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By Cynthia Brown
American Police Beat
Twenty years ago, when I founded American Police Beat, my mission was to create a publication that would become the voice of America’s law enforcement profession — a place where cops around the country could communicate with each other about the most important issues impacting their personal and professional lives.
It’s been a real honor for me to try and give everyone in law enforcement the opportunity to reach out to their colleagues and share the tragedies and triumphs of the job. In many ways, my new book, Brave Hearts, is a culmination of all my amazing experiences working with and advocating for people in the law enforcement profession.
The officers profiled in Brave Hearts work for the New York City Police Department, but their stories could come from any law enforcement agency in any community in the United States.
Lee Baca, who runs the second largest law enforcement agency in the nation, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, said the following after reading the book: “Brave Hearts is one of the most intelligent and sympathetic portrayals of law enforcement work I have encountered. While the people in Brave Hearts work for the NYPD, they could easily be members of my agency. The commitment of the people profiled in this book coupled with the enormous risks they take to protect and serve is the real story of the men and women who have dedicated their lives to a career in law enforcement. We are all in Cynthia Brown’s debt for writing this wonderful book.”
The 15 people profiled in Brave Hearts are as different as their assignments. But they all share a passion for their work and a conviction that they are doing something important with their lives. Despite the constant exposure to America’s dark side, they all view their work as a privilege and a job they are lucky to have. Whether gathering intelligence to stop a terrorist attack, conducting a narcotics investigation, working undercover to get illegal weapons off the streets, tracking a serial murderer, ending a gun battle, or mediating a domestic dispute, the men and women in Brave Hearts give new life to the word heroic.
When I comment publicly about Brave Hearts, I like to say that the subtitle, “Extraordinary Stories of Pride, Pain and Courage,” is not really true. The real truth is there are 35,000 officers working for the NYPD, and over 800,000 more throughout the United States. Everyone of them is a “Brave Heart” with their own stories of “pride, pain and courage.”
I sincerely hope you will order your own copy of Brave Hearts. Reading this book, despite all the hassles you endure as a law enforcement officer, will make you proud of what you do. Go to www.braveheartsbook.com to read excerpts from the book and to order online. Or you can call 1-800-270-5317. E-books are available for Kindle at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. E-book for the iPad via iTunes is coming soon. Check the braveheartsbook.com website for updates.
In closing, I would like to pass on a comment about Brave Hearts from Craig Floyd, chairman of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund: “With Brave Hearts, Cynthia has accomplished a great feat for America’s law enforcement profession. She takes the reader on a unique voyage straight into the hearts and minds of the remarkable people who have chosen the most noble profession – keeping our citizens safe by bringing justice to those who seek to harm them.”