The Dark Side of the Blue Line: "Surviving the lies, deception, and dishonor"

Description

The Dark Side of the Blue Line is the voice of every line officer in law enforcement that can't speak out. Nicholas Ruggiero follow's his best selling first book "Police Mental Barricade; A survivor's guide to poor law enforcement leadership" with a hard hitting book into what retaliation was taken against him by his former police agency The City of Alexandria Police Department in Virginia. Everything that can't be said by line officers is said in this book. The good, the bad, and the ugly. From manipulating crime statistics to lying to the public so that "leaders" in law enforcement can look good.

Nick was a police officer for almost 20 years in two different agencies, Alexandria City Virginia and the New York City Police Department.. In Alexandria City, Nick held the position of Sergeant and supervised midnights, evenings, days, and ended his career in the Community Policing Unit. During Nick's time in the Community Policing unit he witnessed poor leadership decisions made from his command staff and fell victim to a hostile work environment for speaking up about the treatment of his troops. In 2019, after the department refused to handle his hostile work environment claim he retired and went to work for the District of Columbia Police Department as the supervisor of background investigations. Nick fell into the thin blue line trap and went back to the Alexandria City Police Department because he missed his co-workers and friends. As a punishment for leaving the agency Nick was stripped of his rank, pay, and put through countless retaliation to prove a point to other people thinking about leaving the agency. After over a month of relentless harassment and retaliation Nick attempted to take his life. He didn't complete suicide but took his poor experiences and started the Roll Call Room podcast in October 2019 helping thousands of other officers struggling with PTSD and mental health issues. Nick wrote his first best seller, Police Mental Health Barricade: A survivor's guide to poor law enforcement leadership to help others going through the same thing. Leaders are very scarce in our profession right now and more than ever positional equity leaders have no place leading us through these tough times. This book will take you through taking medication for PTSD, poor leadership, promotions, positional equity leaders, and how we fix our amazing profession. Nick has dedicated his time since the first book in bringing awareness to the root of our law enforcement mental health crisis which is poor leadership. The Alexandria City Police Department took part in aggressive and illegal retaliation against Nick for speaking publicly about being falsely accused of theft and untruthfulness (without a polygraph). In one instance a sergeant in the Office of Professional Responsibility completed a security background questionnaire for Nick's current job and lied about several things in an attempt to prevent employment. This sergeant's claims were unfounded after an extensive background investigation including a polygraph. As a result an EEOC investigation was launched and the chief of police retired with two weeks notice after being served with legal action. Nick continues to work in law enforcement and continues to advocate for better leadership and better mental health care for front line officers. Nicole was a Sheriff's Deputy for the City of Alexandria and married to Nicholas since 2000. As a Sheriff's Deputy she endured countless experiences with poor leadership. This caused countless mental health issues that her department treated her poorly over. When she asked for help her departments response was typical of law enforcement leadership and the reason we have an epidemic of suicides. She gives an in-depth look into being a spouse of a law enforcement officer as well as being a female in law enforcement.