Friend on the Force: Difference between revisions

A [['''Friend Onon the Force]]''' is a regular police officer whom a [[Private Detective]] or [[Amateur Sleuth]] is friendly with that provides assistance to the Private Detective. The [['''Friend Onon the Force]]''' often acts as the official with the authority to arrest the criminals that the [[Private Detective]] identifies. Compare to [[Inspector Lestrade]], which is a detective that is incapable of solving crimes without the help a [[Great Detective]].

{{examples|Examples}}

* ''[[The Big O (Anime)|The Big O]]'''s Roger Smith has Dan Dastun.

* ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]]''. Private detective Eddie Valiant has Lieutenant Santino, who calls him in on the Acme murder and shows up at the end with the rest of the police. (One may come to conclusion that the Valiants and Santino graduated together from Police Academy).

* [[The Dresden Files|Harry Dresden]] has Lieutenant Murphy. Because of [[The Masquerade|the nature of]] [[Crapsack World|the world]] she rarely gets to make any arrests on cases he's involved in, but the cases still get closed... one way or another.

* In the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe|Coruscant Nights Trilogy]], the hero Jax Pavan, who "finds things" and has a rather complicated, never defined job that does involve investigation, has a slightly antagonistic but ultimately friendly relationship with Pol Haus, a police prefect on Coruscant. Of course, there's never anyone to lock up, since Pavan's enemies strongly tend to be Dark Jedi who [[Never Found the Body|vanish]], Inquisitors working with the Empire, and ''Darth Vader''. Mostly Haus and Pavan just meet to trade information. Haus suspects that Pavan is a Jedi, but ultimately bails him out.

* [[Benjamin January (Literature)|Benjamin January]] has Lieutenant Shaw.

* ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]'' had Kate Lockley for the first two seasons.

* ''[[Diagnosis Murder (TV)|Diagnosis: Murder]]'': Dr. Sloan's son is a homicide detective. A relative on the force.

* [[Magnum, PIP.I.|Magnum]] has Lt Tanaka. He also knows an(inevitably pretty)lawyer at the District Attorney's office and several contacts at the naval base.

* Toby from ''[[The Listener (TV)|The Listener]]'' has Detective Charlie Marks, though she's often inclined not to listen when he comes to her with evidence and can't explain how he got it because he found out by reading minds. Of course this changes once she finds out.

* ''[[Torchwood (TV)|Torchwood]]'' has PC Andy.

* This trope + [[UST]] = ''[[Castle]]''.{{context|reason=So, who's the cop that Castle has the hots for?}}

* ''[[Campion (TV series)|Campion]]'': Albert Campion has Detective Inspector Oates, a competent cop who often takes Albert's arrests and investigations.

* The BBC ''[[Sherlock (TV)|Sherlock]]'' version of Lestrade is much closer to this than the trope he named. He's also the *only* friend Sherlock has on the force, as every other police officer he knows would rather Lestrade not keep involving this weirdo who keeps human eyes in his microwave ( {{spoiler|which leaves him powerless when Moriaty's manipulations convince the entire police service Sherlock's a fraud}}).

* [[Gabriel Knight (Video Game)|Gabriel Knight]] isn't a detective, but he does do some sleuthing with the help of his good friend Detective Mosely. He also uses Mosely to get information for his novels.

* ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney]]'' has Detective Gumshoe, who starts out as an annoyance but later becomes essentially a friend to Phoenix (while remaining an annoyance). He even helps Phoenix a bit on the sly in the second and third games, despite technically being on "the other side".

* [[Inverted Trope]] towards the end of [[LAL.A. Noire]], where Jack Kelso plays the part of Cole Phelps' friend off the force, as an investigator for California Fire and Life.

* ''[[Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Video Game)|Deus Ex Human Revolution]]'': Adam Jensen has two friends on the force, one who you can get a favour from {{spoiler|and accidentally get fired (although if you convinced him to do the favour you can get him a job at the company you work for...if you extorted the favour he'll just try to kill you)}} and the the other he does a favour for.

* The [[Swat Kats (Animation)|Swat Kats]] have Felina Feral, the one Enforcer who is willing to work with them, despite her uncle (who happens to be head of the Enforcers) being their sworn enemy.

[[Category:Friend On The Force{{PAGENAME}}]]