The Naked Badge

On a balmy April morning in 1954, James Moore was sworn in as a member of the Toledo Police Academy's twelfth cadet class and began what would eventually become a twenty-six-year career with a police force intent on fiercely protecting the citizens of its beloved city.

The Naked Badge shares powerful, hard-hitting anecdotes of the realities of Toledo, Ohio, law enforcement that took place from 1950s to the 1970s. With from-the-heart honesty that at times reads like fiction, Moore provides a compelling glimpse into a time when formal training was minimal and outdated; there were no such things as computers, portable radios, bulletproof vests, or air-conditioned vehicles; pay was minimal; and officers worked a forty-eight-hour week. While revealing the stark vulnerabilities of rookie patrolmen, Moore shares real-life cases that disclose his own failures and shortcomings as his career takes him from a patrolman assigned to walking beats in the toughest sections of the city to a veteran captain who prided himself on treating everyone fairly.

The Naked Badge offers an enlightening and entertaining look into the intriguing world of police work during a period of great change in America.