Job and will continue to blanket my work.

What are you reading?
I wish I could tell you I’m an avid reader, but I’ve never been. I’m an avid mover, thinker, and reflective being, but a reader I am not. I’ll simply say that I enjoy nonfiction and the fascination of true stories over any fictional world and appreciate a sound, engaging journalistic piece nearly every day. Of course, I do tend to favor Chicago-flavored pieces and the last book I closed was American Pharaoh, a lengthy tale of late Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley and his civic empire.

What’s next for you?
I’m often asked if I write fiction and my answer’s always the same: No. Two reasons: 1.) real life is just too damn fascinating; and 2.) there are too many true stories waiting to be told. God willing, I’ll be able to continue sharing such true stories that urge reflection, sincerity, and soulfulness.

One particular project is a collaboration with photographer and fellow Chicagoan, Brain Palm. For the last seven years, Brian’s taken photos of Chicago buildings before the wrecking ball hits. We’d like to share a story with each of these photos, so that we can preserve their memory and the city’s authentic character, something that is evaporating much too fast.

In time, I’d also like to turn my attention to taking On the Job to the stage as well, another task that would require collaboration.

Where can we find you on the Web?
I have a blog—www.onthejob-smith.blogspot.com—that functions as a bulletin board of sorts for my upcoming appearances and media attention. Someday that blog will roll into my commenting on specific issues related to the book, but for now it’s a revolving door of events, notices, and miscellaneous information.