It was a cold, damp morning, around three o'clock in the morning, when the call went out. It appears that a small child of around six years old was raped and beaten. Detectives were called from their home, where they were sleeping. The officers were tired, groggy and angry about what had happened to the little girl. This is a terrible tragedy that happens too often. Stories like the one I just described air weekly on the television show Law and Order SVU, where actors playing Detectives Benson and Stabler respond to these calls. Let's take the time to compare this TV show to everyday life and see how close it is to reality. Let me first give you a little background. I am thirty-eight years old and my father or my brother has always been a police officer. Calls, like the one I described in the paragraph above, are as common as junk mail in your mailbox. The detectives show up and immediately begin collecting and processing information to help them build their case. They do this tireless and thankless work without...