Page 44 - FOP_APR16.indd

A book of l
Chicago Street Cop tells amazing stories from life on the job
n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL writes about hearing
l
l
i
i
if
f
g
e
f
e
e
a domestic inciden
n
Two years after joining the Chicago Police Department in 1976, Pat McCarthy transferred into a Special Ops unit that included the CPD SWAT team. Special Ops led to working with Gang Intelligence that became the Gang Crimes Unit in the early 80s, and McCarthy went under- cover to infiltrate the gangs that controlled Cabrini Green, Humboldt Park and other areas on the north and west sides of the city.
Some of those days led McCarthy to ride his depart- ment-issued motorcycle wearing only faded, torn jeans, boots and his firearm strapped to an ankle holster, mak- ing drug buys from Chicago’s most notorious gangs. As he moved into other undercover details during his 26-year career, McCarthy dressed up as a female prostitute, infil- trated a Chinese Organized Crime family as a corrupt cop, worked with an FBI task force on International Criminal Enterprise and rode with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Canada.
“When I was working undercover, everybody told me I should write a book,” reveals McCarthy, who retired from the Department in 2000.
So he did.
Chicago Street Cop, Amazing True Stories from the Mean Streets of Chicago and Beyond premiered in March and is making quite the presence on Amazon.com, Barnesand- Noble.com and other venues where the most compel- ling books are sold. Described as a book that will forever change the way you think about police officers and the dangerous work they perform, Chicago Street Cop com- bines touches of Serpico, Donnie Brasco, American Gang- ster, The Untouchables and the classic law-and-order sto- ries written by the great Joseph Wambaugh.
“I had written a lot of notes throughout my career on cases and stuff, almost like a journal,” McCarthy explains. “I was so lucky to have such a wide variety of experiences, and I wanted to tell my story to encourage other coppers to live their dreams because I got to live my dream.”
The “Rush,” The “Streets”
McCarthy’s dream began watching his dad, Harry, put on his uniform every day and go to work for the depart- ment, and actually his family has given four generations to the CPD. (His great grandfather emigrated from Ireland to join the force, and Pat’s son, Ryan, works on a tactical team out of the 11th District.)
Chicago Street Cop begins with the moment McCarthy realized he was meant to be a cop. As a kid in the 1950s, he
44 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ APRIL 2016
t
across the street
e from his north side
home and running g
out in his under- wear to try to help.
“Being a cop, you don’t get a rush from anything else
t
t
like that,” he conf i
f
i
f
”
d
d
.
e
e
e
e
s
s
l
l
i
i
.
e “It’s a pretty intense
f
e
e
n
n
g
g
.
.
”
Harry passed away in Pat’s first year on the job, but
one of Harry’s friends, Commander Michael O’Donnell, helped Pat get into working undercover, something he had a passion for since seeing an undercover copper speak when he was at the academy. Following five years working undercover in Special Ops, which included “Op- eration Angel” that led McCarthy to borrowing a wig from his sister, a fur coat from his mother and dressing up as prostitute alongside a female partner to address the grow- ing sex-for-sale problem in the city in the 80s, he spent 11 years assigned to three different FBI task forces.
So working on worldwide drug investigations, violent crimes, Asian organized crime and surveillance and wire- tap cases could fuel a full season of episodes for Chicago PD, let alone a riveting book.
“It’s about as crazy as you can get, so I just tried to tell the stories like they happened,” McCarthy reasons about turning his work into prose. “I didn’t add stuff or fake stuff. There are true stories that I tried to make as gritty and real as possible.”
Book ‘Em
Following retiring from the CPD, McCarthy decided to get serious about writing a book. And here’s how serious: Despite traveling more than 30 weeks a year for his “Street Crimes” business he had started to train officers across the country on surveillance, gang and drug investigations and other areas of his expertise, he would spend addition- al weeks going to Australia, Paris, China, Thailand and other faraway places just to write.
“Every year at the end of the year, I would take a trip,” he explained. “I would lock myself in a room for five days and all I would do was eat and write.”
His goal was to create a ride-along for readers and pres- ent his wide range of experiences. He notes that the only facts he changed were the name of three informants, and