The movie Serpico depicts the life of a New York Police Department officer in 1973. In Serpico, Frank Serpico (Al Pacino) challenges his community and his police force to reveal the corruption that takes place by those who are supposed to protect and abide by the law. Gastafson (2010) depicts what the hero, Frank Serpico, of a cop film genre film will experience playing this role, “The typical corrupt cop film presents an honest or repentant cop as its protagonist. He is confronted with individual-level, small group, or systemic corruption within his department.” Throughout the production, Al Pacino is faced with internal struggles of whether he should risk his job and image to release the crooks within the law enforcement he worked for. Director, …show more content…
Sidney Lumet based Serpico on Frank Serpico, a true NYPD officer and his journey of letting the world know what was going on inside the walls of the police department. Al Pacino, a hero to the community, faced challenges from his personal relationships and with his co-workers. Being almost thirty-five years old, some of the actions by the police officers and procedures have evolved since then. The evolvement of policing allows one to see the transformation from the actions of these officers to the style of officers now. Examining the film and analyzing scenes allows the viewer to see how Frank Serpico had to fight between good and evil. Frank Serpico had to decide when he was faced with the opportunity to take part in the corrupt actions, how he wanted to be remembered as a police officer. He worked hard to get appreciation as a plainclothes officer. Frank Serpico wanted to live his life on the police force as an honest undercover cop and proved that he worked hard to deserve a New York Police Department Medal of Honor. The beginning of the movie is a flash back to Frank Serpico getting shot and recapping his graduation from the police academy. Frank Serpico is then seen in the Police Department in present day at a meeting discussing how the day will go. Peluce (Albert Henderson) takes Frank Serpico under is wing and brings him to go get lunch at a restaurant where Peluce knows the owner, Charlie. Peluce and Frank Serpico go into line and order what they want for lunch. When they received their meal, Frank Serpico was dissatisfied with how he roast beef turned out. Frank Serpico wants to go up and get a new sandwich, but Peluce explains to him that the sandwich was free anyways. In Serpico (Lumet & De Laurentiis, 1973), the viewers see the first example of corruption nine minutes into the movie, Pulace: “Don't be so fussy. It's free.” Serpico: “Couldn't I pay for it, get what I want?” (8:57-9:14) Pulace explains to Frank Serpico that they get free food from Charlie because they let him off easy when it comes to parking. Frank Serpico would rather pay for the food he wants than accept food for free that he knows he will know enjoy. When examining Frank Serpico’s expressions during this scene, the viewer can tell that he looks confused and does not understand the mentality behind this interaction (Lumet & De Laurentiis, 1973). He is able and the viewer is able to see the beginning of small favors the police do for community members and what they get in return. Moments after this scene, a tip came over the police scanner saying there was a possible rape in progress. Frank Serpico wants to go help, but his partner tells him not to worry it is not in their sector. Frank Serpico decides to go and tackles one of the suspects and brings him in for questioning. One of the investigation officers beats the suspect to try to get answers out of him. Days later he eventually captures the other two men involved in the rape by leaving the school ground where he was supposed to be patrolling. Frank Serpico deserved full credit for the take down of the suspects, but the officers who have been there longer get credit for his work. They tell him it would look bad and he would get written up for leaving his district that he was supposed to be patrolling (Lumet & DeLaurentiis, 1973). These two scenes set the tone for the rest of the film and the internal conflict Frank Serpico will have within himself.
He does not understand the mentality of what the cops are doing and why they are able to get away with it. Frank Serpico feels like he is under appreciated as a cop. He is a plainclothes cop and works towards completion of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation. According to the information on Serpico: Detail View of Movie (n.d.), “After two years in the department, however, Frank remains an outsider, working harder than the other officers and affecting the look of the street hippies amongst whom he works in plainclothes.” Frank Serpico put in the work and effort needed to obtain the completion of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, but still has yet to fit in due to him not acting as a …show more content…
criminal. Frank Serpico feels he should have different looks as an undercover cop to be unrecognizable. He transfers to a department in the Bronx after an incident with Lieutenant Steiger (James Tolkin). Frank Serpico is involved in a shootout after two of his partners do not recognize him in his regular clothes. Frank Serpico is in the middle of an arrest when all of this happens and his two partners ask to take credit for the arrest. Frank Serpico agrees and the accounts of corruption keep adding up (Lumet & De Laurentiis, 1973). The act that Frank Serpico tries to end all this with involves a gambling of money between the officers. Frank Serpico is transferred to the 9th district. During all the transfers, Frank wonders if he will soon find people like him, but is disappointed every time. There is no one that Frank Serpico can go for to advice because it seems as if he is the one not normal here. “On his first day there, he receives an envelope full of cash, and not wanting to be part of the division-wide extortion...Inspector Kellogg, who counsels Frank over lunch that if he values his job, he will take the money quietly” (Serpico: Detail View of Movie, n.d.). Different officers transfer the money between each other and Frank Serpico states he wants no part of it. Frank Serpico at one point in the movie said he feels like his is the criminal in this situation because he is the one not participating. He believes that maybe they act this way because they do not have enough money to provide for their families (Lumet & De Laurentiis, 1973). Frank Serpico knows that something needs to be done and the press needs to be informed. Frank Serpico goes to tell Captain McClain (Biff McGuire) who passes this information on to Delaney (Charles White).
Delaney does nothing with the information and Frank knows that if he goes to the newspaper, the other officers will not respect him. According to Gustafson (2010), he states “Heroes must weigh the pros and cons of breaking the code. If they talk, they will become rats, losing respect for themselves and the respect of those around them.” Frank Serpico wants to stay an honest cop, but soon learns that the department cannot do the investigation itself, so he decides to speak to the mayor. He moves to a new department in Brooklyn and during an arrest of a drug pusher, he gets shot. Frank Serpico is in the hospital and after getting out, he testifies before the Knapp Commission (Lumet & De Laurentiis,
1973). In Serpico, the officers get away with many different things. In the one scene where the investigator kicks and punches the suspect in question is something that is not acceptable in modern day policing. Modern day policing has different standards than policing from when the movie was made. “Higher recruit standards and practices have been invented to filter out the corrupt” (“The Evolution”, 2007). In the 1970’s, was the reform era and the community era of policing. In this time, citizens wanted politics to be removed and it was traditional crime fighting. In the new era, which is today, there are different offices and there is a partnership with the community (Schmalleger, 2006). Throughout the film Frank Serpico wanted to be a respectable cop and wear his badge proudly. He felt that he had the weight of this situation weighing on his shoulders. It was his job to expose the corruption inside the world of law enforcement. All the struggles he went through allowed him to become a police officer who could stand on his own and become the hero in the film. The policing styles that were featured in the film are changed to how policing styles are now. Serpico showed scenes of officers taking advantage of criminals and suspects. Policing has modernized in the twentieth century. Frank Serpico was the under appreciated officer who was always taken advantage of to make others look better. He hid counts of violence, bribery and gambling with money. Frank Serpico was a hero to the community and showed that those who are supposed to protect are not always the ones that can be trusted.
Police corruption is a practice of illegal and unprofessional behavior for improper reason to achieve approved goals by their officers. “The Seven Five,” documentary looks at police misconduct at Brooklyn’s 75th Precinct during the 1980s. The documentary turns into a narrative feature combined of interviews with key investigators, Michael Dowd, and Adam Diaz a deported Dominican drug dealer. Police Officer Michael Dowd explained his rogue activities during his assignment at rid the City of narcotics traffickers. Instead, he enlisted the services of other officers who began robbing drug dealers of their money, drugs or guns, or going into business with them to distribute narcotic and weapons. Dowd identified his formative years at the Department as laying the groundwork for his corrupt
Dowd becomes a patrol cop in Brooklyn’s 75th Precinct, in East New York in 1983, and within a year, he formed a crew of cops that began robbing drug dealers. In 1986 known on the streets as ‘’Mike the Cop”, he began charging drug dealers as much as $8,000 for protection. And also, He began to participate in kidnapping of drug dealers and sold stolen drugs on Long Island. In 1988, NYPD Internal Affairs Sgt. Joe Trimbole began to investigate officer Dowd, but he didn’t receive enough support from the New York Police Department to prosecute him
Serpico by Peter Maas is about how a man was a cop and stood by what he thought was right and wrong. It is about how in the 1960s there was a lot of corruption in the New York Police Department. It is about how a man deals with payoffs, shakedowns, drug dealers, etc. Serpico was one of those cops that couldn’t be paid off or be quiet with what has happened on the field. I have yet to read the whole book but I will discuss what I have read and the concepts that I understood.
Cop in the Hood has taught me a lot about how police work in a city really is. The chapter titled “911 is a Joke” intrigued me the most, for mostly two reasons. First the story at the beginning of the chapter really put perspective on how some people really live in the inner cities and how a police officer would have to react to the situation. Secondly, growing up in a middle class suburb I was always taught the 911 was only to be called in a time of emergency. It was a sacred number that I had never had to call. Me and my friends would joke on each other and type “911” on our flip phones and threaten to call, but never will. When Moskos said the 911 was a joke I was taken back by it because it when against everything I was taught.
Police Subculture and corruption are two of the many concepts that are portrayed in the move Serpico, staring Al Pacino. Frank Serpico dreamed about being on the force since he was nine years old. His dream would than come true soon after by graduating from the police academy and then becoming an officer for the New York Police Department in the late 60’s. It didn’t take long after, for Frank to realize that his dream would soon become his nightmare. Frank would soon discover that the loyalty and trust that comes with the uniform was only apparent in his dreams and imagination. The subculture that was created between the officers was something that didn’t interest Frank in the slightest way. In fact, Frank took many measures to put an end to
If the name Serpico sounds familiar, it may be remembered from a movie. Frank Serpico is portrayed in the 1973 movie, “Serpico” starring Al Pacino. This movie may be loved by many but it’s important to realize that its characters are real men and the story line is very real. Although most police officers work very hard to do their jobs within ethical standards of the law, it is often not hard to find some type of corruption within a department.
For years police corruption has been a major problem in American society but where is the line between moral and unethical police corruption, many modern movies address this vary issue. Some films portray how types of police corruption can have a positive influence on society, while others show the dark side of police corruption. Many law enforcement agents join the criminal justice with the basic idea of “justice for all,” however, most of them do not realize that the nice guy doesn’t always win. Even though there are vast amounts of movies which specifically address police corruption we will use three main movies for our argument today, mostly LA Confidential, however, also Training Day.
The movie “Scarface” is the story of one these immigrants who came to the United States seeking money and power but ended up with much more than he ever excepted. Al Pacino plays the main
Police corruption is a difficult issue cities have to deal with and one of the oldest problems in the police force. Corruption can be defined as the mistreatment of public power for personal benefit or private and the use of excessive force, either emotional or physical. In this essay I will explain in detail federal indictments of Los Angeles County Sheriff officers for mistreatment of jail inmates and visitors. Another topic I will explain is the transfer of Los Angeles County Sheriff hired officers with questionable background. Finally, I will end by analyzing the hiring of new Sheriff deputies under the “Friends of the Sheriff” program.
In Orson Welles’ classic film noir production Touch of Evil, a Mexican police officer named Mike Vargas (Charlton Heston), becomes the target of an American police officer named Hank Quinlin (Orson Welles), when Vargas attempts to expose Quinlin framing a murder suspect. Quinlin, a celebrity among police officers has become corrupt in his practices and is willing to go any lengths including committing murder to uphold his reputation. Vargas is an honest man who faces Quinlin’s corruption to protect the rights of the accused. In doing so, he puts his wife in danger, who ends up the victim of a plot against Vargas. Although Vargas appears to be the hero, the viewer experiences frustration with his character due to his negligence concerning his wife. Caught between the accuser and the accused, American deputy Pete Menzies (Joseph Calleia) is loyal to Quinlin but later helps Vargas when the truth is revealed.
...wn?” And Goren responds, “That’s the thing, I am nothing like you and never will be.” And when Goren goes on to ask about the missing cocaine, the police officer continues to talk and says, “What you never paid informants by drugs to get the bigger fish!?” This implies that he skims off the top of the narcotic drugs that are brought in and takes the extra to bribe the informants to talk. At the end of it all, Goren is seen as a rat but he was the detective that actually used good ethical values to keep the community and people safe. While the other police officer uses corrupt and immoral choices to get what he wants, which in the end had someone killed.
We will examine the case of NYPD Narcotics Detective Frank Serpico, who was regarded as a snitch and a rat by fellow officers who were on the take, and complete a what would you do dilemma. Serpico's original intent was not to be a "whistleblower" within the Department, but rather all he wanted to do initially was to be a Police Officer and not accept any bribes, payoffs, or favors as a result of his professional position within the community (Petit, 2011). As a consequence of his testimony before the Knapp Commission in 1971, Serpico was ostracized by his peers as a deviant for being conscientious; ergo, although it cannot be proven, it is believed that he was ultimately set up to be shot during a drug raid in which he was seriously wounded. To this day, Frank Serpico questions why fellow cops never called in a code 10-13 officer down after he took a bullet in the face on Feb. 3, 1971 (McShane, 2012).
It is often said that power brings corruption, but in reality it is an individual’s lack of character, self-discipline, and integrity that leads to corruption. Law enforcement can bring many temptations on the job, and maintaining an up most level of personal integrity can often times be very difficult. The very nature of the job surrounds officers with all of the bad things that society, produces. There can be an endless amount of training and rules put into place to try and deter officers from committing unethical acts, but in the end it really just comes down to the specific individual and their willingness to do the right thing.
Police corruption is a nationwide problem that has been going on for many years. Not only is corruption a problem on our own U.S. soil, but police practices of corruption go as far east as Europe and Asia. Many studies, polls and examinations were taken to find out how exactly what the general publics’ opinions of the police are. Officers receive a lot of scrutiny over this issue, but for good reason.
Vicchio, Stephen. “Ethics and Police Integrity.” FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin. July 1997: 8-12. EBSCOhost. Web. 12 Nov 2013