An Inconvenient Cop

May 1, 2023

A ranked lieutenant in the New York Police Department, first-generation Haitian American Raymond is also the lead plaintiff in the biggest civil rights lawsuit the NYPD has ever faced. Raised in a poor, mostly immigrant section of Brooklyn, he had joined the force to help his community only to realize that iniquities within the ranks weren't down to a few rogue cops; the entire system was structured to ensure that that racial profiling took place--and was rewarded. Prepub Alert.

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Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 21, 2023
In this searing memoir, 14-year NYPD veteran Raymond argues that New York City is “the red-hot center of the problem” of racially motivated police brutality. The son of Haitian immigrants in Brooklyn, Raymond lived in poverty following his mother’s death and father’s subsequent depression and unemployment. Despite his peers’ distrust of law enforcement, Raymond was drawn to policing as a teenager after seeing a Haitian family friend in uniform: the “respect hovering over him... reframed for me what being police could mean.” Yet once he joined the force, Raymond became disillusioned by a system of policing that discouraged him from interacting with his community. He recounts being ostracized by colleagues for his support of NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s protests against police brutality and his alliance with Women’s March organizer Tamika Mallory, and explains how the NYPD’s embrace of “broken windows policing” and use of CompStat technologies incentivizes arrest quotas and encourages racism. Combining personal anecdotes and painstaking research, Raymond passionately advocates for wholesale police reform, arguing with convincing clarity that “when you toss out bad apples, you’re not changing a damn thing.” This is a gutting and essential take on a hot-button issue. Agent: Susan Golomb, Writers House.

September 1, 2023
Former NYPD lieutenant Raymond tracks his path from an impoverished childhood as the son of Haitian immigrants in Flatbush to a police officer, activist, and whistleblower. In telling his story, Raymond highlights the structures of policing that support dehumanizing, numbers-based enforcement, systematic racism, and methods of maintaining the status quo. While his determination to jump-start reform is inspiring, the response to his battles to change the focus from arrest quotas to policing that supports and protects the community is disheartening. Raymond is given cruelly retaliatory shifts and assignments and faces low evaluations and disciplinary action despite his high scores on promotion exams and strong work ethic. Against the odds, he continues to bring the system's issues to light, taking risks with his career and even his safety to finally effect changes in the department through an eventually dismissed lawsuit and a high-profile article in the New York Times Magazine. Raymond's chronicle is an uplifting story of perseverance and a hard, eye-opening look at policing and what it takes to make a department live up to its best potential.

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October 1, 2023
A high-ranking whistleblower from the NYPD recounts his embattled tenure in the country's largest police force. Many Americans first encountered Raymond in 2016, when he was the subject of a New York Times profile that detailed his role as the lead plaintiff in a civil suit filed on behalf of minority officers in the NYPD. The lawsuit centered on the use of quota-based policing, despite a 2010 ban on the practice. In this vital, timely memoir, the author begins with his childhood in Brooklyn's East Flatbush neighborhood, where he was raised by Haitian immigrants. His mother died when he was 2, and his father was soon plagued by health problems, leaving the author and his brother to mostly fend for themselves. As a Black teenager, Raymond became the target of "aggressive policing," and he thought to himself, "the NYPD must hire a lot of bigots." It was only after he became an officer himself, at 22, that he understood this wasn't the case; even cops who had come from the same communities as Raymond "were now perpetuating the same problems they had recently faced." Later in the book, he notes, "their behavior is policy dictated from the top." The author carefully explains exactly how the "numbers game" of policing works. A particularly eye-opening passage details Raymond's first day as a transit cop, when he was told to hide in a supply closet in the subway station to catch turnstile jumpers. The author joined law enforcement to be an "antidote to racially motivated policing." For his efforts, he was harassed online, passed over for promotion, and punished with retaliatory posts. Readers will be impressed by Raymond's courage and integrity, and he presents an inspiring story, captivatingly written and exciting to read. An urgent expos�, essential to understanding the fractured state of policing in America.

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October 13, 2023

Retired NYPD lieutenant Raymond, with the help of Jon Sternfeld (Scenes from My Life with Michael K. Williams), relates his career-long fight for police reform. The book starts by exploring Raymond's childhood as a son of a Haitian immigrant, his motivations for becoming a police officer, and the factors that impact him as a Black man. As he moves through the police academy and his assignment as a transit cop, he observes how the quota system shapes police work and incentivizes arrests rather than crime prevention. He argues that the NYPD's practice of "broken windows" policing, which directs officers to concentrate their efforts on enforcing and preventing small crimes, promotes the quota system and contributes to systemic racism and negative effects on communities of color. Raymond tries to take on the system by setting an example of what policing could look like when it promotes crime prevention, but his efforts lead to retaliation by his superiors. He eventually decides to sue the City of New York. Raymond includes an appendix with recommendations for police reform. VERDICT An absorbing and thought-provoking memoir that provides a clear and compelling argument for police reform.--Rebekah Kati

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