Today's Police Tell the Inside Story of Their Work on America's Streets . Fletcher's second book, Pure Cop , interviews officers from CPD's bomb squad, arson unit, HRT, prostitution, and major accidents units. Within each unit, she interviews at least ten officers, packing her chapters full of war stories, observations, advice, and profiles of different kinds of crimes.
Cops love to tell cop stories.
The book's big draw, though, are the crimes. Cops often perceive bourgeois citizens as sheltered, and when given the chance will regale them with stories of atrocities and mayhem. Most of the space in the book is given over to either stories of crimes or cop's profiles of criminals, and the result is a consistently grim picture of inner-city violence. It may leave you feeling like everyone you know ought to be carrying a gun. The lack of journalistic perspective comes to be a felt absence as the crimes become more grim and officers' perspectives become more hostile and authoritarian.