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Whistleblower author Greg Dillon at WNHH FM.
Greg Dillon proudly wore a cop-solidarity “thin blue line” face mask when Covid-19 hit.
At the same time he was working a book about how he watched the cop-solidarity “thin blue line” lead to corruption and cover-ups in law enforcement.
Dillon finished the book. It’s a page-turner, a glimpse inside wrongdoing and then revenge within the ranks of the FBI and state’s attorney’s office, all on terrain familiar to people in New Haven. It’s called The Thin Blue Lie: An Honest Cop vs. The FBI. Post Hill Press releases the book on Feb. 22. (You can order it now here.)
Over a three-decade career, Dillon, a New Haven native, served as a Branford cop, an FBI agent, and then an investigator with the state’s attorney’s office. His book recounts how higher-ups retaliated against him for uncovering how the FBI regularly submitted untrue statements (attributed to investigators like Dillon) to obtain court permission to arrest suspected fugitives. Dillon had the last laugh: He won over $3 million (with the help of famous NYC whistleblower cop Frank Serpico) in two highly-publicized lawsuits against his bosses, then remained in the post until retiring in 2009.
Thirteen years later, he has offered all the behind-the-scene details about how (a la The Wire) bureaucratic and political incentives can lead law enforcement to take short cuts and undermine public safety, then make matters worse with cover-ups.
“There is a lot of pressure inside the thin blue line to be a regular guy; you go along to get along. The worst thing that can happen to an honest cop is when being a good cop butts up against the pressure of being a team player,” Dillon writes in the book.
That echoes the popular understanding of the “thin blue line” slogan that led to criticism of New Haven police last year for promoting it. (Read about that here and here.)
In an interview about his book Thursday on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven,” Dillon said the issue is more complex than that.
Yes, the call to solidarity can lead to the enabling of unforgivable misdeeds, as Dillon observed firsthand. An “us-against-them mentality” can “get ugly.”
But “most times it’s about unity. It is about solidarity … brother and sisters willing to sacrifice their lives to save” their colleagues in a dangerous profession, he said. That’s why he didn’t think twice about donning the mask with the message even more than a decade since turning in his badge.
Officers often receive items with the slogan and image after losing a colleague in the line of duty.
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the symbol. If someone is offended, that is something they have to deal with,” Dillon argued.
After telling his story, Dillon concludes the book with a call for an outside agency to investigate complaints of wrongdoing by the FBI.
“The FBI is incapable of policing its own and there needs to be a separate entity to investigate allegations of misconduct and impose sanctions, for the same reason accounting firms do not audit themselves,” he writes.
Dillon studied hard to become a cop, to be accepted into the FBI, to master the tools of tracking down murderers and rapists who flee the state. In retirement, he employed the same determination to learn how to write a book, beginning with “showing” rather than “telling” his stories by providing evidence rather than simply making statements.
He learned the lesson well. As a result we learn a lot about law enforcement — and doing right when it’s not easy — from The Thin Blue Lie.
Click on the video to watch the full interview with author and retired cop and FBI agent Greg Dillon on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.”