What's it like to sit in the front seat of a patrol car, cruising darkened city streets, when the radio crackles to life and sends you down an alley to a "robbery in progress," the outcome of which you can't possibly predict? What's it like to knock on a crack-house door, service revolver drawn, not knowing who - or what - is behind it? What's it like, heart pounding in your chest, to stare down the barrel of a gun pointed straight at you by a murderously high suspect?

Cop shows you what it's like. It's the explosive story of Sergeant Michael Middleton, a now-retired veteran of the LAPD and survivor of what may be the most brutal urban war zone in the country. From handling the call to his first homicide as a rookie cop to making his last collar, Middleton's story is a nerve-shattering, eyewitness account of life on America's meanest streets.

In his two decades on the force, he investigated more than 20,000 felony crimes, was at the scene of nearly 600 murders - including those of five officers killed in the line of duty - and made over 3,000 arrests.

In Cop, Middleton writes urgently and knowingly of those years on the streets. It's a pulse-quickening - and often heartbreaking - insider's view of life as a foot soldier in America's war on crime. With the threat of violence never far away, Middleton and his fellow officers daily faced drug dealers, desperate addicts, thieves, gun-crazy gangs, rapists, and murderers.

And in telling the riveting stories of these encounters, Middleton uses them to make larger points - which will often surprise and shock you - about good, evil, heroism, racism, and more. Gripping, poignant, and brutally honest, Cop is an unforgettable portrait of life as a police officer on urban America's mean and gritty streets.