Serpico, the 1973 film directed by Sidney Lumet, starring Al Pacino, is based on the true story of the New York City cop who spoke out against police corruption and was shot in the face under dubious circumstances for his trouble.

Frank Serpico is “the first police officer not only in the history of the New York Police Department, but in the history of any police department in the whole United States, to step forward to report and subsequently testify openly about widespread, systematic cop corruption-payoffs amounting to millions of dollars.” — Peter Maas, author of the book Serpico, in the 25th anniversary issue of New York Magazine.

In October, and again in December 1971, Serpico testified before the Knapp Commission on police corruption:

“Through my appearance here today… I hope that police officers in the future will not experience the same frustration and anxiety that I was subjected to for the past five years at the hands of my superiors because of my attempt to report corruption… We create an atmosphere in which the honest officer fears the dishonest officer, and not the other way around… The problem is that the atmosphere does not yet exist in which honest police officers can act without fear of ridicule or reprisal from fellow officers.”

In our era of continued widespread corruption, we need more Frank Serpicos at all levels of government.