Frank Serpico's Horrific Chain Of Events

Growing up our parent always told us that police officers were the good guys, and the people that committed crimes were the bad guys. There was a time in our lives that we believed that this was true, police are good, and criminals are bad, simple as that. Police officers played a prominent role in our lives growing up, some were looked at as role models, guidance counselors, but most of all they were our friends. However, at what point did that connection dissipate between police officers and the community? This disconnection was most prominently exemplified in the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD), where officer corruption, murder, and lawlessness was ramped within the department. Corruption had become a culture, a way of life for some officers in New Orleans, where supervisors dismissed allegations. Could the use of Rotten Apple mechanism help reduce the corruption in the NOPD? Comparatively, could the application of the Rotten Barrel models provide protection from police misconduct during an investigation?

Police corruption can also be explained by the lack of protection and security police feel they have. They also feel like they are being disrespected by individuals in society, which is why they rely on the subculture for protection and support (Skolnick, 1966). The police subculture has created a lot of secrecy within the organization, which contributes to police misconduct. Police officers will often ignore another police officer’s corrupt actions in order to maintain a good reputation within the subculture (Tator & Henry, 2006). For example, 84% of police officers have directly witnessed another officer using more force than necessary out on the streets (US Department of Justice, 2017). However, instead of reporting the acts of others, 52%

Many factors contributed to the huge scope of police corruption in the Miami River Cops case. Those factors included; corrupt leadership, personal greed, and crimes that made it easy to look the other way. In a candid talk with his arresting officer, corrupt police officer Osvaldo Coello admitted that he became corrupt largely in part because he became disillusioned with corrupt leadership (Perdomo, 2012). In my opinion, corrupt leadership is the root cause, and most significant catalyst in the Miami River Cops case. New, impressionable police officers are much more likely to succumb to police corruption if they see their leaders doing the same thing. In any organization, leadership sets the example, and once

I’m glad that I chose this book because it taught me that one person can have a huge impact on an issue that he or she feels strongly about. I thought Serpico would have become a replica of those crooked cops. Who would of thought Serpico would be the police officer to deny graft, bribery and other criminal benefits? That’s the most appealing information because who would chose justice over money? Apparently Frank Serpico thought that corruption wasn’t going to get him to a detective rank. He believed the only way was to endeavor. A quote from the book was “the

In 1997, a New York City police officer shoved a stick six inches into the rectum of Abner Louima rupturing his intestines (Troutt 6). To make matters worse the officer stuck the soiled stick into the victim's mouth. Two years later, Amadou Diallo and former pro football player Demetrius DuBose were murdered by New York City and San Diego police respectively. Diallo was shot by four white plain-clothes officers while standing on the porch of his own Bronx apartment building. According to the officers upon approaching the building Diallo stepped back inside to hide. When Diallo reached into his pocket the officers fired a total of 41 shots, striking him 19 times. What the police thought was a gun turned out to be a wallet (Jeffries,2001). That summer, DuBose, previous football players of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New York Jets were shot by two white San Diego police officers. The officers were investigating a burglary when that happened upon the multi-millionaire and Notre Dame graduate. An investigation by the family's attorney discovered that DuBose cooperated with the officers' investigation until they began to "harass and intimidate" him (Amnesty International 1999a). The officers claimed that DuBose attacked them with a pair of nunchakus sticks, a martial arts weapon that he allegedly wrestled away from one of them. Several witnesses said DuBose was shot in the back

The culture is filled with dishonesty because police can get a pass by lying within the criminal justice system without taking accountability for their actions. Officers should take in perspective that their dishonestly may not only have their careers on the line, but the chances of the accused offender being wrongly convicted based on false reports and statements are can be avoided. Unfortunately, depending on the severity, some police organizations do not find anything wrong with dishonestly. In fact, most police agencies and organization may allow officers to fabricate small things that can be crucial to the

Clearly you could tell that both of these detectives had morals and knew what they needed to do in order to try and correct circumstances that had gone terribly wrong. Serpico was honest and showed integrity. It took guts for him to stand his ground even if that meant putting his life in danger to do what was ethically right. A gold shield was handed to him after he was shot, no ceremony was held. The thing that both detectives have in common is that they didn’t sign up for the corruption they were exposed to and made lasting impressions that they didn’t have to be involved in order to be a good police

Corruption within the New York Police Department is a quickly growing phenomenon; to an extent, this is largely due to the cop culture that encourages silence and draws the line at honesty. The good, honest officers are afraid to speak up against co-workers and in the process become corrupt themselves. When police departments were first established in the mid-nineteenth century, corruption quickly followed suit. It began with minor acts of misconduct and today deals with serious criminal activities. Scholars have noted that there is a strong correlation between the officers taking part in corrupt acts and officers wanting to fit in with the culture. In this paper, I argue that the deeper an officer in the New York police department gets into the police culture, the more likely it is that they become involved in narcotic corruption

Throughout all realms of the criminal justice system, it is hard to use discretion when arresting or prosecuting people. Another difficulty that police in our democratic society face is the discrepancy between their own personal freedoms and upholding the law, their job (Barkan, 2012). Police officers are allowed to think what they want or say how they feel, a right granted to them in the Bill of Rights. However, under the badge, police officers are required and expected to abide by the laws of the United States. Sometimes, the level of authority police hold in this situation can get them into trouble legally. This is what we call police misconduct (Barkan, 2012). One of the most notorious police scandals in history was the LA antigang Rampart Division scandal. In 2000, Rafael Perez, an LA police officer was arrested for stealing drugs. In exchange for a plea bargain Perez notified authorities of other corruptive instances in the Rampart Division. More than 70 officers were scrutinized for these acts (Barkan, 2012).

Which relates back to what you professor Satka said about how higher ranking officers tend to take the credit from patrolmen’s work due to their position in the hierarchy. From this scene also comes another form of police corruption, and that is police brutality. Serpico brings in one of the accomplices in the attempted rape and the detective takes him into the room and completely beats down on the kid and asks Serpico if he wants part of the fun. In other words the detective used excessive amount of force in order to lay down the law and to try to get the name of the other accomplices.

Their study utilized eleven Midwest and East Coast police agencies to measure the relationship of police integrity among 604 police officers. The police agencies ranged in various sizes from very large municipal agencies (more than 500 sworn officers) to very small police agencies (fewer than 25 sworn officers) in their published research. The authors used a voluntary online questionnaire for their research and their response rate was 34% of the officers in the study completed the questionnaire. They avoided demographic and identifying information, while at the same time, they framed hypothetical scenarios for the volunteers to respond to. There results were that the more serious the police corruption, the more likely the officers were to say that they would not tolerate it without reporting. However, for less serious infractions, the officers appeared to follow the code of silence (Ivkovic et al 2016:177-184). The “Code” appears to be inherent within police organizations and does serve an important element of the policeman’s position within the organization. The downside of this research is that quite possibly only the police officers with the highest ethical and moral standards chose to voluntarily complete the

From the first police station built in Boston to what is today's modern police force there has always been corruption inside the criminal justice system, whether it be something as little as a small bribe to look the other way, or something more serious like getting away with a major offense. The department of justice has had trouble from top to bottom with corruption and it has proven to be a difficult problem to fix. When policing in the U. S. were just starting out corruption and law bending was more prevalent but harder to see which Police officers who were following the rules and who was bending the law in their own favor to gain an advantage for themselves rather than looking out for the community as a whole. This is because when policing first started out there were limited officers, which meant less word of mouth and less people to respond to and

Police corruption is one of the ethical issues affecting law enforcement officers. Corruption is defined as “impairment of integrity, virtue or moral principle; inducement to do wrong by improper or unlawful means” (Merriam Webster Online, 2009). While the most recognizable form of corruption involves officers taking money for favors (bribery), the actions that are considered corruption include filing false police reports, harassment of any person due to sex, race, creed, religion, national origin or sexual orientation, and failure to protect the rights of citizens. Corruption exists in all levels of law enforcement.

Most gangsters were born into impoverished backgrounds, but this was not the case for Capone. He was in fact from a respectable and law-abiding family of Italians who moved to New York in 1894. Born January 17, 1899 in Brooklyn, Alphonse Capone was the fourth of nine children. However, Young Al's home was far from extravagant. He lived in a slum, close to a bad area of the city. His

Some argue that corrupt police officers are simply the product of a corrupt culture of the agency they work for. These officers are socially introduced to a number of informal rules when they begin employment. This process and these rules serve two main purposes. First, this process is designed to minimize the chances of external or internal controls being mobilized to address the behaviors and, secondly, to keep corrupt activities at a level that is acceptable and likely undetectable. The rule most often referred to in this connection, is the “Code of Silence.” Officers are socialized into not cooperating with investigations regarding fellow officers. Whether or not the officer participates in corrupt activities for financial gain, an officer’s adherence to the “Code of Silence” places them squarely amongst the corrupt of the profession (Price, 1972).