Frank Serpico

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

The Early Years Of The Patrolman 1936-1969

Born in Brooklyn, Serpico was the youngest child of Italian immigrants. When Frank was eighteen he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served for two years in Korea. When he returned home he worked part-time as a private investigator and youth board counselor while he attended college. After military service and college, he still continued to worked part-time and attended college, joining the New York City Police Department at the age of twenty-three. Frank Serpico was sworn in as a probationary patrolman on September 11, 1959. He was handed his shield and immediately went out and got it replated so it would be shiny and garner respect. His being sworn in was the culmination of a lifetime dream of becoming what he respected most - a cop. He was commissioned as a patrolman for the New York City Police Department on March 5, 1960. He worked for the BCI for two years filing finger prints before he was assigned to plain clothes. He was first assigned to patrol in the 81st precinct, later he was assigned to work plain clothes, where he discovered widespread corruption. He was a police officer for 12 years. After numerous failed attempts to report this corruption within the established police and governmental framework, he finally went to the New York Times, which published an exposé. Serpico?s career as a plainclothes police detective working in Brooklyn and the Bronx to expose vice racketeering was short-lived, however, because he swam against the tide of corruption that engulfed the NYPD during the late sixties and early seventies. Not only did he consistently refuse to take bribes for ?looking the other way,? he risked his own safety to expose those who did. In 1967 he reported to appropriate officials ?credible evidence of widespread, systemic police corruption.?

Related Topics:
Brooklyn - Korea - September 11 - 1959 - Shield - Lifetime - New York City Police Department - March 5 - 1960 - Precinct - Corruption - New York Times - Exposé - 1967

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