End of Watch:Chicago Police Killed in the Line of Duty, 1853-2006

End of Watch - Chicago Police Killed in the Line of Duty 1853-2006 by Edward M. Burke and Thomas J. O'Gorman examines the remarkable sacrifice of 526 sworn officers of the Chicago Police Department. Throughout the book's 300+ pages and more than 600 photographs, there are detailed narratives of each officer and the circumstances involved in their deaths. The book traces the heroic history of Chicago's finest with accounts of each episode drawn from municipal records, police files, contemporaneous newspapers, court documents and ground breaking research. Emerging from this historical analysis is a bright and vibrant story that winds through the history of Chicago - the fastest growing city on earth in the last half of the 19th century. The urban development and municipal expansion of Chicago is documented through the growth and evolution of its police department. From a prairie outpost to the gangland era of Prohibition, from the urban chaos welcoming vast numbers of immigrants to the great advances in law enforcement technology, at the heart of Chicago's struggle to survive and grow was the courageous presence of its urban police. End of Watch is a very human story that describes the great loyalty and honor emerging in the ordinary lives of extraordinary Chicagoans. This is a detailed account of how a city grew told through the paradigm of its most remarkable heroes. The setting unfolds against the background of Chicago's vast colorful array of neighborhoods and personalities era after era. The book is co-authored by Edward Burke, the Dean of the Chicago City Council, its most well-known historian and a former policeman himself, and Thomas O'Gorman, a Chicago historian and storyteller, at home in the poetry of its urban life. Together they weave a hero's tale not told before. They offer a forensic insight into Chicago's soul and the never-to-be-forgotten long blue line of its most noble citizens. Gathered around this narration is an exhaustive collection of photographs drawn from wide sources that expand the vivid texture of this history. The saga of Chicago's Police that they document is a rich urban story spotlighting the highest ideals of the Prairie that have shaped Chicago into America's most American city.