Kategoria BISAC: Biography & Autobiography >> Law Enforcement

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...

The Mexican Revolution was launched from Texas on November 20, 1910, and throughout the following decade the state would remain a hotbed of revolutionary activity and intrigue. It was in Texas that Mexican factions organized juntas, recruited cannon fodder, raised money, smuggled arms and ammunition, marketed loot and, when defeated, fled to regroup. These years also served as a turning point in the history of the Texas Rangers. By 1910 their traditional role of fighting Indians, Mexicans, and outlaws was coming to an end and there was growing support for abolishing the institution. With...

Born in a rough-and-tumble neighborhood of Dublin, John F. Timoney moved to New York with his family in 1961. Not long after graduating from high school in the Bronx, he entered the New York City Police Department, quickly rising through the ranks to become the youngest four-star chief in the history of that department. Timoney and the rest of the command assembled under Police Commissioner Bill Bratton implemented a number of radical strategies, protocols, and management systems, including CompStat, that led to historic declines in nearly every category of crime. In 1998, Mayor Ed Rendell...

After joining the Phoenix Police Department in 1978, Jack Ballentine quickly rose to the top as one of the nation's most sycessful undercover operatives. His specialty: posing as a hit man. Ballentine led a schizophrenic life, changing assumed identities at the drop of a hat as he developed a network in the criminal underworld and was "hired" to kill business partners, spouses, or, in one case, a couple's son. In twenty-four cases, he produced a 100 percent conviction rate on murder conspiracy charges. Murder For Hire details his most shocking assignments while also showing how he...

Winner of the Best Book Award from the Wild West History Association, 2012.
Ira Aten (1862-1953) was the epitome of a frontier lawman. When as a youth he heard of the killing by Rangers of the notorious outlaw Sam Bass at Round Rock, Aten's neighborhood, he altered his plans of being a cowboy and instead set his sights on becoming a Texas Ranger. At age twenty he enrolled in Company D during the transition of the Rangers from Indian fighters to topnotch peace officers. This unit--and Aten--would have a lively time making their mark in nineteenth-century Texas.

The preponderance of...