[2] Ellroy is a writer known mainly for crime fiction set in Los Angeles.

This book's information was provided by the Los Angeles Police Museum's archives,[3] as well as more than 80 duotone photographs to illustrate the text.

The dedication for LAPD '53 is "FOR Jim and Doug THE VALOROUS ARE TOO OFTEN DEAD OR UNRECOGNIZED".

A Time article quoted him saying "Once Glynn and I studied the photos with our book team at the museum, we made the determination that everything we wanted fell under the calendar year of 1953.

There’s a lot of murder and a disproportionate amount of suicide, but what unifies it all is the level of artistry of the photographs themselves...".