History CowboyCop / Literature

* Deconstructed with Sam Vimes in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''. Vimes, despite being promoted time after time, is nonetheless an archetypal Cowboy Cop, rejecting the rules if they stop him from doing his job and hunting down criminals -- or, as in ''[[Literature/NightWatchDiscworld Night Watch]]'', rejecting the code that has lead to the Watch becoming useless and Ankh-Morpork a police state -- and frequently running up against DaChief in the form of Vetinari (although Vetinari is quite trope-savvy in this case, and appears to willingly take the position of DaChief in order to nudge Vimes in the right direction). The deconstruction comes because Vimes ''hates'' it -- he hates that the system does not work, that it forces him to be a Cowboy Cop to get things done and that it keeps trying to push him into chaos when all that is important to him is the [[LawfulGood law]].\\

* ''Literature/TheBlackEcho'' by Creator/MichaelConnelly - Literature/HarryBosch is this trope to a T.

* In Literature/TheDresdenFiles:

* Deconstructed with Sam Vimes in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''. Vimes, despite being promoted time after time, is nonetheless an archetypal Cowboy Cop, rejecting the rules if they stop him from doing his job and hunting down criminals - or, as in ''[[Literature/NightWatchDiscworld Night Watch]]'', rejecting the code that has lead to the Watch becoming useless and Ankh-Morpork a police state - and frequently running up against DaChief in the form of Vetinari (although Vetinari is quite trope-savvy in this case, and appears to willingly take the position of DaChief in order to nudge Vimes in the right direction). The deconstruction comes because Vimes ''hates'' it - he hates that the system does not work, that it forces him to be a Cowboy Cop to get things done and that it keeps trying to push him into chaos when all that is important to him is the [[LawfulGood law]].\\

Occasionally he resorts to it and the trope is played straight. It is always in circumstances that clearly warrant extreme measures. His rationalization: "It's me doing it." Put it this way; Vimes is a Cowboy Cop who kept getting promoted. He's also very aware that the justification "It's all right to break the rules because it's me doing it" could very easily be the start of a very slippery slope- even ''bad guys'' can use "it's okay, because it's me doing it" to justify their actions. (And Ponder Stibbons points out that 'part of being a good guy means not doing certain things'.)\\

** When Vimes continues his Cowboy Cop ways in ''Literature/NightWatchDiscworld'', it works so well that DaChief tries to have him assassinated. Ouch. DaChief wasn't Vetinari this time- [[spoiler:Vimes went back in time many years due to a magical accident and ended up as the Sergeant that trained his younger self. A young Havelock Vetinari actually saved Vimes from assassination at one point. This kind of thing happens on the Discworld all the time; apparently there's nothing that can be done about it....]]

* ''Literature/MatthewHawkwood'' - a cowboy Bow Street Runner!

* In Ragnarok, the first of ''Literature/TheEchoCaseFiles'', Navarro, a local police officer, brings a SWAT team along on a Confederate Marshals operation without getting permission from his superior. Except, well, this is a subversion: he's only a maverick because he's acting like a proper police officer in a corrupt department.
* Literature/JoePickett in the novels by C.W. Box is a game warden with a reputation as a cowboy cop (his position does give him law enforcement powers). Joe doesn't set out to deliberately break the rules, but operating on his own a long way from any back-up means he often has to employ his own initiative. His 'cowboy ways' - along with a personality clash with his supervisor - even gets him fired at one point.
* In ''Literature/TheFirstRuleOfSurvival'', veteran South African detective Vaugn de Vries is seen, by the new Black African leadership of the SAPS, as an anachronistic dinosaur whose attitudes and approach to policing are not only a product of UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra, but completely out of synch with modern policing methods. Knowing his time in the South African Police Service is most likely coming to an end, he takes on a case involving child sex abuse and trafficing of abducted boys in a manner that seriously strains the rulebook, and involves a lot of cowboy coppery.
* Attorney Arcinas of ''Literature/SmallerAndSmallerCircles'' displays shades of this—most notably, he jumps the gun by arresting the wrong suspect, which gets him a severe reprimand from [[DaChief the NBI Director]], who nearly threatens him with the NBI version of TurnInYourBadge (i.e. being fired or having his law practice revoked). He does try to get his kicks by suggesting a manhunt for the SerialKiller towards the end of the novel.

Occasionally he resorts to it and the trope is played straight. It is always in circumstances that clearly warrant extreme measures. His rationalization: "It's me doing it." Put it this way; Vimes is a Cowboy Cop who kept getting promoted. He's also very aware that the justification "It's all right to break the rules because it's me doing it" could very easily be the start of a very slippery slope.\\

* Deconstructed with Sam Vimes in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''. Vimes, despite being promoted time after time, is nonetheless an archetypal Cowboy Cop, rejecting the rules if they stop him from doing his job and hunting down criminals - or, as in Literature/NightWatchDiscworld, rejecting the code that has lead to the Watch becoming useless and Ankh-Morpork a police state - and frequently running up against DaChief in the form of Vetinari (although Vetinari is quite trope-savvy in this case, and appears to willingly take the position of DaChief in order to nudge Vimes in the right direction). The deconstruction comes because Vimes ''hates'' it - he hates that the system does not work, that it forces him to be a Cowboy Cop to get things done and that it keeps trying to push him into chaos when all that is important to him is the [[LawfulGood law]].\\

* Deconstructed with Sam Vimes in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''. Vimes, despite being promoted time after time, is nonetheless an archetypal Cowboy Cop, rejecting the rules if they stop him from doing his job and hunting down criminals - or, as in Discworld/NightWatch, rejecting the code that has lead to the Watch becoming useless and Ankh-Morpork a police state - and frequently running up against DaChief in the form of Vetinari (although Vetinari is quite trope-savvy in this case, and appears to willingly take the position of DaChief in order to nudge Vimes in the right direction). The deconstruction comes because Vimes ''hates'' it - he hates that the system does not work, that it forces him to be a Cowboy Cop to get things done and that it keeps trying to push him into chaos when all that is important to him is the [[LawfulGood law]].\\

** When Vimes continues his Cowboy Cop ways in ''Discworld/NightWatch'', it works so well that DaChief tries to have him assassinated. Ouch. DaChief wasn't Vetinari this time- [[spoiler:Vimes went back in time many years due to a magical accident and ended up as the Sergeant that trained his younger self. A young Havelock Vetinari actually saved Vimes from assassination at one point. This kind of thing happens on the Discworld all the time; apparently there's nothing that can be done about it....]]

* “Literature/KingCity”: Sergeant Wade morphs into one of these due to being sent to man a precinct in the city’s worst gang territory with practically no support as a UriahGambit by the police chief who he embarrassed by helping the FBI build a case against the mans handpicked (and heavily corrupt) major crimes unit. By page 35 he’s shot out the tires of a gangs car once they vandalize his to avoid showing weakness, dumps a murder victims body on the police chiefs lawn as a form of protest for not being given the recourses to investigate her murder, and drives a car through a wall while trying to arrest a CopKiller

* Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux's M/M crime romance series ''Literature/CutAndRun'' gives us FBI Special Agents [[CrazyAwesome Ty]] [[SemperFi Grady]] and [[PhotographicMemory Zane]] [[FunctionalAddict Garrett]], who are '''''both''''' [[CowboyCop Cowboy Cops]] (though Zane keeps up a ByTheBookCop facade most of the time, in contrast to his more HairTriggerTemper partner).

** Lieutenant (later Sergeant) Murphy plays this straight when she helps out her wizard PI friend [[DestructiveSavior Harry Dresden]], but in other cases tries to stick to the law. It's only after she gets dragged into Harry's world more she begins to go full cowboy. Off-screen she has to make a ToBeLawfulOrGood choice between ignoring the supernatural craziness infesting Chicago and keeping her career, or fighting it full-on and getting drummed out of the force. She chooses the former, but not without regret.

* It has been suggested that Captain Holly Short of the ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'' series may not own a copy of the rule book. If she does, she has certainly never read it.

* In Literature/TheDresdenFiles, Lieutenant (later Sergeant) Murphy plays this straight when she helps out [[ChaoticGood Harry]] [[DestructiveSavior Dresden]] but is also distinctly LawfulGood, especially in the early books to InspectorJavert levels.
** Harry is effectively one of these as Warden of the Council.
* Deconstructed with Sam Vimes in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''. Vimes, despite being promoted time after time, is nonetheless an archetypal Cowboy Cop, rejecting the rules if they stop him from doing his job and hunting down criminals - or, as in Discworld/NightWatch, rejecting the code that has lead to the Watch becoming useless and Ankh-Morpork a police state - and frequently running up against DaChief in the form of Vetinari (although Vetinari is quite trope-savvy in this case, and appears to willingly take the position of DaChief in order to nudge Vimes in the right direction). The deconstruction comes because Vimes ''hates'' it - he hates that the system does not work, that it forces him to be a Cowboy Cop to get things done and that it keeps trying to push him into [[ChaoticGood chaos]] when all that is important to him is the [[LawfulGood law]].\\

* In ''Literature/TheFirstRuleOfSurvival'', veteran South African detective Vaugn de Vries is seen, by the new Black African leadership of the SAPS, as an anachronistic dinosaur whose attitudes and approach to policing are not only a product of TheApartheidEra, but completely out of synch with modern policing methods. Knowing his time in the South African Police Service is most likely coming to an end, he takes on a case involving child sex abuse and trafficing of abducted boys in a manner that seriously strains the rulebook, and involves a lot of cowboy coppery.

* ''Literature/TheBlackEcho'' by Creator/MichaelConnelly - Harry Bosch is this trope to a T.

* Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux's M/M crime romance series ''[[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5199022-cut-run Cut & Run]]'' gives us FBI Special Agents [[CrazyAwesome Ty]] [[SemperFi Grady]] and [[PhotographicMemory Zane]] [[FunctionalAddict Garrett]], who are '''''both''''' [[CowboyCop Cowboy Cops]] (though Zane keeps up a ByTheBookCop facade most of the time, in contrast to his more HairTriggerTemper partner).

* ''The Black Echo'' by Creator/MichaelConnelly - Harry Bosch is this trope to a T.

* ''Film//TheGodfather'': Albert Neri was more than a "loose cannon" as a cop. Frustrated at the inability to do anything about the parking violations around the UN building he bashed in the ambassadors' windshields until he was reassigned to Harlem, then he smashed the skull of an unconscious pimp that he had caught molesting a little girl, which got him sent to prison. [[spoiler: Fortunately, his father in law knew the Corleones, and Michael was looking for a replacement for [[TheDragon Luca Brasi]].]]