Former Toronto Police undercover cop Hal Cunningham has investigated Mafia hitmen, outlaw motorcycle gangs and a lengthy list of law-breakers and is still alive to write about it.
The former 30-year undercover cop has just released Just a Cop, which is available on Amazon and reached Number 1 in ‘hot new crime releases.’
Cunningham’s crime bio sheds a light on what he and other law enforcement officers deal with on a daily basis and provides the reader with a first-person opportunity to walk in his shoe.
“It’s like a ride-along. They’re able to see (what) it’s really like and this is what the officers’ experience and handle all situations,” Cunningham says of the book. “It’s an education for all to learn what we see and experience what we experience.”
He began his career in 1973 as a cadet and worked his way through the ranks from a constable on patrol, to an undercover street intelligence officer, and eventually to the rank of Staff Sergeant and Platoon Commander, before retiring in 2003.
Over the years he has taken part in hundreds of surveillance projects going after homicide, armed robbery, terrorism, organized crime, motorcycle gang members and drug traffickers among others.
Cunningham has been declared an Expert Witness in High Court in Surveillance and Counter Surveillance Techniques. He also worked with the RCMP in providing witness protection for a Mafia hit man and former motorcycle gang member.
He has instructed more than 100 Toronto Police Officers, based at busy downtown division, with a three day surveillance training course.
“I have been teaching my techniques for over 20-years to a total of over 1,000 Police, Corporate and Private Investigators from the Greater Toronto Area, Province of Ontario, across Canada and the U.S.”
He recalls one story in which as he was walking home one day and heard noises and looked up to see a sniper shooting at people on the street.
“I looked up and on top of a highrise was a sniper shooting down onto the street,” Cunningham recalls. “He injured seven people from what I understood was shrapnel hitting the pavement.”
The shooter ended up taking his own life.
On another day, he and a fellow police constable became involved in an early morning shootout with motorcycle gang members.
After attending high school at East Northumberland Secondary School, Cunningham went to Loyalist College in Belleville, where he studied law. He was hired as a summer student with Trenton Police, and became an inside station operator, before graduating and moving on to the big city.
“I want the public to understand that this is what these dedicated people are doing for you out there every day, every night. It’s not just sitting with a coffee and a donut in a car,” the policeman notes. “It can go from zero to 100 in two seconds.”
The book contains some funny stories, sad stories and emotional ones.
“This is a well-written book about an era of policing now gone. It describes a time of policing in Toronto that will never be again,” says retired Staff Sgt. George ‘Dogface’ Gadson of the book. “It is a great read for people who want to know one way policing was done in the past.”
Just A Cop is available on Amazon.
