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Description edit
Report to the Commissioner, a novel written by crime journalist and novelist James Mills, was a bestseller in 1972. It has an unusual structure in that it appears to be edited from an "actual" internal investigation within the NYPD. The story is told through a series of reports and interviews.... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Characters edit
- Det. Beauregard "Bo" Lockley: Fair-haired, 22-year-old police detective. He was rapidly promoted to detective for two reasons. 1) His father had been a detective before him. 2) The Baby Boomers circa 1970 make up both a distinct culture and a large population among active criminals. Lockley looks like a "hippie" in the eyes of older police. He has been used to spy on young political activists (he was a complete failure) and is now assigned to a detective squad in a district frequented by hustlers and runaway kids, but he has yet to make any arrests. He was born in Manhattan before his father moved the family to Massapequa, a town on Long Island, where Lockley still lives.
- Det. Richard "Crunch" Blackstone: Among the early African Americans to make detective grade in the NYPD, he takes Lockley under his wing and shows him the ropes, but has doubts that Lockley will ever learn to become a decent cop. Blackstone is harsh in his treatment of people on his beat. He refers to people of his own color with the "N" word. He would recoil at being called an "African American." He was known to engage in vigilante justice along with other black officers when he used to work in Harlem.
- Patricia "Patty" Butler: Blonde, middle-class, 22-year-old undercover narcotics officer and prodigy who fearlessly and convincingly poses as a 17-year-old runaway in the Times Square area of Manhattan. She has made drug buys from over 200 dealers and has had them all arrested.
- Thomas Robert "the Stick" Henderson: Born and raised in Manhattan, he is a 21-year-old gangster who chose a life of crime before he could grow a beard. He took over drug rings from established dealers by force and now pays a kind of "tax" to the Black Panthers who then allow him to continue to operate. He recently moved from an apartment very near where he was born to a Times Square loft where he keeps crates of guns as well as who-knows-what-else. Because of his association with the Panthers, BOSS (see Glossary) had him redesignated from criminally ACTIVE to politically RED.
- Lt. Oliver Seidensticker: Called the "Owl" behind his back, he commands the 16th detective squad where Lockley and Blackstone work.
- Lt. Phillip Hanson: Det. Butler's superior in Narcotics. Honest and genuinely concerned for her safety.
- Capt. John D'Angelo: Intelligent but slippery police superior, always angling for promotion and willing to throw a fellow cop under the bus to advance his career.
- Assistant Chief Inspector H. Perna: In charge of all Narcotics operations. Honest but over his head in a crisis. He is forced to trust Capt. D'Angelo even though he suspects D'Angelo is withholding information.
- Joseph "Joey" Eagen: Legless veteran who sells pencils from his wooden board on rollerskates. He haunts Times Square and gets into trouble because pedestrians don't pay him any attention and thoughtlessly drop things on him and trip over him. Most police, including Det. Blackstone, see Joey as the problem and are mean to him. He only likes Det. Lockley who treats him with consideration.
- Capt. Henry Strichter: Internal Affairs investigator trying to get to the bottom of the "Lockley-Butler Case."
- Sgt. Frederick Dierdorf: He is Det. Butler's SAC. (See Glossary.) He is not very supportive of Det. Butler, thinking she is in way over her head. He is one of the people who might have prevented things from going sideways but didn't want to stick his neck out.
- Billy: A smooth-talking pimp, about twenty, thin and charming but strong-willed. Wears a hat with a feather in it.
- Samantha: Under-aged prostitute employed by Billy to whom she is blindly devoted. She says Billy saved her from starvation and that she owes him everything.
- ADA Paul Jackson: Assistant District Attorney who is ready to assume the worst about any suspect--even a cop.
- Retired Det. Lockley: Born in South Carolina, he came to New York during World War II and never left. (In the movie he is referred to as Dan Lockley, but I don't think he has a first name in the book.) He expected a lot from his children but has more faith in them than they might realize. His oldest son, Walt, died in Vietnam. His second son is Det. Bo Lockley. In his only scene in the book, he finds out that a young patrolman is taking advantage of a restaurateur, expecting free food all the time. "Ten years ago," Lockley senior says, "you saw a germ like that in uniform and you'd give him a collar for impersonating a police officer."
Quotes edit
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“I show the shield to the driver and I say, 'Thirty-eighth and Third. I've got to be there fifteen minutes ago. Hit the horn and move it'. I'm getting more and more like Crunch all the time now, right? Really learning. So the driver looks around and takes in the shield, and then he says, 'With pleasure'. And he leans on the horn and pulls out of the left lane, halfway up the sidewalk, and starts driving like that, half on the sidewalk, half in the street, honking like hell and yelling out the window at the pedestrians he's almost knocking down who are screaming at him. He was about fifty, and I think it was like a dream come true, like everything he'd ever wanted to do in the traffic, now he can do it and it's all right because he has a cop in the car.”
Det. Bo Lockley -
“Bo. For Beauregard? Beauregard. BEAUregard. BeauREgard. BeaureGARD. You from the South, Beauregard? You got a plantation down in Georgia somewhere? How many slaves you got, Beauregard?”
Det. Richard "Crunch" Blackstone
Setting & Locations edit
Organizations edit
First Sentence edit
This is a confidential report prepared by the Internal Affairs Division.
Table of Contents edit
1. Det. Bo Lockley
2. Det. Richard Blackstone (Crunch)
3. Magazine article concerning Det. Butler
4. Lt. Phillip Hanson
5. CIB background on Thomas Henderson (the Stick)
6. ADA statement from Det. Lockley
7. Psychiatric evaluation of Det. Lockley
8. Observation sheet the day of Det. Lockley's death
Glossary edit
- A&R man: Mugger (from "assault and robbery")
- angel off: Arresting drug users while letting the dealer continue to sell for a while
- aviator: A police superior who fills in for other supervisors without having his own permanent command. (He "flies" from job to job. )
- block: A group of usually four detectives, working the same shift and squad
- BOSS: Acronym of the Bureau of Special Services (aka, BOSSY). Name was changed to Special Services Division, then to the Public Security Section of the Intelligence Division. Once called the "Red Squad," it looks into political activists and keeps dossiers on them.
- chipping: "Using heroin occasionally, not yet addicted" according to the author of this book.
- CIB: Acronym of the Central (or Criminal?) Intelligence Bureau, which keeps dossiers on criminals (possibly the same as what is now called the Criminal Intelligence Division)
- ESD: Emergency Services Division (now called Emergency Services Unit) is NYPD's SWAT team and provides infrared equipment, armor, advanced weaponry, hostage response and canine services
- flopped: Demoted in rank
- hook: Influence in the department or an influencial friend in high places ("It's not what you know but who you know.") <Note: not used in this book to mean a pickpocket, which is another meaning of the term in the underworld.>
- IAD: Internal Affairs Division. Investigates police suspected of illegal activities
- KG: Known gambler. Dossiers used to be kept by each precinct.
- MOF: Member of the (police) Force
- Murphy: Also called a "Murphy man." Petty thief who poses as a pimp, takes money from would-be customers (johns), but provides no services (no prostitutes)
- PC: Police Commissioner
- pickup collar: A "collar" is an arrest. A "pickup collar" is made spontaneously, without any investigation, when a policeman sees a crime--usually involving vice--and makes an arrest on the spot.
- POSNY: People of the State of New York
- pros: Short for prostitute and pronounced "pross" (not "proze" as in "proze and conz")
- SAC: Single Agent Contact. Pronounced "sack." Also used as a verb: "to be SACed." A SACed undercover officer is told to meet one, and only one, police contact at a specified time and place, usually on a regular basis.
- shield: police officer's badge
- shoefly: An officer of the IAD (see above), so called because regular police officers hate to be investigated by IAD. (As in "Shoefly, don't bother me.")
- signal 13: NYPD radio code meaning "assist patrolman" or "officer in need of assistance." (Sometimes "10-13")
- snowflake: (Verb) Also "flake," meaning to plant evidence on a suspect
- swing: Days off (not to be confused with working a swing shift)
- the Tombs: Formally known as the Manhattan House of Detention for Men, the Tombs is a complex of jails in New York City.
- toss: To search, as in "The detective and I tossed the suspect's apartment."
Errata edit
Somewhere in the book's second half, the word "going" is spelled "doing."
On page 283, the phrase "effect is flat" is used in a fictional psychiatric evaluation, but a real psychiatrist would say "affect is flat."
Authors & Contributors edit
- James Mills (Author)
Subjects edit
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