These shots by self-taught photog Jill Freedman were taken on foot patrol and riding in police cruisers in the Ninth Precinct, Times Square and Alphabet City of the late ’70s. Tough times. It casts a sympathetic lens on the coppers towing back runway kids and dragging out happy brawling drunks, but it’s not without the edge of violence we’re accustomed to.

Among smiling hooker meet and greets, there are gun wounds, suicides and the usual uniformed bravado. Check out the vintage shots at “Street Cops, 1978 – 1981,” Jill Freedman, Sep 15 – Oct 29, Higher Pictures Gallery, NYC