When Harvard-trained sociologist Peter Moskos left the classroom to become a cop in Baltimore's Eastern District, he was thrust deep into police culture and the ways of the street--the nerve-rattling patrols, the thriving drug corners, and a world of poverty and violence that outsiders never see. In Cop in the Hood, Moskos reveals the truths he learned on the midnight shift. Through Moskos's eyes, we see police academy graduates unprepared for the realities of the street, success measured by number of arrests, and the ultimate failure of the war on drugs. In addition to telling an explosive insider's story of what it is really like to be a police officer, he makes a passionate argument for drug legalization as the only realistic way to end drug violence--and let cops once again protect and serve. In a new afterword, Moskos describes the many benefits of foot patrol--or, as he calls it, "policing green."

Over the past several decades, there has been a continuous and growing focus on street gangs, outlaw motorcycle gangs, and domestic extremist groups. Many of these groups have members with military training, and some actively recruit from current and former military veterans and retirees. That military experience adds to the dangerousness of veteran gang members, as well as those groups they associate with. Communities everywhere are experiencing the damaging impact of gang criminal behavior. By observing gang activity from the Revolutionary War to today Smith examines the presence of military-trained, often veteran, gang members in the communities. He looks at the turning points in gang investigations in the military, and also looks at the laws and policies designed to specifically counter the criminal activity the threats of gang activity pose on a community. Grounded in current knowledge and research, Gangs and the Military successfully addresses the growing presence of criminal gang members in the United States. As well as reflects on how the authorities that counter and combat them are doing so on a national and global level.

9 square miles. 10,000 criminals. 130 cops. A riveting memoir by Baker, California's most-decorated police officer Compton: the most violent and crime-ridden city in America. What had been a semi-rural suburb of Los Angeles in the 1950s became a battleground for the Black Panthers and Malcolm X Foundation, the home of the Crips and Bloods and the first Hispanic gangs, and the cradle of gangster rap. At the center of it, trying to maintain order was the Compton Police Department, never more than 130-strong, and facing an army of criminals that numbered over 10,000. At any given time, fully one-tenth of Compton's population was in prison, yet this tidal wave of crime was held back by the thinnest line of the law—the Compton Police. John R. Baker was raised in Compton, eventually becoming the city's most decorated officer involved in some of its most notorious, horrifying and scandalous criminal cases. Baker's account of Compton from 1950 to 2001 is one of the most powerful and compelling cop memoirs ever written—an intensely human account of sacrifice and public service, and the price the men and women of the Compton Police Department paid to preserve their city.

The book that could save a police officer’s life, career and the life of the citizens officers encounter on the job. The “Bible of Law Enforcement Training” is what the 1980 first edition of Street Survival was considered throughout the profession. Street Survival II: Tactics for Deadly Force Encounters, written by Lt. Jim Glennon, Lt. Dan Marcou with the original author Chuck Remsberg, has a new, sleek, modern look. While paying homage to the original, the update includes more than 200 colored photos and diagrams and delves into the profession's many changes over the past three decades. It includes tactics, effective street communication, detecting preattack indicators, public expectations, the issue of Guardian and Warrior roles, and especially preparing for the realities of force events.

As he rose through the ranks of various departments of the Metropolitan Police, Christian Plowman dreamt of being an undercover cop. When he finally achieved his ambition, becoming one an elite group of officers, the reality of covert work turned his life into a nightmare. To catch criminals, Christian bought and sold drugs with taxpayers’ money, been beaten up, arrested at gunpoint and barricaded in a pub by a gang of marauding gypsies – all in a day’s work. At one stage, he was running almost a dozen mobile phones to keep track of his different identities and had so many aliases that he nearly forgot who he was. He put his life on the line for the job but was to find that being the ‘best of the best’ wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. The pressure became so intense that he even contemplated suicide. Crossing the Line is a visceral, gripping account of what it really takes to be an undercover cop. It exposes how the Met conducts its business behind the scenes and reveals the harsh realities of modern covert police work.