Dowd was the star witness last week in a stunning set of hearings on corruption in the 30,000-member New York force. A commission appointed by Mayor David Dinkins heard testimony depicting a department plagued by rogue factions of violent, drug-dealing cops and senior commanders unwilling to Rush them out. Bernard Cawley, a former officer known as “the Mechanic” because he would “tune people up” (beat them), used lead-lined “sapgloves” to assault bystanders at illegal drug raids.
The hearings, prompted by the 1992 arrests of Dowd and five other Brooklyn cops, evoked memories of the 1972 Knapp Commission, where Officer Frank Serpico broke the traditional conspiracy of silence to expose a culture of pervasive corruption. Legal experts say the new generation of bad cops is smaller but more viciously enterprising. “In the old days, cops took money to look the other way while others committed street crimes. Now they’re competing with the criminals,” says former Knapp counsel Michael Armstrong.
Some criminal-justice experts ascribe the problem to fundamental changes in the market for illegal drugs. With the advent of crack cocaine in the 1980s, low-risk, high-profit trafficking became an overwhelming temptation for cops. “The street violence and wide-open drug dealing was not present in American cities a generation ago,” says Thomas Reppetto, president of the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City. At the same time, the retirement of the World War II generation brought a cohort of officers who came of age in a more drug-permissive culture. “In the old days, even corrupt cops shied away from drugs,” says Armstrong.
The corrupting mix of drugs, money and cops plagues other cities as well. Former Detroit police chief William Hart was convicted in 1992 of embezzling $2.6 million from a drug-fighting fund. Earlier this year 71 Washington, D.C., officers were under indictment or had cases pending. The troubling question is how many Michael Dowds are still at large, committing felonies under the cover of a badge.
