Dirty Cop: Difference between revisions
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|''[[The Shield]]''}}
How did these people manage to get themselves in a uniform instead of being locked up behind prison bars seems to be a miracle. The '''dirty cop''' often appears as a villain in both [[Cop Show]]s and [[Crime-Time TV]]. [[Police Brutality|Brutal]], fascist, and often on the take from the local mob, this cop makes most criminals and prisoners look like...well, saints.
All too often an example of [[Truth in Television]]. May escalate to [[Bad Cop, Incompetent Cop]] for entire precincts.
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** The entire Gotham City police department is corrupt, with the exception of Gordon and one or two good cops. This becomes a major plot point in ''[[Gotham Central]]'', a series set within the Major Crimes Unit of the Gotham City Police Department, the only consistently honest branch of the department. Since its members are all personally selected by the commissioner they have a modicum of integrity and competence, but the universal corruption of the rest of their force makes even their simplest of cases difficult since the other departments are stealing evidence, accepting bribes, and often committing the crimes themselves. This comes to a head in the ''Corrigan'' story arcs, where Jim Corrigan (The ''main'' corrupt cop of the series) is selling crime scene evidence on the black market, redistributing the heroin that is collected by the narcotics department, and eventually starts personally murdering other police officers that are trying to stop him. At the end of the series, though everybody ''knows'' he did it, his web of corruption [[Bad Cop, Incompetent Cop|has spread so far]] that the case against him is sabotaged and he gets off ''[[Karma Houdini|completely free]]'' until Final Crisis Aftermath where it comes back to bite him in the ass. And the one time Internal Affairs and the MCU are actually able to build a case against him, they have to compromise their morals and let him go to save one of their own.
** Even the MCU isn't immune. Harvey Bullock went too far when he gave one of his Mafia connections information on a man in witness protection so they would kill him. The man in question is an assassin who shot Commissioner James Gordon, but still. In his pre-Crisis origin, Bullock was formerly corrupt, on orders from Hamilton Hill, a corrupt mayor, to sabotage Gordon's career, but then came to respect him.
** Blüdhaven is (or rather ''was'')<ref>The city [[Soiled City on a Hill|destroyed during the ''Infinite Crisis'' storyline]] and has been an uninhabitable nuclear waste dump ever since</ref> even worse than Gotham. Criminals there who didn't share the profits from their crimes with the police were murdered. Chief Redhorn placed a bounty on Nightwing's head, although as bad as he was, his brother Mark (aka Blockbuster) was [[Dragon-in-Chief|a far more lethal villain]]. The only truly honest cop — technically — in Bludhaven was Nightwing himself, who, in his Dick Grayson identity, joined the force [[The Mole| in order to bring it down]].
* Almost ''every'' cop in ''[[Sin City]]'', with the notable exception of John Hartigan.
* The Brotherhood in ''X-Men Noir'', Chief Magnus' private task force dedicated to controlling the criminal element from within. Magnus ''is'' dedicated to the pursuit of justice, but as he says, "laws only work on the law abiding."
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* Dean Keaton in ''[[The Usual Suspects]]'' is the leader of a group of criminals, and as described by the cops was one of these. He had ties to organized crime and murdered several people. Also, the criminal protagonists conduct a heist that involves robbing corrupt NYPD cops and the cartels which are paying them.
** David Kujan tries to portray himself as a good cop in contrast to Keaton, but he's all too willing to say that, if Verbal doesn't tell him the whole story, he'll call in every favor he has in the underworld to have Verbal killed.
* The bad guys in the 1989 film ''[[The Dream Team]]'' are this, and are trying to kill [[The Shrink|Dr. Weitzman]] because he witnessed them murder another cop.
* In ''[[Wonka]]'' the police force in the city where it takes place (presumably London) are all on the take of the Chocolate Cartel. Gradually, Wonka wins pver the rank and file officers until, {{spoiler|at the end, the Chief is the only one loyal to the Cartel - [[Karma| and ends up arrested by his own men]].
== Literature ==
* Blore, one of the villain protagonists of ''[[And Then There Were None]]'' is a former cop, whose crime is fitting up an innocent man, leading to his victim being sentenced to hard labor and dying in prison. Blore is presented as devious and amoral, suggesting this was indicative of his general behavior as a police officer.
* [[Discworld]]: Endemic in the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, especially in the past seen in ''[[
* ''[[In Death]]'': This trope has popped up a number of times in the series, with ''Judgment In Death'' and ''Treachery In Death'' standing out in particular.
* The majority of [[James Ellroy]]'s characters are either corrupt cops (or feds) or formerly on the take. {{spoiler|Dudley Smith}} is just the one most people know. Edmund Exley was also ''far'' more compromised in the book than the film. Although the books (where {{spoiler|Dudley Smith}} is around until the end of ''White Jazz'' does turns this around a bit by having Exley make the bringing down of {{spoiler|Dudley Smith}} his first priority as Chief of Detectives (although this is more because of personal dislike than anything professional).
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* The second verse of Lupe Fiasco's "Handcuffs" is sung by a drug dealer, commenting on his arresting officer, making such remarks as "You ain't no better than me, just a hustla with a badge."
* The [[N.W.A.]] song ''Fuck Tha Police'' has quite a few of these.
* [[Phil Ochs]]' song "Here's to to State of Mississippi"
{{quote|''They're chewing their tobacco as they lock the prison door''
''Their bellies bounce inside them as they knock you to the floor''
''No they don't like taking prisoners in their private little war''
''Behind their broken badges there are murderers and more''}}
== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! (Tabletop Game)|Yu-Gi-Oh!]]''
** The Link Monster, [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Beat_Cop_from_the_Underworld Beat Cop from the Underworld], clearly one of Hell's "Finest" so to speak. Seeing as she's a DARK Fiend type with skull-shaped badges on her uniform and a police car shrouded in hellfire, it's not likely she's a benevolent type...
** Possibly Dian Keto the Security Master, especially when you compare [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Card_Artworks:Dian_Keto_the_Security_Master#/media/File:DianKetotheSecurityMaster-RDKP05-KR-SR.png the international version of the card] to the [https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Dian_Keto_the_Security_Master original OCG one] - rather than a baton, [[Dominatrix| she has ''a riding crop''.]]
== Video Games ==
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* ''[[Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor]]''; after a few days in Tokyo after a lockdown resulting from demon presence, a group of police officers begin abusing the power of demon-summoning objects called COMPs to rob and/or kill others. {{spoiler|They eventually surrender their powers after being beaten twice, the second time when faced with the lord of death, Yama.}}
* George Sewell in ''[[Silent Hill: Downpour]]''. {{spoiler|Especially in the end reveals he killed Frank Coleridge and pin the blame on Murphy.}}
* In ''[[River City Girls]]'', police officers are among the mooks the two protagonists have to deal with. One could justify this, seeing as Kyoku and Misako [[Japanese Delinquents|are delinquents and never deny it]], but using tear gas grenades and tasers does seem a little extreme. The enemy profile screen does indeed confirm they are on the [[Yakuza]] payroll.
== Web Comics ==
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* The ''[[King of the Hill]]'' episode, "Lupe's Revenge", has a police woman who severely abuses her power. Naturally, in accordance with Hank's hilariously bad luck, she falls in love with him.
* In ''[[Minoriteam]]'', the villainous corrupt cop is literally a police officer made of dirt and grime who actively participates in the White Shadow's evil schemes and, like many of his cohorts, is virulently racist.
*
** Chief Clancy Wiggum and the Springfield police in are sometimes shown to be corrupt as well as incompetent. Wiggum's badge has "Cash Bribes Only" written on it.
** In "Treehouse of Horror XXXIV", {{spoiler| an adult Maggie becomes this as Lisa's accomplice. After Sideshow Bob murders Bart, Lisa becomes a [[Serial Killer]] with the intent to be sent to the same prison and get revenge; Maggie - who is a correction officer - is the one who brings her to Bob's cell, wordlessly telling her sister to [[Do with Him as You Will]].}}
* ''[[South Park]]'' has ''no'' honest cops, but two of them stand out:
** Picture Chief Wiggum but make him even dumber and take away any good qualities and you have Officer Barbrady. How this idiot ever became a police officer is anyone’s guess, as he commits far more crimes than he prevents. For example, in “Cartman Gets an Anal Probe”, he tries to cover up the crisis (which involves cows being brutally killed) and when protesters refuse to leave, he threatens to shoot them execution-style. He’s committed at least two murders [[Would Hurt A Child|(one of them a child)]] and has admitted to, uhm, [[A Date With Rosie Palms|pleasuring himself]] while watching ''[[Game of Thrones]]'' on duty. Despite this, however, Barbary is ''not'' the dirtiest cop in South Park, which brings us to…
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== Real Life ==
* The infamous LAPD Rampart scandal is
* And then we have the murder of George Floyd, whose death in the hands of racist cops sparked national outrage and intense sociopolitical discussions, as well as [[Too Soon|changes]] made by companies and organisations out of sensitivity in light of the incident, e.g. [[Disney]] reworking the Splash Mountain ride in [[Disneyland]] into ''Tiana's Bayou Adventure'' owing to the previous ride's association with the controversial 1946 film ''[[Song of the South]]'' which depicted Black plantation workers in a less-than-flattering light; Disney however stated that the reworking of Splash Mountain into a ''[[Princess and The Frog]]''-themed ride were already been considered prior to the protests.
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[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]
[[Category:Cops and Detectives]]
[[Category:Crime and Punishment Tropes]]
[[Category:Villains]]
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