In 1971, after a year of hearings concerning rampant corruption permeating the NYPD (think Serpico), the blue-ribbon Knapp Commission recommended and Governor Nelson Rockefeller established, the creation of an independent Special Prosecutor’s Office that superseded the jurisdiction of the five local district attorneys in New York City.
The Knapp Commission recognized the inherent conflict of interest in a local district attorney investigating and prosecuting police-committed crimes. The district attorneys and the police department work hand in glove on a daily basis; that same district attorney cannot reasonably be expected to bring unvarnished objectivity to a case in which the police themselves are the suspects. The special prosecutor’s office, established in 1972, and disbanded in 1987 (alleged for budgetary reasons) had its own investigators and lawyers.
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