History Main / FriendOnTheForce

* ''Film/TheBatman2022'': As Jim Gordon is not yet the police commissioner, he's this to Batman. He can get the Bat into crime scenes and permission to investigate, but the other police and Commissioner Savage in particular barely tolerate it; at one point when they're ready to finally arrest Batman, the two have to stage a falling out, complete with Batman punching him in the face, for him to get away. Also unlike most incarnations, Gordon and Batman actively investigate together, unofficial partners in all but names, rather than they're usual dynamic wherein Gordon simply hands the Batman information and lets him do the rest.

* ''Series/{{Tracker}}'' had Mel's on again-off again boyfriend Detective Vic Bruno. She makes use of him a few times during the series. (Trust,A Made Guy)

Compare to InspectorLestrade, which is a detective that is incapable of solving crimes without the help of a GreatDetective -- though it's pretty common for a FOTF to double as a Lestrade. Superheroes usually have enough clout to enlist TheCommissionerGordon. Compare and contrast FriendInTheBlackMarket, for a helping hand on the more dubious side of the law.

The usefulness of the relationship is sometimes mutual. The friend might ask the Private Detective to [[CopsNeedTheVigilante help him with certain shady things that he as an official cannot do]], either because he is too high profile and recognisable, or it will break regulations and he wants to avoid trouble with the press and/or InternalAffairs.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsFromZero'': This is omnipresent throughout the game as the PlayerParty are police officers. The player gets rewarded for keeping contacts and investigating thoroughly with Detective Points that count towards promotion. Some of the best sources work in bars, like the CampGay gang leader Wazy [[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign Hemisphere]].

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'' has Kate Beckett for the title Rick Castle, a mystery author who assists the police in exchange for inspiration for his stories. They both have loads of {{UST}}, which eventually is resolved. [[spoiler: To the point where she gradually becomes his Girlfriend, Fiancée and eventually Wife on the Force.]]
* ''{{Series/Charmed|1998}}'': The most prominent one is Lieutenant Darryl Morris, who helped the sisters throughout the series, except in the first and last seasons. The first season had Darryl's partner and Prue's boyfriend Andy Trudeau, and the last season had Homeland Security Agent Murphy and Paige's boyfriend Henry Mitchell, a parole officer.

* ''Series/TheSpencerSisters'': Zane is an officer with the police force in Alder Bluffs, and Darby's old friend. After she's moved back there and starts investigating crimes along with her mother, Zane is helpful as he can arrest suspects they find evidence on along with his colleagues or provide other assistance.

* In ''ComicBook/BakerStreet'', Inspector Pinner is Sharon Ford's former partner in CID, and still comes to ehr for help with difficult cases. She sometimes calls him in at the end of her private investigations to handle the official bit of locking up the villains.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Drowntown}}'', Leo goes to an old acquaintance of his, Inspector Mickey Hammond, for information. Hammond isn't actually very friendly (or at least, they're VitriolicBestBuds), but Leo points out that some of Hammond's successes were thanks to Leo's help (and that this help could be withdrawn in future).
* Sable has Captain Josh Winters in ''ComicBook/JonSableFreelance''. Winters will sometimes slip into TheCommissionerGordon role.
* ComicBook/LadyMechanika has Detective Inspector Singh as her liaison on police force.
* In ''ComicBook/TheLongTomorrow'', private investigator Pete Club's cop friend and confidant is Lieutenant 3, who also happens to be a robot-like everyone else on the Force.
* Lt. Roberta Bliss is this to Jennifer and Gabe in ''ComicBook/TheMazeAgency''.
* Michael Tree in ''ComicBook/MsTree'' has Lt. Rafe Valer, her late husband's former partner.
* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'':
** Prior to her death, Detective Jeanne [=DeWolff=] was this for Franchise/SpiderMan.

* ''ComicBook/Starfire2015'': Sheriff Stella Gomez and her brother Sol Gomez (head of the coastal guard) become this to ComicBook/{{Starfire}} during her stay in Key West, with Starfire occasionally assisting them with city matters. Although Stella also often acts as Starfire's CloudcuckoolandersMinder due to her being a FishOutOfWater in the city.
* Inspector Mike Henderson, member of [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Metropolis]] police, Metacrimes Division during ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'''s [[ComicBook/Supergirl2005 Gates/Igle run]]. He helped ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} discover the identity of Superwoman during the ''ComicBook/WhoIsSuperwoman'' story arc.

-->-- ''[[Creator/AndrewVachss Mask Market]]''

* Kazuma Kiryu of the ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza}}'' series has Makoto Date, a detective with Organized Crime that often ends up helping him out whenever their paths cross. While they never go so far as to call each other friends, they both have great respect for one another and Date is one of Kiryu's most consistent and reliable allies throughout the series.

* ''Creator/JohnLeCarre'''s George Smiley has Inspector Mendel, whether neuntil he retires. The quote comes from a book that occurs after his retirement, so Burke cannot count on his help any more.arly retired or fully retired.

** Megure is this to Kogoro and Shin'ichi. He also used to be this to Yusaku.
** Several other major policemen would fill this roll to Kogoro and Conan.
** Otaki is this to Heiji.

** George Lestrade of the Yard for Team Holmes

* Series/MrLucky has Lieutenant Rovacs, though Rovacs isn't always happy about the arrangement.

* [[ALowDownDirtyShame Shame]] has two - DEA Agent Rothmiller and Captain Nunez. [[spoiler: Rothmiller is a subversion. He's really working with Mendoza, the BigBad.]]

!!Examples

* Hajime Kindaichi of ''Manga/TheKindaichiCaseFiles'' have won the trust of Inspector Kenmochi and, to a lesser extent, Inspector Akechi. Whenever a clueless district officer tries to stop him from snooping around, Kindaichi could always get their reference to force them to allow him continue the investigation.

* ''Manga/CaseClosed'':
** Megure is this to Kogoro and Shin'ichi. He also used to be this to Yusaku.
** Several other major policemen would fill this roll to Kogoro and Conan.
** Otaki is this to Heiji.
* In ''Manga/BillyBat'', Kevin's ally Agent Smith works for the CIA.
* ''Manga/MoriartyThePatriot'':
** George Lestrade of the Yard for Team Holmes
** Zachary Patterson of the Yard for the villains, Team Moriarty.

* Michael Tree in ''ComicBook/MsTree'' has Lt. Rafe Valer, her late husband's former partner.
* Lt. Roberta Bliss is this to Jennifer and Gabe in ''ComicBook/TheMazeAgency''.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Drowntown}}'', Leo goes to an old acquaintance of his, Inspector Mickey Hammond, for information. Hammond isn't actually very friendly (or at least, they're VitriolicBestBuds), but Leo points out that some of Hammond's successes were thanks to Leo's help (and that this help could be withdrawn in future).
* In ''ComicBook/BakerStreet'', Inspector Pinner is Sharon Ford's former partner in CID, and still comes to ehr for help with difficult cases. She sometimes calls him in at the end of her private investigations to handle the official bit of locking up the villains.
* In ''ComicBook/TheLongTomorrow'', private investigator Pete Club's cop friend and confidant is Lieutenant 3, who also happens to be a robot-like everyone else on the Force.
* ComicBook/LadyMechanika has Detective Inspector Singh as her liaison on police force.
* ''ComicBook/Starfire2015'': Sheriff Stella Gomez and her brother Sol Gomez (head of the coastal guard) become this to ComicBook/{{Starfire}} during her stay in Key West, with Starfire occasionally assisting them with city matters. Although Stella also often acts as Starfire's CloudcuckoolandersMinder due to her being a FishOutOfWater in the city.

* In ''Fanfic/ChrysalisVisitsTheHague'', the judge Colm Mullan acts as one to the lawyer protagonist Estermann, since they're dear old friends. The [[ArtisticLicenseLaw relative illegality]] of this is {{Lampshaded}}.
* Private eye James Evans (a.k.a. Harry Potter) has a few of these in ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/8644489/chapters/19825003 Inlaqueo]]'', including Hermione Granger and a couple of Aurors.

* Inspector Tobias Gregson for ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'', with whom he is more friendly, and who is the counterpart of InspectorLestrade. Hopkins probably counts as well, though he is more of a Protegé on the Force.

* ''Literature/NeroWolfe'''s relations with Inspector Cramer are more cordial than friendly. Sergeant Purley Stebbins, though, has been known to spend the evenings playing cards with Archie Goodwin and the boys.

* ''Literature/LordPeterWimsey'' has Inspector Charles Parker, who later becomes his brother-in-law.
* In the ''[[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Coruscant Nights Trilogy]]'', the hero Jax Pavan, who "finds things" and has a rather complicated, never defined job that does involve investigation, has a slightly antagonistic but ultimately friendly relationship with Pol Haus, a police prefect on Coruscant. Of course, there's never anyone to lock up, since Pavan's enemies strongly tend to be Dark Jedi who [[NeverFoundTheBody vanish]], Inquisitors working with the Empire, and ''Darth Vader''. Mostly Haus and Pavan just meet to trade information. Haus suspects that Pavan is a Jedi, but ultimately bails him out.
* In George C. Chesbro's ''In the House of Secret Enemies'', Detective/Criminologist Dr. Robert Frederickson (Mongo to people who knew him from the circus) has a big brother, Garth, on the New York City Police Force. A much bigger brother.
* ''Creator/JohnLeCarre'''s George Smiley has Inspector Mendel, whether neuntil he retires. The quote comes from a book that occurs after his retirement, so Burke cannot count on his help any more.arly retired or fully retired.
* [=McGowan=] from the Creator/AndrewVachss Burke books, at least
* In ''Literature/TheHardyBoys'' books, the Hardys have two major ones in the Bayport Police Department:
** Police chief Ezra Collig is an old friend of Fenton Hardy who often works with the brothers as a ReasonableAuthorityFigure on the force, though he makes few arrests himself. In a lot of books, one-off cops are typically the ones who actually arrest the criminals. In some of the series--mainly the ''Casefiles'' spinoff and a few of the mainline Digest books--Collig doesn't appreciate the boys horning on the department's cases and butts heads with them, but still looks out for their safety and respects their skills when they inevitably catch the bad guys.
** A straighter example is Officer Con Riley. In the original books, he's a ButtMonkey comic-relief character, but by the Digests and ''Casefiles'', is a reliable and trusted ally and source of intel for Frank and Joe, treating them more kindly and respectfully than Collig does, and they consider him a genuine friend. In some books where the case they're working on is outside of Bayport, the boys will call him when they need info like looking up someone's record or checking a license plate or fingerprint.
* In the ''Literature/NancyDrew'' books, Chief [=McGinnis=] (the chief of police in River Heights) is a close family friend of Carson and Nancy Drew, and Nancy and Chief [=McGinnis=] turn to each other for help in many of the books.

* On the West Coast, ''Literature/ShellScott'' is friends with Captain Phil Samson, LAPD.

* ''Literature/BenjaminJanuary'' has Lieutenant Shaw.

* ''Literature/MaridAudran'' has Lt. Okking. Okking generally tolerates Audran, and sends cases his way when the police don't want to be bothered, but there might be enough money to interest Audran. Audran hates cops, but tolerates Okking, and calls him by preference when something turns up that requires a police presence.

* ''Literature/TheBourneSeries'' turns the BigBad of ''The Bourne Identity'' into Bourne's helper in the next two books, ''Supremacy'' and ''Ultimatum''. [[spoiler:It's Alexander Conklin.]]
* Geoph Essex seems to [[PlayingWithATrope toy with this trope]] without ever playing it totally straight. In ''Lovely Assistant'', Jenny has Detective Monaghan, who is originally the Series/{{Columbo}}-like [[ObfuscatingStupidity cop]] questioning ''her'' about all the weird stuff going on, but turns out to be a useful guy to know. In ''Jackrabbit Messiah'', Lieutenant Springer seems to ''start out'' as Amity's (and Jack's) Friend on the Force, but kind of cuts the cord as she heads off on the [[TheQuest big adventure]] with them.
* ''Literature/TheGreatMerlini'': Merlini and Inspector Gavigan were friends before the first novel started.
* ''Literature/PhiloVance'' has two. John Markham (technically District Attorney, not a policeman) brought Vance in for the earliest novels because the two had a long-standing friendship. A couple novels in to the series, Sergeant Heath (NYPD Homicide Division) has warmed to Vance enough to count as well.
* ''Literature/MickOberon'' has Pete, the werewolf cop. Mick lets him into Elphame during the full moon so he won't hurt anyone.
* In ''[[Literature/EddieLaCrosse The Sword-Edged Blonde]]'', one of the Eddie's old mercenary comrades is now head of law enforcement in a city where Eddie needs to find a certain criminal. They naturally help each other out, but don't end up fully in accord — there's a supernatural aspect to the criminal which Eddie doesn't want to reveal. The friend indicates that he'll probably get over his irritation eventually, but right now, it would be best for Eddie to leave town.

* In ''Literature/{{Newshound}}'', FBI Agent Jonathan Stone functions as this for his sister Heather, who uses him to cut through administrative red tape and as an occasional source of information.
* ''Literature/SmallerAndSmallerCircles'': At the NBI, Ading Rustia is this to Saenz. Also the Director by extension.
* ''Literature/DominoLady'': Det. "Mad Dog" Morgan Verani provides Domino Lady with details of cases he thinks she would be interested in.
* In the ''Literature/MarcusDidiusFalco'' series, Falco's best friend, Petronius, is a member of the Vigiles, who were more of a Fire Department than a Police Force, but were the closest thing ancient Rome had. The books make it look more like a Police Force than it probably historically was.
* ''Literature/MitchTobin'': Tobin has a few old police colleagues who he sometimes gets help form, most frequently Marty Kengelberg (who, ironically, is still bitter towards Tobin for getting his partner killed in the first book but mends fences with him by the end).
* ''Literature/FunJungle'': Fish and Wildlife officer Tommy Lopez, in the two most recent books. Chief Honneker has shades of this by the fourth book, although he still answers to J.J. before letting them in the loop.
* Creator/EllisPeters' [[Literature/FelseInvestigates Felse novels]] feature police detective George Felse and his son Dominic; some of the novels focus on George's official investigations, while some have Dominic acting as an amateur sleuth with George as his friend on the force.
* ''Literature/HoshiAndTheRedCityCircuit'' has RCPD inspector Cassandra Sorreno, who was Hoshi's primary sponsor before she was emancipated, and is now one of her closest allies.
* ''Literature/TheCatWhoSeries'': Andrew Brodie, police chief for Pickax, is this for Qwill; he's also one of the very few people whom Qwill has trusted with the secret of Koko's strange abilities.
* ''Literature/ChocoholicMysteries'': Hogan Jones, the chief of police for Warner Pier, is this for Lee, especially after he marries her aunt Nettie. However, this doesn't always help -- some of the state police and the sheriff's department suspect that he's helping keep her out of trouble whenever she gets involved in a crime, either as the target or just because she found the body.
* ''Literature/TheThursdayMurderClub'' have DCI Chris Hudson and PC Donna de Freitas of the Kent Police to help them with inquiries. Donna loves the arrangement while Chris would prefer it if the club would just turn over evidence rather than feeding him drips and drabs because they want to solve the case themselves.
* ''Literature/Moon1985'': Traumatised psychic Jonathan Childes helped Detective Inspector Ken Overoy find a child-molesting SerialKiller. They get back in touch when Childes psychically witnesses more murder.

* The Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse has a few:
** ''Series/CloakAndDagger2018'': Detective Brigid O'Reilly. She initially went looking for Tandy because she suspected that Tandy had defended herself from assault; unfortunately, by the time Tandy decided to speak up, the assaulter in question had already had his rich uncle clean up the mess and make it look like he was just a victim of a random mugging. Later, when Tyrone is trying to investigate the cop who shot his brother, Tandy sends him to O'Reilly, and she does everything she can to help.
** ''Series/{{Daredevil|2015}}'':
*** Sgt. Brett Mahoney from the 15th Precinct is Foggy Nelson's childhood friend, and thus a major ally to Nelson & Murdock. As one of the few cops in the precinct not to be on Wilson Fisk's payroll, he's also the one reliable cop the firm turns Detective Carl Hoffman over to when he sells Fisk out. In season 2, Brett also becomes a somewhat reluctant ally towards Matt Murdock's alter ego Daredevil. In season 3, he gives Foggy the space at a union gathering to deliver a speech condemning the FBI's handling of Fisk's release from prison and encourage the NYPD to throw their support behind his impromptu district attorney campaign. Later in the season, he assists Foggy and Nadeem in keeping Karen from being captured by Dex, takes in Nadeem's family after Fisk tries to have them killed in retaliation, and is the one to take Fisk back into custody after Nadeem's death.
*** FBI Special Agent Ray Nadeem is a lesser variant of this. He starts off as a bit of an antagonist towards the members of the main trio, due to his pride keeping him from realizing that Fisk is manipulating him. He doesn't become this trope until halfway through the season, once confronted with evidence establishing that Fisk manipulated the FBI into letting him out of prison and is using Nadeem's coworker Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter as his personal assassin. Subsequently, he helps Matt investigate Dex, though their attempt to break into Dex's apartment ends with him getting shot while fleeing. After finding out that the rest of his FBI colleagues are also on Fisk's payroll, and being forced by Fisk to be a getaway driver for Dex as Dex carries out an attempted hit on Karen as revenge for her murder of James Wesley, Nadeem fully comes around to being a firm ally by letting Brett "arrest" Karen to save her from being killed in custody by the corrupt FBI agents.
** ''Series/{{Jessica Jones|2015}}'':
*** Jessica gets two in season 1. The primary one is Sgt. Will Simpson, who works with Jessica and Trish to take down Kilgrave until an attempt on his life from Kilgrave causes him to go insane. The other is Detective Oscar Clemmons. Once he sees Kilgrave's powers for himself, he is fully willing to help Jessica. He also admits to Simpson that he might have a point in claiming that Kilgrave is too dangerous to stand a normal trial, but he also points out that it still doesn't give Simpson nor himself the right to take the law into their own hands by killing him. [[BoomHeadshot Too bad Simpson disagrees.]]
*** In season 2, Jessica develops a new one in the form of Detective Eddy Costa, who is initially a bit of an antagonist towards her during the IGH investigation, but is firmly one of her allies come season 3.
** ''Series/{{Luke Cage|2016}}'': Detective Misty Knight has a somewhat rocky relationship with Luke Cage throughout the first season, though she is usually a friend more than foe, eventually fully warming up to Luke after she learns the full details of Luke's messed up half-brother.

*** In the second game, this makes him an easy target for the returning Mr. X to enact revenge at, since not all of his corruption in the force is instantly gone, so Adam is [[DistressedDude the one kidnapped and used as a bait to lure Axel and Blaze.]]

** ''Series/CloakAndDagger2018'': Detective O'Reilly. She initially went looking for Tandy because she suspected that Tandy had defended herself from assault; unfortunately, by the time Tandy decided to speak up, the assaulter in question had already had his rich uncle clean up the mess and make it look like he was just a victim of a random mugging. Later, when Tyrone is trying to investigate the cop who shot his brother, Tandy sends him to O'Reilly, and she does everything she can to help.

*** Sgt. Brett Mahoney from the 15th Precinct is Foggy Nelson's childhood best friend, and thus a major ally to Nelson & Murdock. As one of the few cops in the precinct not to be on Wilson Fisk's payroll, he's also the one reliable cop the firm turns Detective Carl Hoffman over to when he sells Fisk out. In season 2, Brett also becomes a somewhat reluctant ally towards Matt Murdock's alter ego Daredevil. In season 3, he gives Foggy the space at a union gathering to deliver a speech condemning the FBI's handling of Fisk's release from prison and encourage the NYPD to throw their support behind his impromptu district attorney campaign. Later in the season, he assists Foggy and Nadeem in keeping Karen from being captured by Dex, takes in Nadeem's family after Fisk tries to have them killed in retaliation, and is the one to take Fisk back into custody after Nadeem's death.
*** FBI Special Agent Ray Nadeem is a lesser variant of this. He starts off as a bit of an antagonist towards the members of the main trio, due to his pride keeping him from realizing that Fisk is manipulating him. He doesn't become this trope until halfway through the season, once confronted with evidence establishing that Fisk manipulated the FBI into letting him out of prison and is using Ray's coworker Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter as his personal assassin. Subsequently, he helps Matt investigate Dex, though their attempt to break into Dex's apartment ends with him getting shot while fleeing. After finding out that the rest of his FBI colleagues are also on Fisk's payroll, and being forced by Fisk to be a getaway driver for Dex as Dex carries out an attempted hit on Karen as revenge for her murder of James Wesley, Nadeem fully comes around to being a firm ally by letting Brett "arrest" Karen to save her from being killed in custody by the corrupt FBI agents.

** ''Series/Daredevil2015'': Sgt. Brett Mahoney from the 15th Precinct is a childhood friend of Foggy Nelson's, and thus a major ally to Nelson & Murdock. As one of the few cops in the precinct not to be on Wilson Fisk's payroll, he's also the one reliable cop the firm turns Hoffman over to when he sells Fisk out. In season 2, Brett also becomes a somewhat reluctant ally towards Matt Murdock's alter ego Daredevil. In season 3, he gives Foggy the space at a union gathering to deliver a speech condemning the FBI's handling of Fisk's release from prison and encourage the NYPD to throw their support behind his impromptu district attorney campaign. Later in the season, he assists Foggy and Nadeem in keeping Karen from being captured by Dex, takes in Nadeem's family after Fisk tries to have them killed in retaliation, and is the one to take Fisk back into custody after Nadeem's death.
*** Ray Nadeem is a lesser variant of this. He starts off as a bit of an antagonist towards the members of the main trio, due to his pride keeping him from realizing that Fisk is using him. He doesn't become this trope until halfway through the season, once confronted with more evidence proving Fisk has manipulated him. Subsequently, he helps Matt investigate Dex, though their attempt to break into Dex's apartment ends with him being shot in the chest while fleeing. After being forced by Fisk to be a getaway driver for Dex during Dex's hit on Karen at the church, Nadeem fully comes around to being a firm ally by declaring that the NYPD get first dibs with Karen (after a hushed conversation with Brett and Foggy where he gives them the truth about Dex).
** ''Series/JessicaJones2015'': Jessica gets two. The primary one is Will Simpson, who works with Jessica to take down Kilgrave until an attempt on his life from Kilgrave causes him to go insane. The other is Detective Oscar Clemmons. Once he sees Kilgrave's powers for himself, he is fully willing to help Jessica. He also admits to Simpson that he might have a point in claiming that Kilgrave is too dangerous to stand a normal trial, but he also points out that it still doesn't give Simpson nor himself the right to take the law into their own hands by killing him. [[BoomHeadshot Too bad Simpson disagrees.]]
** ''Series/LukeCage2016'': Detective Misty Knight has a somewhat rocky relationship with Luke Cage throughout the season, though she is usually a friend more than foe, eventually fully warming up to Luke after she learns the full details of Luke's messed up half-brother.

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