Customer Reviews

What Cops Know: Cops Talk About What They Do, How They Do It, and What It Does to Them

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Connie Fletcher picked the right approach in tackling this subject; like Nicholas Pileggi's Wise Guy: Life in a Mafia Family, What Cops Know is told almost entirely in the subjects' own words, giving it an immediacy and buoyancy that can be mesmerizing. As one police officer stated, they have to develop a sense of humour about what they do. So their toughness, their panache for strange parlance and anecdotes, and their occasional bursts of machismo are delivered first-generation, Fletcher having the good sense to hold back on her editorial comments (something a writer like Colin Wilson overindulges in, making his books extremely moralistic) and just let her subjects tell their stories.

The book started off slowly (the foreword explaining the approach, though useful, was cut-and-dry stuff, though certainly useful), but after getting through the first section, I plowed through 200 pages in one sitting. Some of the stories are plain hilarious; some disturbing and sombre; some made me downright sick to my stomach. The child-molestation section was harrowing; I'm usually very objective in my approach to reading, but the story of the mother "selling" her six-year-old child to strangers gut-punched me.

Reading through this book, you begin to understand that the police have one of the most strenuous, underappreciated, and potentially corrupting jobs in Western society.

This compilation of interviews in the words of genuine Chicago cops was put together by the sister of one, which gave her an entree into the "closed society" of law enforcement. Most of the officers she spoke with "work or have worked" in the city's Area Six, which encompasses everything from the notorious Cabrini-Green housing projects to the glittering upscale Gold Coast along the lakeshore. Yet crime is a constant, as it has been ever since human beings began to develop a society more complex than that of the cave-based clan. These officers have seen it all, and their cynicism is evident, yet the knowledge they've gained is broad and fascinating. Have you ever wondered how the Mafia (called in Chicago "the Outfit") is organized? Whether there are still any old-fashioned professional burglars? How a sex criminal or a serial killer thinks? These cops know, and they tell all. They are, of course, cynics, and the closing prediction of one Mob "expert" on where organized crime is probably heading seems to have been proved wrong; but altogether the book is an invaluable resource for mystery writers, social scientists, and police groupies. (Also read the author's "Pure Cop.")

I read this book before I became a Chicago cop. I felt like an outsider looking in and was curious as to how true the book was. I can tell you that this author knows what she is talking about. Working the streets of the southside, seeing murder, child abuse, prostitution, drugs, addicts etc... I can say without a doubt there is truth to the words in this book. There is truth to the after-effects cops can have from becoming part of this world, the drinking, the crying, the sleepless nights and the eventual hardening of the heart and beoming apathetic. This is a must read for anyone getting on the job. Read it and make sure you know what you are getting into. This is the best job in the world, but being prepared on how to deal with the pitfalls of it is essential.

This book is the result of 125 Chicago policemen sitting down with Prof. Connie Fletcher of Loyola University at Chicago. In order to give them the freedom to speak without fear of being transferred for political reasons, the names of the policemen interviewed are at the end of chapter, without identifying which policeman was responsible for each excerpt. This is NOT a book for the faint-hearted. It should transform the most hopeless pacifist into a gun owner, if there is any possibility at all. The chapter on home invasions, in particular, is terrifying in its descriptions of the sorts of sadistic brutality done to people inside their homes.

This is a book worth reading more for what it says about how Chicago police officers see the world, then for any sort of statistical evidence about crime. At times, in our anger at police as soldiers of an oppressive system, we tend to forget that the police get a very jaundiced view of humanity, because what they spend most of their time doing is cleaning up the pathological part of our society. This is a book for reminding us HOW they see the world, and hopefully, it can make us a little more understanding as to why certain attitudes are so common among big city police officers.

The least gruesome chapter was the one on organized crime, and contains some very worrisome statements that makes me suspect that there is more than a totalitarian political ideology or simple-minded idealism pushing gun control:

"With an Outfit murder, the car can be seen; it doesn't make any difference. If they felt like it, they could throw the firearm down next to the body and walk away. They have a source for weapons, an illegal source that provides them with weapons that can't be traced."[p. 316]

"The Chicago Outfit controls the unions. Because of that, they're into everything. Chicago controls a big chunk of Hollywood. They don't control the corporations, they don't control the directors and the producers per se, they don't control the actors and actresses. But all the support -- all the catering, the lighting, fixtures -- the outfit that supplies stuff for the movies is not going to be an accidental supply house. The lighting and fixtures -- and everything that moves and walks and talks to cause that movie to be produced -- is probably going to be owned outright or by a fictiously formed blind trust by members of the Outfit."[p. 310]

Especially in light of the successful prosecutions of judges in Chicago several years ago, the following passage seems to be quite plausible:

"Everybody can understand and get along quite well, it seems, knowing that our circuit court judges on the state and local levels can be bought. It doesn't seem to excite anybody. People in law enforcement could give you a list -- if you went and just talked to all the people, especially the people that deal with these guys, like the people in the Detective Division -- you could amass yourself a long list of the attorneys that pay off judges and long list of the dirty judges too....

"However, that's just peanuts, and people don't seem to be too excited about it. If they were, they'd demand that something be done about it, and they don't. But if you expand that, then, and show that our government is loaded with senators and congressmen and U.S. judges that are just as nefarious, just as crooked -- especially congressmen that owe their allegiances to neighborhoods in big cities -- you know, that would do some serious damage to the national psyche, I think. If we get away from the Chicago-New York-Philadelphia mentality, put yourself in Iowa or Nebraska, it would, I think, bother people of goodwill if the seriousness of it were known."[pp. 327-328]

What Cops Know is a book with hundreds of true short stories straight from the mouths of real life cops. To the streets to undercover sting operations, these cops dish out the dirt about criminals. One reason I liked this book is that it told tales of murder, conspiracies, and drug rings, leaving out no information. Through this book I discovered how criminals, and drug lords work, and why they do the things they do. The reason I chose to read this book is so I could have some more light shed on the job of a cop. The only thing I knew about cops is from movies, and T.V. With this book I heard it straight from the source. These officers' stories put me right in the squad car with them during their high-speed chases and undercover jobs. These stories showed the grim reality of this world, and cruel nature that is people. I now know how these criminals, rapists, and thieves operate. Cops tell stories of interrogation of eyewitnesses and prime suspects. Another aspect of this book that most would like to read is the stories about crooked cops. Crooked cops are what should be feared, they have the power of the law on their side and they have the choice to abuse it if they want. I would recommend this book to a friend and I would tell them that this book will make have a different perspective on the life of a cop. I know it did that for me.

What Cops know: Today's Police Tell the Inside Story of their Work on America's Streets will make you feel like you have entered the head of police officer as you see the world through his eyes. The book is a collection of short essays or stories told by cops all over the United States. Their stories will surprise you, disgust you, and make you look over your shoulder a little more often.

This book is a must read for anyone intereseted in joining law enforcement.

Connie has done a magnificent job describing patrol officer tactics and daily procedures. I was a cop for over 13 years and I GAVE this book to all my probationers (rookie cops). This book should be required reading in ALL police academies including LAPD.

"What Cops Know" is a wonderful book. I really got a kick out of it. The narratives are engaging and the police involve seem to be telling the truth about their escapades (I was convinced.) The sections on child abuse and serial rape/murders were particularly interesting.

I really think this book hits the reality of police work. I recommend this book for any cop or anyone interested in this line of work. If you work in a small town or a large city like Chicago, get this book. Great real life stories that you can relate with.

If you are looking for a terrific, can't-put-it-down summer read, I would highly recommend "What Cops Know." I've read it several times and it never fails to fascinate. The author's in-depth interviews with Chicago police officers and detectives cover everything from the beat cops' encounters on the street, to the sex crime officers' investigations into rape and crimes against children, to the undercover narcotics investigations, and more. There's a great wealth of stories here from cops who have seen it all. Perhaps it was even more interesting to me because I lived for 12 years in the Chicago area profiled in the book--the city's Area Six. The voices of the police officers come through clearly in this book, much as the workers' accounts in Studs Terkel's classic "Working" did. A must read for any true crime fan! Written in 1992--and if Ms. Fletcher hasn't written an updated "What Cops Know--Part II", she should!