| abstract
| - James Dominic McNulty is a police detective within a special unit of the Baltimore Police Department. Located in north-central Maryland on the Patapsco River is the Mid-Atlantic port city of Baltimore. It's nicknamed "Charm City" and sometimes referred to as either America's northern-most, southern city; or it's southern-most, northern city. Baltimore is poor, under-educated and struggling with a drug-related crime problem. The architecture is of the red-brick and Formstone federal-style rowhouses and townhomes. But in better quadrants of the city, there are Victorians and ranchers with lawns and tall oaks. There is a sense that much of the population is gone, fled to the suburbs. Vacant houses often seem to outnumber occupied rowhomes in the worst parts of the city. The downtown locales are better, more vibrant, but even there we have a sense that this is a city that has not seen its share of post-industrial investment. Factories and warehouses stand empty, and the tourism and information-age companies that are viable do not extend much past the center of the city. With the exception of the downtown courthouse, a beautifully ornate turn-of-the-century edifice, most of the city buildings, including police headquarters, are either block, red-brick functional, circa 1955 or square glass monstrosities of the mid-1970s ilk. Winters are cold, summers hot. And despite all the problems inherent, there is a deep if peculiar affection for the city felt, though rarely expressed, by its residents. The past is always present here, unlike the new metropolises of the West. Baltimore is a remnant of old America as it struggles to make itself into part of the new. It is in this post-industrial city that Jimmy pursues the city's most dangerous and elusive criminals. Born and raised in Baltimore, he grew up in the Highlandtown neighborhood of southeast Baltimore. After he graduated from high school, Jimmy enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. After recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, he went on to the School of Infantry at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. There, Jimmy attended the Marine Rifleman Course. Afterwards, he was assigned to a rifle platoon in 1st Battalion 8th Marines. Jimmy eventually rose to the position of automatic rifleman and then fire team leader. He left the Marine Corps after four years of service and returned to Baltimore, where he enrolled in Loyola University Maryland as a Business Administration major. During his freshman year, Jimmy's girlfriend, Elena became pregnant. Soon after, Jimmy and Elena were married. A little while after the wedding, he applied to join the Baltimore Police Department to financially support his new wife and soon to be born son, Sean. After completing the entire application process, Jimmy dropped out of Loyola and went on to the Baltimore City Police Academy. Upon graduating from the Police Academy, he was assigned as a patrol officer to the Western District Police Station. Three years later, Jimmy was promoted to detective. Serving in the Western District Detective Unit, he was responsible for investigating all non-fatal shootings, street robberies, burglaries, and aggravated assaults that occurred in the Western District. After a year as a district detective, Jimmy was assigned to the Citywide Robbery Unit handling the investigations, follow-ups, and apprehensions of those responsible for commercial robberies in Baltimore. In that capacity, he worked closely with district detectives to identify robbery patterns through similarities in modus operandi, time, location, and description. Two years into his career as a police detective, Jimmy joined the the Homicide Section. A couple of years later, he was placed on a special surveillance detail of homicide and narcotics detectives assigned to investigate the murder of a state witness who had testified against a member of an infamous crew of drug dealers. As a result of the special detail's success in bringing the drug crew down, the Police Commissioner of the Baltimore Police Department restructured the detail as the Major Crimes Unit. Operating as a tactical surveillance team, the Major Crimes Unit targets the worst of Baltimore's habitual criminal offenders by determining if those offenders under surveillance are connected to major crimes under investigation, and, if probable cause exists to arrest, locate and arrest them. This responsibility is accomplished by conducting exhaustive investigations involving relentless hours of both field surveillance and wiretap monitoring. Jimmy and the other detectives of the Major Crimes Unit are specialists in surveillance and intelligence gathering. They methodically build their cases to maximize the chances of successful prosecution. When their cases are built and the time is right, they apprehend a criminal — often during the act of committing a crime. These "hot take downs" are extremely dangerous and frequently result in armed resistance. Exchanging gunfire with desperate, heavily armed suspects including bank robbers, serial killers, and drug dealers is the norm for Detective Jimmy McNulty.
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