Darren Burch, detective, author and podcaster

Sgt. Darren Burch was a former detective for the Phoenix Police Department. After working with Phoenix PD for nearly 30 years, Burch became an author and a podcaster.

Burch has had over 30 years of experience, including time the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department and U.S. Army Military Intelligence.

He received numerous awards including the Medal of Lifesaving, the Army Commendation Medal, State Investigator of the Year and Detective of the Year.

After retirement, Burch wrote an award-winning, true-crime book trilogy entitled “Twisted But True.”

Currently, Burch hosts a podcast, The Badge ZONE, and previously was a co-host for the BADGE BOYS Podcast TV show, which was on Axon’s First Responders Network.

Burch wanted to give back to the community and decided to write the book trilogy “Twisted But True.”

“I thought about it, and I liked the idea when I retired, giving back to silent witness. I used the bullet points as a platform for the stories,” said Burch. 

Burch explained the process of how he divided the books by his career. 

“The first book was really predominantly my patrol years for a 30 year period, and then the second book was my detective years, and then the last ten years, if you will, detective sergeant,” said Burch. 

Sometimes it was the suspects that made the stories entertaining for readers. 

“Stupid suspects help cops do their job. We can catch them so much easier, and they are funny,” said Burch. 

He also added Silent Witness is a significant part of the community when it comes to solving crimes and being in the force. 

“It’s a perfect community based policing program. It’s the community helping solve crimes, and then the money, which is a non-profit, provides that reward mechanism and goes back out to the community, so it’s just one of those perfect programs and helps keep cold cases alive,” said Burch.