Frank Serpico

Frank Serpico (born April 14, 1936) is a former police officer from New York City, now living in Chatham, New York.

Shot In The Face

During a drug bust on February 3,1971, Serpico was shot point blank in the face. It is believed that his fellow officers were trying to silence him by setting him up to be shot, and then not calling for help. Frank's ?colleagues?, with whom he had been working since Frank was first assigned to narcotics, failed to call in an officer distress signal and left him bleeding to death on a tenement stairwell. An elderly Hispanic gentleman comforted Frank and called the police. One solitary police car responded, Frank's colleagues were nowhere in sight. Frank had to pay a high price for the courage he displayed as a lone honest cop. He had to give up his career as a detective after getting shot in the face by a drug dealer while on the job and then finding there was a mafia contract out on him.

Related Topics:
February 3 - 1971 - Shot

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Frank was deafened in his left ear by the bullet, which severed an auditory nerve, and has suffered chronic pain from fragments lodged in his brain. Serpico survived and continued to testify for the Knapp Commission. While Frank in his sick bed recovering from a gunshot wound the police department harassed Frank with hourly bed checks.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On May 3, 1971, New York Metro Magazine did an article about Frank called Portrait Of An Honest Cop. In October of 1971 Serpico testified in front of the Knapp Commission: "The problem is that the atmosphere does not yet exist in which honest police officers can act without fear of ridicule or reprisal from fellow officers." Frank Serpico was the first police officer in the history of the United States to step forward to report and subsequently testify openly about widespread, systematic cop corruption-payoffs amounting to millions of dollars.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~