Target Blue: An Insider's View of the N.Y.P.D.

It was a year of trauma, possibly the most traumatic in NYPD history. The so-called Black Liberation Army shot cops in the back. In New York alone they assassinated four, machine gunned two others, ambushed others with guns and knives. A new commissioner, swearing to end corruption and bring the force into the modern age, took over, even as two mafia dons got whacked, the biggest jewel robbery in the city's history took place, and Sgt. Durk and Patrolman Serpico brought on the Knapp Commission, whose purpose was to put cops in jail. Meanwhile, in the corridors of headquarters men with stars on their shoulders undermined the new commissioner where they could while jostling constantly for position and power.

The new police commissioner wanted to break the mold. For this he thought he needed civilian help and his eye lit on me. Perhaps he thought he was buying instant credibility with the New York Times. From one day to the next I had line authority over 32,000 armed men. I wasn't expected to use it, but as I acquired confidence I sometimes did. For twelve months I sat in on executive conferences, on ongoing investigations, I went on "man with a gun" runs with cops--not because I was brave but to see who cops were and what they did. Yes, I felt somewhat powerful. The end, when it came, was abrupt. A writer again, I wrote books, both fiction and non fiction, many about what I had seen, heard and learned in the NYPD. TARGET BLUE, a kind of memoir, was the first of them