What makes a fifty-year-old man quit a highly successful career in charity work to take on the low-paid, dangerous job of being a police officer? When Mark Johnson left the United Way to become the oldest rookie in the Mobile, Alabama, police department, he didn t just have to adjust to a new career he had to adjust to an entirely new life of danger, violence, and stark moral choices. Apprehensions and Convictions is Johnson s explosive memoir of his second career as a cop. Defying the skepticism of his wife, the derision of the younger cops who called him Pawpaw, and his own self-doubts, Johnson rose to become a detective and a highly decorated officer. Apprehensions and Convictions also tells a personal story of how Johnson overcame his own demons to find a new sense of purpose and identity in midlife. From a troubled drink- and drug-fueled youth, to dealing with both his birth and adoptive parents, to struggling to find a steady career path, Johnson s story is of a man who found his courage and changed himself.