About This Book
The author recounts his time serving temporarily on a railroad police beat and uses first-hand observation and interviews to profile tramps, pickpockets, and professional criminals. He interweaves case studies, statistics, and practical descriptions of criminal techniques with discussions of police methods, contrasting uncompromising enforcement with conciliatory or corrupt local arrangements that effectively protect offenders. Chapters alternate anecdote and analysis, examining how thieves organize, finance themselves, and interact with law officers, and how municipal policy and police practice shape crime patterns and community responses.