Bad Cop

February 2, 2009
For almost four years after the 2001 World Trade Center tragedy, freelance writer Bacon chronicles his quest in this humorous book to do his best as a New York City cop, yet the arduous task of law enforcement was much more than he imagined. Self-described as “a hip, overeducated liberal,” the author had worked at home for five years for an online company before joining the NYPD force, but the collective experience of the police academy and being a Harlem beat cop eventually wears him down emotionally. Everything gnaws at his resolve, including the grueling cycle of drug collars, the rousting of crooks and a crush on a disinterested Latina police officer. When Bacon later unravels during a security detail in a manic Jerry Lewis–style comic scene, he writes: “I was no good as a bad cop and not bad enough to be a good cop. I'm lucky I made it out alive.” Bacon, now a scuba instructor on Maui, provides readers with a madcap yarn of handcuffs, broken hearts and the thin blue line.

March 15, 2009
Ever wonder what would happen if George Costanza joined the NYPD?

Wonder no more. Freelance journalist Bacon, one of the millions of New Yorkers shaken to the core by the attacks of 9/11, decided to join the police force. He wanted to do his part to help both the city and society as a whole—despite the fact that he smoked weed, hated guns and had zero background in law enforcement. Off he went to the police academy, where he was tormented, teased and molded into some semblance of a police officer. Then Bacon took to the streets, where he and his partner dealt with bumbling criminals and cranky coworkers, all while gathering enough material to write a book. His debut is an episodic outing, a risky choice given that the nonlinear approach has doomed many a memoir, especially from first-time authors. But Bacon proves especially adept at set pieces, moving from scene to scene with such energy, confidence and good humor that the lack of a strong narrative arc never becomes a problem. Getting pepper-sprayed by his partner, conducting his first full-body search and his encounter with a child who insists that Bacon is Cap'n Crunch are among the notably funny sketches, and virtually every paragraph contains a joke or humorous observation—some gentle, some self-deprecating, some macabre, many profane.

Readable, original and memorable.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

March 15, 2009
This memoir by a man who should never have strapped on a police holster has a wonderful narrative arc, spanning Bacons pre-NYPD series of menial jobs, a police career that lasted from 2001 to the 2004 Republican National Convention and that left him confused and exhausted, and a neat resolution as a life-saving scuba instructor in Maui. The events of September 11 (Bacon witnessed the collapse of the South Tower) propelled him from a desk job to policing in the worst part of Harlem. Feelings of civic pride and duty led Bacon to the streets, but what resulted was a series of humiliations and misadventures that he renders in excruciatingly comic detail. Part of the comedy and truth of this memoir is the way it counters expectations: the hero never does catch on with or win over either cops or perps, or he never becomes good at his job. A vivid and insightful saga of the wrong man in the wrong job at the wrong time.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)