The 52Nd

Luis A. Rivera saw NYPD as larger-than-life while growing up in the South Bronx in the late 1960s and 1970s. From the time he was seven years old, he dream to become one of them.

As a kid, he'd sneak a quick peek through the closed curtains just to see the arriving police cars-the old green, black, and white ones with a siren that seemed to go on forever. He'd notice the big Irish cops getting out of their police cars, with their hats on and nightsticks under their arms.

In 1989, he was accepted into the New York City Police Academy. Soon, he was hitting the books and navigating shooting range qualifications. The courses were intense.

As he achieved his dream, he soon realized the NYPD was not the Boy Scouts, and how unforgiving the police department can be. In this memoir, we look back at how it was like to be a rookie cop with it's ups and downs in an officer's career.