Why was Frank Serpico’s life endangered in Serpico?

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Sidney Lumet in a tuxedo holds his Honorary Academy Award and smiles backstage at the 77th Annual Academy Awards, with a gold Oscar statue in the background. — Sidney Lumet American director Sidney Lumet after receiving an Academy Award for lifetime achievement, 2005.

In the 1973 film Serpico, directed by Sidney Lumet, the life of undercover police officer Frank Serpico (played by Al Pacino) was endangered because he chose to expose systemic graft and corruption within the New York Police Department.1