Cop in the Hood: My Year Policing Baltimore's Eastern District

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 245 pages
• Published by: Princeton University Press
• Edition: Revised Edition June 2, 2008
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0691140081
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0691140087
• Book Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Weighs: 14.4 ounces

Product Review
Moskos frankly records his experiences with poverty, violence, drugs and despair in the gritty ghetto. Moskos's overview of policing problems covers everything from arrest quotas, corrupt cops and excess paperwork to the reliance on patrolling in cars, responding to a barrage of 911 calls, rather than patrolling on foot to prevent crimes. Moskos blends narrative and analysis, adding an authoritative tone to this adrenaline-accelerating night ride that reveals the stark realities of law enforcement while illuminating little-known aspects of police procedures.
(Publishers Weekly )

[G]enuinely eye-openingMoskos offers a compelling account of why a uniformed police patrol 'does little but temporarily disrupt public drug-dealing'--and hence why the 'war on drugs' is so helplessly self-defeating.
(Times Higher Education )

Truly excellent. This is one of the two or three best conceptual analyses of "cops and robbers" I have read. It is mandatory reading for all fans of The Wire and recommended for everyone else.
(Tyler Cowen Marginal Revolution )

Riveting . . . an unsparing boys-in-blue procedural that succeeds on its own plentiful--and wonderfully sympathetic--merits. Moskos . . . intermingles cops-and-robbers verisimilitude and progressive social science, yet keeps his reportage clear-eyed, his conclusions pathos-free. What results is a thoughtful, measured critique--of the failed drug war, its discontents, and the self-defeating criminal-justice system looming just behind.
(The Atlantic )

[An] objective, incisive and intelligent account of police work. Moskos's graphic descriptions of the drug culture in Baltimore's Eastern District are the most detailed and analytical to be found anywhere. What distinguishes Moskos's bookis the author's plea for greater flexibility in addressing the rampant drug crisis.
(Arnold Ages Indiana Jewish Post & Opinion )

Product Review
A devastating critique of America's failed war on drugs. Cop in the Hood is a powerful and truly unique document in the sociology of criminal justice. Using an original blend of personal experience, adroit cultural interpretation, and hard-edged sociological analysis, Moskos sympathetically dissects the social context of the drug users' world, and shows us this tragedy close up from the police perspective.
(Orlando Patterson, Harvard University )

Reader Reviews
Despite the terrible cover (even by academic press standards), this looked right up my alley for a number of reasons: (1) a good friend just moved to Baltimore and I've been trying to read more about the city, (2) I know mainstream Baltimore pretty well and was interested in learning about a part of the city I've never ventured into, (3) I've been a big fan of The Wire since season one, and wanted to see how closely reality coincided with that drama, and (4) I've been on a bit of a "academic as participant/observer" reading binge lately, including books like Brothel, Rolling Nowhere, and Gang Leader for a Day, and wanted to compliment those with a inside look at policework. Like those three books, this one was born from academic roots, as Moskos was scouting around for a project for his PhD dissertation. After approaching and being rejected by several city police forces, the Baltimore PD accepted his proposal to work as a cop for a year with the knowledge he would write about his experience. So, the good news is that his account of policing starts from day one at the academy and proceeds unbroken for twenty months, which is a marked contrast to some of the books mentioned above, in which the authors dip in and out of the culture/life they are exploring. The bad news is that everyone Moskos served with knew he was writing a book. The problem of observation influencing behavior is well-established in documentary film and ethnography, and Moskos seems to underplay it's effects a bit too much. Some more good news is that Moskos is meticulous is outlining both the psychology and procedure of being a patrol officer. As a city employee myself, it didn't surprise me (though it did depress me), the extent to which urban policework is hindered by bureaucracy and administrative fiat. The overreliance on patrolling from cars, the strict adherence to the policy of immediate response to any call for service (311 or 911 call), the avalanche of paperwork generated by any officer activity, all of these contribute to a environment that lends itself to officers "gaming the system" for their own comfort and/or financial benefit. While I love this kind of insider procedural detail and the explanations of the mentality it engenders, the book suffers from being a good deal too dry. To a certain extent, this reflects the reality of most policework, which is boring and laden with paperwork. However, the books I mentioned are all engaging precisely because their authors do a great job of making characters out of themselves an the subjects of their study, and that just doesn't happen here. Moskos never lets us get to know his fellow officers or much of himself, and without that personal connection, it ends up reading like a long social policy paper (or a revised dissertation, which it i). The ultimate policy conclusion of the book is not a shocking one, but for those interested in the "war on drugs" it's certainly worth reading, as it is capably outlined and grounded in Moskos' personal fieldwork. Basically, Moskos argues that the war on drugs is a total disaster from a policing perspective, creating a huge drain on resources that could be more effectively directed at other social problems. He believes that the country has yet to learn the lesson easily drawn from the history of alcohol prohibition (which he goes into in rather digressive length and detail), which is that making things illicit merely removes it from government control (and taxation), without reducing demand. While I'm personally more or less on board with this conclusion and am heartened to see it supported up by Moskos' day-to-day patrolman experiences, it's not really what I came to read about. The book will tell you very little at all about Baltimore (perhaps because Moskos is not from there), and beyond spelling out some of street-level mechanics of the drug trade, there's not much here about East Baltimore you couldn't have gleaned from The Wire and/or The Corner. To a certain extent, one has to feel a little bad for Moskos, since that show kind of steals his thunder. Which bring up another point, his service was about seven years ago, and one has to wonder to what extent things have changed since then, if 9/11 has had an impact on policing, or the increased use of computers, for example. In any event, while it's certainly readable (aside from numerous typos), it never really engages, and that's why I ultimately found it somewhat disappointing. I would highly highly recommend it to anyone thinking about becoming a city cop, and it' also probably worth reading if you're into criminology, ethnography, and drug policy -- otherwise it's probably of limited interest. Comment | | (Report this)