Dirty Cop/Playing With
Basic Trope: A cop who does illegal things, knowing that his policeman status will protect him.
- Straight: Jason arrests a gang member, but lets him off easy because he has eliminated all of the evidence against him.
- Exaggerated:
- Jason accepts a bribe from a gang member to release him.
- Jason's entire precinct is corrupt.
- Justified: Jason, despite being a cop, has a massive authority problem, and/or wants to take the precinct down from the inside.
- Inverted:
- Jason is a paragon of incorruptibility.
- Jason is the only honest police officer on a squad of Dirty Cops.
- Jason is kidnapped by a gang member. He offers to exonerate him if he lets him go free.
- Subverted: His coworkers think he is a corrupt cop, but deep inside, he's a By-The-Book Cop.
- Double Subverted: ...But when absolutely no one else is watching, he breaks the rules with impunity.
- Parodied: Jason, a Cowboy Cop is violating serious laws by doing things like going around open shirted on the job, and filling out paperwork in maroon ink.
- Deconstructed: Jason's refusal to obey the rules ends up allowing several criminals to go free.
- Reconstructed: After which he's fired, and the entire precinct is investigated for wrongdoing.
- Zig Zagged: Jason accepts bribes - while wearing a wire to convict the DA of corruption. However he does this at the behest of his client. He later sends Kent into dangerous situations. When that fails and it sets up one of them to gain power he shoots Kent himself with a criminal's gun. The whole series consists of Jason engaging in dodgy disposal of crooked cops one way or another. His feelings on his own actions are mixed.
- Averted: He takes some liberties with the law, but nothing too extreme.
- Enforced: "I'm writing this story about cops, but I myself hate authority. How can I express that?"
- Lampshaded: "Well, it's a shame I had to find you out here alone selling drugs. Tell you what, you give me half your take and none of this happened..."
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: Several high-ranking drug dealers bribe the police in the hopes that they can buy the force.
- Defied: "What do you think I am, crazy? I don't want to lose my job. In addition to your drug trafficking charges, I'm booking you on a count of attempting to bribe an officer."
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Played For Laughs: Everyone on the force is a Dirty Cop; they routinely have contests to see how much bribe money they can bring in, beat suspects bloody, and basically break every rule known to man.
- Played For Drama: The work investigates a police force during a period of high crime, in which one or more police officers are corrupt. The clash between the honest cops and the crooked ones is shown in full detail.
I'll let the charges drop. You just gotta do me a favor, head back to Dirty Cop, capish?