The Lost Son: A Life in Pursuit of Justice

An astonishing story of bravery and honour: one man‘s quest – against incredible odds – to make a stand against crime.and to uncover the painful truths of his own background.

From the sagging row houses of New Jersey to the cocaine fields of Colombia, from the razor wire of Rikers Island to the streets of New York City, Bernard Kerik has dedicated his life to a single goal: to fight the injustice he sees around him. A jail warden with a black belt in martial arts and a background in international security and anti–terrorism, he took a substantial pay cut to become a beat cop on the streets of Times Square in 1986. A fearless narcotics detective, he went undercover to buy drugs in Harlem, seized millions of dollars of cocaine from the druglords of the Cali cartel, and was awarded the Police Department‘s Medal of Valor. As New York City‘s 40th Police Commissioner, Kerik directed the largest municipal police force in the world, and his battles continued. And yet Bernard Kerik‘s greatest battle was not pitched on tough city streets, but within himself. The greatest unsolved case of his life: the tragic mystery of his own mother, who abandoned her young son 41 years ago.

Bernard B. Kerik was appointed the 40th police commissioner of the City of New York by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani on August 21, 2000. Prior to his appointment, he served as commissioner of the Department of Correction. He served with the New York Police Department in both uniformed and plainclothes duty for eight years, and was awarded the prestigious Medal of Valor, among many other awards for meritorious and heroic service.

Before joining the NYPD, Kerik served as warden of the Passaic County jail, the largest county adult correctional facility in New Jersey. Kerik spent three years in the U.S. Army as an MP, assigned to Korea and to the 18th Airborne Corps, where he trained Special Forces personnel at the John F. Kennedy Unconventional Warfare Center in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

His memoir, The Lost Son received the Books for a Better Life Award in 2002.

Recently appointed chief of Homeland Security by President George W. Bush, he lives in New York City.