E.W. Count, the author of Cop Talk: True Detective Stories   from the NYPD and the novel, The Hundred Percent Squad, knows more about New York City cops than any civilian going. She's been cop watching for over two decades, and she has the skinny down pat on how they talk, think, and do their jobs. You name the case, the precinct, and the personalities, and E. W. knows about it. She's been there, done it all, and lived to tell the tales. 

On a recent rainy day, we met for lunch at the Brooklyn Diner on 57th Street and Seventh Ave. - in the Midtown North precinct for those with a need to know. The ambiance and menu reminded us of the diners of our childhood, and we settled in with egg creams and giant sandwiches to discuss the public's endless passion for real cop stories and how E.W., as a civilian, crossed the Blue Line to enter the fortress of the "Puzzle Palace" (Police Headquarters) to hear and tell so many of them.  

LG: Have you always been interested in cops?

E.W.: No, I was a travel and fashion writer. I had given little thought to police work and the good guys who do it until I was mugged with force in 1979. Popular wisdom says there's never a cop around when you need them, but two Two-four (24th Precinct) Anti-crime (undercover cops) defied popular wisdom, grabbing my assailants so fast nobody even needed to hold a line up. I must have been looking for heroes. I was inspired.  

LG: I had a similar experience with a potential kidnapper when I was ten. The way the police moved in and handled the situation back in the Bronx in the dark ages will always make me think of cops as protectors. Would you say they have special qualities?

E.W.: Cops are great. They're aggressive, assertive, active, physical people who can't sit in their seats, can't wind down. They have a wonderful sense of humor, a language all their own. And trust me on this, when a few cops are in a room, the room is full. That energy is exciting to be around. But it's their feats of understanding, their common sense and tenacity, and their sacrifices for each other and for the public that make them heroes. 

LG: We all know about that bulldog persistence and the willingness to confront danger. Give me an example of cop humor.

E.W.: Cops refer to people in cuffs (handcuffs) as customers. When the precinct is very active, they might say. "We have a lot of customers tonight."

LG: How did you get past the wall?

E.W.:  Every precinct has a monthly Council meeting where neighborhood affairs are discussed. The Precinct Commander presides. Anybody who lives or works in a precinct can go and meet him or her. If you want to know about how things go down in your precinct, you can request a ride-along.

LG: What was your first ride-along like?

E.W.: My first ride-along occurred only a month after the mugging incident. When I went to court to testify, I had made friends with the detectives on my case. I was interested in knowing more. I was totally green and the evening turned out to be a real eye opener. There was a homicide and my unit was first on the scene. I watched the crime scene people, saw the gun dusted for prints. I got really into it and followed the case. It was unbelievable, a classic case, not a grounder.

LG: What's a grounder?

E.W.: A grounder or a ground ball is open and shut. This was family related, but not clear at the outset. A banker was shot while changing a flat tire. At first, the detectives thought it was a robbery gone wrong. But the widow went into seclusion, wasn't helpful to the investigation. That made the detectives suspicious. Turns out it was an Italian family. The wife's brother had taken out a hit on him when he found out his brother in law was cheating on his sister. He made her a widow. It took the cops six weeks to solve the case. They did it through the phone company, traced the connection to the killer through local usage phone calls. I followed the whole thing. I got lucky with that. On most ride-alongs, things are pretty routine. The cops had a racket (a party) after the trial. I was hooked. I interviewed more than a hundred detectives for Cop Talk. Then I wrote a novel about that detective squad with a hundred percent solution rate for their homicides.                

LG: You said you like the adrenaline-by-proxy best in your researches of the cops. What do you like least?

E.W.: When a cop goes bad and puts other cops in jeopardy. Like someone giving up the name of an undercover cop. Or someone doing a bad act. It isn't like other professions where no one blames everyone for a bad apple. With cops, when one cop goes bad, everyone gets in trouble. Everyone suffers, and they give the whole profession a bad name.

Our time was up. E. W. had to go. I asked her a final question.

LG: What do you think is the hardest thing about being a cop?

E.W.: Cops think of themselves as the good guys. Their lives, reputations, and careers are on the line every day when they go out on the job. From one second to the next their lives can be shattered. They feel people don't understand what they're all about, how much they put into their jobs. People like to hear the tough cop stories but don't think about their human side. Cops have spouses, kids, colds, bills, anxieties. We don't care about that. Only when something goes wrong and we need them do we really get to know them.   

Freelance writer E.W. Count is the author of the novel  The Hundred Percent Squad and Cop Talk: True Detective Stories from the NYPD. E.W., a native New Yorker, has written for major newspapers and magazines and police publications and is a graduate of the NYPD Civilian Police Academy.  She is the forum leader of “Cops & Crime” for Prodigy Internet and can be reached at cop_talk@yahoo.net

| about leslie | books | characters | contact | home |