I couldn’t resist when I saw this. There’s not enough acoustic hip-hop I say!

Blue Blood by Edward Conlon
(Buy it now at Amazon)

I’ve always had a romanticised view of cops. NYC cops in particular. Maybe it’s the uniform, I dunno. I certainly enjoyed (the vanilla version of) Law & Order for a good stretch when I had the time to watch it.

Picture credit: fedexman1 (by-nc-sa)

Blue Blood is an autobiography of New York City cop Edward Conlon. He charts his rise from rookie to Gold Shield Detective. What makes this book special is Conlon himself. A graduate of Harvard (which he often wrote illegibly on forms so people wouldn’t make a deal of it), Conlon displays an amazing eloquence in his writing as well as a fastidious attention to detail. Not only does he take us through his career but also pieces together what he can of his father’s career as an FBI agent, as well as several relatives who were also cops.

We see that just like many careers, bureaucracy and politics often has far more bearing on career progression than performance and merit. Conlon spends most of the book trying to get out of a unit that, although once enjoyable, has turned sour. He also disperses a very thorough history of the NYPD and of the city itself. What I found disappointing was that he did not include more than a passing analysis of the dramatic decline in crime (75% fall in violent crime over 12 years) in New York and offer opinions as to why he thought it came about.

He also confirms (second hand) that the photocopier lie detector was actually successfully used which is one of my favourite clips from The Wire.

Blue Blood, at upwards of 550 pages, can be a little heavy to go through, particularly if (like me) you’re not very familiar with New York. The meticulous recording of precinct numbers, street names and the like can get tedious after a while, as can the constant lists of names of people he worked with (especially when they are not involved directly in the story and serve more as a shout out to people he knows). Still, the amount of detail surrounding warrants, drug busts and informants is where the book shines and if that piques your interest then you’ll probably enjoy this book as much as I did.