As debates about reducing funding for U.S. police forces continue, the new book Policing the Big Apple: The Story of the NYPD (The University of Chicago Press, 2021) by Jules Stewart offers an enlightening historical overview of one of the world’s largest metropolitan contingents: the New York City Police Department.
The NYPD is America’s largest law enforcement agency. This book examines the history of policing in New York City, from colonial days and the formation of the modern NYPD at the turn of the twentieth century, through 1930s battles with the mafia to the zero tolerance and stop and frisk policies instituted in the 1990s. Stewart explores political influence, corruption, reform, and community relations through stories of the NYPD’s commissioners and the visions they had for the force and the city, as well as at the level of cops on the beat.
Jules Stewart is a New York–born, London–based writer. Among his many books, he is the author of Madrid: The History, Madrid: A Literary Guide for Travellers, and Gotham Rising: New York in the 1930s.
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