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Sergeant Michael L. Middleton, LAPD (ret.) is a 21 year
veteran of law enforcement. He is the author of Cop: A True Story and Medal of Valor Firefighters:
Gripping Tales of Bravery from America's Decorated Heroes.
Publishers Weekly said
of Cop: A True Story, “Middleton joined the Los Angeles Police Department in 1966 and served
for 21 years, reaching the rank of sergeant before he retired. His chronicle of his experiences is a top-flight view of police
work at the street level, where an officer's death is an ever-present possibility and physical battles with suspects are
frequent. Middleton's anecdotal history is grouped into subjects such as heroism, the ``us against them'' police
mentality, drugs, gangs and deadly force. He is optimistic about certain aspects of the LAPD, reporting that many of the racist
and sexist officers have retired; but he ends on an exceedingly pessimistic note, opining that the 1992 post-Rodney King verdict
riots showed that there have been no vast changes in L.A. ghetto life. Middleton provides one of the most dramatic depictions
of gritty police work in memory In this brutally honest portrait, Sergeant Michael Middleton--a now-retired
veteran of the LAPD--tells the gripping tale of his two decades on some of the America's meanest streets.”
One reader of Cop:
A True Story said, “I respect Sergeant Middleton for his apparent honesty, but not for the way he neglected
to effect a better police department during his time as a sergeant. I don't recall if I ever met him during my own 30
years on the LAPD, or during the four years I was in charge of trying to transform hundreds of top street police officers
into effective supervisors at the LAPD Academy. In that respect I apparently must apologize for that small part I had in it.
But if the reader wants to know what the streets of L.A. are like, and to experience in graphic detail the pressures and effects
it can have on the proper supervision and guidance of otherwise fine police officers, read Mike's book, particularly the
explanation on the effects of the use of deadly force.”
One reader of Cop:
A True Story said “I found this book informative, interesting, inspiring and worrisome. Middleton is quit
honest about the realities of life in the LAPD - the bravery, politics, and racism. The book leaves you inspired by the heroism
of some officers and disgusted by the racism and abuse of others. COP takes the reader inside the life of street cops as no
other book I've read.”
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