Frank Serpico -- NYPD Police Officer 1960-1972

At the time that Frank Serpico served as a New York City Police Department (NYPD) police officer, corruption was rampant throughout the entire police department, the first and largest police department in the United States (Delattre. 2006). That corruption existed at all levels of the department from the street to the office of the Police Commissioner. Patrol officers routinely extorted bribes or stole money and drugs from criminals, even returning the drugs to the street by selling them to other dealers. Those types of practices were standard operating procedure to such a degree that police officers (like Fran Serpico) who refused to participate became social exiles among their fellow officers out of suspicions that they could not be trusted (Delattre, 2006). After trying unsuccessfully to report the problems to superiors, Serpico eventually contributed to a New York Times report detailing police corruption in New York City (Delattre,...

As a result of the exposure of police corruption by Serpico, the entire hierarchy of police administration in New York was reconfigured and similar probes initiated in other large U.S. police departments. Today, American policing represents honesty and integrity rather than corruption and graft, due in large measure, to the heroic efforts of a single NYPD patrol officer with the courage to stand up for what he knew was right.
References

Delattre, E. (2006). Character and Cops: Ethics in Policing. Washington, DC:

American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research.

Schmalleger, F. (2009). Criminal Justice Today: An Introductory Text for the 21st

Century. Hoboken,…