Frank Serpico Frank Serpico, a detective with the New York City Police Department, blew the whistle on police corruption in the late 1960s and early 1970s, prompting Mayor John V. Lindsay to appoint the Knapp Commission to investigate the NYPD. Born in Brooklyn, New York on April 14, 1936, Francesco Vincent Serpico was the youngest child of Vincenzo and Maria Giovanna Serpico, Italian immigrants from Marigliano, in the province of Naples, Campania. When he was seventeen, Serpico enlisted in the United States Army and was stationed for two years in South Korea as an infantryman. He then attended Brooklyn College, working as a part-time private investigator to pay his tuition. In September 1959, Serpico joined the New York City Police Department as a probationary patrolman. He was assigned as a full patrolman on March 5, 1960, working with the 81st Precinct. After a two-year stint with the Bureau of Criminal Identification, he finally began working as an undercover plain-clothes officer. Working in Brooklyn and the Bronx, Serpico uncovered widespread corruption. He first reported his findings in 1967. Nothing happened until …show more content…
Lindsay appointed a five-member panel, headed by Whitman Knapp, to investigate charges of police corruption. Although the commission began in June 1970, public hearings did not start until October 18, 1971. Serpico and Durk testified with dozens of other witnesses, including former Police Commissioner Howard R. Leary and the victims of police shakedowns. As an immediate result of the testimony, criminal indictments against corrupt police officials were handed down, and Patrick V. Murphy was appointed by Mayor Lindsay to clean up the department. Murphy made integrity checks, transferred senior personnel, rotated critical jobs, and cracked down on citizen attempts at bribery. On June 15, 1972, Whitman Knapp was nominated as a federal judge for the Southern District of New York by President Richard M.