Lawrence Roth's Reviews > Blue on Blue: An Insider's Story of Good Cops Catching Bad Cops

Charles Campisi provides a fascinating and in depth look at urban police, and more specifically NYPD, culture in Blue on Blue. By this point, many Americans should be aware of the numerous problems plaguing the American criminal justice system. Issues in policing have taken center stage in the last decade. But the solutions are not easy or as simple as the politically charged slogans make it out. As a New Yorker, it breaks my heart to hear crime is rising in my home city which was at one point one of the safest in the world. But when politics takes precedence over practical reforms and action, the result is that more people are victimized.

Campisi was a former 3 star cop, head of the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau which, as the title suggests, specialized in taking down bad, dangerous, or corrupt cops within the NYPD. Campisi is, I think it's safe to say, biased towards supporting the NYPD, which should not necessarily be surprising. But he's not blind to the issues with the department either. He of all people would know that there are bad cops that need to be removed. I am uncomfortable with several of the defenses of certain aspects of cop culture and politics but I think that speaks more to societal expectations of cops and what the general public thinks a cop's job is rather than Campisi's loyalty to the "blue wall of silence". The blue wall certainly exists, but from Campisi's own record and narrative, he never seemed engaged in it at all. This was probably a major reason why he fit into IAB so well. Campisi took a barely functioning section of the NYPD ridden with malaise and hated by the entire department and possibly the city and turned it into an efficient bureau of corruption and crime hunters out to make sure the NYPD stayed as clean as possible. The actual stories of various cases that passed through IAB are fascinating and give the reader a good look at proper police work and the difficulties in hunting criminals who also happen to be cops.

The main reason I think this book is so valuable is that it's probably a cops like Campisi who can provide a clear and practical way forward for criminal justice reform not just in New York but across the country. He's not a politically motivated hyper progressive politician who would rather have a community fend for itself and abandon the very concept of the rule of law than call the cops and he's not an authoritarian right winger who would actively use the police to incite race riots and target political opponents, the press, and other so called "enemies of the people". The cops who understand that law enforcement officers should stick to law enforcement while other issues should be addressed by other civil service corps, or the cops who understand that their fellow cops can indeed be assholes and criminals, are going to be the best cases for leading reform efforts.

To keep a realistic eye on the author, it's possible that Campisi's politics have changed ever since this book was published in early 2017, particularly after the George Floyd protests in 2020 and the subsequent uptick in NYC crime after various "reforms" were put in place by DeBlasio and Adams. But these events show even more the importance of ensuring good cops have a significant place in reform efforts. Besides, the best way to actually combat crime is to ensure a healthy and growing economy with opportunities for every citizen to acquire employment, healthcare, and education. That is a discussion that not many people are ready to have as of yet unfortunately.

A high recommend from me for anybody who wants a good taste of real police work with an internal affairs twist. Great stories contained in here and plenty of good lessons learned from a very interesting point of view in the NYPD.