History Main / CopsNeedTheVigilante

* ''Film/NothingButTrouble'': [[spoiler:A PlayedForHorror reveal: the state police knows perfectly well that J.P. Valkenheiser is a murderous HangingJudge and not only do nothing about it but send him criminals to get rid of covertly. Chris and Diane discover this while surrounded by the army of cops that came to "arrest" the Judge after they first escaped and the Judge himself all acting chummy, and the massive collapse of Valkenvania happens just in time to interrupt what seemed to be [[KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade our heroes being murdered to silence them]].]]

In truth, it doesn't matter if you're getting a paycheck; if you're working on behalf of the state, you're a state agent. That is to say, a cop can't ask you to do what he's not allowed to do.

-->'''George Stacy:''' Let me illuminate: see, the car thief was leading us to the people who run the entire operation. It's been a six month long sting. It's called "strategy", I'm sure you're aware of the term "strategy"? You've probably heard about that in school?

* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'': Zigzagged. Dexter is a legitimate agent of the police whose nighttime activities as a SerialKillerKiller are beneath notice by the rest of the department. When Dexter himself becomes a target of the FBI after a mass grave of his victims' corpses are discovered, most of his colleagues are quick to denounce the "Bay Harbor Butcher" and his one-man-war on crime. Later, when Dexter was going after the Barrel Girl Gang, a group of criminals who raped and murdered numerous young women, Debra walked in on him in the middle of his kill ritual after he and Lumen, [[RapeAndRevenge one of the gang's would-be victims]], captured their leader. Dexter and Lumen were concealed behind a sheet of plastic, but Debra just said that she was going to let them get away with it because their victims were just that horrible.

** In season 3, Daredevil's necessity is made clear as the FBI agents that are supposedly guarding Wilson Fisk are actually secretly working for him. Once Ray Nadeem realizes that Dex is the fake Daredevil that Fisk hired to attack the ''Bulletin'', he and Matt team up to break into Dex's apartment to investigate. Later on, after Nadeem finds out that his boss and the rest of his colleagues are also in Fisk's pocket, he continues corresponding with Matt. Matt ultimately trusts Nadeem enough that when Nadeem goes rogue, and Matt rescues him and his family from assassins Fisk sends to their house to kill them, he unmasks himself as a show of gratitude.

*** In season 2, the events of ''Series/TheDefenders2017'' have left Misty more trusting of Luke, to the point she's his sidekick at several points as they investigate leads on Bushmaster since she doesn't trust her police colleagues (especially considering that her boss Captain Ridenhour is stonewalling her investigations into Mariah).

** ''Series/Daredevil2015'' sees Matt Murdock, as Daredevil, develop an uneasy secret alliance with Sgt. Brett Mahoney. Ultimately, in season 1, Matt's role as Daredevil was necessary given how many of Hell's Kitchen's cops were in Wilson Fisk's pocket. By season 2, Brett is not too fond of the alliance, even nearly arresting Matt on a couple of occasions. In one scene, Brett mentions to Foggy and Karen that the NYPD rank and file are split on their views of vigilantes like Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and the Punisher. Some cops see the vigilantes as making their jobs much easier, but others think they're just making the issue worse. Brett is in the latter category, explicitly saying in "Penny and Dime" that just because Matt stopped Wilson Fisk doesn't put him and the NYPD on the same side. Later in the episode, when Brett and his partner roll up on Matt and Frank Castle in the cemetery, Matt persuades Brett to take all the credit for the Punisher's arrest and not make any mention of Daredevil's presence at the scene.

* Discussed in ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan''. Over dinner with Gwen's family, Peter tries to point out that he thinks Spider-Man is trying to help, but Captain Stacy is firmly convinced Spider-Man is a danger, and points out that he's targeting criminals who all look the same, "like he's got some personal vendetta," not to mention his actions have interfered with long-term police stings.

** In ''Series/{{Supergirl}}'', regular cops really can't do much about aliens and metahumans. The DEO, on the other hand, is more equipped to handle ''some'' of the threats. Still, without Supergirl, National City (and probably all of Earth-38) would have fallen long ago. Of course, the DEO is an official government organization and Supergirl an on-the-books agent, making this more a case of cops needing federal help.

* Comic books play this every which way. Franchise/{{Batman}} is perhaps the worst offender. He is, and always has been, more or less a ''de facto'' agent of the Gotham PD. That they have the Bat-Signal up on the roof confirms that. Therefore pretty much everything he does is entirely illegal, as it contravenes all the rules of evidence gathering, chain of custody, interrogation, etc. Some recent series have gotten more sophisticated, going so far as to actually get this right (Batman is an agent of the police and therefore this is inadmissible, or Batman is entirely unconfirmed and you can't prove there's any contact, making this very murky but admissible, for example), though some have gotten it wrong while trying to be clever (no, bringing in a bureaucrat whose only job is to turn on the Bat-Signal doesn't make it okay because the bureaucrat is acting as an agent of the police, which makes Franchise/{{Batman}} an agent of the police). [[http://lawandthemultiverse.com/ Learn more here.]]

Private citizens, though of course bound by the law, aren't bound by the rules cops have to follow. A lot of cop shows/movies like to throw a cop and a civilian together so that the civilian can work around the annoying rules and the cop can nab the bad guy ''officially''. Unless he [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim just shoots him]], possibly when he [[HostageSituation takes the civilian hostage]].

* A side mission in ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' sees ex-cop Adam Jensen recruited by one of his former colleagues to help with a case. Though there is some lip service paid to the fact that they're "bending the rules" and "have to be careful how we handle this," Jensen is perfectly able to collect evidence and even "arrest" suspects[[note]]by knocking them out for the police to retrieve later[[/note]] without a warrant with no consequences to the investigation. The only concession is that remaining unseen while in gang territory will net a bonus reward for the player, as their being detected will "complicate" the investigation.

In truth, it doesn't matter if you're getting a paycheck, if you're working on behalf of the state you're a state agent. That is to say, a cop can't ask you to do what he's not allowed to do.

There are two different ways this can go. If a cop asks someone to do something he can't the law has been broken, the evidence is inadmissible, and everyone walks away with egg on their faces; fiction typically ignores this except to ratchet up the tension. If the cop didn't ask, but gets an unexpected windfall, then the law was still broken, but many jurisdictions will still allow the evidence (providing it can be authenticated).

* Comic books play this every which way. Franchise/{{Batman}} is perhaps the worst offender. He is, and always has been, more or less a ''de facto'' agent of the Gotham PD. That they have the Bat-Signal up on the roof confirms that. Therefore pretty much everything he does is entirely illegal, as it contravenes all the rules of evidence gathering, chain of custody, interrogation, etc. Some recent series have gotten more sophisticated, going so far as to actually get this right (Batman is an agent of the police and therefore this is inadmissible, or Batman is entirely unconfirmed and you can't prove there's any contact making this very murky but admissible, for example), though some have gotten it wrong while trying to be clever (no, bringing in a bureaucrat whose only job is to turn on the Bat-Signal doesn't make it okay because the bureaucrat is acting as an agent of the police which makes Franchise/{{Batman}} an agent of the police). [[http://lawandthemultiverse.com/ Learn more here]].

** In ''Series/{{Supergirl}}'', regular cops really can't do much about aliens and metahumans. DEO, on the other hand, is more equipped to handle ''some'' of the threats. Still, without Supergirl, National City (and probably all of Earth-38) would have fallen long ago. Of course, the DEO is an official government organization and Supergirl an on-the-books agent, making this more a case of cops needing federal help.

* From ''VideoGame/Sly2BandOfThieves'':
--> '''[[FriendOnTheForce Neyla]]''': Legally I can't enter the premises without a warrant, but now a thief like you...
--> '''[[GentlemanThief Sly Cooper]]''': A thief like me can go wherever he pleases. I read you.
** Of course, it then [[spoiler: turns out that Neyla isn't actually a CowboyCop, but a DoubleReverseQuadrupleAgent]].

* The Franchise/{{Arrowverse}} plays both sides of this:

** In ''Series/TheFlash2014'', the cops really are out of their depth dealing with metahumans, which is demonstrated in Season 1 (when the Reverse-Flash casually takes down a roomful of heavily-armed cops) and in Season 2 (when Zoom slaughters a dozen cops in a split-second and sends an army of Earth-2's metahumans to wreak havoc on Earth-1's Central City).
** In ''Series/{{Arrow}}'', it's brought up several times that vigilantes taking care of criminals is making the cops look bad and has a negative effect on morale.
** In ''Series/{{Supergirl}}'', regular cops really can't do much about aliens and metahumans. DEO, on the other hand, is more equipped to handle ''some'' of the threats. Still, without Supergirl, National City (and probably all of Earth-38) would have fallen long ago.
** ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' zig-zags this in Season 3 with the introduction of the Time Bureau. While they do an excellent job sorting through the mess created by the Legends at the end of Season 2, their arrogance does, occasionally, result in them screwing up, forcing the Legends to step in and resolve the issue (hopefully, without making the problem worse).

-->--'''Inspector Richard Shriker''', ''Film/DeathWish3''