Northern grad writes book about law enforcement

When Brian Harris attended Havre High School, he never liked English and hated writing.

So who would have thought that years later he would be writing a book about his experiences as a police officer.

But Harris was back in his hometown Saturday speaking to a group at the Havre-Hill County Library about his first book, "I'll Spell It Out."

He read the first chapter of his book, which tells a blood-curdling story about a murder.

One of the police officers in the case got a phone call from a mother who said she was talking to her daughter on the telephone when she heard a struggle and the phone went dead. She wanted the officers to check out her apartment.

Police figured that the cutoff was an accident or something very explainable.

When they got there, they found the woman dead from a stab wound with a note in her hand from the murderer predicting he would be committing more murders in coming months.

It was the beginning of a story that would result in the promotion of the two police officers.

Were there more murders? Did police solve the crime?

Harris came back with the traditional author response: "Read the book."

That left the crowd begging for more.

Harris told of his career. He left Havre after graduating from Montana State University-Northern. He moved to Seattle and for six years, he was a corrections officer in a female prison. Then he moved to a male correctional facility.

"I couldn't get Montana out of my blood," he said.

So he moved back to Kalispell and became a police officer.

After retiring, he thought about his options for the future.

An unusual thought came to him.

He could write a book about his experiences as a police officer - the good, the bad, the serious and the funny.

That, he thought, would be educational and enlightening to the public.

The book is about 80 percent true, the rest is fabricated, he said.

"I'm not going to tell you which parts are true," he teased the audience.

Some of the police officers highlighted in the book at people he knew. Many others are composite figures with traits of people he has known.

Some, he admitted are partially made up with his own characteristics.

He named some of the characteristcis from his children's names. Then, he used names of friends and people he knew over the years. Then, he made up the names.