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“There were so many conflicting emotions, but mostly I was so angry that someone would rape their own daughter. I asked the sergeant if we were going to lock everyone up. The sergeant told me to calm down. He said the police are not judge, jury and executioner; that we are there to write down the facts and hand them off to the detectives who would investigate the case. He reminded me that we had no idea who was telling the truth. That was one of the most important lessons I learned my first year on the job. But seeing that little girl had a big impact on me. I couldn’t help it. I didn’t know if I wanted to be a cop anymore.”– Alvin Rountree 


Alvin Rountree spent seven years of his career with the New York City Police Department doing the most dangerous job in law enforcement – an undercover in the Firearms Investigations Unit. Over that time, posing as a black market arms dealer, he was able to get over 2,500 illegal firearms off the streets of New York, including Tech 9’s, Calico M950s, 454 Casulls and Cobray Street Sweepers. In addition to his Jamaican arms dealer persona, Alvin had several other “covers” he could morph into with just seconds of notice. Alvin became so adept at playing his various roles that even his fellow officers had a hard time believing he was actually born and brought up in New York City.

Alvin, widely considered to be one of the Firearms Investigations Unit’s best undercovers, has a rock-solid ability to remain calm no matter how nervous or scared he may be. One of his sergeant’s said, “To go out there and do what Alvin Rountree does, you have to have balls of steel.”

Alvin grew up in a city housing project before attending the NYPD Academy. After stints working undercover on prostitution and narcotics cases, he moved to Firearms. He’s always nervous when the suspect is young and twice he came close to being shot by fellow officers who didn’t know he was a cop. Being involved in such dangerous work has taken a toll on his family.

“I think people would be surprised how many cops worry about the people they have to arrest,” Alvin says. “When I see someone go off to jail for killing someone, I think, there goes the lives of two human beings – the person who died and the person who committed the crime. The years I worked undercover, there were times I would have to be in the suspect’s home. If they had little kids, I would look at them and realize in a couple of weeks, a month, or maybe a year, these children won’t have a Daddy because I am going to arrest him. You think about your own family, you look at your kids and you feel their love for you. Then you realize the little boy whose father you are about to send to jail loves his Dad the same way your kids love you. There are times you ask yourself, ‘Who is really being hurt here?’ Sometimes you can’t avoid the answer that it’s the kids who are going to suffer. A lot of people don’t dig that deep when they think about police work. If they did I think they would come to understand and appreciate us more than they do.”