Ghetto Cops

The #1 New York Times bestselling author recounts riding along with street cops in California’s most dangerous city: Compton (Los Angeles Times).

In 1974, Compton, California, had the highest per capita crime rate in the nation. And Bruce Henderson, then a young, idealistic newspaper reporter, was determined to spend the summer riding with the Compton police. His journalistic accounts of the day-to-day activities he witnessed is a vivid narrative dramatic, violent, and at times humorous incidents.

Featuring illuminating pictures from award-winning photographer Phil Nelson, Ghetto Cops unmasks the city and its cops to reveal a side of street crime most of us never see.

“They bust a lot of ass in Compton. It’s a tough city that is a virtual powder keg…For the police, the streets are a battlefield and working on any shift is like going to war.” —Los Angeles Free Press