Once a Cop ─ The Street, the Law, Two Worlds, One Man

A former cop sets the record straight in “this edgy, yet captivating memoir” (Judge Greg Mathis) about his youth selling crack in the 1980s with one of toughest gangs in New York City and his rise through the ranks of the NYPD to become one of the city’s most decorated African American cops.

As a teen in Queens, New York, Corey Pegues saw drugs uproot his stable, working-class neighborhood almost overnight. When times got tough, he had a choice: continue to watch his family struggle to buy food and pay bills; or sell dope. He chose the latter, eventually becoming part of the notorious Supreme Team street gang. After a botched murder attempt on a rival gang member, Corey, the only member of his family to graduate from high school, knew he had to get out. Barely eighteen, with two kids by two different women, Corey left under cover of night to enlist in the Army. After several years in the military, he set his sights on becoming a New York City cop and breezed through the police academy.

In this provocative and “rollicking, no-holds-barred” (Booklist, starred review) memoir, Corey Pegues tells how a onetime crack dealer became one the highest ranking members of the largest police force in the country, living and working in the nation’s most violent neighborhoods. His meteoric rise from patrol officer to deputy inspector covers the administrations of former New York City mayors Rudy Giulliani and Michael Bloomberg, and coincides with the early tenures of famed police commissioners Ray Kelly and William “Bill” Bratton. Corey grants readers full access to the manner in which some of the NYPD’s most controversial policies like Broken Windows and Stop, Question and Frisk were implemented; and an insider’s take on the shootings of Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, the assault on Abner Louima and other tragedies that stained the department.

As tensions continue to mount between police and communities of color, Corey tears down the blue wall to discuss the discriminatory practices he faced within the NYPD and talks candidly about the distrust that exists between law enforcement and the citizens they are sworn to protect. There aren’t many people who understand both sides of the story the way he does. Corey doesn’t hate the police. He loves the badge. And he believes it’s his duty to challenge the culture of racism, silence, and arrogance in the NYPD and police departments across the country.