The Making of a Cop

Rachlin ( The Songwriter's Handbook ) monitored a class of recruits through their 23-week course at the New York City Police Academy in 1988, concentrating on four of them. The result is a sympathetic chronicle of the conversion of 860 civilians into police officers as they run an educational gauntlet whose demands are equal parts physical, ballistic and sociological. Rachlin reveals that ``sensitivity training'' is a significant component of the regimen, especially concerning ethnic groups; it remains important as well to inculcate a strong sense of self-preservation in police officers, since so many New Yorkers regard cops as a hostile occupying force in their neighborhoods, if not as actual enemies. And though the course includes many simulations of real-life situations, in the author's view, the academy cannot prepare students for the sordidness and inhumanity they will encounter on the streets; more than a few become very cynical very quickly. The book presents a realistic look at a supremely difficult job. Author tour. (Mar.)