Good cop, bad cop
Subtitle: confessions of a reluctant policeman
By: Andrew Brown
Publisher: Zebra Press
Published: 2016
Place of publication: Cape Town
Language: eng
Number of pages: 194
ISBN-13: 9781776090952; 9781776090969
Subjects: Police; Biography; Crime; South African Police Service (Western Cape, South Africa)
Description: Once an enemy of the apartheid police, Andrew Brown has worked as a police reservist for almost twenty years. In this book he takes the reader on patrol with him into the ganglands of the Cape Flats, the townships of Masiphumelele and Nyanga, and the high-walled Southern Suburbs. Good Cop, Bad Cop is a personal account of the perilous and often conflicting work of a SAPS officer. Brown describes being shot at, arresting suspects in a drug bust, chasing down leads in a homicide investigation and keeping the peace during the UCT student protests. Brown illustrates how difficult the job of the police is, and how easy it is to react with undue force. Yet he argues passionately that the role of the police is to be a service to communities and not a force to suppress social discontent. Gripping and thought-provoking, this is a fascinating insight into the social fabric of current South Africa.