In the memoir, All You Can Handle, retired San Francisco police officer Bob Brodnik tells the story of growing up in the Mission District, losing his father in the line of duty, and spending 32 years wearing the same badge in the same city his father died protecting.
Set against the working-class streets of the Mission, All You Can Handle follows Bob from a complicated childhood into a career on the force shaped by one central question: How do you live up to the example of a man who died doing everything right?
With this book, Brodnik introduces the readers to the human side of policing. The brotherhood that forms when every call could be your last, the emotional cost of seeing people on their worst days, and the quiet victories that never make the news but stay with you for life.
The book follows the relationship between father and son. Joe was known within the department as a sharp, relentless street cop—part of a burglary-prevention team that routinely caught thieves in the act and helped drive down daytime break-ins across neighborhoods. At home, he was the parent who modeled fairness, restraint, and decency.
When Joe was killed, the family fractured. The boy who once rode along in his dad’s pickup grew into a man who decided to wear the badge in his honor.
All You Can Handle does not attempt to sanitize or glorify the work. Instead, it offers what is often missing from conversations about law enforcement: a deeply personal narrative about what happens to the families behind the badge, and what it costs to keep showing up after everything falls apart.
All You Can Handle is available in print and digital formats.
About the Author
Bob Brodnik grew up in San Francisco’s Mission District and joined the San Francisco Police Department, where he served for more than three decades. He followed the same path his father had walked before being killed in the line of duty in 1969. In All You Can Handle, Bob writes as both officer and son, reflecting on integrity, brotherhood, trauma, and the enduring influence of a father’s example.

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