Was Detective Frank Serpico an Honest Police Officer?

Was Detective Frank Serpico an honest Police Officer

Frank Serpico is the modern day hero who blew his whistle when he had to . He walked into the public limelight when he exposed deep rooted corruption within the New York Police Department in the 1970 's . His bravery and honesty have been immortalized in the 1973 movie Serpico where Frank Serpico is portrayed by Al Pacino . In this film , Serpico is portrayed as an ordinary guy trying to do his job . He has the habit of making conscientious decisions . Serpico is a good cop

trapped in a bad situation . Surrounded by corruption and bribery at NYPD , Serpico 's conscientiousness causes him to be ostracized and cast as a deviant (Reese , 2002 . As to how Serpico survived in such a hostile environment Glazer and Glazer (1989 ) explain : Serpico was able to move ahead because he was already disenchanted and estranged . Unlike other police he had never "shopped " or taken any small bribes , which could have demoralized him . He never experienced the erosion of his personal values . He never became "bent " Equally important , he remained psychologically and socially distant from his peers . His remained loyal to his early perception of what a police officer should be and loyal to the formal regulations of his department (p . 55 (Reese , 2002

Frank Serpico was born in Brooklyn , New York . He served for two years in the U .S . Army in Korea at the age of eighteen . After military service he worked part time as he did his college studies . He joined the New York City Police Department at the age of twenty-three . During the time of his entry into the NYPD in 1960 , payoffs , bribes and kickbacks were widespread and common within the department . But he stood by his principles of honesty and refused to take money . This angered his colleagues who began to view him as a threat . One day , he blew the whistle on them and became their enemy . Through the New York Times Frank Serpico revealed instances of police misconduct . This caused a huge uproar within police quarters as the then-Mayor John Lindsay created an independent committee , the Knapp Commission , to investigate police corruption in the NYPD . Serpico was under huge pressure as he faced death threats (Democracy Now , 2000 . On June 18th of that year Serpico testified against a former partner . This placed him as an enemy in the eyes of his colleagues and he was ostracized by his peers and even labeled a `rat . The enmity he had earned was so much that he almost lost his life because of it . When he was shot point blank in the face during a drug operations case in 1971 , his colleagues did not call for help . There are many who believe that Serpico might have been set up ' to be shot . He testified in 1971 at hearings held by the Knapp Commission to investigate charges of corruption in the NYPD (CNN , 1997 He resigned from the NYPD on June 15 , 1972 , and...