Summary Of Serpico By Peter Maas

Peter Maas in “Serpico” tells a story of the officer Frank Serpico, an officer in a police department who tried hard to fight corruption and injustice pervasive in the enforcement system. Two chapters cover the officer’s first successful career steps in the precinct and his service in Bureau of Criminal Identification.

The story begins in 1960, when young graduate of the Police Academy begins working as patrolman in the 81st precinct of New York City. The narration continues to show how the work in the precinct is organized: the shifts the officers serve, the way they communicate with each other and how the system works in general. The author goes on to tell about the duties that every officer has to accomplish along the day, such as listing the certain number of missing people or stolen cars. Serpico dives into this routine and is given a post as a patrolman in one of the spots in the district. However, the most urgent preoccupation of the officers appears to be where one can find a cheap or free snack during the shift. The system of getting a free meal is entirely corrupted, as the owners want favors for the service they give to police officers. When Serpico tries to pay for his meal, he is met with confusion and opposition, but he comes to compromise with the owner and starts leaving bigger tips instead of getting his food for

free. He perceived it as one of the aspects of isolation of the general public from the policemen.
Serpico also experiences other aspects of policemen’s lives.

For example, he finds out about cooping, which is sleeping during the shift after the sergeant on patrol has checked the officers on their posts. This practice appears to be ingrained into police culture, but Serpico decides to restrain from it, and patrol around the streets instead. It leads to his first serious case, as he manages to detain a man who is trying to steal a TV set. As he has a knife with himself during the robbery and has been convicted of previous felonies, Serpico expects him to be put in jail for a considerable period of time, but the system fails to do

that.
The next important episode in his career is his first time helping a woman to deliver a baby. The man approaches him on the street, and while Serpico asks him to call the ambulance, the man does not, so the officer alone manages to help a young woman to deliver a child at home. The young family names the newborn, Frank to honor Serpico. The turning point of his career happens to be the case with rape, when four men assault a woman in a schoolyard. Serpico manages to catch one of them and bring him to detectives, but they are unable to find out the names of his fellows. Serpico decides to break the regulations, which state that patrolmen are not allowed to conduct investigation, and uses his skills and intelligence to obtain information from the offender. What is more, he manages to arrest the rapists and bring them to the department. It enrages the lieutenant who wants to bring Serpico to departmental trial. However, the situation is later resolved by his precinct captain who gave the officer his first commendation for Excellent Police Duty.
When Serpico was substituting a radio-car man, one person tries to bribe him not to receive the ticket. The officer tries to charge him with bribery, but instead, his fellow officer accepts the bribe. He understands that it is a normal thing in enforcement system, but he does not want to accept it. He tells about the accident to his girlfriend, but even she recognizes that it is a usual thing for the police officers. Even though he totally hates the corruption and crookedness of law enforcement system, he also understands that the officers are always ready to help their fellows. When he is patrolling the street and civilian reports to police that he has some trouble on the street, a lot of officers quickly arrive to help him out even though nothing serious has really happened.
The author goes on to tell about the case, when Serpico fires his gun for the first time. He is patrolling the street with his fellow officer, when a person reports about a robbery in the neighborhood. Even though it does not fall under the jurisdiction of 81st precinct, the officers go to check. The conditions make Serpico fire, but the man escapes. The desk sergeant accuses the officer of leaving his post, as there has been a robbery during his absence. It eventually appears that the alleged victim is a man Serpico was firing at and that there is warrant for the guy, as he is a convicted rapist.
Section five begins with the offensive condolence card Serpico receives in the hospital, when he is recovering from a serious shot in his head. The part of his face is paralyzed, while his mouth is crooked and he is not able to hear with one ear. It is hard for him to recover, as the trauma is extremely serious. The doctor even makes a note in his record that there is a solid possibility of him to remain deaf in one ear. What is more, there are not a lot of people who support him, as he has a reputation of an informer, because he has already started his pursue of justice and fight against corruption in the law enforcement system. Once a young officer come to visit him and talk about the injustices in the system, but still, he tries to preserve the image of good policing when the nurse is around. Serpico does not approve of such attitude, as he does not like that there is a huge gap of misunderstanding and separation of police from the outside world and general public.
Serpico drifts away from the subculture of police world, when he starts working in Bureau of Criminal Identification. Here, he grows a beard, starts dressing casually and spends more time with women than with fellow officers. He gets interested in music, theatre and opera, which confuses the rest of BCI. He tries to peep out of one of the windows in the men’s room at a girl, and it appears that another officer was also there at the window. It leads to inspector’s accusations that he is gay which has further repercussions. Even though there is not real evidence, the rumors begin to spread. Within weeks he is transferred from the department.
The two sections give the insights in the state of the law enforcement system in 1960s and show the way young Serpico was trying to challenge the status quo fighting against corruption. His story shows the injustices faced by various groups of people and the wall between officers and outer wall that influences the way they perceive themselves and their role.