Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets
David Simon

You’ve read this right? You have to. The best book on cops ever and its written by the creator of the world’s greatest TV show, the Wire.

Baltimore in the early nineties was a violent place, policed by a largely white and often racist police force that in many cases cared deeply about lowering crime rates, but didn’t care much about things like civil rights. You know that scene in the Wire where Landsman* tells a suspect that a copy machine is a lie detector? True story. The cop in the television show Homicide who was haunted by the murder of the little girl he couldn’t solve? Also from this book. Written in a straight forward journalistic style if you care about policing, civil rights, or just good writing, this is one you really should read.

Recommended.