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| Beat Cop to Top Cop: A Tale of Three Cities
ISBN: 9780812205428
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / University of Pennsylvania Press
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter
Subjects: Timoney John F.; Police -- United States -- Biography; Police -- United States -- Case studies;
From a rookie in the streets of the South Bronx to police chief in Miami, lifelong cop Timoney reflects on a career that put him at the center of many recent debates and advances in law enforcement. Born in Dublin, Timoney moved to New York in 1961 as a child and joined the NYPD after graduating from high school. He describes patrolling the streets during the turbulent late '60s, when protests and civil unrest ripped at the city's social and political seams. Picking up a bachelor's degree and two master's degrees along the way, Timoney rose steadily through the ranks, working directly for famed police commissioners like Ray Kelly and Bill Bratton. An advocate for community policing as the way the NYPD addressed "quality of life" issues (e.g., vandalism and truancy) that are often precursors of major crimes, Timoney helped develop and refine departmental policies on everything from the use of deadly force to race relations. After retiring from the NYPD in 1996, Timoney spent four years as police commissioner of Philadelphia before becoming Miami's chief of police in 2002, retiring in 2009. Both the ugly side of police work-particularly corruption-and the achievements of his beloved NYPD are showcased in this intriguing look at what it takes to fight crime. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
John Francis Timoney was born in Dublin, Ireland on July 2, 1948. His family immigrated to New York in 1961. After graduating from high school, he passed the police exam. He spent 18 months as a trainee before being assigned to the 44th Precinct in the South Bronx. He received a bachelor's degree in American history from John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York, a master's degree in American history from Fordham University, and a master's degree in urban affairs from Hunter College. At the age of 46, he became the youngest chief of department in New York, and later became a commissioner in Philadelphia and a chief in Miami. He was responsible for establishing protocols that reduced the number of shootings by the police and other kinds of violent confrontations with civilians. He also shifted priorities from summons quotas and radio car patrols to shoe-leather crime prevention and enforcement. His memoir, Beat Cop to Top Cop: A Tale of Three Cities, was published in 2010. He died from complications of lung cancer on August 16, 2016 at the age of 68. (Bowker Author Biography) |
