History Main / CopsNeedTheVigilante

* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'': Zigzagged. Dexter Morgan is a legitimate agent of the police (albeit a lab technician, so he does not have the authority to arrest anyone) whose nighttime activities as a SerialKillerKiller are beneath notice by the rest of the department. When Dexter himself becomes a target of the FBI after a mass grave of his victims' corpses are discovered, most of his colleagues are quick to denounce the "Bay Harbor Butcher" and his one-man war on crime. Later, when Dexter was going after the Barrel Girl Gang, a group of criminals who raped and murdered numerous young women, Debra walked in on him in the middle of his kill ritual after he and Lumen, [[RapeAndRevenge one of the gang's would-be victims]], captured their leader. Dexter and Lumen were concealed behind a sheet of plastic, but Debra just said that she was going to let them get away with it because their victims were just that horrible.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Film - Live-Action]]

[[folder:Web Original]]

* ''Website/SCPFoundation'': [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-4494 SCP-4494]] is the AnthropomorphicPersonification of fighting crime, who resembles and acts like a superhero. If he's prevented from helping law enforcement, the concept of crimefighting will start to break down around him, leaving everyone in an ever-increasing radius unable to understand that crime is bad and should be stopped. The example given is an entire city being reduced to complete anarchy within ''two hours''. Thankfully, everything goes back to normal if he's let back on the case.

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': The series both acknowledges that Rick Castle is an agent of the police and that his actions routinely screw the pooch. Good job, ABC!

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': The series mostly skirted this issue, as Angel Investigations tended to stick with demonic activity (though the fact is the law probably wouldn't particularly care that the murderer was an immortal demonic entity). They tended to operate without police sanction, but they were called in by Detective Lockley a few times.

->'''Ingrid Block:''' I always hoped the law would catch up with him.
->'''Elliot Stabler:''' The law doesn't always guarantee justice.
->'''Ingrid Block:''' But this time, ''I did.''

** This was deconstructed in one storyline: ''ComicBook/BatmanNoMansLand.'' After a massive earthquake devastates Gotham and the US Government declares it to be "No Man's Land", various gangs end up claiming territories for themselves. The Gotham PD themselves become such a gang, the ''Blue Boys'', with Jim Gordan at the head, egged on by Petit to be more ruthless, and causing him to resent Batman for seemingly abandoning them in their time of need. Another officer questions ''why'' Gordon is really that mad at Batman, and Gordon's wife Sarah explains that he initially tried to ''leave'' Gotham and join another Police Department, but was laughed out of all of them since he's considered incompetent for relying on a costumed vigilante, resenting Batman for making him look like a fool, and his forces now never mentioning him by name, instead of calling him "The B". When Batman returns and claims Scarface's territory as his own, Gordon just sees him as another enemy, with even Batman's attempt at revealing his identity to regain trust failing [[SecretIdentityApathy since Gordon refuses to look at his face.]] Gordon doesn't manage to get much done on his own, however, relying on an alliance with ComicBook/TwoFace that quickly turns sour, Petit breaking off and forming his own gang after Gordon doesn't go far ''enough'', nearly gets killed by David Cain only being saved thanks to [[ComicBook/{{Batgirl}} Cassandra]], and capped off with [[spoiler:ComicBook/TheJoker killing Sarah right before NML was lifted.]]

[[folder:Film]]

* ''Film/BeverlyHillsCop'' (I'm sensing a trend here, [[Creator/EddieMurphy Mr. Murphy]]) does this, too, in a funny way. Detective Axel Foley isn't a cop ''in Beverly Hills''. His antics are amusing but illegal.
* ''Film/DeathWish3'': The Captain of the local police precinct gives Paul Kersey carte blanche to do whatever it takes to eliminate the criminal gang that is terrorizing the town (because [[CrapsackWorld crime rates overall are high enough that the police's hands are tied]], and this has given the gang the idea that they have free reign to perform said terrorizing).
* ''Film/TheDukesOfHazzard'' movie actually did this mostly right. The Duke cousins all broke the law, but they did so not only without permission but in the face of police antagonism.
* ''Film/TheDarkKnight'': While officially maintaining the fiction that Batman is a wanted vigilante, the Gotham P.D is openly working with him, even bringing in Batman to conduct a violent interrogation of the Joker while the detectives look on. However, this changes by the end of the movie when Batman takes the blame for the death of Harvey Dent, and Commissioner Gordon is shown smashing up the Bat Signal with an axe.
* ''Film/ManOnFire'': Although they never directly interact, Detective Manzano is fully aware that Creasy is carving a bloody path through the Mexican underworld and accomplishing more in a week than he could in a lifetime. After keeping tabs on Creasy's progress throughout the movie, [[spoiler: Manzano personally takes care of the main villain after Creasy sacrifices himself to save Pita]].

* ''Film/MissMeadows'': Implied by Mike's actions throughout the film [[spoiler: and especially the ending]], as Miss Meadows is able to eliminate criminals whom there's no evidence against.

* ''Series/BarneyMiller''

* Marvel's Netflix shows show that the NYPD adapting to the appearance of superheroes in New York City, some of whom they're allied with and some with whom they're enemies.
** ''Series/Daredevil2015'': In seasons 1 and 2, Matt Murdock, while operating as Daredevil, develops an uneasy secret alliance with Sgt. Brett Mahoney, [[FriendOnTheForce Foggy Nelson's childhood best friend]] and contact in the 15th Precinct. Ultimately, in season 1, Matt's role as Daredevil was necessary given how many of Hell's Kitchen's cops were in Wilson Fisk's pocket. By season 2, Brett is not too fond of the alliance, even nearly arresting Matt on a couple of occasions. Early on, Brett mentions to Foggy and Karen that the NYPD rank and file are split on their views of vigilantes like Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and the Punisher. Some cops see the vigilantes as making their jobs much easier, but others think they're just making the issue worse. Brett is in the latter category, explicitly saying in "Penny and Dime" that just because Matt gave them Fisk and flushed out the police corruption doesn't put him and the NYPD on the same side. Later in the episode, when Brett rolls up on Matt and Frank Castle in the cemetery, Matt persuades him to take sole credit for the Punisher's arrest and not make any mention of Daredevil's presence at the scene because it will restore public trust in the police.
--->'''Matt Murdock:''' Take the collar. Take the credit. Get a promotion, if you can. You've earned it.\\
'''Brett Mahoney:''' Bullshit.\\
'''Matt Murdock:''' No, people have to know the system works. Not his justice and not mine. Vigilante days are done in this town. The police are in charge.\\
'''Brett Mahoney:''' That's not how it happened.\\
'''Matt Murdock:''' Then make it how it happened.
** In season 3, Daredevil's necessity is made clear as the FBI agents that are supposedly guarding Wilson Fisk are actually secretly working for him. Once Ray Nadeem realizes that Dex is the fake Daredevil that Fisk hired to attack the ''Bulletin'', he and Matt team up to break into Dex's apartment to investigate. Later on, after Nadeem finds out that his boss and the rest of his colleagues are also in Fisk's pocket, he continues corresponding with Matt. Matt ultimately trusts Nadeem enough that when Nadeem goes rogue, and Matt rescues him and his family from assassins Fisk sends to their house to kill them, he unmasks himself as a show of gratitude. In turn, Nadeem chooses to hire Matt and Foggy as his lawyers to help negotiate a plea bargain for him to testify against Fisk.
** ''Series/LukeCage2016'': Misty Knight is a detective in the 29th Precinct, and after Luke hits Cottonmouth's stash houses as retaliation for Pop's murder, she and her partner Rafael Scarfe briefly discuss whether or not "gifted" people like Luke Cage are a boon for the NYPD or a thorn in their side. Scarfe is a DirtyCop on Cottonmouth's payroll, but he celebrates a VigilanteMan helping cops out when years of investigation have no payoff, especially when crime bosses like Fisk and Cottonmouth routinely pay off cops and government officials to kill investigations into their criminal activities, and "gifted" people exist everywhere. Misty, though, believes vigilantes (especially superpowered ones) are dangerous and should not be left untouched, and has a very adversarial relationship with Luke. The show goes to great lengths to show that [[BothSidesHaveAPoint both sides make good cases]]: the NYPD are sometimes in way over their heads and gifted vigilantes can really be a boon for them. However, since Luke Cage has a code against killing, at some point he's going to need the system again or else the criminals he beats up will just come back. This is best highlighted in the final episode: Diamondback is taken off the streets, but Misty's only witness against Mariah Dillard gets killed by Shades because no one trusts the system enough to make sure she is protected.
*** In season 2, the events of ''Series/TheDefenders2017'' have left Misty more trusting of Luke, to the point of her becoming his sidekick at several points as they investigate leads on Bushmaster since she doesn't trust her police colleagues (especially considering that her boss Captain Thomas Ridenhour is stonewalling her investigations into Mariah, ostensibly to protect her as he was her high school sweetheart and confidant).

* The Series/{{Arrowverse}} plays both sides of this:
** In ''Series/TheFlash2014'', the cops really are out of their depth dealing with metahumans, which is demonstrated in Season 1 (when the Reverse-Flash casually takes down a roomful of heavily-armed cops) and in Season 2 (when Zoom slaughters a dozen cops in a split-second and sends an army of Earth-2's metahumans to wreak havoc on Earth-1's Central City). While the Flash is technically a vigilante, he's such a beloved hero that this is simply ignored. The Flash often delivers metahumans to the cops without mention of any legal issues, and the Flash's team has helped the cops without their knowledge by providing them power-containment technology through their civilian identities.
** In ''Series/{{Arrow}}'', it's brought up several times that vigilantes taking care of criminals is making the cops look bad and has a negative effect on morale. Legally, the city varies between trying to ignore the vigilantes to actively hunting them. This usually depends on whether or not a villain is framing them at the moment. In Season 7, Team Arrow is even legally incorporated into the Star City Police Department (though making this work in practice is shown to be rather difficult).
** In ''Series/Supergirl2015'', regular cops really can't do much about aliens and metahumans. The DEO, on the other hand, is more equipped to handle ''some'' of the threats. Still, without Supergirl, National City (and probably all of Earth-38) would have fallen long ago. Of course, the DEO is an official government organization and Supergirl an on-the-books agent, making this more a case of cops needing federal help.
** ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' zig-zags this in Season 3 with the introduction of the Time Bureau. While they do an excellent job sorting through the mess created by the Legends at the end of Season 2, their arrogance does, occasionally, result in them screwing up, forcing the Legends to step in and resolve the issue (hopefully, without making the problem worse). The Legends are semi-official agents; at the very least, the Bureau has agreed to stop actively trying to arrest them.

* When a ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' team is hired for some kind of illegal work, there's always a chance that the Johnson hiring them is working for the police - not as a sting operation against the runners, but in order to gather information or evidence that they can't legally go after themselves. There's also "avenging angel" contracts, where Lone Star hires a shadowrunner team to do in a crook who got OffOnATechnicality or who they otherwise can't touch.

* ''VideoGame/Sly2BandOfThieves'': [[FriendOnTheForce Neyla]] gives Sly several leads, with the justification that she can't follow them up herself, as she lacks sufficient evidence for a warrant, whereas "a thief like you can go wherever he pleases". Cleverly, [[spoiler: it turns out that Neyla's willingness to bend the law really [[DirtyCop should have been]] [[DoubleReverseQuadrupleAgent a red flag]]]].

* ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'': A side mission sees ex-cop Adam Jensen recruited by one of his former colleagues to help with a case. Though there is some lip service paid to the fact that they're "bending the rules" and "have to be careful how we handle this," Jensen is perfectly able to collect evidence and even "arrest" suspects (by knocking them out for the police to retrieve later) without a warrant with no consequences to the investigation. The only concession is that remaining unseen while in gang territory will net a bonus reward for the player, as their being detected will "complicate" the investigation.
* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 3}}'': In a ''Borderlands 2'' ECHO log, it's mentioned that Amara took it upon herself to clean up crime on her homeworld. It's unclear whether the cops ''needed'' her to handle criminals for them, but since she's an uber-powerful Siren, they decided to stay the hell out of her way. They also seem to appreciate her presence -- one lets slip a "you go, girl!" before panicking and pleading his interviewer to cut that bit out (they didn't).

* Subverted in the first two seasons of ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman''. Gotham’s complete reliance on Batman to stop crime is regarded as a black eye by the police, and has lead to Gotham being rated “America’s scariest city.” As such Batman has to deal with occasional police interference, and one cop is suspended for being too sympathetic to the Bat. This is worked out by the end of Season 2, and the trope is played straight after that.

* ''Film/TheDarkKnight''. While officially maintaining the fiction that Batman is a wanted vigilante, the Gotham P.D is openly working with him, even bringing in Batman to conduct a violent interrogation of the Joker while the detectives look on. However, this changes by the end of the movie when Batman takes the blame for the death of Harvey Dent, and Commissioner Gordon is shown smashing up the Bat Signal with an axe.

-->'''George Stacy:''' He's an amateur who's assaulting civilians in the dead of night. He's clumsy, he leaves clues, but...he's still dangerous.
-->'''Peter Parker:''' He's--he's assaulting people? I'm not sure. I mean, I saw that video with him and the car thief, and...I-I think most people would say that he was providing a public service.
-->'''George Stacy:''' Most people would be wrong. If I wanted the car thief off the street, he'd already be off the street.
-->'''Peter Parker:''' So why wasn't he then?
-->'''George Stacy:''' Let me illuminate you. See, the car thief was leading us to the people who run the entire operation. It's been a six-month-long sting. It's called "strategy", I'm sure you're aware of the term "strategy"? You've probably heard about that in school?
-->'''Peter Parker:''' Okay. Well obviously, he didn't have a plan.
-->'''George Stacy:''' Deep d-you seem to know an awful lot about this case. You know something we don't know? I mean, whose side are you on here?
-->'''Peter Parker:''' I'm not on anyone's side. I saw a video on the Internet-
-->'''George Stacy:''' [[SarcasmMode Oh. You saw the video on the Internet. Well, then the case is closed]].
-->'''Peter Parker:''' Well, no, I'm just saying if you watch the video, maybe I send you the link, it looks like he's trying to help-
-->'''George Stacy:''' Yeah sure on the Internet, he's been made to look like some kind of masked hero or something.
-->'''Peter Parker:''' No-no-no, I'm not saying he's a hero, I don't think he's a hero at all.
-->'''George Stacy:''' What are you trying to say?
-->'''Peter Parker:''' I'm saying he's trying to help, but he looks like he's trying to do something that maybe the police can't.
-->'''George Stacy:''' Something the police ''can't''?
-->'''Peter Parker:''' I dunno-
-->'''George Stacy:''' [[DonutMessWithACop What do you think we do all day? You think we just sit around eating donuts with our thumbs planted firmly up our asses]]?

* Marvel's Netflix shows show that the NYPD has to adapt to the arrival of all of these new superpowered freaks, some of whom they're allied with and some with whom they're enemies.
** ''Series/Daredevil2015'': In seasons 1 and 2, Matt Murdock, as Daredevil, develops an uneasy secret alliance with Sgt. Brett Mahoney. Ultimately, in season 1, Matt's role as Daredevil was necessary given how many of Hell's Kitchen's cops were in Wilson Fisk's pocket. By season 2, Brett is not too fond of the alliance, even nearly arresting Matt on a couple of occasions. In one scene, Brett mentions to Foggy and Karen that the NYPD rank and file are split on their views of vigilantes like Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and the Punisher. Some cops see the vigilantes as making their jobs much easier, but others think they're just making the issue worse. Brett is in the latter category, explicitly saying in "Penny and Dime" that just because Matt stopped Wilson Fisk doesn't put him and the NYPD on the same side. Later in the episode, when Brett and his partner roll up on Matt and Frank Castle in the cemetery, Matt persuades Brett to take all the credit for the Punisher's arrest and not make any mention of Daredevil's presence at the scene.
--->'''Matt Murdock:''' Take the collar. Take the credit. Get a promotion, if you can. You've earned it.
--->'''Brett Mahoney:''' Bullshit.
--->'''Matt Murdock:''' No, people have to know the system works. Not his justice and not mine. Vigilante days are done in this town. The police are in charge.
--->'''Brett Mahoney:''' That's not how it happened.
--->'''Matt Murdock:''' Then make it how it happened.
** In season 3, Daredevil's necessity is made clear as the FBI agents that are supposedly guarding Wilson Fisk are actually secretly working for him. Once Ray Nadeem realizes that Dex is the fake Daredevil that Fisk hired to attack the ''Bulletin'', he and Matt team up to break into Dex's apartment to investigate. Later on, after Nadeem finds out that his boss and the rest of his colleagues are also in Fisk's pocket, he continues corresponding with Matt. Matt ultimately trusts Nadeem enough that when Nadeem goes rogue, and Matt rescues him and his family from assassins Fisk sends to their house to kill them, he unmasks himself as a show of gratitude. Then Matt and Foggy rep Nadeem as he decides to testify against Fisk.
** ''Series/LukeCage2016'': Misty Knight is an NYPD Detective, and after Luke hits Cottonmouth's main stash house at Crispus Attucks, she and Rafael Scarfe briefly discuss whether or not "gifted" people like Luke Cage are a boon for the NYPD or a thorn in their side. Scarfe is a DirtyCop on Cottonmouth's payroll, but he celebrates a VigilanteMan helping cops out when years of investigation have no payoff, especially when crime bosses like Wilson Fisk and Cottonmouth have cops and government officials they can pay to quash investigations into their criminal activities, and "gifted" people exist everywhere. Misty, though, believes vigilantes (especially superpowered ones) are dangerous and should not be left untouched, and has a very adversarial relationship with Luke. The show goes to great lengths to show that [[BothSidesHaveAPoint both sides make good cases]]: the NYPD are sometimes in way over their heads and gifted vigilantes can really be a boon for them. However, since Luke Cage has a code against killing, at some point he's going to need the system again or else the criminals he beats up will just come back. This is best highlighted in the final episode: Diamondback is taken off the streets, but Misty's only witness against Mariah Dillard got killed by Shades because no one trusted the system enough to make sure she was protected.
*** In season 2, the events of ''Series/TheDefenders2017'' have left Misty more trusting of Luke, to the point she's his sidekick at several points as they investigate leads on Bushmaster since she doesn't trust her police colleagues (especially considering that her boss Captain Thomas Ridenhour is stonewalling her investigations into Mariah, ostensibly to protect her as he was her high school sweetheart and confidant).
* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'': Zigzagged. Dexter is a legitimate agent of the police (albeit a lab technician, so he does not have the authority to arrest anyone) whose nighttime activities as a SerialKillerKiller are beneath notice by the rest of the department. When Dexter himself becomes a target of the FBI after a mass grave of his victims' corpses are discovered, most of his colleagues are quick to denounce the "Bay Harbor Butcher" and his one-man war on crime. Later, when Dexter was going after the Barrel Girl Gang, a group of criminals who raped and murdered numerous young women, Debra walked in on him in the middle of his kill ritual after he and Lumen, [[RapeAndRevenge one of the gang's would-be victims]], captured their leader. Dexter and Lumen were concealed behind a sheet of plastic, but Debra just said that she was going to let them get away with it because their victims were just that horrible.

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[[folder: Film]]

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* ''Film/FortyEightHours'' and ''Film/AnotherFortyEightHours'' are at least honest in that the guy breaking the rules is an actual criminal. Still, the case would get thrown right the hell out.

Compare RecruitingTheCriminal and BoxedCrook. See also BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork and VigilanteMan.