History Main / PoliceAreUseless

* The police in the Website/{{GoAnimate}} Grounded videos seem to have something of a HairTriggerTemper, as they will instantly peg a character with jail time for littering if they so much as walk up to a piece of paper on the ground. Other times, they just outright arrest people for little to no reason or show a bias towards the trouble-making kids' parents (or basically anyone ''but'' the trouble-makers for that matter), sometimes even arresting the kids just for talking to them. Outside of that, the police will instantly come to arrest someone if they are simply asked to without complaint, even if they are being called to arrest a kid for smashing their sibling's [=iPod=].

* '''[[NoPoliceOption The police aren't allowed to help]]:''' "Call the police" is not a viable solution to every problem. There are rules defining what the police can and cannot do, and breaking those rules will, at best, lead to the police being chewed out by a judge while the person they took action against is let go. And if the police refuse to intervene in what is really a petty civil dispute between two citizens rather than a serious crime, ''you'' will be getting chewed out instead. They have more important things to do than act as your personal hall monitors, after all.

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See also TheOnlyOne and BadCopIncompetentCop, though they are not necessarily incompetent: it may just be that the "calls" are too nonsensical to be believed by someone who doesn't know they're in a show. YouHaveToBelieveMe occurs when the police don't believe the person because the person is presenting their case in a fashion where no reasonable person ''would'' believe them. NoPoliceOption is a more realistic spin where the police aren't ''allowed'' to resolve the problem, even if they ''do'' believe the person who's asking for their help. LawfulPushover and LemmingCops are other related tropes. Contrast IFoughtTheLawAndTheLawWon, as well as TheMenInBlack, who ''do'' believe your reports of ghosts/monsters/whatever and probably know more about them than you do, but are still bad news, and MilitariesAreUseless, when the authorities (from the military side) ''do'' try to help, but fail for dramatic tension, and TheLopsidedArmOfTheLaw, where the police withholds its competency and firepower [[HandWave with little (if any) explained reason]] until someone tries to take the law into their own hands, and ''then'' they unleash said resources to hunt them (and only ''them'') down. If the police are lazy, this trope can overlap with LethalNegligence.

* '''[[NoPoliceOption The police aren't allowed to help]]:''' "Call the police" is not a viable solution to every problem. There are rules defining what the police can and cannot do, and breaking those rules will, at best, lead to the police being chewed out by a judge while the person they took action against is let go. And if the police refuse to intervene in what is really a petty civil dispute between two citizens rather than a serious crime, you will be getting chewed out instead. They have more important things to do than act as your personal hall monitors, after all.

* '''[[NoPoliceOption The police aren't allowed to help]]:''' "Call the police" is not a viable solution to every problem. There are rules defining what the police can and cannot do, and breaking those rules will, at best, lead to the police being chewed out by a judge while the person they took action against is let go. And if the police refuse to intervene in what is really a petty dispute between two citizens rather than a serious crime, you will be getting chewed out instead. They have more important things to do than act as your personal hall monitors, after all.

* '''[[TheBadGuysAreCops Police are the villains:]]''' Here, you're really in trouble, as the police (or some of them at least) are themselves the bad guys. While honest cops in the story may exist as well, you'll probably have a difficult time convincing them of what has been going on or proving it legally (especially as the villains will doubtless use their own status and knowledge to get away with any crimes they've committed).
* '''[[ThereAreNoPolice There are no police:]]''' the bottom line. None think the police could help because either the police is REALLY not there, or the characters will assume it's [[GenreSavvy normal]] for them to ignore the police and just carry on with the story. Sometimes one or some of the aforementioned reasons [[HandWave are vaguely or insufficently implied]], and that's it.

* '''[[NoPoliceOption The police aren't allowed to help:]]''' “Call the police” is not a viable solution to every problem. There are rules defining what the police can and cannot do, and breaking those rules will, at best, lead to the police being chewed out by a judge while the person they took action against is let go. And if the police refuse to intervene in what is really a petty dispute between two citizens rather than a serious crime, you will be getting chewed out instead. They have more important things to do than act as your personal hall monitors, after all.

* '''[[NoPoliceOption The police aren't allowed to help:]]''' “Call the police” is not a viable solution to every problem. There are rules defining what the police can and cannot do, and breaking those rules will, at best, lead to the police being chewed out by a judge while the person they took action against is let go. And if the police refuse to intervene in what is really a petty dispute rather than a serious crime, you will be getting chewed out instead. They have more important things to do than act as your personal hall monitors, after all.

* '''[[NoPoliceOption The police aren't allowed to help:]]''' “Call the police” is not a viable solution to every problem. There are rules defining what the police can and cannot do, and breaking those rules will, at best, lead to the police being chewed out by a judge while the person they took action against is let go. If the police refuse to intervene in what is really a petty dispute rather than a serious crime, you will be getting chewed out instead. They have more important things to do than act as your personal hall monitors, after all.

* '''[[NoPoliceOption The police aren't allowed to help:]]''' “Call the police” is not a viable solution to every problem. There are rules defining what the police can and cannot do, and breaking those rules will, at best, lead to the police being chewed out by a judge while the person they took action against is let go. If the police refuse to intervene in a petty dispute, you will be getting chewed out instead. They have more important things to do than act as your personal hall monitors, after all.

* '''Police going after the wrong guy:''' Everyone will find themselves wanting to take shortcuts at work. In policing, a 'shortcut' would mean pinning a crime on the [[TheScapegoat guy]] right in front of you rather than to try and catch the real bad guy, who could be anywhere. Also, a lot of police departments measure officer performance by the number of arrests they have made and actions they have done. That can give incentives for officers to arrest the wrong guy or avoid doing things to ''prevent'' crime (which is generally agreed to be better than cleaning up after it). This can be portrayed sympathetically (protagonist is convincingly framed by the real villains) as well as negatively.
* '''[[DirtyCop Police being corrupt]]''': If criminals like UsefulNotes/AlCapone can bribe their way out of arrest, chances are they're not much use.
* '''Police being prejudiced:''' If prejudice exists in a society, it probably exists in the police. This is a problem in many countries, with victims of {{Profiling}} and PoliceBrutality most often being those the cops are prejudiced against. This may overlap with "lazy" in cases where the police simply blame "the usual suspects" from the disliked group rather than put any real effort into investigations.

* '''[[NoPoliceOption The police aren't allowed to help:]]''' “Call the police” is not a viable solution to every problem. There are rules defining what the police can and cannot do, and breaking those rules will, at best, lead to the police being chewed out by a judge while the person they took action against is let go.

* '''Police being hopelessly outmatched:''' The criminals are just too much for the police to handle. Perhaps organized crime is effectively in charge; perhaps [[AnarchyIsChaos society is breaking down]] and ''nobody'' is really in charge; perhaps the setting is one where some of the criminals are monsters, evil wizards, zombies, supervillains, etc. On a more normal level, it can be as simple as that the criminals are [[CrooksAreBetterArmed better equipped and armed than the police]], which does sometimes occur in real life too.

See also TheOnlyOne and BadCopIncompetentCop, though they are not necessarily incompetent: it may just be that the "calls" are too nonsensical to be believed by someone who doesn't know they're in a show. YouHaveToBelieveMe occurs when the police don't believe the person because the person is presenting their case in a fashion where no reasonable person ''would'' believe them. NoPoliceOption is a more realistic spin where the police aren't ''allowed'' to resolve the problem, even if they ''do'' believe the person who's asking for their help. LawfulPushover and LemmingCops are other related tropes. Contrast IFoughtTheLawAndTheLawWon, as well as TheMenInBlack, who ''do'' believe your reports of ghosts/monsters/whatever and probably know more about them than you do, but are still bad news, and MilitariesAreUseless, when the authorities (from the military side) ''do'' try to help, but fail for dramatic tension, and TheLopsidedArmOfTheLaw, where the police withholds its competency and firepower [[HandWave with little (if any) explained reason]] until someone tries to take the law into their own hands, and ''then'' they unleash said resources to hunt them (and only ''them'') down.

->''I dialed 911 a long time ago\\
Don't you see how late they’re reactin'\\
They only come and they come when they wanna\\
So get the morgue truck and embalm the goner\\
They don't care 'cause they stay paid anyway\\
They treat you like an ace that can't beat a trey\\
A no-use number with no-use people\\
If your life is on the line then you're dead today''
-->-- '''Music/PublicEnemy''', "[[Music/FearOfABlackPlanet 911 is a Joke]]"

* '''Police being lazy:''' This image is common in the United States, where every town has to employ its own officers and therefore have enough to respond on a busy day. Some things police do in RealLife understandably ''seem'' lazy or useless to outside observers, too, when they actually aren't -- [[DonutMessWithACop like sitting in their car eating donuts]][[note]]as anyone who has worked any security can tell you, this is a side effect of having a job where most of it is ''waiting for something to happen'' as opposed to jobs where earning money is dependent on action[[/note]] or a crowd of them arriving and standing around for a simple traffic stop -- you can't (like a quiet day at your job) send police home just because no one is breaking the law -- they still may be needed at a moment's notice!

* '''Police being hopelessly outmatched:''' The criminals are just too much for the police to handle. Perhaps organized crime is effectively in charge; perhaps society is breaking down and ''nobody'' is really in charge; perhaps the setting is one where some of the criminals are monsters, evil wizards, zombies, supervillains, etc. On a more normal level, it can be as simple as that the criminals are [[CrooksAreBetterArmed better equipped and armed than the police]], which does sometimes occur in real life too.

* '''[[TheBadGuysAreCops Police are the villains]]''': Here, you're really in trouble, as the police (or some of them at least) are themselves the bad guys. While honest cops in the story may exist as well, you'll probably have a difficult time convincing them of what has been going on or proving it legally (especially as the villains will doubtless use their own status and knowledge to get away with any crimes they've committed).
* '''[[ThereAreNoPolice There are no police]]''': the bottom line. None think the police could help because either the police is REALLY not there, or the characters will assume it's [[GenreSavvy normal]] for them to ignore the police and just carry on with the story. Sometimes one or some of the aforementioned reasons [[HandWave are vaguely or insufficently implied]], and that's it.

See also TheOnlyOne and BadCopIncompetentCop, though they are not necessarily incompetent: it may just be that the "calls" are too nonsensical to be believed by someone who doesn't know they're in a show. YouHaveToBelieveMe occurs when the police don't believe the person because the person is presenting their case in a fashion where no reasonable person ''would'' believe them. LawfulPushover and LemmingCops are other related tropes. Contrast IFoughtTheLawAndTheLawWon, as well as TheMenInBlack, who ''do'' believe your reports of ghosts/monsters/whatever and probably know more about them than you do, but are still bad news, and MilitariesAreUseless when the authorities (from the military side) ''do'' try to help, but fail for dramatic tension, and TheLopsidedArmOfTheLaw, where the police withholds its competency and firepower [[HandWave with little (if any) explained reason]] until someone tries to take the law into their own hands, and ''then'' they unleash said resources to hunt them (and only ''them'') down.

For the complete opposite, see PoliceBrutality, though they ''can'' easily be combined -- BadCopIncompetentCop being one example, where some cops are brutal and some are useless and some are both, and cops who are brutal but also useless -- as in the people they beat up and kill are innocent, while real criminals escape because they know how to play by the rules. When it's police driving ability that's in question, see HollywoodPoliceDrivingAcademy. Subtrope of ArtisticLicenseLawEnforcement.