Tony Leone

Around the Clock: Diary Of A Street Cop by Tony Leone is memoir that starts with he was growing up in South Brooklyn in the 1950's to the 1970's. Not having the most spectacular grades in high school, he was thrilled to find a bank position soon after he graduated. He went along with his favorite cousin, Joe to take test for the Police trainee program as on a lark and failed. Later when he was working a bank and quite pleased with his social life, salary and work at the bank, he did again show more with a friend. But this time he got in. The author tells of his ups and downs through the program and how he became proud to be a policeman and concentrated on doing the best job that he could. But hurdles came along and he had to figure out to deal with them. He kept wondering why he was becoming a policeman. He had never considered doing that when he was growing up.

He was a policeman during the turbulent 1960s and 1970s. He was very glad to received training from some of the best and usually had great partner when he was in a patrol car. He tells of some scary situations, some ways his friends in the force took to beat boredom, get to know each other more and finding out the right type of position in the police force that he enjoyed the most and felt the most competent in.

The pace is good and he has a lot of interesting stories. I think it is good to read about what a policeman’s life is really like rather that the super active fantasy built up in Hollywood films and TV series. I enjoyed reading this book and his life as a policemen seemed very realistic.

I received a finished copy of this book from the Publisher as a win from FirstReads but that in no way made a difference in my thoughts or feelings in this review. show less