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Generally speaking this trope is intended to rationalize why the main characters don't go to the police with their problems, which tends to be the logical response by normal people to outrageous things like murder plots. This can also be established in the backstory and does not need to be displayed on-screen directly.
Often involves at least one [[Dirty Cop]] by necessity. Can result in a [[Have You Told Anyone Else?]] from the bad cops if someone comes to them in search of a [[Hope Spot]].
{{examples
== [[Anime]]/[[Manga]] ==
* Fairly early on in [[Naoki Urasawa]]'s ''[[Monster (
* [[Naoki Urasawa]]'s ''
== [[Comedy Series]] ==
* Parodied in a ''
{{quote|
'''Interviewer:''' How much did they want?
'''Luigi:''' Three quarters of a million pounds. Then they went out.
'''Interviewer:''' Why didn't you call the police?
'''Luigi:''' Well, I had noticed that the lad with the thermonuclear device was the Chief Constable for the area. }}
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* A major theme in ''[[Batman: Year One]]'' is that most of the police department is
* In ''[[Sin City]]'', the police force is so corrupt, it's actually shocking when people find a cop who is clean. In the first story, police death squads are sent after Marv in order to silence him after he's framed for murder. In ''That Yellow Bastard'' almost the entire police force are willing to protect a pedophile [[Serial Killer]] son of a senator, going so far as to frame one of their own (probably the only ''good'' cop of the entire bunch). In ''The Big Fat Kill'', a recently killed [[Domestic Abuser]] is exposed as being a hero cop, which is bad news for Old Town (because {{spoiler|the truce between the girls and the cops forbids the girls to kill cops that wander into their territory, in exchange for the girls being allowed to protect their own and keep the cops and the mob out}}). In ''Hell And Back'', the cops are in league with an assassin guild. At least in ''Hell and Back'' the police chief briefly rediscovers his morals long enough to help the protagonist finish off the assassins/human traffickers.
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Fletch]]''. Police Chief Karlin and some of his officers are running the local drug ring, so Fletch can't go to them for help.
* In ''[[Date Night]]'', this is the reason why Phil and Claire end up ditching the police station mid-interview to conduct their own
* ''[[Pineapple Express]]'' has this when Dale sees that a police officer in uniform is present when Ted murders a rival
* The bad guys in the remake of ''[[Assault
* ''[[Hot Fuzz]]'' - the {{spoiler|Chief of Police}} turns out to be in on the bizarre "accidents" surrounding the town.
** In fact he's the ringleader; the whole shenanigan is built around {{spoiler|winning a contest that's more or less meaningless beyond his wife's annual involvement in the town's participation therein}}.
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* In ''[[Fight Club]]'' the [[Narrator]] tries going to the cops when he finds out that Fight Club (now called Project Mayhem) is involved in serious terrorist activities. Except it turns out several police officers are members of Project Mayhem, and have orders to castrate anyone who betrays the group {{spoiler|(even if that someone is the ''leader'' of Project Mayhem)}}. Cue the [[Narrator]] trying to take matters into his own hands.
* [[Cellular]]
* ''[[
* [[Hobo
{{quote|
* In ''[[West Side Story]]'', Lt. Schrank and Officer Krupke are not only meddling in the affairs of the Jets and the Sharks, but they're also very racist against the Sharks.
* {{spoiler|[[Flight Plan]]}}: The plot was claimed to a [[Xanatos Roulette]], but most don't want to accept that everything happened - and ''could'' happen in [[Real Life]] because, "People believe what (cops) tell them to believe. [[A Wizard Did It|That's how authority works.]]"
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== Literature ==
* In line with his [[Anvilicious]] Libertarian philosophical leanings, [[Dean Koontz]] has played this card a few times. ''[[Instensity]]'' has a last minute revelation that the [[Serial Killer]] is a young rising star in a local police force, ''Dark Rivers of the Heart'' has a murderous FBI agent who kills people he feels are too good for the world, etc.
* ''[[
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[Persona 4]]'': {{spoiler|When Adachi answers Namatame's call to the police to tip them off about the role of the midnight channel in the murders (That Adachi commited!), then uses the opportunity to make him unknowingly attempt to commit more murders}}.
* ''[[Ace Attorney]]'': In case 1-2, Redd White apparently has most of the police department (and the prosecutor's office) in his pocket, meaning that Phoenix has nobody to turn for support except himself.
** And in case {{spoiler|1-5}}, the villain is {{spoiler|Police Chief Gant, who orchestrated both Neil Marshall and Bruce Goodman's murders.}}
* In ''[[Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas]]'', The CRASH unit, especially [[Big Bad|Officer Tenpenny]], are corrupt to the core and essentially extort the player character while turning a blind eye to the gang violence they're supposed to be fighting against, preferring to just let the gangbangers take each other out rather than do any work themselves.
== [[Real Life]] ==
* [
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Truth in Television]]
[[Category:Villains]]
[[Category:
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