Frank Serpico - a Police Officer in the New York Police - Essay Example

Serpico Frank Serpico was a police officer serving in the New York Police Department through the 1960s and into the 1970s. As a young officer, he was full of high ideals and expectations for his position as a protector of society, but found most of his fellow officers did not conform to these same standards. Throughout the course of his career he was forced to confront a variety of ethical decisions that would change the course of his life dramatically, both as a uniformed patrol officer and as a plainclothes investigator. In the end, his ethics and morals forced him to turn against the police code of brotherhood and push a full-scale investigation of the department from outside sources. An understanding of Serpico’s story helps to illuminate the importance of integrity, autonomy and responsibility in every individual involved with criminal justice. Table of Contents Serpico The story of Frank Serpico has proved the impetus for a variety of police reforms and attempts at reform as the public found out just how extensive the system of ‘crooked cops’ went following Serpico’s revelations to the New York Times when he found his superiors unresponsive and incapable of dealing with what he encountered. Rather than being a case of a problem that had been so long unknown that it was beyond control, much like a houseful of termites within the framework, what Serpico uncovered in the 1960s and early 1970s was a case of so many individuals embroiled in the action that it was nearly impossible to find superiors capable of following through on investigations without implicating themselves. Reading through the slightly fictionalized biography of Frank Serpico reveals not only the extraordinary conditions in which he finds himself, but the several places in his life in which he was forced to make a difficult ethical decision, often at his own personal cost and suggests places in which an equally ethical criminal justice administrator might have been of significant assistance. Serpico’s story The story opens up as Serpico is being rushed to the hospital after having been shot in the face in what is still debated as possibly an arranged ‘hit’ between the drug dealers and the police officers with whom he was working. Once it is properly established that this did not prove to be a fatal shot, although it came within fractions of a centimeter of being so, the novel turns to recount the past events of Serpico’s life that had brought him to the hospital that night and why suspicions of conspiracy were circulating. Touching only very briefly upon his childhood and the reasons Serpico dreamed of one day becoming a cop, the flashback essentially starts with Serpico’s efforts to be placed on the force. As a young man, he was an idealistic cop, envisioning his role as a protector of the innocent and enforcer of the written law. However, almost immediately he ran across the racketeering and bribery that were part and parcel of being a cop in the department. Throughout the various stages of his service to New York, he was repeatedly petitioned to take part in the overall graft of the department and even threatened should he elect not to participate. This eventually brought him, as a plainclothesman, to a point where he either needed to do something about it or give up on everything he had ever believed in, nearly equally difficult tasks. Rookie Ethics As a rookie patrolman, Serpico encountered several challenges to his basic understanding of common ethics on the police force. One of the first ethical issues he confronted as a young patrolman was the fact that most of his fellow officers didn’t take his job as seriously as he did himself. Rather than being on the force as a means of serving the community and providing a helpful, trustworthy figure for individuals in need of assistance, Serpico found that most of his fellow officers spent the majority of their time trying to remain comfortable and unoccupied with police business, such as the practice of ‘cooping’, or sleeping during night shifts rather than patrolling as assigned or the regular practice of accepting free meals and other ‘perks’ from businesses as an incentive for them to provide some form of protection should the need arise. Although Serpico evidently attempted to blend in with these small time infractions, his conscience continued to gnaw at him and he ended up rejecting both practices in favor of living up to his own expectations for his position. While it was known he rejected these things, this rejection would not cause him the same kind of problems he would encounter later in his career. He first came into contact with the graft system when he pulled over a man for speeding through a red light and was offered a bribe to let the man go. Although he was infuriated at the suggestion that he would take money from this man rather than uphold the law, his partner at the time took over the call and accepted the bribe in Frank’s stead. Thus, the first of Serpico’s ethical challenges occurred when this partner did the ‘right’ thing and offered Frank his half of the ‘take.’ Being young and inexperienced, Serpico was sickened by the suggestion and the ethical dilemma was resolved with no troubling misgivings. Rather than understanding this to be a department-wide issue, Serpico at this point in his career was able to continue believing it was only a few minor cops who were on the ‘take’ rather than the entire department. It was a delusion he was not able to hold onto for long. Plainclothes Danger Upon being promoted to plainclothes duty, Serpico came into much closer contact with the graft system within the 7th precinct. Here, the main criminal activity and primary focus of the police was the problem of illegal gambling. In undertaking his normal duties and being assigned a partner, Serpico soon discovered that rather than working to reduce the gamblers in the city, the police had developed a racket of their own in which the gamblers paid for ‘ignorance’ on the part of the police. In exchange, all the plainclothesmen assigned to the district were given a share of the pad, an amount that typically earned them an additional $8,000 per month but varied depending upon the number of bookies operating in the district and how well business had been going. Here, Serpico’s failure to participate in the graft was seen as threatening by the other cops and he began to realize the extent to which his decision endangered him. While he had every intention of remaining true to his ethical stance that dirty money was dirty money regardless of whether it was in the form of a $5 meal for free, a bribe for a speeding ticket or a payoff from a bookie, the thought that an honest cop had more to be afraid of in the department than a dishonest cop continued to eat away at him, eventually driving him to report what was happening to his superiors. Forcing Change As Serpico moved through the divisions, he only encountered more crime among his fellow officers and tried harder to gain the attention of superior officers in rooting out the causes of this widespread corruption. The decision to refute the ‘band of brothers’ that holds all cops must look out for one another was another difficult decision for Serpico, particularly in light of the fact that by not participating, he was literally putting his life in peril as evidenced by the several threats he received not only for himself, but also for the members of his family. While it was a decision not made lightly, Serpico felt there was little else he could do and still manage to live with himself at the end of the day. His final decision to take his story to the New York Times after numerous attempts at investigations failed through the ineptitude or corruption of superior divisions was an unprecedented step that heralded real change for the first time in history in the formation of the Knapp Commission. Relevance to Criminal Justice Administrators Understanding the various issues Serpico had to cope with in his lone attempt to root out the almost total corruption within the massive New York Police Department illustrates the need for ethical and moral administrators capable of standing up for the rights of the average citizen and the ideals of the role of police in society. Toward this end, it is important that criminal justice administrators develop a sense of professional expertise in all matters to do with the department and what is expected as well as means of obtaining desirable results. They must also practice individual autonomy such that if or when a problem does arise, they are able to act upon it in a moral and ethical way in keeping with the responsibilities of their position. This, in turn, means that the administrator must have an internalized sense of what is morally and ethically correct. By refusing to pass the bill, so to speak, and taking direct personal responsibility for what occurs among the officers beneath them as well as holding each individual responsible for their own actions and for controlling corruption within the department, administrators can go a long way toward rooting out such issues and making it possible for officers to report corruption in a less hostile environment. References Maas, Peter. (1973). Serpico. New York: Harper Books. Read More