In its first week of hearings on police corruption in New York City, the Knapp Commission exposed mostly "clean" graft—that is, the free meals, liquor and tips that are handed out by businessmen and gamblers as a matter of routine. Last week the commission moved on to "dirty" graft—the payoffs from narcotics pushers that used to be considered taboo even by cops on the take. A mixed media presentation of film, tapes and testimony showed that far too many cops are now as willing to take dirty money as clean.
The week's first witness, Waverly Logan, described his downfall on the Preventive Enforcement Patrol, an elite force made up of members of minority groups. "It was like being born again," Logan recalled his feelings when he first got the assignment. But he was soon frustrated when his superiors kept freeing the men he arrested. Tempted by easy money, he started shaking down narcotics dealers and gamblers and was eventually making scores of $1,500 a month. That was only average, he testified. Heavy scorers made $3,000 a month.
Narc Pushers. Logan was not caught, as previous witnesses had been, by the Knapp Commission, a five-man panel named for its chairman, Whitman Knapp, a Wall Street lawyer. He came forward voluntarily after he had been dismissed from the force last year for taking a $100 bribe from a narcotics dealer. Wishing to get back on the force, he offered to get narcotics informants to cooperate with the commission. Two of his informants were wired with tape recorders and transmitters. These were used to monitor their illicit dealings with policemen. Meetings took place on street corners, in automobiles and, in one instance, just two doorways from a precinct house.
The tapes disclosed that the "narcs" became pushers themselves, conducting their business openly. In exchange for heroin, they received a variety of stolen goods. A 40-second color film showed a cop being handed four bottles of whisky by an informant, who was given in return an envelope filled with heroin. Another cop ordered two shipments of liquor to be sent to his home, although he was not able to receive one of them because he had to attend a meeting on corruption at the station house.
With all the loot that was coming their way, the cops finally grew finicky about what they would accept. "I don't want Pall Mall, either," a cop complained on tape to an informant, who then asked: "What about Winston?" Sniffed the cop: "No, I don't know anybody that smokes Winston." When an informant offered to procure some "Sherry Herring" for a cop, the officer remonstrated: "Cherry Heering, Cherry Heering. If you're going to be a dealer in liquor, you have to know your stuff."