I usually hit a local bookstore over lunch and the other week found a book that made its way to the Computer Security section: Arrest-Proof Yourself: An Ex-Cop Reveals How Easy It Is for Anyone to Get Arrested… [long ass title] by Dale C. Carson. I picked it up and started to check it out, and am quite glad I did. And at a price of $15 on the cover, I consider it a borderline steal even though I just pick it up and read at the store and am not buying it. It is amazingly accessible and fun to read.

The book has a lot of content for people who do recreational drugs, so much of that doesn’t apply to me. But it has many things that are useful to know, especially to someone in the security space.

For instance, and this is in the title, but I hadn’t realized how easy it could be to get arrested. And once you get arrested, that is on your digital record forever, even if you did nothing wrong and never went to court. It still will haunt you. A single arrest on my record for being stupid could affect my career.

Police may not have the proverbial quotas of traffic tickets to give monthly, but they truly are rated on scorecards based on arrests made and other items. And not by the quality of their arrests or how often they were helpful or respectful to citizens in need.