Cops: Their Lives in Their Own Words

by Mark Baker

Book Overview

1995 HARDCOVER w/DUST JACKET (Protected in Brodart) This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 067149970X
• ISBN13: 9780671499709
• Release Date: January 1985
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 303 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Police tales from 1970s to 1985

This book is filled with short stories of cops in their own words. No censorship: From the cold description of an impaled baby on a tree on the scene of a terrible car accident to a blown up drug addict body in a bloody appartment. I almost vomited on my way to work when I read it two years ago on the city bus. So be sure to be prepared for horrible descriptions, lots of action and a superb inside view of the psychological aspect of the policemen/women. But remember that the tales are mostly taking part in the early 1980s. Every chapter starts with the author's take on a selected aspect of the police work. Are you ready for Atari-boy-killer, incredible housecalls, drugs, alcohol, sex and corruption? Then this book is for you. Very easy reading because each story is clearly divided by little stars. A must for police-related readers.

A must-read

I read Baker's "Nam: The Vietnam War in the Words of the Men and Women Who Fought There" and loved it. And "Cops" didn't disappoint either. I first read it a number of years ago and have recommended it highly ever since. It's a fantastic book, much more comprehensive than Connie Fletcher's "competing" (but still good) book, "What Cops Know." As you might expect, the stories run the gamut from heartbreakingly sad to laugh-out-loud hilarious. Every serious student of law enforcement should read this book. I think I'm up to three full readings. Other cop books I recommend: "Close Pursuit" by Carsten Stroud and "Boot: An L.A.P.D. Officer's Rookie Year" by William Dunn.

tremendous writing!

What a book! I could not put this bestseller down. Great insider stuff. this is so true what cops go through. A first class thriller.

Not for the weak

I read this book years ago and I still find myself reccommending it to peers and relating some of the stories I've read. We have a lot of friends of the family who are cops, and they all agree that this book tells it like it is.

This book is an eye opener.

The author has taken us to a place that we have looked at as outsiders. After reading this book I finally have a glimmer of understanding of what police officers see everyday risking their lives. You can no longer look at an officer of the law as just a "uniform, badge and a gun" they are men and women with families like the rest of us.