Do not need answer fast, the reason I’m asking is because with groups like drug traffickers or organized crime it is not uncommon for local cops (or judges and prosecutors for that matter) to be bought off and bribed, at least in history. Supposedly with the cocaine problems in the 1980s, there was so much bribery and corruption at the city, county and state level in Florida that federal agents needed to get involved to address the drug smugglers because the local and state apparatus had broken down.
My understanding is that one reason J Edgar Hoover didn’t want the FBI to get involved with the mafia was because he didn’t feel that FBI agents could resist the kinds of bribes the mafia would offer them (I read starting salary for an FBI agent was about 6k in the 50s, and the Mafia could’ve offered them much more than that). I guess he looked at how effective the mafia was at buying off local cops, judges and prosecutors that he didn’t want to risk it, that is at least part of the reason he didn’t want the FBI to take on the mafia.
So is bribery an issue for federal agents, or has it ever been? Or is it more something that local cops deal with?
And I know cops in 2016 are much more bribe resistant than they were in the past, but 30+ years ago it was a much bigger issue (Serpico was a cop in the 60s for example).