POLICE! A Precinct at Work

by Sara Ann & David Jacobs Friedman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 15, 1975

It is amazing that the authors could have spent an entire year with the detectives and patrolmen of the 24th precinct on Manhattan's Upper West Side and have come up with so little of interest. The book is a scant 150 pages of fleshed-out homilies and philosophy--served up with a dash of cynicism, a hint of good will, a leer at nearly any female body--garnered from rides in patrol cars with well-meaning, uniformed ""good Joes"" who invariably seem to lose their collars to the heavy-handed honchos in the undercover street garb of the anti-crime unit. The authors dwell sanctimoniously on the moral dilemmas of dispossessing friendly peddlers and freeing the kids the cops have reluctantly busted, with not a word on big-time hoods, payoffs, or Mafia, and very little on violent crime--in what is one of the city's high-crime areas. The apparent aim is to present the humdrum Blue Knight reality of the cop's average day, but the emphasis on benign trivialities will more likely produce an effect opposite to that intended--why don't they get their ass out of the patrol car and bust the dealers they see on every stoop and street corner?

Pub Date: Nov. 15, 1975

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975

Categories: NONFICTION