Meet the Author - John Caprarelli, "Uniform Decisions: My Life in the LAPD and The North Hollywood Shootout"

Meet John Caprarelli, author of "Uniform Decisions: My Life in the LAPD and The North Hollywood Shootout"

John Caprarelli was born and raised in Los Angeles. He joined the LAPD in 1982 and worked various assignments early in his career that included patrol, special problems units, undercover narcotic buy teams and a prostitution enforcement detail. In 1986, he made his home North Hollywood Division where he eventually promoted to Training Officer and then Senior Lead Officer for the Studio City area. It was during his eight year tenure as Studio City's Senior Lead Officer that he was involved in one of the most violent shootouts in American history, the North Hollywood Bank of America robbery on February 28, 1997. Two robbers armed with fully automatic assault rifles and wearing full body armor fired more than 1,100 rounds while battling police. John was one of the first officers at the scene. His actions that day earned him LAPD’s highest honor, the Medal of Valor, and the National Association of Police Organization’s “Top Cops” Award.

John retired from the LAPD in 2009.  In 2011, he wrote a book about his LAPD career with the main focus being that infamous shootout in 1997 and the repercussions it had on his life. The book, Uniform Decisions, is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and www.uniformdecisions.com.