NONFICTION - Jan. 13, 1991

WHAT COPS KNOW: Cops Talk About What They Do, How They Do It, and What It Does to Them by Connie Fletcher (Villard Books: $19.95; 320 pp.) . This book is the publishing equivalent of snack foods: a collection of anecdotes from the mouths of Chicago cops. The stories they tell are horrifying and/or extremely funny, albeit in a grisly sort of way. (The tone is set by the first tale, about the brain of a jumper suicide that wound up on the street, detached from its owner but perfectly intact.) Fletcher has made no attempt to provide a Big Meaning for the book, which is in keeping with the cops’ view of their job: Like foot soldiers in a never-ending war, they see only the battle, not the grand strategy. Some producer probably will buy the book and get a writer to fashion a plot using as many of the stories as possible. A smarter move would be for one of the major studios to buy it and present it to its various producers and directors as a resource.