DEPUTY WHILE IMMIGRANT

In this memoir, a German immigrant recounts how he became a police deputy along the U.S.–Mexico border.

This remembrance offers a unique perspective on modern policing and life as an immigrant in American society. Peine was born in the German town of Gütersloh, where his teenage desire to serve in the local police force was thwarted by a failed medical test. Gravitating to the computer industry instead, he became a successful software salesman and immigrated to the U.S. after meeting his future American wife, Annie, in the late 1990s. On 9/11, he was due to meet a banking client at the World Trade Center complex when his universe was changed forever as he escaped the carnage of that terrible day. Moved by the bravery of the first responders and increasingly disillusioned with his sales career, Peine followed his wife to Tucson, Arizona, where, at the age of 40, he enrolled for training as a deputy in the Pima County Sheriff’s Department. He writes frankly about the brutal training course, recalling a harsh drill sergeant known as “The Hat.” The formidable figure punished recruits who made errors by ordering them to perform their exercise drills in a sand pit. While the author was adept at learning police procedure and his subsequent career as a deputy was marked by dedication and courage, the value of his well-written story is in its distinctively European point of view. Coming from a German society where weapons were difficult to obtain, for example, he found the many gun-related suicides he investigated hard to accept: “Time and time again, I had to witness how the use of firearms had resulted in deformed, damaged and destroyed bodies and lives, often enough self-inflicted.” He also notes that because his own route to American citizenship was a relatively easy one, he cannot help but feel sympathetic toward the desperate plight of migrants crossing the border from Mexico due to violence and poverty in their home countries. Some readers may find Peine’s account overly detailed at times, but the author’s self-deprecating humor and his honest discussions of police work from an immigrant perspective make it enjoyable and worthwhile reading.

An insightful and engrossing account of a German immigrant’s experiences as a police deputy in Arizona.