The Making of a Cop by Harvey RachlinMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
In the 1991 book "The Making of a Cop", author Harvey Rachlin follows the 1988 class of new recruits of the New York City Police Academy through their physically rigorous and mentally challenging training as they work their way up from entry-level rookies right up through the day, several moths later, when they finally their receive their shields (that's cop talk for "badge") and weapons - graduation day as it were - and join the elite ranks of the N.Y.P.D. as full fledged law enforcement officers.
Author Rachlin attended all the classes right along with the '88 NYPD recruits and this is his story of how, with very hard work and self discipline, an average citizen of a certain age group (and other, stringent qualifying characteristics) can become an important member on an specialized force in the never ending battle to keep the streets of New York City safe for citizens of the city and tourists alike.
An enjoyable book to be sure that will probably only take most readers a few day to one week at most to finish up depending on the ammount of free reading time you have available - I read it over the course of about 5 days. My only complaint, and I do understand that it was out of necessity, is that the book does not go in to a bit more detail of the training the recruits received, but there is, I guess, plenty enough here to keep the reader interested throughout the course of the 302 pages.
If you can pick up a used copy for a buck or even two, you can't go wrong...
