More than a hundred men and women in various aspects of law enforcement were interviewed for this unusual profile. The interviews were all conducted in Alabama, but the insights and experiences are common to the criminal justice system throughout the United States. Lofton’s subjects ranged from the veteran lone officer in the storefront police department in Town Creek to the college-educated major in the big-city Mobile Police Department. There are stories from county, state, and federal law enforcement agencies and peripheral views from prosecutors, criminal court judges, bailiffs, and probation officers. The goal was to find out what the men and women working in criminal justice thought and remembered about their jobs, which are among the most difficult and sometimes controversial in modern society.

Foreword by: Bill Baxley