Whistleblowing NYPD officer Frank Serpico, who exposed extensive police corruption among his peers, has spoken about the February 1971 day in which he suffered a gunshot wound to the face - and how his fellow officers failed to help him. In an essay for POLITICO Magazine, Serpico describes how he and two Narcotics officers were investigating an alleged drug dealer in Brooklyn - before he goes into what he sees as the continued need for the police to be externally reviewed and held responsible for their actions.
On the day of the shooting, Serpico says his body became stuck when the man they were investigating tried to shut a front door.
'I couldn’t move, but I aimed my snub-nose Smith & Wesson revolver at the perp [...] From behind me no help came,' he writes. 'At that moment my anger got the better of me. I made the almost fatal mistake of taking my eye off the perp and screaming to the officer on my left: "What the hell you waiting for? Give me a hand!" I turned back to face a gun blast in my face. I had cocked my weapon and fired back at him almost in the same instant, probably as reflex action, striking him.'
He later says that 'when I opened my eyes I saw an old Hispanic man looking down at me like Carlos Castaneda’s Don Juan. My "backup" was nowhere in sight. They hadn’t even called for assistance—I never heard the famed "Code 1013," meaning "Officer Down." They didn’t call an ambulance either, I later learned; the old man did. One patrol car responded to investigate, and realizing I was a narcotics officer rushed me to a nearby hospital [...].'
Serpico writes that 'The next time I saw my "back-up" officers was when one of them came to the hospital to bring me my watch. I said, “What the h*** am I going to do with a watch? What I needed was a back-up. Where were you?” He said, “F*** you," and left. Both my "back-ups" were later awarded medals for saving my life.'
Serpico says in the essay penned for POLITICO Magazine 'Even now, I do not know for certain why I was left trapped in that door by my fellow police officers. But the Narcotics division was rotten to the core, with many guys taking money from the very drug dealers they were supposed to bust. I had refused to take bribes and had testified against my fellow officers.'
He continues 'Police make up a peculiar subculture in society. More often than not they have their own moral code of behavior, an "us against them" attitude, enforced by a Blue Wall of Silence. It’s their version of the Mafia’s omerta. Speak out, and you’re no longer "one of us." You’re one of "them."'
Serpico claims to 'still get hate mail from active and retired police officers' in the years following his testimony before the Knapp Comission on police corruption.
His life story was later made into a movie, called 'Serpico,' with Al Pacino playing him.
Serpico writes that 'an even more serious problem — police violence — has probably grown worse, and it’s out of control for the same reason that graft once was: a lack of accountability.'
The former NYPD cop says 'Today the combination of an excess of deadly force and near-total lack of accountability is more dangerous than ever: Most cops today can pull out their weapons and fire without fear that anything will happen to them, even if they shoot someone wrongfully. All a police officer has to say is that he believes his life was in danger, and he’s typically absolved. What do you think that does to their psychology as they patrol the streets—this sense of invulnerability? The famous old saying still applies: Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.'
He also dismisses the idea that police officers should use certain types of equipment while on the job.
'The automatic weapons and bulletproof vest may protect the officer, but they also insulate him from the very society he’s sworn to protect,' he asserts. 'All that firepower and armor puts an even greater wall between the police and society, and solidifies that "us-versus-them" feeling.'
Serpico says in the years following his testimony before the Knapp Commission 'politicians who wanted to make a difference didn't' - and uses President Bill Clinton and Mayor Michael Bloomberg as examples.
'As for Barack Obama and his attorney general, Eric Holder, they’re giving speeches now, after Ferguson,' he writes. 'But it’s 20 years too late.'
At the end of his essay for POLITICO Magazine, Serpico offers a six-point solution, which he says includes police using better methods to find new police officers, offering 'examples-based training and simulations,' making sure cops understand their communities and are active in them, holding police accountable when they do something illegal, rewarding and recognizing honest police officers, and also making sure police are monitored externally.