This is the man whose long and loud complaining about widespread corruption in the New York Police Department made him a pariah on the force. The patrolman shot in the face during a 1971 drug bust while screaming for backup from his fellow officers, who then failed to immediately call for an ambulance. The undaunted whistle-blower whose testimony was the centerpiece of the Knapp Commission hearings, which sparked the biggest shakeup in the history of the department.

Former New York City police officer Frank Serpico is the archetype of the “honest cop.” In 1971, he testified about the rampant corruption in the NYPD to the Knapp Commission. Regarded as a hero by some and a “rat” by others, Frank Serpico became a living example of the sacrifices made by those who hold to the ideals of justice and truth.