Veteran Calgary homicide detective co-authors book of lessons he learned on the frontline

Veteran CPS officer pens a book A Calgary police officer says his memoirs aren’t the regular sort of police book you’d come across. Ina Sidhu reports.

Detective Dave Sweet, a 20 year veteran of the Calgary Police Service who served in the homicide unit for the last decade, has penned a book sharing his experiences and the knowledge he gained while on the job.

“It’s an unconventional police memoir,” explained Sweet. “It’s true crime and police procedural that meets ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’. It’s a life lessons book. What I’ve done is taken the last 20 years of my career and we've put it together in a way that we pull out some of the most meaningful life lessons that I've learned through my observance as a police officer.”

‘Skeletons in my Closet’ doesn’t delve into specific cases but Sweet draws from his time working high-profile murder investigations.

“There's a ton of inspiring lessons that come from people who have dealt with significant trauma or crisis in their life and they were able to rise above that trauma to create legacies and foundations and to do good things. I think lessons from a police officer can teach people that we’re not, any of us, too small to make a difference.”

“Our book is not about blood, guts or gore. It’s certainly not a rah-rah book for cops either. I think that the lessons that we talk about, the stories we share, are sincere. I think there’s lots of decent introspections and sort of the way I view policing in Canada.”

Sweet’s grandfather, who died well before Sweet’s birth, worked as a policeman in New York City in the early 1900’s and the grandson cherished the stories of his grandfather’s service.  “My mom had collected some of his memorabilia, some old newspaper clippings of him so as a young fellow I used to go and review some of this memorabilia. I was interested in his life and I read about some of his stories and these stories talked about rooftop chases, that kind of thing in New York City.”

“My kids have always had lots of questions and, as we get older, we struggle to remember a lot of the things that have happened in our life. We don’t end up sharing a lot of the things that we’ve learned with our own family members. I wanted to write a book that would delve into my experience in policing.  Something my kids could draw on later on and maybe learn a little bit about dad and they could share it with their kids one day.”

Sarah Graham, co-authored the book that she describes as straddling true crime, biography and self-help and says she was inspired by Sweet’s vision.

“His integrity and how focused he was with ‘I want to share these lessons and I want to share them in a really meaningful and respectful way’,” explained Graham. “Dave’s a homicide detective, he’s not a writer. He would write raw content and then I would craft it so that non-police people could understand.”

“I’m just that bridge, that facilitator, to translate his life experiences and messages.”

Skeletons in my Closet is available online and in select book stores in Calgary.

With files from CTV’s Ina Sidhu