I enjoyed reading this book and I have to commend Christopher Dickey for writing a well-rounded and thorough examination of what it is like to have to secure the biggest terror target in the world. Where Dickey is at his strongest is when he examines the tough questions regarding individual liberties and securing the greater population. He does a very good job of showing what happens when the police make mistakes and cross the line into violating civil rights. Dickey does a fine job of showing off the technical expertise and pragmatic approach of the NYPD and how they approach their new found responsibilities with a combination of technology, luck and good old fashioned police work.

I also respect Dickey for giving other parties who may not agree with the way the NYPD is handling this new challenge a chance to express their views without making them seem like whiners, nihilists or kooks. As I said above, he also is willing to show the negative impacts bad policing can have and uses the 2004 GOP convention as a case in point.

My only criticism is that we really don't have a context to see how strong a program this is since there is no real apples to apples comparison with say the Feds or other agencies. He does mention Scotland Yard briefly but without enough information to compare them to New York except to cast them in a negative possible light. Other than that this is a book well worth your time!