A Study Of The Negro Policeman: Book Review :: essays research papers

A Study of the Negro Policeman retain ReviewNicholas Alex, assistant professor of sociology at The City Universityof New York, holds a Ph.D. from the New School for Social Research and a B.S.from the Wharton School. He was erstwhile a research assistant with the RussellS be on Foundation, an instructor at Adelphi University, and has had working(a)experience in his academic specialty-the sociology of professions andoccupations-while an industrial engineer in the aircraft industry, ulterior asbusiness manager of the Walden School. This is his first book.In this book Alex do an effort to examine the peculiar problems ofNegro jurisprudencemen who live in an age which has not yet resolved to problem ofinequality in an assertedly elective society. He drawn heavily on thereflections of forty-one Negro policemen who make plain to me the difficultiesinvolved in being black in blue. Alex was touch on with the ways in which themen were recruited into the police, the nature of their rel ations in respect totheir immediate clientele, their counterparts, and the rest of society. In thebroadest terms, the book examines the special problems that Negro policemen impertinencein their efforts to reconcile their race with their work in the present manakin of American values and beliefs.     The research for the study was based on intense interviews collectedover a period of eleven months, from December 1964 to October 1965. During that sequence the author talked with Negro police engaged in different types of policespecialties, and men of different rank and backgrounds. Alex was interested inpreserving their anonymity, and substituted code be for names. Thelanguage in which their thoughts were expressed is unchanged.     Most of the interviews were obtained either at the policemans place orthe authors. Some were held in parks, playgrounds, and luncheonettes. All ofthe interviews were open-ended. All the policemen refused to have on that pointconversations taped. "I know too well what tapes can do to you," say one. "Ican refute what you write down on that pad, alone I cant if its taped. We usetapes too, you know." The author was dealing with a highly expressive andliterate group of men who thought of the study as a way in which they could makethemselves heard.     This book is organized very well. It comprise of eight chapters, and eachchapter is broken into subdivisions. The first chapter talks about thepolicemen in the community. Within this chapter mainly describes the police asand occupation, and states how the policemens job is uncertain. The secondchapter deals with the enlisting of Negroes for police work.