Knapp Commission Hearings

The Commission to Investigate Alleged Police Corruption (known informally as the Knapp Commission, after its chairman Whitman Knapp) was a five-member panel initially formed in April 1970 by Mayor John V. Lindsay to investigate corruption within the New York City Police Department. The commission was created largely as a result of the publicity generated by the public revelations of police corruption made by Patrolman Frank Serpico and Sergeant David Durk. The panel confirmed the existence of widespread corruption and made a number of recommendations.

While the Knapp Commission began its investigation of corruption in the police department in June 1970, public hearings were held in October and December 1971. In addition to the testimony of whistle blowers like Serpico and Durk, testimony from dozens of other witnesses, including former Police Commissioner Howard R. Leary, corrupt patrolmen, and the victims of police shakedowns, were heard. From 1970 to 1972, Michael F. Armstrong was chief counsel to the Knapp Commission. WNYC did not broadcast the hearings. They were carried by WRVR, the station owned by Riverside Church.

The public hearings presented here (an incomplete set at the moment) are courtesy of the archives of at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York.