Author Tony Leone was simply a boy growing up in South Brooklyn in the 1950s. He was the oldest of three children born to average, middle-class parents. Leone didn’t harbor a childhood ambition to become a cop. No one in his family was a member of the police force, nor did anyone ever speak of or encourage him to enter the police department. In fact, he didn’t even know any cops. Yet, Leone served twenty-three years as a member of the New York City Police Department.
In Around the Clock Diary of a Street Cop, he shares his coming-of-age story and long career with the police department. Leone offers insight into the daily rigors of the patrol function as it existed in the transitional decades of the 1960s through the end of the 1970s. It underscores how most day-to-day police activities are not glamorous, nor are they anything like the super sleuth, who-done-it drama, or nail-biting suspense stories portrayed in the movies.
Leone’s memoir outlines the highs and lows, as well as the gratifying and disheartening moments associated with police work.’ It poignantly depicts how, when called to respond, an officers stress level can escalate from complete calm to life-threatening action in a mere heartbeat.
