Corrupt Police Officer: I Arrested Drug Dealers, Then Sold Their Drugs! There’s Massive Corruption Going On Today! - Mike Dowd

Steven Bartlett (0:00)

I've never heard a story like this in my life. A story of drug trafficking, bribery, kidnapping, and even murder, which earns you the nickname of America's dirtiest cop, and I want to know everything.

Mike Dowd (0:11)

Okay, but let's just be clear. If you choose to have a conversation with me about this, you're gonna hear things that you won't like. Jesus Christ. Let me just say this. Being a New York cop was the greatest job in the world, but it's not built for somebody to come in and be the knight in shining armor. You're working minimal wage. Civilians are against you, and you're directly told not to make drug arrests. Why? Oh, because they had a budget to manage. And the average amount of overtime for one crack arrest was 18 hours. So that leads to the streets becoming unwieldy. So what happens is a guy like me who's entrepreneurial spirit shows up and says, there's a way to control this. I can't arrest them, so I tax them.

Steven Bartlett (0:52)

And that escalated.

Mike Dowd (0:53)

Greed is powerful, brother.

Steven Bartlett (0:55)

But what happens then?

Mike Dowd (0:56)

You become God. I was making more than the president of the United States. I protected one of the largest drug trafficking organizations in New York. But I was losing control and I became the face of New York City's corruption problem. People want to be dead.

Steven Bartlett (1:07)

And then in 1992, you were arrested and you admitted to hundreds of crimes. But what about your family at this point?

Mike Dowd (1:13)

You know, that was tough. They're really special people.

Steven Bartlett (1:18)

Mike, we spoke to your parents. Do you want to see what they said?

Carol Dowd (1:22)

I'm Carol Dowd. And I'm Michael Dowd's mother.

Steven Bartlett (1:36)

Mike, when people do interviews with you, they often describe you as New York's dirtiest cop. And I watched that over and over again in your interviews, and I wondered as I watched people calling you New York's dirtiest cop, how that makes you feel.

Mike Dowd (1:52)

Not good. Yeah, and that's a touchy subject, but I accept it. And I've turned it into something where I'm able to maybe chaperone an audience because of it. But it's not nice to hear that. More importantly, it's not nice for your parents to hear something like that. And thank God they're still alive. But it's not the happy day when your mother sees your name on the front page of the newspaper, I'll tell you, for nothing good.

Steven Bartlett (2:22)

And how many crimes did you commit while you were a New York cop?

Mike Dowd (2:27)

So it may have been thousands, because every time I did something that was inappropriate, so you got to step back for a second. Every time a police officer puts on his badge and swears that oath and takes the job on, he's basically taking a risk on everything he does that can end them up in jail, everything. And that's really a very difficult position to be in. Everything you do legitimately can end you up being sanctioned or arrested. So I would suggest basically anything I did or any interaction I did could have been considered with some kind of criminal intent.

Steven Bartlett (3:06)

And still on the top line, just painting the picture here, what are the, before we get into the detail, what are the variety of crimes that you committed as a New York police officer?

Mike Dowd (3:16)

So every time you take something from somebody, money, cash, drugs, personal property, let's say, it's basically a robbery, basically, because you have a gun on your hip and you're using a power, a position of power. So you would start with robbery, extortion, burglary, when you went into someone's home and came out with a product. I mean, I've taken tapes from, you know, back in the day, you know, those VCR tapes, they were, there was a lot of good stuff in some VCR tapes. I mean, we can get a little humorous here, but the reality was, you know, some guy's porn collection might be missing. I mean, it just, these are the things that you ran into. Their cash, their gold coins, you know, whatever was, when someone's dead, it's really hard for them to complain about what's missing. So, you know, it's ironic, it's stupid, and it's debauchery at the same time. So you cross all the lines of decor when you do something like that.

Steven Bartlett (4:09)

Did you steal someone's porn collection?

Carol Dowd (4:11)

Maybe.

Mike Dowd (4:13)

It could have been. They were dead.