History Main / CallingTheCopsOnTheFBI

This can be TruthInTelevision (see the Real Life section) but it's uncommon. Though the specifics vary from country to country, federal enforcement agencies work to avert this. It's routine practice (and often an explicit requirement) for federal agents to consult with local law enforcement about their activities so that situations like this can be avoided. In addition to preventing criminals from exploiting this trope it avoids a situation where people trained with weapons would fire on each other, which could end ''very'' badly.

* In ''Film/{{Taxi}}'' (1998), the first attempt of Commissioner Gibert's brigade of regular [[UsefulNotes/LesCopsSportif French cops]] to arrest the "Mercedes Gang" of German {{bank robber|y}}s ends up a disaster when a confused shootout erupts between the brigade, a CRS company and the special forces in the convoy of the French Minister of the Interior who just showed up on the site, just because the latter caused a road accident. The German bank robbers simply use the occasion to flee. Fortunately with such a shootout with MoreDakka, no-one gets hurt.

* In at least one of [[Film/TheBourneSeries the Bourne films]], Jason Bourne calls the local police to confuse and deter the CIA chasing him. On other instances across the three movies, they show up on their own, because random secret service members probably shouldn't be able to go around shooting each other in France, Russia, and the United States.
* In ''Film/TheBourneSupremacy'', [[UsefulNotes/MoscowCentre FSB]] agent Kirill (Creator/KarlUrban), who also works as henchman for Yuri Gretkov, gets stopped from shooting further at Bourne (after wounding him in the shoulder) by regular UsefulNotes/{{Moscow}} cops holding him at gunpoint, though they release him rapidly.

[[folder:Film - Animation]]
* ''Anime/TheCastleOfCagliostro''

[[folder:Film - Live Action]]

---> '''Michael:''' For fifteen [bucks] I wanna see some tears, okay?

---> '''Michael (voice-over):''' Calling the cops on someone can teach you a lot: a foreign agent will run. So might an armed assassin. A bureaucrat's gonna ... act like a bureaucrat.
* ''{{Series/Columbo}}'': In "Murder, Smoke and Shadows", when eating in movie shooting area cafeteria, Columbo witnesses a pair of actresses discussing what seems to be vital evidence to push forward his investigation of murder. The discussion is later revealed to have been staged by Alex Brady in order to actually derail the investigation. ''Later'', because a security guard stops Columbo on accusation of stalking actresses, effectively preventing him from following the pair and verifying things immediately. Columbo later pulls the same trick back on Brady, having undercover cops stationed on the lot to overhear Brady trying to buy his secretary's silence.

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]