Books

How often do you think about the police? Who do you think of? Columbo? Chief Wiggum? Derek Chauvin? Do you think of just one officer, or do you think of the police as an institution? From movies and television to everyday life, a police presence looms over most conflict. Today, we know this to be most true for Black Americans, for whom the suspense of policing is constant. And too often, the argument over dinner devolves into a 9-1-1 call, blue and red lights, and possibly a door rammed open. Some of us are watched by the police, and others are chased. But if there was a defining feature of the 2020 protests over the murder of George Floyd, it was the collective confusion about how we got to this point. Policing, it seemed, had become as ahistorical as it was brutal. Despite fragmented coverage about police unions, militarization, and systemic racism, America remained hazy on the details of what cops had been doing all along.

There is a Blue Wall, and ways to get behind it. The authors of this book, Anon 1 and Anon 2, are senior investigators of a government agency tasked with policing the police in New York City. They’re our eyes on the inside, and this book will take us into their world.

COP COP follows the web of real cases that the authors investigated over several years inside the Civilian Complaint Review Board. As they investigate everything from offensive language and chokeholds to shootings, the larger investigation builds into their argument for six simple solutions to fix American policing. Readers will come away with a new vantage point, as well as the tools of an investigator. By combining their unique perspectives as police misconduct investigators with a synthesized history of policing, this book offers newfound insights into what policing really looks like, what the problems are, and what practical steps are necessary to create a criminal justice system that is truly just.