Serpico and Police Corruption

Sir Robert Peel and Eugene Francois Vidocq are recorded in the police history as two important figures. The former is known as the father of the modern policing and Vidocq is recognized as the father of  the modern detectives. Both have left precious heritages for the development of police departments around the world. However, the 20th century policing has given birth to a police officer who is known for his bravery, honesty and integrity. His name is Francesco Vincent Serpico. Serpico was born in 14 April 1936. His parents were Italian immigrants. He joined the the New York City Police Department (NYPD) in September 1959 (www.frankserpico.com/bio.html, last viewed on 25 Feb 2010). Despite his smooth career and unimpeded promotion as a police officer, he did not let himself drifted into pervasive corruption in the department. He made efforts to report the corruption to his superiors instead. Unfortunately, his superiors disregarded the report. Finally, Serpico decided to expose the corruption to the The New York Times. As a result, the Mayor John Lindsay was stunned by the report and he appointed Judge Whittman Knapp to head a commission to investigate the corruption (www.frankserpico.com/bio.html, last viewed on 25 Feb 2010). Serpico’s decision to be a whistleblower brought a harm consequence for him. He was shot in the head during a  drug-bust operation on February 3, 1971. It is believed that the shot was a set-up in order to silence him (www.frankserpico.com/bio.html, last viewed on 25 Feb 2010). He miraculously survived from the wound and later testified in front of the Knapp Commission. Serpico’s heroic act later inspired a film “Serpico” starred by Al Pacino. The film did not only make Al Pacino popular as an actor, but it has also opened the eyes of the public on the existence of a brave and honest police officer amid the pervasive corruption in the New York Police Department. [caption id="attachment_87015" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Portrait of Serpico (courtesy http://www.customscorruption.com/images/shots/serpico1.gif )"][/caption] In spite of the fact that corruption in the NYPD was pervasive, police corruption has also been a complicated problem in other countries. Last Tuesday (March 2, 2010), the Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom has dismissed the Chief of The National Police Baltazar Gomez  because of misusing his power as the chief of the police (Kompas, March 4, 2010). He stole cocaine and guns from mafia storage. Although the case in Guatemala shows us that even a high-ranking police official may involve in a corruption, still a clear definition on police corruption shall be introduced in order to clarify the matter. According to Kleinig, police officers act corruptly when, in exercising or failing to exercise their authority, they act with the primary intention of furthering private or departmental/ divisional advantage (Newburn, 1999:7). The exercise of police authority aimed at furthering private or departmental advantage are illegal because police are not business people working to gain advantages for individuals or business group. Police must work in accordance with their constitutional duties as the long arm of the law. Mark Findlay ,an expert in police science, suggests that police is a principal agency for enforcing criminal sanction, for the maintenance of public order and to ensure civil governance through crime prevention and criminal justice (2004:1). Therefore, crime prevention and criminal justice must be the main goals in police work and these two aspects are “sacred duties” of the police. Failing in observing their “sacred duties” will only lead police officers to commit corruption in forms of  any illegal activities that commonly  include but not limited to bribery, fabrication and planting of evidence, concealment of serious crimes, systematic payoffs from illegal business, making false arrests, perjury, torturing the suspects and fabrication of false criminal cases.  In other words, police corruption is not always related to "money matter", making false arrest in order to boost a career of an individual officer or image of the police department is also a form of police corruption. Last but not least, it is clear that combating corruption is not an easy task. Serpico has proved how the fight against corruption nearly resulted to a fatal ending. On the other hand, the existence of corrupt police officers in a state represents a weak state. Why? This is because corrupt police officers undermine the governance. Instead of a strong state ruled by the laws, a weak state is a state ruled by the crimes supported by corrupt police officers. Hence, it is at the hands of those having a constitutional control over the police forces to eliminate police corruption.