History Main / StrangeCopInAStrangeLand

* ''LifeOnMars'' has a PresentDay DCI wake up in TheSeventies, where, needless to say, police work has a much different meaning.

For obvious reasons, this applies to local, city, or state law enforcment officials or detectives. May include domestic national investigators. Government espionage agents like [[MissionImpossible Ethan Hunt]] or JamesBond travel the world as part of their duties, so they wouldn't count.

* Happens twice to Jim Chee in the Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee series of TonyHillerman. Chee is Navajo Tribal Police officer whose jurisdiction is the Navajo reservation in New Mexico and Arizona. In ''The Ghostway'', however, his case takes him to Los Angeles. In ''Talking God'' he goes to Washington, D.C. He experiences mild culture shock in both instances, mostly due to being very much a CountryMouse.

* Happens twice to Jim Chee in the Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee series of TonyHillerman. Chee is Navajo Tribal Police officer whose jurisdiction is the Navajo reservation in New Mexico and Arizona. His cases take him to Los Angeles in ''The Ghostway'' and to Washington, D.C. in ''Talking God''. He experiences mild culture shock in both cases, mostly due to being very much a CountryMouse.

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* ''DueSouth'', wherein a Canadian Mountie comes to Chicago to fight crime, while still being a stereotypically unfailingly polite Canadian

* A dramatic example with ''Film/InTheHeatOfTheNight'', released in 1967, in which a black Philadelphia detective finds himself first accused of killing a white man in very racist town, Sparta, Mississippi, and then actually gets pressed into helping the bigoted white sherriff catch the real killer.

-->-- ''BeverlyHillsCop''

* A dramatic example with ''InTheHeatOfTheNight'', released in 1967, in which a black Philadelphia detective finds himself first accused of killing a white man in very racist town, Sparta, Mississippi, and then actually gets pressed into helping the bigoted white sherriff catch the real killer.

* In ''BlackRain'', a simple task to return a Yakuza back to the Japanese authorities leads to two NYPD cops getting embroiled in a gang war in Tokyo.

* One of the best examples is TheEighties hit ''BeverlyHillsCop''. The eponymous character is not a policeman in Beverly Hills, but rather a Detroit cop whose CowboyCop ways clash with the more straightlaced Bevery Hills PD.
* The first two ''DieHard'' movie see New York cop John [=McClane=] taking on terrorists in unfamiliar locations (an office tower in Los Angeles, and a Washington D.C. airport) and with law enforcement that don't necessarily appreciate his methods.

* ''DemolitionMan'' - a [[CowboyCop loose cannon]] LAPD cop from the late 90's wakes up in a pacifist dystopia.

* Sam Vimes in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novels ''Discworld/{{Jingo}}'' ([[{{Qurac}} Klatch]], ''Discworld/TheFifthElephant'' ({{Uberwald}})), ''Discworld/{{Thud}}'' (Uberwald again) and ''Discworld/{{Snuff}}'' ([[HomeCounties the Shires]] [[spoiler: and [[TheCityOfLight Quirm]]]]).

* Sam Vimes in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novels ''Discworld/TheFifthElephant'' ({{Uberwald}})), ''Discworld/{{Thud}}'' (Uberwald again) and ''Discworld/{{Snuff}}'' ([[HomeCounties the Shires]] [[spoiler: and [[TheCityOfLight Quirm]]]]).

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* A dramatic example ''InTheHeatOfTheNight'', released in 1967 in which a black Philadelphia detective finds himself first accused of killing a white man in very racist town, Sparta, Mississippi, and then actually gets pressed into helping the bigoted white sherriff catch the real killer.

* ''DemolitionMan'', a [[CowboyCop loose cannon]] LAPD cop from the late 90's wakes up in a pacifist dystopia.

* Franchise/SherlockHolmes adaptation ''Series/{{Elementary}}'' features a flavor of this when Holmes, former Scotland Yard consultant, checks into rehab in New York City and becomes an assistant to NYPD detective [[GenderLift Joan]] Watson.

* SherlockHolmes adaptation ''{{Elementary}}'' features a flavor of this when Holmes, former Scotland Yard consultant, checks into rehab in New York City and becomes an assistant to NYPD detective [[GenderLift Joan]] Watson.

A very effective story-telling tool, this trope can set the stage for many interesting deconstructions, reconstructions, or parodies of cop/detective tropers. One of the most popular by-products of this trope is the friction between a CowboyCop and his ByTheBookCop partner. Indeed, the Cowboy Cop may come from a place where his rule-breaking antics are not only not punished, but are necessary to his job, but he relocates to a place where such initiative is frowned upon. Naturally JurisdictionFriction may occur.

-> '''Sergeant Taggart:''' We're more likely to believe an important local businessman than a foul-mouthed jerk from out of town.

* One of the best examples is TheEighties hit ''BeverlyHillsCop''. The titular character is not a policeman in Beverly Hills, but rather a Detroit cop whose CowboyCop ways clash with the more straightlaced Bevery Hills PD.

* One of the best examples is TheEighties hit ''BeverlyHillsCop''. The titular character is not a policeman in BeverlyHills, but rather a Detroit cop whose CowboyCop ways clash with the more straightlaced Bevery Hills PD.

* ''The'' ''FrenchConnection'' ''II'' finds Detective Popeye Doyle, the New York narc from the first film, traveling to Marseilles to catch the French drug kingpin. He isn't fond of the French law officials, and they aren't very fond of the alleged "true American hero".

Also this can result in a BuddyCop scenario, as two cops from two different law enforcement worlds may realize that are NotSoDifferent after all and come to a comfortable working relationship.

[[folder: Film]]