Crime + Punishment

This exciting documentary is a whistle-blowers’ exposé showing how twelve courageous cops in the New York Police Department joined forces to take on their bosses. They sued the NYPD for corruption, false arrests and ethnic profiling.

Although arrest quotas have been prohibited since 2010, NYPD police officers are still expected to meet a certain standard by making ‘enough’ arrests. That creates a situation in which officers are guilty of the false arrest of all sorts of innocent people, often accompanied by ethnic profiling and violence. Anyone who does not go along with these practices runs the risk of losing their job.

Twelve agents put everything on the line to expose the injustices within the department, but their efforts are far from easy. They are obstructed at every turn, bullied and held back from promotion. Despite it all, they persist and manage to attract attention to their cause. In the end, a corruption scandal within the police force comes to light and three high-ranking officials are arrested on suspicion of corruption. But that’s not the end of the line for these whistle-blowers.