WILD AND REAL-LIFE STORIES ABOUT LAPD COPS A Dented Badge is a snapshot of LAPD during the 1970s and 80s. Between the pages you'll find over one-hundred and thirty stories about LAPD coppers and the extreme violence--as well as wild behavior--associated with high crime rates. Some of these stories are funny, a few are poignant, a few are sad and several are simply unbelievable. At the same time, it's a journey by a recruit that starts at the academy where some self doubts surface but are eventually dispelled and ends as a seasoned officer working LAPD's elite Metropolitan Division.