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What Cops Know: Today's Police Tell the Inside Story of Their Work on America's Streets
Cops know things other people don’t. They know that most murderers want to confess. They know that child molesters sometimes marry single women with kids for the sole purpose of molesting those kids when they reach the right age. They know that the person who discovers a murder victim is usually the murderer, and that many rapists expect their victims to fall in love with them. They know that organized crime hit men like to borrow the victim’s car to avoid dirtying up their own trunk with the victim’s body. They know that the best con is the simplest con and that whores know more about what’s going on in the street than anyone.
Cops are the great storytellers of our time. They fashion stories out of their encounters with a reality the rest of us can only guess at, spiking these stories with the acid commentary and gallows humor that is pure cop. Their stories often go beyond the recounting of what happened in particular cases. Especially in stories about victimized children or senseless/depraved murders, cops talk about what seeing the dark side of human life does to them.
A tour de force of oral history, WHAT COPS KNOW, in which cops share their hard-won reflections and stories, gets to the very core of what cop dramas show only glancingly and at a remove-- what cops, by virtue of their street experience and criminal expertise, have learned about crime, criminals, and human nature.
WHAT COPS KNOW is a dramatic distillation of police life and lore, based on more than one hundred cops’ actual experiences. Chicago journalist Connie Fletcher interviewed the men and women of an area in Chicago known throughout police circles as a microcosm of crime. The cops in this book include beat cops, homicide detectives, an FBI profiler, sex crimes and organized crime specialists, robbery and prostitution decoys, the masterminds behind infiltrating large narcotics rings, and the men and women who do the harrowing work of undercover buy/bust operations on the street. What cops told Fletcher is given straight in chapters on the Street, Violent Crimes, Sex Crimes, Property Crimes, Narcotics, and Organized Crime.
Blending cop humor, anecdotes, and full-scale police war stories, WHAT COPS KNOWcomes across with the gritty realism of top-notch docudrama, along with the poetry of street talk. This is gripping reading on a subject that is always hot.
Cops are the great storytellers of our time. They fashion stories out of their encounters with a reality the rest of us can only guess at, spiking these stories with the acid commentary and gallows humor that is pure cop. Their stories often go beyond the recounting of what happened in particular cases. Especially in stories about victimized children or senseless/depraved murders, cops talk about what seeing the dark side of human life does to them.
A tour de force of oral history, WHAT COPS KNOW, in which cops share their hard-won reflections and stories, gets to the very core of what cop dramas show only glancingly and at a remove-- what cops, by virtue of their street experience and criminal expertise, have learned about crime, criminals, and human nature.
WHAT COPS KNOW is a dramatic distillation of police life and lore, based on more than one hundred cops’ actual experiences. Chicago journalist Connie Fletcher interviewed the men and women of an area in Chicago known throughout police circles as a microcosm of crime. The cops in this book include beat cops, homicide detectives, an FBI profiler, sex crimes and organized crime specialists, robbery and prostitution decoys, the masterminds behind infiltrating large narcotics rings, and the men and women who do the harrowing work of undercover buy/bust operations on the street. What cops told Fletcher is given straight in chapters on the Street, Violent Crimes, Sex Crimes, Property Crimes, Narcotics, and Organized Crime.
Blending cop humor, anecdotes, and full-scale police war stories, WHAT COPS KNOWcomes across with the gritty realism of top-notch docudrama, along with the poetry of street talk. This is gripping reading on a subject that is always hot.
352 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
December 5, 2007
Here's a favourite quote - oh they're so cynical those cops you know...
You should fight like hell if you get attacked on the street, or in your home. The old thinking was, especially with women, submit, give in, maybe the guy will give you a break and not kill you. Now, maybe you will get raped, but least you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you didn't just lie down and take it. You don't know how many home-invasion scenes we walk in on where the people are sitting there all tied up and all dead. There'll be four, five people, a family, maybe some guests: enough to put up a fight. And you know they let themselves get tied up. You just know the guys said, 'We just want to tie you up. We won't hurt you.' You'd think the people would realize — why do they want to tie us up if they don't want to hurt us? But they bought it. It always gives us a little chuckle.
And they have interesting first hand insights :
With offenders who molest kids, you pick up that they genuinely love kids...[People] go "Somebody who really likes kids couldn't possibly do this". This nice day-care centre owner, this nice coach. People get confused at that. But paedophiles genuinely love kids - and they have a sexual desire for kids.
Here's a favourite:
I was new on the force and I had my first death notification. I had to tell a woman that her husband had just been killed. I just dreaded doing this. I remember sitting in the squad car in front of this woman's house, trying to get what I had to say exactly right. I sat there for about half an hour mentally composing what I had to say. So I go up to the front door. I'm so nervous. A woman answers it and I start : "It is my unfortunate duty to inform you that your husband has been killed." She looks at me and says "What did you just say?" Oh no. I start again. "It is my unfortunate duty..." "Wait, wait. You just wait right there. I gotta wake up my kids."
So I'm standing there feeling miserable. I hear her yell through the house "Kids! Get up, come in here." They all come in. "Now tell them what you just told me." So i do, and they all start hugging each other and dancing around. "Officer, you just gave us the best news, that rotten son of a bitch is dead at last!"
You should fight like hell if you get attacked on the street, or in your home. The old thinking was, especially with women, submit, give in, maybe the guy will give you a break and not kill you. Now, maybe you will get raped, but least you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you didn't just lie down and take it. You don't know how many home-invasion scenes we walk in on where the people are sitting there all tied up and all dead. There'll be four, five people, a family, maybe some guests: enough to put up a fight. And you know they let themselves get tied up. You just know the guys said, 'We just want to tie you up. We won't hurt you.' You'd think the people would realize — why do they want to tie us up if they don't want to hurt us? But they bought it. It always gives us a little chuckle.
And they have interesting first hand insights :
With offenders who molest kids, you pick up that they genuinely love kids...[People] go "Somebody who really likes kids couldn't possibly do this". This nice day-care centre owner, this nice coach. People get confused at that. But paedophiles genuinely love kids - and they have a sexual desire for kids.
Here's a favourite:
I was new on the force and I had my first death notification. I had to tell a woman that her husband had just been killed. I just dreaded doing this. I remember sitting in the squad car in front of this woman's house, trying to get what I had to say exactly right. I sat there for about half an hour mentally composing what I had to say. So I go up to the front door. I'm so nervous. A woman answers it and I start : "It is my unfortunate duty to inform you that your husband has been killed." She looks at me and says "What did you just say?" Oh no. I start again. "It is my unfortunate duty..." "Wait, wait. You just wait right there. I gotta wake up my kids."
So I'm standing there feeling miserable. I hear her yell through the house "Kids! Get up, come in here." They all come in. "Now tell them what you just told me." So i do, and they all start hugging each other and dancing around. "Officer, you just gave us the best news, that rotten son of a bitch is dead at last!"
May 29, 2011
The initial appeal here is the logical continuation of the title, What Cops Know--- specifically, And You Don't. When you consider all the hidden aspects of the human psyche that are cloaked, concealed or disguised, you begin to get the idea -- cops know about it, cops have been there, cops are always there.
As recording cameras for the creaky contraption of justice, as unblinking eyes in the long watches of the night -- cops are the ones whose observations and powers of recognition must stand between functional civilization and its opposite. Not what they see, but how they've learned to see it. Quiet, thoughtful --sometimes life or death-- scrutiny.
Well. If only this were the narrow agenda for Ms Fletcher's book. As it is, there is a goldmine of relatively disconnected factoid here, and many intriguing aspects unearthed. For example, the majority of burglaries are committed during daytime hours, before it is dark. Score one for the sherlockian "hide in plain sight" dictum.
But rather than just letting the unrestricted cop-blogging comprise the whole book, she might have done better putting it into a framework that would impose some kind of order on the lists & anecdotes. I can understand the idea of letting the cops speak without modification or spin by the author, and that helps this to be a good read.
But you do get a whole lot of very embellished sounding tales, (ie we've been telling this one so long it's become an arabian nights tale), and you do get a lot of stories in which the teller just happens to be, albeit always self-deprecatingly, the coincidental hero. Lots of "well we caught the perp from the most-wanted sheet, but his chimpanzee escaped with the swag ... go figure," ... kinds of stories. Lots of real precinct-house perennials, ending with stuff like "so I'm up there storming the attic while the perp's sliding down the front bannister" classics.
The last section on Mafia practice-- honestly, I think she got the wrong guys to talk about this -- could have been written at the Extras Craft Service table on the Sopranos set.
I would've hammered & clawed my way through 8oo pages of what cops notice and why-- but I don't think it's really here, honestly. I kind of get the impression that their real life-&-death signs and cues are held close to the vest, for the reasons of not blowing the gag to the opposition. What's here is entertaining overall, but a little bit too much cop-cliché about that time that Flanigan took on the room full of narco desperados and defeated them with an unloaded firearm, you know, cause he's forgetful, old Flanigan. That old Thin Blue Line does its own public relations, case by case, and these are the stories they tell.
Plus and minus sides accounted for, this is still a lot of good solid material for the Crime Fiction or Mystery afficionado, and I'd put it on a musts list for a crime writer. Read it and weep-- just don't expect the real inside story, mac.
As recording cameras for the creaky contraption of justice, as unblinking eyes in the long watches of the night -- cops are the ones whose observations and powers of recognition must stand between functional civilization and its opposite. Not what they see, but how they've learned to see it. Quiet, thoughtful --sometimes life or death-- scrutiny.
Well. If only this were the narrow agenda for Ms Fletcher's book. As it is, there is a goldmine of relatively disconnected factoid here, and many intriguing aspects unearthed. For example, the majority of burglaries are committed during daytime hours, before it is dark. Score one for the sherlockian "hide in plain sight" dictum.
But rather than just letting the unrestricted cop-blogging comprise the whole book, she might have done better putting it into a framework that would impose some kind of order on the lists & anecdotes. I can understand the idea of letting the cops speak without modification or spin by the author, and that helps this to be a good read.
But you do get a whole lot of very embellished sounding tales, (ie we've been telling this one so long it's become an arabian nights tale), and you do get a lot of stories in which the teller just happens to be, albeit always self-deprecatingly, the coincidental hero. Lots of "well we caught the perp from the most-wanted sheet, but his chimpanzee escaped with the swag ... go figure," ... kinds of stories. Lots of real precinct-house perennials, ending with stuff like "so I'm up there storming the attic while the perp's sliding down the front bannister" classics.
The last section on Mafia practice-- honestly, I think she got the wrong guys to talk about this -- could have been written at the Extras Craft Service table on the Sopranos set.
I would've hammered & clawed my way through 8oo pages of what cops notice and why-- but I don't think it's really here, honestly. I kind of get the impression that their real life-&-death signs and cues are held close to the vest, for the reasons of not blowing the gag to the opposition. What's here is entertaining overall, but a little bit too much cop-cliché about that time that Flanigan took on the room full of narco desperados and defeated them with an unloaded firearm, you know, cause he's forgetful, old Flanigan. That old Thin Blue Line does its own public relations, case by case, and these are the stories they tell.
Plus and minus sides accounted for, this is still a lot of good solid material for the Crime Fiction or Mystery afficionado, and I'd put it on a musts list for a crime writer. Read it and weep-- just don't expect the real inside story, mac.
December 26, 2016
This is an oral history of cops--specifically Chicago cops. As with Fletcher's Every Contact Leaves a Trace, what makes this book fascinating is the voices of the cops she interviews, how they talk about what they've experienced.
July 20, 2012
A look inside the world of a police officer
20 June 2012
When I saw this book I bought it because it looked interesting and when I did read it I found it really interesting, though we must always remember that it is written from one point of view, and that is the Chicago Police. Even then I found it remarkably unbiased and enlightening to learn about law enforcement from the side of the enforcers and the dangers that their jobs always seem to put them in. Okay, the book is focused only on the Chicago Police Department, but it is most likely because the author had access to a number of Chicago cops who were willing to talk to her, noting that what she says at the beginning that the police tend not to speak to outsiders about the gritty nature of their work.
When I saw this book I bought it because it looked interesting and when I got around to reading it I discovered it to be really interesting, though we must always remember that it is written from one point of view, and that is from that of the Chicago Police. Even then I found it remarkably enlightening to learn about law enforcement from the side of the enforcers and the dangers that they always seem to face in their job. Okay, the book is focused only on the Chicago Police Department, but it is most likely because the author had access to a number of Chicago cops who were willing to talk to her, noting that what she says at the beginning is that the police tend not to speak to outsiders about the gritty nature of their work.
The reason that I decided to write a commentary on this book was, not just because I have read it and that it had not yet been put on my list, but because after finishing a Conan story there was a passage in that particular story that triggered my memories of this book, and the since passage was of some importance that I believe I need to quote it for you to understand where I am coming from.
What is happening here is that Conan is forcing himself onto a woman that is not interested in him, but by forcing himself onto her she stops resisting. While the Conan stories are set in an ancient pre-historic world, this is still what we would call rape. One may ask what does the above passage have to do with this book, and my response is 'quite a lot'. There is a chapter in this book on rape and it said a number of things that I already know about the subject (since I did study it in criminal law, and also had exposure to it when I worked in a criminal law firm). One of the ideas is that most of the rapes are done by people that the woman knows, and one of the reasons is that the rapist believes that by forcing himself upon her the woman will fall in love with him. Usually this is the result of unrequited love where the woman is rejecting the male and the male simply does not want to take no for an answer. In these cases the male believes that he is the best person for this woman and is convinced that the woman does not realise it at that time, but if he continues to pursue her and force himself onto her then she will 'wake up' and realise that he is the only guy for her. This may be true, but it does not mean that the male should try to prove it to her by physically forcing himself onto her. Sometimes in situations like these (and I know how hard it can be) the best thing to do is to simply walk away. Rape is rape, and it is a very serious crime.
Other reasons for rape are a desire to exert power over another person. We believe that we are civilised but in reality we are not. In older times, when an enemy city was sacked, and we have all heard of the concept of 'Rape and Pillage', the invading army would sack the city, and a part of sacking the city would involve raping the woman. They did not do it mainly for pleasure, but because they were the victors and to the victors go the spoils. In those days women were little more than property, and to an enemy army, they were the spoils, and raping the women was their way of saying 'you are now mine to do with you what I please'.
Enough on rape, because it is a very disturbing subject that many of us wish to put at the back of our minds, but this is also a very disturbing book, learning about all of the barbarity that lurks in the streets of Chicago. Okay, I am not one to say and believe that the police are the pinnacle of virtue, but as with everybody else, they have a right to tell their stories, and in many cases it seems that the only people who do get to tell their stories are the criminals. Being a police officer is a very dangerous job, as we learn from this book, especially in America where people are allowed to carry guns. The police do not know whether the next person whom they pull over will be the last, or whether when they knock on a door, the answer will be a shotgun blast. Much is made of the excitement of being a police officer in Hollywood movies, but this book strips the excitement away to reveal the dangers that they face.
Another interesting aspect of this book is the section on organised crime. There is a lot of discussion about bodies in the boot of a car. They suggest that the reason that bodies are dumped in car boots and the car then dumped is that there is no crime scene. Well, there is, it is just they do not know where it is located. Smart criminals (namely those who are in the upper echelons of organised crime, and those that have been doing it a long time and have survived) know how to cover their tracks. They don't leave the body where they killed it, they move it because a lot of forensic evidence is then lost. Even better, they torch the car because then it makes identification of the body so much more difficult.
This was actually a really good book, though it was also very disturbing, learning about the underworld through the eyes of the police. In a way I am really glad that I straightened my life out because in the end I really did not want to be apart of that violent and untrustworthy world that is fuelled by greed, fear, and the lack of respect for human life. Of course, one of the reasons that the criminal underworld is so violent is because there is no legal recourse against a dispute, and the people that they are dealing with do not take defeat lightly. When beaten, they do not run away with their tails between their legs, rather they bide their time and then get even.
20 June 2012
When I saw this book I bought it because it looked interesting and when I did read it I found it really interesting, though we must always remember that it is written from one point of view, and that is the Chicago Police. Even then I found it remarkably unbiased and enlightening to learn about law enforcement from the side of the enforcers and the dangers that their jobs always seem to put them in. Okay, the book is focused only on the Chicago Police Department, but it is most likely because the author had access to a number of Chicago cops who were willing to talk to her, noting that what she says at the beginning that the police tend not to speak to outsiders about the gritty nature of their work.
When I saw this book I bought it because it looked interesting and when I got around to reading it I discovered it to be really interesting, though we must always remember that it is written from one point of view, and that is from that of the Chicago Police. Even then I found it remarkably enlightening to learn about law enforcement from the side of the enforcers and the dangers that they always seem to face in their job. Okay, the book is focused only on the Chicago Police Department, but it is most likely because the author had access to a number of Chicago cops who were willing to talk to her, noting that what she says at the beginning is that the police tend not to speak to outsiders about the gritty nature of their work.
The reason that I decided to write a commentary on this book was, not just because I have read it and that it had not yet been put on my list, but because after finishing a Conan story there was a passage in that particular story that triggered my memories of this book, and the since passage was of some importance that I believe I need to quote it for you to understand where I am coming from.
'You dare ask...' she begun angrily, when she felt herself snatched off her feet and crushed to the hetman's muscular breast. She fought him fiercely, with all the supple strength of her magnificent youth, but he only laughed exuberantly, drunk with the possession of this splendid creature withering in his arms.
He crushed her struggles easily, drinking the nectar of her lips with all the unrestrained passion that was his, until the arms that strained against them melted and twinged convulsively about his massive neck. Then he looked down into the clear eyes, and said 'why should not a chief of the Free People be preferable to a city-bred dog of Turan?'
She shook back her tawny locks, still tingling in every nerve from the fire of his kisses. She did not loosen her arms from around his neck.
What is happening here is that Conan is forcing himself onto a woman that is not interested in him, but by forcing himself onto her she stops resisting. While the Conan stories are set in an ancient pre-historic world, this is still what we would call rape. One may ask what does the above passage have to do with this book, and my response is 'quite a lot'. There is a chapter in this book on rape and it said a number of things that I already know about the subject (since I did study it in criminal law, and also had exposure to it when I worked in a criminal law firm). One of the ideas is that most of the rapes are done by people that the woman knows, and one of the reasons is that the rapist believes that by forcing himself upon her the woman will fall in love with him. Usually this is the result of unrequited love where the woman is rejecting the male and the male simply does not want to take no for an answer. In these cases the male believes that he is the best person for this woman and is convinced that the woman does not realise it at that time, but if he continues to pursue her and force himself onto her then she will 'wake up' and realise that he is the only guy for her. This may be true, but it does not mean that the male should try to prove it to her by physically forcing himself onto her. Sometimes in situations like these (and I know how hard it can be) the best thing to do is to simply walk away. Rape is rape, and it is a very serious crime.
Other reasons for rape are a desire to exert power over another person. We believe that we are civilised but in reality we are not. In older times, when an enemy city was sacked, and we have all heard of the concept of 'Rape and Pillage', the invading army would sack the city, and a part of sacking the city would involve raping the woman. They did not do it mainly for pleasure, but because they were the victors and to the victors go the spoils. In those days women were little more than property, and to an enemy army, they were the spoils, and raping the women was their way of saying 'you are now mine to do with you what I please'.
Enough on rape, because it is a very disturbing subject that many of us wish to put at the back of our minds, but this is also a very disturbing book, learning about all of the barbarity that lurks in the streets of Chicago. Okay, I am not one to say and believe that the police are the pinnacle of virtue, but as with everybody else, they have a right to tell their stories, and in many cases it seems that the only people who do get to tell their stories are the criminals. Being a police officer is a very dangerous job, as we learn from this book, especially in America where people are allowed to carry guns. The police do not know whether the next person whom they pull over will be the last, or whether when they knock on a door, the answer will be a shotgun blast. Much is made of the excitement of being a police officer in Hollywood movies, but this book strips the excitement away to reveal the dangers that they face.
Another interesting aspect of this book is the section on organised crime. There is a lot of discussion about bodies in the boot of a car. They suggest that the reason that bodies are dumped in car boots and the car then dumped is that there is no crime scene. Well, there is, it is just they do not know where it is located. Smart criminals (namely those who are in the upper echelons of organised crime, and those that have been doing it a long time and have survived) know how to cover their tracks. They don't leave the body where they killed it, they move it because a lot of forensic evidence is then lost. Even better, they torch the car because then it makes identification of the body so much more difficult.
This was actually a really good book, though it was also very disturbing, learning about the underworld through the eyes of the police. In a way I am really glad that I straightened my life out because in the end I really did not want to be apart of that violent and untrustworthy world that is fuelled by greed, fear, and the lack of respect for human life. Of course, one of the reasons that the criminal underworld is so violent is because there is no legal recourse against a dispute, and the people that they are dealing with do not take defeat lightly. When beaten, they do not run away with their tails between their legs, rather they bide their time and then get even.
May 31, 2021
4 Stars because it was an interesting read and I liked the style it was written in. Big "however", it it extremely outdated now (written in the 70s and published in 1980) and did nothing to gain any respect for the police force. Honestly they all sound repugnant both in ideology and action. Oh and if you were a female you had to pretend to be a prostitute. If I were still living and had been featured in this book I'd be embarrassed. Thankfully they're all mostly dead.
August 3, 2007
Awesome True Crime! This book is made up of hundreds of little vignettes, making it a very fast read. Chapters are divided up into the following subjects: The Street, Violent Crimes, Sex Crimes, Narcotics, Property Crimes, Organized Crime. Each of those headings is bursting with grim anecdotes from Chicago cops. A dark thread of humor runs through the book. Reading it feels like you are in a cop bar, hearing the guys tell old school stories.
Warning, some of the material, particularly the chapters on violent crime and sex crimes, can get really disturbing, especially as the crimes are condensed down to a few paragraphs, the effect can become overwhelming.
Yep, America is pretty damn violent.
Warning, some of the material, particularly the chapters on violent crime and sex crimes, can get really disturbing, especially as the crimes are condensed down to a few paragraphs, the effect can become overwhelming.
Yep, America is pretty damn violent.
December 10, 2020
A different kind of book altogether. Knowing what a cop knows, seeing what they see, feeling what they feel, diving into the midst of their experiences. Eye opening, interesting and part of me regrets reading it, because some things you would rather not know.
Anyone who wants to defund the police or even thinks of defunding the police should spend 1 week in their shoes. One solid week seeing their world, and experiencing the underbelly of society. Probably won't change their mind because you can't fix stupid, but at least they can see what goes on in real life before making poor choices and foolish decisions.
Anyone who wants to defund the police or even thinks of defunding the police should spend 1 week in their shoes. One solid week seeing their world, and experiencing the underbelly of society. Probably won't change their mind because you can't fix stupid, but at least they can see what goes on in real life before making poor choices and foolish decisions.
November 7, 2010
This was a great book; a lot of the insights have stayed with me through the years. Especially thoughts on pedophiles - they genuinely love children and that is why they are drawn to professions with children: teachers, coaches, etc. Scary insights into the human psyche by the people who see us at our best and our worst!
August 20, 2008
I read this years ago, and it is easy to read, funny in places, and you get the story striaght from a cop's perspective/experience. What they predicted would be future criminal activity back then---IS now a reality today.
February 26, 2009
This book is a keeper for me. If you work in law enforcement or know someone who does, read this. If you are interested in what really happens on a cop's beat, this will give you a taste of that reality.
January 7, 2010
This book is a great read. Lets you know insight into what cops have to deal with on a regular basis. It gave me more respect for cops, and how hard their jobs are, and putting their lives on the line everyday for people like me and you.
April 1, 2010
I read this because I took about 10 classes with Connie Fletcher at Loyola University in Chicago. Great insight into the tight-lipped world of the Chicago PD. Harrowing and amusing (but, really, more of the former). She's written a bunch of other books in the same vein.
December 28, 2011
This book may have kept me out of being a crime statistic so far. Excellent non fiction read that every law abiding citizen deserves to know. Practical advice about what to look for and how to keep yourself safe.
November 4, 2011
Still as relevant today as it was back 1990(the more things change...). A must read of any writer who wants to write realistic crime fiction.
July 13, 2015
Quite an eye opening experience and a good reminder of what this world really is about and the heartbreak of a job it can be to put on the authority hat in America today.
October 23, 2019
Many times when I read a book about some subject, I find myself wishing the author would more often get out of the way of the subjects, let them speak for themselves and interject to add color or commentary here and there only when necessary. Writing such a book is, in many ways, like learning the art of conducting an interview. Know which questions to ask, when to ask them, and when to get out of the way. The path to success in such sociological outings seems so straightforward and obvious, and yet rarely is it done well, so there must be some trick that most writers, even the most well-meaning sociologists, never quite figure out.
Like the best in the field, for instance a Studs Terkel or a Barbara Ehrenreich, Ms. Connie Fletcher has mastered the art. "What Cops Know" is a book that contains the voices of people who need to speak (many times scream) and who need to be heard. There are reams of print and countless hours of film and TV shows about the world of cops, but little (if any) present the unmediated and uncut version of what it means to be a policeman delivered in this book. Being a cop is, like being a soldier, a job whose stresses perhaps outstrip the coping resources that most, if not all people, lack at some level. It's an impossible job to do perfectly and yet it's a job that must be done. This book is about what the job that must be done does to the people who do it.
Some subjects presented in the book are fascinating, leavened with humor, like the world of burglars. Others are more tragic than tragicomic, like the world of drug addicts. Some of the stories of criminals and the cops who pursue them are simply vicious tales of adrenaline junkies who, via their predefined roles as cop & robber, join into a sick symbiosis that destroys everything in its path, from marriages to psyches.
It is quite a thing to behold, and is compulsively readable, on a par perhaps with "The Hot House" by Peter Earley, which is my all-time favorite foray into a secret world we all wish didn't exist, but will not stop being there no matter how much we want it gone. Highest Recommendation.
Like the best in the field, for instance a Studs Terkel or a Barbara Ehrenreich, Ms. Connie Fletcher has mastered the art. "What Cops Know" is a book that contains the voices of people who need to speak (many times scream) and who need to be heard. There are reams of print and countless hours of film and TV shows about the world of cops, but little (if any) present the unmediated and uncut version of what it means to be a policeman delivered in this book. Being a cop is, like being a soldier, a job whose stresses perhaps outstrip the coping resources that most, if not all people, lack at some level. It's an impossible job to do perfectly and yet it's a job that must be done. This book is about what the job that must be done does to the people who do it.
Some subjects presented in the book are fascinating, leavened with humor, like the world of burglars. Others are more tragic than tragicomic, like the world of drug addicts. Some of the stories of criminals and the cops who pursue them are simply vicious tales of adrenaline junkies who, via their predefined roles as cop & robber, join into a sick symbiosis that destroys everything in its path, from marriages to psyches.
It is quite a thing to behold, and is compulsively readable, on a par perhaps with "The Hot House" by Peter Earley, which is my all-time favorite foray into a secret world we all wish didn't exist, but will not stop being there no matter how much we want it gone. Highest Recommendation.
September 20, 2026
Constance Fletcher’s What Cops Know is one of those books that hits very differently if you’ve ever worked in law enforcement.
As someone who spent a lot of time in that world, I found myself recognizing a lot of what Fletcher captures here — not just the danger or the strange calls, but the mindset that develops after you’ve seen enough of how people behave when things go sideways. The strength of this book is that it doesn’t try to make cops look like superheroes, and it doesn’t turn the job into some kind of Hollywood fantasy. It’s much more about the things officers learn through experience: how quickly a normal situation can change, how often people lie, how instinct gets sharpened over time, and how the job changes the way you look at people and situations.
Some of the observations are funny, some are dark, and some are uncomfortable, but that’s part of what makes the book feel authentic. Police work has always had a strange mix of tragedy, absurdity, boredom, adrenaline, and dry/dark humor, sometimes all in the same shift. I also appreciated that Fletcher lets the officers speak for themselves. You get different personalities, different experiences, and different ways of processing the job rather than one neat, polished narrative. Reading it years after leaving law enforcement, there were plenty of moments where I thought, “Yep. I remember that feeling.”
A fascinating look at the knowledge, instincts, and scars that come from doing a job most people only experience from the outside. ★★★★½
As someone who spent a lot of time in that world, I found myself recognizing a lot of what Fletcher captures here — not just the danger or the strange calls, but the mindset that develops after you’ve seen enough of how people behave when things go sideways. The strength of this book is that it doesn’t try to make cops look like superheroes, and it doesn’t turn the job into some kind of Hollywood fantasy. It’s much more about the things officers learn through experience: how quickly a normal situation can change, how often people lie, how instinct gets sharpened over time, and how the job changes the way you look at people and situations.
Some of the observations are funny, some are dark, and some are uncomfortable, but that’s part of what makes the book feel authentic. Police work has always had a strange mix of tragedy, absurdity, boredom, adrenaline, and dry/dark humor, sometimes all in the same shift. I also appreciated that Fletcher lets the officers speak for themselves. You get different personalities, different experiences, and different ways of processing the job rather than one neat, polished narrative. Reading it years after leaving law enforcement, there were plenty of moments where I thought, “Yep. I remember that feeling.”
A fascinating look at the knowledge, instincts, and scars that come from doing a job most people only experience from the outside. ★★★★½
March 26, 2017
The book is organized into chapters that correspond with major police units -- homicide, sex crimes, narcotics, etc. Each section is comprised of dozens of brief observations or anecdotes by cops in that division. Some are scary, some are hilarious or insightful. So the book is like salted peanuts that you can't stop eating. It was especially interesting to me in that it is the Chicago Police Department that is profiled.
Written in 1990, only some of the chapters feel dated - drugs du jour in the Narcotics sections, and especially the Organized Crime section's focus on the Mafia. But other than evolving technology, especially cell phones, I think most of the other info is likely still spot-on for today's relationship between cops and bad guys. Examples include the way that burglars watch houses they are targeting, cop surveillance tactics, how collectors of kiddie porn often graduate to child molestation, how most murders are spontaneous and committed by someone who knows the victim, etc.
Each chapter ends with a profile of the couple of dozen cops that the author interviewed in compiling that chapter. This surprised me as I would have thought that the need for anonymity would have been absolute - not from Internal Affairs or investigators, but from criminals.
The book can make you a little paranoid about bad guys for a little while, but also gives you lots of respect for what cops do to keep society safer than it otherwise would be.
April 27, 2021
This book was interesting and was filled with small stories and anecdotes from various police officers from the Chicago Police Department. The book was divided up into different types of crimes, 5 in all, and the comments or stories were made directly about those types of crimes.
One thing to know before you go into this book is how old school it is and how the talk was a lot different in the late 60's and 70's. Given how we talk in this day and age it took a little bit to get used to the language of the time that back then was considered normal.
The book gave me some insight into the crime categories and I learned some things in general that I didn't know before I read this book. Some tidbits to put into my crime facts that I carry around with me for no other reason than I find it interesting.
One thing to know before you go into this book is how old school it is and how the talk was a lot different in the late 60's and 70's. Given how we talk in this day and age it took a little bit to get used to the language of the time that back then was considered normal.
The book gave me some insight into the crime categories and I learned some things in general that I didn't know before I read this book. Some tidbits to put into my crime facts that I carry around with me for no other reason than I find it interesting.
August 12, 2018
While interesting and easy to read, this book wasn't my favorite. It's literally all dictation. The author didn't actually write anything, she just copied down thousands of anecdotes and quotes from cops and organized them into sections. That means these are short blurbs, and you don't get much detail about cases. Also, a ton of slang is used, and there's no glossary. If you don't figure out what the word means via context, you have no idea what they're talking about. It's from the 90s, I believe, so for 2018 a lot of it doesn't make sense anymore. Also a little un-PC.
June 28, 2023
Really great insights into the mindset and challenges of police work. A bit outdated now, since it was first published in the early 90s, but it still feels relevant. It's kind of a reporter's notebook dump in the sense that there is no running narrative, just several long strings of quotes organized according to various types of crimes. But its greatest value is in how real it feels, and what it teaches about the side of humanity and inhumanity cops see every day. To that end, it really is important reading.
January 15, 2020
I had to read this for one of my Graduate school classes. This book was so interesting and disgusting at times. I have to say our police see and come into contact with all walks of life both the good and the very very bad. It is very eye-opening on some of the very ugly things people do to each other.
December 14, 2020
This book is a little dated by now in that there have been some major shifts in policing and how the public interacts with the police. Still, this is a good book to hear exactly what cops thinks about. Some of the stuff is timeless. I think she wrote three books in this format. I recommend you read all of them.
November 8, 2019
Interesting stories, but are VERY graphic and disturbing at points. Interesting time capsule, but going only 3 stars just for its annoying format issues, and that fact that it is can be dry in some spots.
May 22, 2020
This book broke new ground for me and for the genre, I suspect. I read it shortly after it was first published and found it extremely informative about a point of view about which I know little – the thinking of people who actually wear the badge.
November 18, 2022
Bold statement, but this is one of my favorite books to return to. I'd love to find more like it, love the inside info!
July 7, 2023
Interesting tales from the CPD by the people who lived it.
December 20, 2023
Fascinating insight into the mind of cops and what they see on a regular basis. A little dated at this point, but still compelling reading.
February 12, 2024
Hidden gem
April 4, 2011
There are some things that date this book such as the technology mentioned, but really I personally believe a criminal's mind and way of thinking doesn't change much from decade to decade. This is gruesome in some parts. If you struggle reading about war or violent crime scenes, then this may bother you too much to enjoy what the book has to offer. I also want to put in my two cents and write that after you read this, it's a good reminder why police should have excellent and early retirement plans available. They shoulder a lot of garbage.
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