Cop in the Hood: My Year Policing Baltimores Eastern District

Cop in the Hood is fantastic. It is engrossing and exciting and real. Not just that it is non-fiction, but that so many issues Moskos talks about (motivation of beat cops, motivation of police departments, training, resources, the war on drugs) affects so much of our lives. These are our tax dollars, our cities and our citizens. I was pleased to learn that Moskos found little corruption in the Baltimore police department and distressed to learn about million dollar blocks, single city blocks where taxpayers spend one million dollars each year to incarcerate citiens who live there for various (usually drug) crimes. For that money, Moskos observes, we could have one full time cop stationed on that block 24 hours a day, including vacations and sick days. Would that cop make things safer on that block than the war on drugs? "It would be interesting to see," observes Moskos. If you like The Wire or are interested in cops or drugs, I cannot recommend this enough.