Serpico

"Serpico is also a terrific book. It’s about a guy named Frank Serpico, in the 70s, who was a patrolman who happened to be a very honest cop. He was assigned to undercover narcotics in New York, busting people for dealing or being in possession of drugs. He was assigned to this unit and he found out that all of the officers were on the take, and not arresting people for any kind of so-called vice. There were detectives who would just take money and let everybody run their own shows. Serpico refused to go along with that and the other cops insisted that he take the money and he wouldn’t. Eventually they virtually set up an ambush and he was shot in the head but was miraculously able to recover. There was an incredibly big scandal after which many high-ranking police executives were forced to retire and effectively the scandal ended that kind of on-the-take corruption in New York City, which had been a tradition for 200 years. Then New York, like other police departments — particularly departments like the LAPD — became involved in a different form of corruption, which is violating the constitutional rights of people and never being held accountable for it: beating people, shooting people. That’s the main corruption right now that big city policing in America faces."