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
“You don’t put down Ghetto Copsonce you pick it up.” —Livermore (CA) IndependentBruce Henderson has written more than twenty books, including the national bestseller Hero Found and Rescue at Los Ba&ños. Henderson served aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ranger (CVA-61) during the Vietnam War. He lives in Menlo Park, California.