Suspiciously Clean Criminal Record

Henry Gupta: He's got a perfect record. Crossed every "t", dotted every "i".
Elliot Carver: Which means...?
Henry Gupta: Government agent. When it looks too good to be true, it usually is.

— Tomorrow Never Dies

A law enforcement character or private investigator is looking into the background of another character. Upon looking into their record, someone will say that they have a spotless record, without even a minor infraction like a misdemeanor, speeding ticket, or parking ticket. It counts just as much as if they mention that the only thing on their record is a minor ticket; if that's the worst they have, then it's not that bad.

This has a couple of uses. It can show how saintly a character is by essentially "praising them by faint damnation", or it can show that they seem to be an unlikely suspect for a crime, which means that in a Police Procedural show, well, that's another roadblock the main characters will have to come back from. In rarer cases, such as a spy thriller, it can mean that they have changed their identity and their record is so clean because it didn't exist earlier.

Contrast and compare Orgy of Evidence, which looks suspicious because it's overwhelmingly incriminating.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• You're Under Arrest!: Episode 33 has Miyuki and Natsumi dealing with a famous actor named Tokki who constantly gets away with traffic violations because someone keeps erasing his records of every infraction. At the end of the episode it's revealed that Kachou was the one doing it, since he was a fan of Tokki.

Comic Books

• In Batman & Captain America by John Byrne, the generals tell Cap that they suspect Bruce Wayne, financier of the Gotham Project, to be behind the plot to steal it, because there's no visible impropriety in his business dealings, and they find that suspicious. Cap retorts that by the same logic, they should suspect him.
• Judge Dredd: In one chapter, the Judges do a random sweep of citizens' apartments and become highly suspicious when one person turns out not only to have zero violations in his apartment but has never broken any of Mega-City One's laws in the past. Note that the Meg is such an oppressive hellhole that it's practically impossible for someone to not break any. Powdered sugar and caffeine are illegal.
• Spider-Man: During a transitional period in late-1995 (amidst The Clone Saga), Ben Reilly took over the main books. In-universe, he found a job as a bouncer to a nightclub that belongs to a shady businessman named Tso, and his boss's head of security, Orlando, wanted to do a check up on his background. Due to certain circumstances, Ben Reilly had no previous records, so his friend, Dr. Seward Trainer, whose mind was lost in "virtual reality"/cyberspace at the time, fabricated one for Reilly by altering several government databases. After printing the fake records, Orlando ponders what such a clean-cut man as Reilly is doing with Tso.
• Transmetropolitan: Senator Gary Callahan picks a political neophyte called Joshua Freed for his running mate in the presidential election. After looking into the Freed's political background for two seconds, Spider declares that his background records are too clean and that something is up. Freed is a three-week-old Artificial Human with falsified records grown and owned by a fascist third-party candidate, allowing Callahan to both gain the fascist's endorsement and not have to openly run with him on the ticket.

Comic Strips

• In Nodwick, a pair of bureaucratic devils look up the history of the Lawful Good cleric Piffany and discover that the worst thing she's ever done is squash a bug. And she did a week's penance to make up for that!

Fan Works

• Cursed Blood: Aizawa looks into Bakugo's school records and finds they're completely clean with not a single reported incident. Given that Bakugo's personality is combative at best and sociopathic at worst, this tips off Aizawa that Bakugo's record has been falsified, especially since Izuku's record notes several instances of being assaulted or bullied but never once names his attacker.
• Danny and Kara: While trying to find some dirt on Kara, all that Sam finds is that, as Kara already told, she grew up in Kansas and lives in Metropolis. The lack of things like juvenile records or remarkable accomplishments is something Sam holds as a reason to believe Kara has "a skeleton or two" in her closet.
• Haigha: After Katsuki is Caught on Tape threatening another student, Nedzu checks his records from Aldera and notes how oddly clean they are for somebody who has such obviously violent tendencies. He later remarks as much to Katsuki's parents during a meeting; both are confused, and it's soon revealed just how far out of the loop they are regarding their own son's misbehavior.
• My Hero Pokedamia: The files U.A. received from Aldera painted Bakugo as an exemplary student who was always helpful, while Izuku's indicate he's a troublemaking delinquent — something that sets off all the alarms for Aizawa and Nezu because they have seen enough of both to realize the opposite is true. Nezu eventually puts together that the school outright tampered with the records.
• In One for All and Eight for the Ninth, the UA staff realize that Bakugo's school records have been tampered with after they saw on the internet a video of him violently threatening Izuku. This also prompts Nezu to make more intensive background searches, and thus he also finds that, despite also having a spotless record, there were multiple sexual harassment accusations against Mineta that were swept under the rug thanks to his family's connections. Aizawa even wonders if a completely clean record is a red flag now.
• In Professor Arc: Student of Vacuo, Cinder's complete lack of a criminal history and largely mundane personal history tips off Junior, Roman, Jaune, and Neo that she's far more dangerous than she already appears to be. Junior notes that almost her entire personal history has been forged and the forgers have since been killed.
• Played for Laughs in Skittering Campione: when the Council of the Sands is unable to find anything about Taylor, they conclude that she has to be so deeply involved in crime that she erased every trace of her existence to have a normal life.
• Type-2 Hero: When Kamui Woods sees Bakugou's record and reveals what happened nine months ago, with Edgeshot confirming what Kamui said, Nezu does some digging to find out not only Aldera intentionally covered it up under the basis Bakugou will make them famous, but went as far as to downplay the fact their 'star student' blew off someone's arm because they were Quirkless. Well, he did, but instead of Bakugou being the next number one Hero, Nezu has the school shut down and Bakugou redlisted.

Films — Animation

• In Megamind: Hal Stewart's lack of criminal records and notable achievements, a Blank Slate so to speak, were used to hammer the point that he is in fact an everyman.

Films — Live-Action

• The Departed:
  • When Colin Sullivan is up for promotion, Ellerby says to him, "You have an immaculate record. Some guys don't trust an immaculate record. I do. I have an immaculate record." The irony, of course, is that Sullivan is The Mole in the police force.
  • On the flip side in the same movie, to do deep undercover work, Billy Costigan has to actually go to prison on some trumped-up assault charges so that he has a criminal record and no one thinks he's working for the cops, on account of his family's ties to organized crime. (The fact that he applied for and went through the police academy is a matter of public record, but with the jail time, Costigan can just claim he washed out)
• Used in Miss Congeniality to establish that the villain was untouchable, which meant... well, they had to use the plot of Miss Congeniality.
• A variation in The Santa Clause 2: when Calvin/Santa takes a temporary leave and is replaced with a toy Santa that happens to be a Knight Templar, the toy Santa in a later scene decides to place all kids in the world in the "Naughty" list for various petty reasons, including one that had done absolutely nothing naughty all year, claiming that this only made the child more suspicious.
• Tomorrow Never Dies: Elliott Carver's hacker genius Gupta is able to spot red flags that make him conclude that James Bond is not a banker, but actually a government spy.
  Henry Gupta: Bond's got a perfect employment record. Ten years, he's crossed every "t", dotted every "i".
  Elliot Carver: Which means?
  Henry Gupta: Government agent. I call it "Gupta's Law of Creative Anomalies". If it sounds too good to be true, it always is.
  • It should be noted that Gupta did cross paths with Bond at the start of the movie when Bond crashed an arms deal where Gupta was buying the encoder for Carver's schemes, however, he would've been too far away to see Bond in the shootout that ensued as Bond began taking out the terrorists and their various weapons.

Literature

• A variant appears in The Adept: The Lodge of the Lynx: Sir Adam Sinclair and his friends believe that the dark magic users called "The Lodge of the Lynx" have an agent in the local police force, and they suspect a certain police inspector (a fairly high rank). Sinclair's ally Noel MacLeod, also a police inspector, gets a look at their suspect's personnel file and notices something very odd: in ten years of service, the man has not only never been reprimanded, he's also never received any commendations for exceptional service. Every other inspector that MacLeod knows has at least one such commendation.
• Good Omens: Aziraphale is an angel, and so scrupulously Lawful Good that he's been audited five times on the basis that anyone who turns in perfectly accurate tax forms on time, every time, must have something to hide.
• In The Millennium Trilogy, Lisbeth investigates Michael on behalf of Mr Vanger, as Michael is indicted for libel. As his previous record proves to be clean, Vanger decides to hire him as a detective.
• The Stormlight Archive: One of the reasons why Adolin believes Kaladin when the latter accuses Brightlord Amaram of stealing the Shardblade that Kaladin earned and covering it up by killing his squad and selling him into slavery. Brightlord Amaram is famed for his honor and impeccable record, which makes Adolin suspicious because his own father is also well-known for honor, and yet has a stained reputation. Adolin also notes that he wouldn't dirty his own reputation to save someone's life, unlike Kaladin. What ends up breaking Amaram's reputation is when Dalinar Kholin arranges for Amaram to learn of a Shardblade supposedly stolen from the Kholin family and hidden in a secret location. Amaram runs off to steal it for himself without telling anyone, confirming the suspicions that Amaram is a thief and liar.
• In Angels of Music: Interlude: Irene returns to the agency, saying she has reason to suspect her husband, Geoffrey Norton, is keeping some kind of secret from her. As the Angels investigate his background, career and life, they find no evidence of any wrongdoing or impopriety, which makes them more and more concerned, because what kind of secret justifies a cover-up that big? It turns out there is no secret, and there is no cover-up. Irene just can't believe that a good man without any hidden agenda both exists and loves her.

Live-Action TV

• An episode of 3rd Rock from the Sun has Harry (an alien) run for City Council. The incumbent, who is rather corrupt, recruits a police officer to dig up Harry's criminal record. The officer recounts that Harry has no such record. Literally no misdemeanors, felonies, or miscellaneous criminal infractions in his entire time on this planet. Why, it's almost as if he were... Amish.
• Comes up frequently on Barney Miller: they check a perp for priors and he comes up clean, so Barney tries to talk the injured party into dropping the complaint.
• In Bones, after Dr. Vincent Nigel-Murray is killed, the cast reminisces about how he was apologizing for the worst things that he had done to them... and realized that none of them were very bad. This makes them realize if that's the worst he's capable of, then he was a really nice person.
• Shows up often on Castle. One notable example is when investigating the torture and subsequent murder of a surgeon. Ryan and Esposito are discussing how unusual it is for that to happen, given that the surgeon had no criminal record and no connections to any mobs. Ryan goes so far as to observe, "The guy didn't even have any porn on his computer."
• In one CSI episode, the two suspects in a killing are found with one having killed the other. Brass is surprised at this, as the suspect who killed the other has no criminal record. He emphasizes this during the interrogation by showing him a folder of his past crimes. It's empty.
• Double Subverted in CSI: Miami. When they check on a suspect, his record has a collection of normal, petty offenses and complaints, but the team notices that the other civilians involved with the complaints are all related to police officers. They explain that witness protection programs deliberately include minor criminal records with new identities to avoid this trope, and that pattern is enough for them to realize that the identity has been manufactured by the government.
• Dexter:
  • Very frequently used to describe Dexter's Victim of the Week, usually to handwave how the victim was Beneath Suspicion and thus slipped through the cracks.
  • Doakes cites something similar to this after looking into Dexter's background. He believes that no one's record is that clean unless they've done some scrubbing. He's right, although Dexter's late father/mentor Harry is more responsible for that than Dexter himself.
  • Quinn, being Doakes-lite, reaches the same conclusion.
  • When looking into the identity of the girl that Dexter found at the home of a victim, he mentions that she doesn't have so much as a speeding ticket.
• In How I Met Your Mother, when Marshall looks into the background of Robin, he mentions that in addition to not being married, she's "not so good at parking legally."
• In the Heat of the Night has an infamous episode, "Perversions of Justice," in which a young teacher is accused (falsely) of inappropriately touching a student's private parts. As a witch hunt ensues, the officers do a background check, and all they find is an indecent exposure charge... back when he was in college, said incident having been part of a drunken late-night romp. (Gillespie and his officers let it slide, as they recall their own drunken, dumb-and-stupid antics as young college-aged adults.) One other incident that comes up, however — a heretofore unexplained resignation from a previous job — wasn't even for criminal reasons: The teacher was grieving the deaths of his parents in a car accident and had a nervous breakdown in the classroom; the teacher’s former boss reveals this to an officer, Capt. Bubba Skinner. Unfortunately, neither the revelation of these facts nor the accuser later admitting the accusation was false will do anything to restore the teacher's reputation.
• Played for laughs on one episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. A person of interest in the Case of the Week was so squeaky clean "he even does jury duty" (referencing the joke that juries are made up of people too dumb to get out of jury duty).
• Luke Cage (2016): During the first season, Misty Knight has some skepticism about whether Luke's superheroics in Harlem are helping or not, and they're not helped when her colleague Bailey does a background check on Luke and finds that Luke has an almost squeaky clean record to the point that the only place his name exists is on his New York driver's license, because his real name is Carl Lucas and he's an escaped fugitive.
• Shows up on an episode of Person of Interest: the CIA agent who is the Victim Of The Week happens to not only be pretty pristine in terms of dirt but the parking ticket that is on his record was fought most earnestly (with a 70-page report, even), which is clear evidence that he will try and find the reason why everybody on his listening post was massacred, no matter what.
• The Practice: While prosecuting Russel Bakey, Helen Gamble considers it odd his record doesn't have even a speeding ticket.
• In Red Dwarf, when Rimmer is convicted of mass murder by an automated justice system, he protests: "I've never so much as returned a library book late." (The novels clarify that while Rimmer is not an especially moral person, his absolute cowardice prevents him from doing anything that could get him into trouble.)
• In Revenge, Emily is noted by the Graysons to be "squeaky clean" without a single morally questionable thing on her record.
• A late fourth-season episode of The Secret World of Alex Mack uses this to describe the man sent by the FDA to review GC-161, a drug that was designed to let people eat as much as they wanted without gaining excess weight, but instead induced Combo Platter Powers. Knowing there was no way the FDA would approve GC-161, Danielle Atron and Lars conspire to inconspicuously drug his coffee and put him in a situation that would publicly humiliate him and ruin his reputation, allowing GC-161 to be pushed onto the market.
• Spooks: Defied in episode 2x08. When Tom Quinn goes undercover as a military officer, Section D gives him a fake disciplinary charge (passing out liquor stolen from an enemy cache to his troops) to avoid arousing the suspicions of the military figure they're investigating.

Podcasts

• Black Jack Justice: "The Big Time" features Jack and Trixie hired by an insurance investigator to find a lost set of heirloom pearls. One of the reasons the pearls have stayed missing is that there is no obvious suspect for theft; every member of the family who would have wanted them valued them more for their status as an heirloom than for any amount of money they could have gained from selling them. Background checks on the family further reveal that none of them have the kind of record that could make them suspicious, such as gambling debts or being secretly poor. The worst crimes this prestigious family has been a part of were drunk driving that only ever murdered a tree, a ten-year-old indecent exposure charge, and a juvenile record for a man who is currently fifty-eight, making it likely not worth the trouble of unsealing. Indeed, in the end, it's revealed the pearls were never truly stolen; the late owner gave them to his wife's hospice nurse as a gift after his wife's passing and, despite everything being legal, the nurse was happy to return them when asked.

Video Games

• Batman: The Telltale Series: Oswald Cobblepot, known by his criminal alias "The Penguin", was a known small-time crime lord before the events of the story, running illegal boxing matches, arms dealing, and other rackets. Despite this, after the Wayne family scandal caused Bruce Wayne to be ousted as CEO, Oswald is chosen by the Board of Directors to be his successor, despite his history. Batman later finds that Oswald's criminal background has been expunged and whitewashed from the city record due to his connections with the Children of Arkham, presenting himself as a successful businessman with a Cambridge education.
• Apex Legends: Crypto uses the alias Hyeon Kim, and ironically, the squeaky-clean record he's created for his persona makes him seem even more suspicious to the Syndicate, the organization he is trying to get intel on by joining the Apex Games. After all, with the kind of people who usually compete, it comes across as very suspicious to have an applicant who isn't at least a little bit crazy or involved in shady business, if not an outright felon.

Visual Novels

• The Great Ace Attorney: Barok van Zieks is suspected of being a Serial Killer who murders every defendant he fails to prosecute. However, he always has ironclad alibis for the murders, which leads many to suspect that he's either a mastermind letting someone else do his dirty work or a supernatural being. Neither is true; he's actually an unknowing figurehead for a conspiracy led by Mael Stronghart to scare London's criminals into submission. He's horrified when he finds out what's actually going on.

Webcomics

• Averted in Girl Genius, where Agatha is given a forged criminal record before Carson von Mekkahn brings her into Castle Heterodyne. When she is asked What Are You in For?, she replies that she poisoned thirty-seven people because they complained about her cooking. The novelization reveals that her fake papers indeed say that her crime was mass poisoning.
• A variant is Played for Laughs in The Last Days Of Fox Hound when The Sorrow attempts to judge Decoy Octopus by making him face the souls of everyone he's ever killed... only to find the two of them in an empty river and be utterly baffled that someone could work for Fox Hound without ever actually killing anyone. Octopus remarks how his talents as a disguise artist make avoiding confrontation his thing, but does admit that he's technically guilty of mass murder purely by associating with and supporting the rest of his teammates. Sorrow just shakes his head and laments how his test simply doesn't work anymore.
• A Miracle of Science: When a low-ranking mobster doing some work on behalf of the main antagonist (a Mad Scientist by the name of Virgil Haas) realises he might be mixed up in something that will bring more heat than he can handle, he gets a hacker on his payroll to start digging up more information about Haas. He turns out to be a completely blank slate: No criminal record, no academic transcripts, and he's been paying exactly ten thousand per year in taxes three years in a row; not a dollar more, not a dollar less. Turns out Haas altered or destroyed most official records of his existence to keep law enforcement off his trail, although surprisingly he seems not to have changed his name.
• A variant in Questionable Content, when Roko is researching the person responsible for assigning May her body. While she doesn't have access to his criminal record, since she's not a cop anymore, she does find a Suspiciously Bland Twitter Account, and speculates that he must have a private account where he's into "deranged shit".

Western Animation

• In The Simpsons episode "Lisa's Rival", Lisa is jealous of the new girl in school and, in desperation, asks Bart to dig up some dirt on her. Bart reports that the girl is "clean as a bean."

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