Authors Marcy Kubat and Lee Brooke tell stories from “Behind the Badge: Profiles of Police Chiefs and Officers of the Oak Park Police Department” Sept. 15 at Library

Authors Marcy Kubat and Lee Brooke will share stories from their new book, "Behind the Badge: Profiles of Police Chiefs and Officers of the Oak Park Police Department." This free program will be Thursday, Sept. 15, at 7 p.m. at the Oak Park Public Library, 834 Lake Street. The authors will have copies of their book to sell and sign.

Their stories are a mix of the mundane, boring daily grand and the rarer heart-stopping chases and stomach-churning crime scenes that are a part of a police officer’s world. On day an officer writes a ticket. Another rescues a cat or finds a child. On a rarer day, one kills a criminal resisting arrest, is profoundly disturbed, and later becomes a chaplain to help other officers cope with trauma.

Kubat and Brooke accompanied Oak Park police officers as ride-along passengers on regular shifts. Readers can vicariously experience a ride in a squad car with an officer responsing to bona-fide 9-1-1 calls, sometimes quietly, sometimes with light flashing and horns blaring.

“Behind the Badge” profiles the daily and mundane, but sometimes life-threatening experiences, confronted by Oak Park Police officers, from Chiefs to rookies. These stories are told through candid interviews, both humorous and harrowing. All share with Chief Rick Tanksley the daunting responsibility the Chief has assumed: the public safety of our entire community.

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Established in 1902, the Oak Park Public Library has served the community of Oak Park for more than a century. Today the Library serves 53,000 residents in Oak Park, Illinois with three locations: the Main Library, Dole Branch Library, and Maze Branch Library. The Library offers a large collection of fiction and nonfiction titles, movies, CDs, audiobooks, magazines, newspapers, reference materials and online resources, and local history information. In addition, the Main Library is known for its impressive collection of permanent artwork, including pieces by local artists. For more information on the Oak Park Public Library and its collections and services, please visit www.oppl.org or call 708-383-8200.