Interview, Fireside Chat, Podcast
Corrupt Cop: I Had Sex With Girls In My Police Car, Arrested Drug Dealers, Then Sold Their Drugs!
- Michael Dowd, known as "America's dirtiest cop," admitted to hundreds of crimes during the 1993 Mullen Commission hearings, though he estimates the total may reach into the thousands.
- In his 10-year tenure as an NYPD officer in the 94th Precinct (Brooklyn), Dowd made only 43 arrests, approximately 90% fewer than the volume he believed was necessary to combat the crime he observed.
- Dowd claims the NYPD department explicitly discouraged drug arrests to manage overtime costs, citing an average of 18 hours of overtime per crack arrest and a potential 150,000 arrests annually in Brooklyn alone.
- To generate income, Dowd began "taxing" drug dealers, eventually earning $24,000 upfront and $8,000 weekly (exceeding the U.S. President's salary at the time) to protect the drug organization "La Compañía."
- Dowd engaged in direct drug trafficking, stealing cocaine and heroin from crime scenes, selling them, and stealing from dealers when he could not arrest them.
- He accepted sexual favors while on duty, including engaging in sexual activity in his police car that activated the vehicle's siren.
- In a specific homicide scene, Dowd stole a deceased victim's porn collection (VHS tapes) and placed them in his patrol car, later confirming the theft during the interview.
- Dowd admitted to taking a $600 cash bribe from his sergeant, James Otto, at a drug scene involving a 20-year-old's death; Otto told him, "if I don't see it, it's yours," and "if you ever get something, throw me some later."
- Dowd participated in a conspiracy with his partner Kenny Urell to kidnap a woman and steal $250,000 plus 10 kilos of cocaine to fund his escape to Nicaragua and pay off his family's bail.
- Urell was actually wearing a wire for federal agents, intentionally luring Dowd into a conspiracy to upgrade Dowd's potential charges from narcotics distribution to kidnapping and murder.
- Dowd was first arrested in 1992, released on a $350,000 bail guaranteed by his family's assets, but was arrested again in 1993 when the kidnapping plot was uncovered.
- He was sentenced to 168 months (14 years) in prison, served 12 years and 5 months, and was released at age 44.
- Dowd describes his initial arrest in 1992 as a "moment of relief" and the "best feeling in his life" because it ended the anxiety of living a lie.
- After release from rehabilitation in 1994, Dowd was shunned by the police force, which suspected he was an informant, leading to his isolation and inability to stop his criminal behavior initially.
- Dowd's mother, Carol Dowd, attended church every day for eight months of his incarceration and had visited him only once since his arrest until she finally visited him in prison after eight months.
- Upon release in 2005, Dowd did not know his own children; his oldest son was 22 and his youngest was 15 when he left, and he returned to his parents' home where he was emotionally overwhelmed by the loss of time.
- Dowd currently acknowledges that systemic corruption in the NYPD has shifted from street-level officers taking small scores to high-level bureaucratic corruption involving massive budgets and power.
- He cites a recent incident where a police lieutenant received $200,000 in overtime pay to fund a sexual relationship with the police chief.
- Dowd advises that it is easier to tell the truth in the end than to lie, as lies require daily maintenance and create constant pressure.
- He suggests that a lack of parental approval, specifically seeking his mother's validation, was a significant driving factor in his descent into corruption.
- In his closing advice, Dowd emphasizes that "everybody needs more love" and urges people to listen to friends and neighbors as the fundamental gift humans can share.