Thomas Sommerville decided he wanted to be a police officer in elementary school when his job as a crossing guard gave him a sense of what it felt like to protect and serve (and wear a cool badge). Of course, his career proved a little more challenging than escorting his fellow classmates across the street. Whether he was breaking up fights, foiling bank robberies, or investigating homicides, Tom treated every crime scene as the most important one he'd ever encountered. And he learned how to use humor-sometimes in the form of outrageous pranks-to cope with seeing humanity at its worst.

Covering Tom's forty-five years as a street cop in Detroit and a CSI guy in Arizona, Old School: The Police, the Public, and the Pranks gives readers a rare glimpse inside the world of law enforcement.