The Knapp Commission was started in the 1970’s after Frank Serpico in the New York City Police Department had enough of the police corruption and abuse of authority over the community. Frank Serpico is known as the whistleblower that began the investigation into police corruption in the New York Cities Police Department's so called finest. The police officers back then were doing everything that they were trained to look for in order to make an arrest. “The Knapp Commission’s report distinguished between two types of corrupt officers: grass-eaters, and meat-eaters.” (Dempsey & Forst, 2016, p.230). A grass-eater was someone who would take pads, or monthly payments. The grass-eater would also just mostly take small bribes throughout the shift.
…show more content…
The way the meat-eater would collect his money would be through force and intimidation. Now if you watch any hollywood movie that portrays a corrupt police department or police officer, then you are basically seeing what these officers were doing. The movie Serpico, with Al Pacino, is a portrayal of the corruption of police officers in the 1970’s. The majority of the officers involved in this corruption were mostly undercovers in plain clothes that were supposed to be shutting down gambling operations, getting narcotics off of the streets, breaking up prostitution rings, and enforcing the laws. Granted, officers have the right to use discretion and issue a citation versus just arresting a first time offender for a simple misdemeanor crime. There is a difference though in using discretion and abusing the power and authority that you are given in order to protect innocent bystanders. Frank Serpico blowing the whistle on police corruption not only uncovered police corruption, but it went higher. Attorney’s and even politicians. The only thing behind the police corruption was not necessarily the power, but more of having the money and finding a way in order to continue to make …show more content…
I could not imagine what it would be like back then to request a police officer to your home and not know whether or not you were going to get robbed by someone who is paid to protect and help you when you feel like your life as just fallen apart. The police officers that were working undercover were involved in gambling, narcotics, prostitution, and many other crimes. Instead of shutting down these illegal gambling games, they were taking payments, either in monthly payouts or just one score. The officers were setting up illegal wiretaps and randomly listening to phone calls in order to find out where drug dealers were going to be in order to rob them. Once they have robbed them they would use that dope to plant on certain people they wanted to arrest. They would use narcotics and sell narcotics. Brothels and prostitution stings were ran the same way. Instead of shutting them down, they would collect bribes and let them continue to operate. As a matter of fact they would even go as far as alerting them when a bust was about to happen in order to have them run, or clean up the operation. These officers would collect payments from city officials that were violating city regulations so that they keep their construction going. Bars were paying officers to overlook crime and over look not having the correct license to operate, grocery store owners were paying officers in order to sell beer on sundays, and
The way the meat-eater would collect his money would be through force and intimidation. Now if you watch any hollywood movie that portrays a corrupt police department or police officer, then you are basically seeing what these officers were doing. The movie Serpico, with Al Pacino, is a portrayal of the corruption of police officers in the 1970’s. The majority of the officers involved in this corruption were mostly undercovers in plain clothes that were supposed to be shutting down gambling operations, getting narcotics off of the streets, breaking up prostitution rings, and enforcing the laws. Granted, officers have the right to use discretion and issue a citation versus just arresting a first time offender for a simple misdemeanor crime. There is a difference though in using discretion and abusing the power and authority that you are given in order to protect innocent bystanders. Frank Serpico blowing the whistle on police corruption not only uncovered police corruption, but it went higher. Attorney’s and even politicians. The only thing behind the police corruption was not necessarily the power, but more of having the money and finding a way in order to continue to make …show more content…
I could not imagine what it would be like back then to request a police officer to your home and not know whether or not you were going to get robbed by someone who is paid to protect and help you when you feel like your life as just fallen apart. The police officers that were working undercover were involved in gambling, narcotics, prostitution, and many other crimes. Instead of shutting down these illegal gambling games, they were taking payments, either in monthly payouts or just one score. The officers were setting up illegal wiretaps and randomly listening to phone calls in order to find out where drug dealers were going to be in order to rob them. Once they have robbed them they would use that dope to plant on certain people they wanted to arrest. They would use narcotics and sell narcotics. Brothels and prostitution stings were ran the same way. Instead of shutting them down, they would collect bribes and let them continue to operate. As a matter of fact they would even go as far as alerting them when a bust was about to happen in order to have them run, or clean up the operation. These officers would collect payments from city officials that were violating city regulations so that they keep their construction going. Bars were paying officers to overlook crime and over look not having the correct license to operate, grocery store owners were paying officers in order to sell beer on sundays, and