History Main / JurisdictionFriction

* ''Film/DeathLine'': When Inspector Calhoun starts investigating Manfred's disappearance, Stratton-Villiers from MI5 turns up to tell him there is nothing to investigate. Inspector Calhoun is secretly delighted when the cleaners are murdered at Russell Square station, as murders are definitely police business, and that they occurred at the same location as Manfred's disappearance is a happy coincidence.

'''David:''' Ya l'Ontario dans l'cul aussi! ''("He's got Ontario up his ass!")''\\

* Deputy U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard runs afoul of this twice in ''Film/TheFugitive'' (1993) when chasing Dr. Richard Kimble.

* Inverted in ''Film/BeverlyHillsCopIII'', where Detective Billy Rosewood has been appointed DDOJSIOC (Deputy Director of Joint Special Inter Operational Command), responsible for coordinating the efforts of the various L.A. metro area law-enforcement agencies as needed. At one point he assembles a veritable army of different units and uniforms, including ''Baywatch'' lifeguards, to surround and secure a single suspicious van, which proves to be empty; he gets chewed out for it.
* The movie ''Film/MurderAt1600'' has Wesley Snipes as a Washington D.C. police homicide detective investigating a murder of a secretary at the White House. He has all kinds of Jurisdiction Friction with the Secret Service (which guards the White House). This is also a case of poor research because any murders on Federal property (like the White House) are handled by the FBI.
* In ''Film/TheNegotiator'', Danny Roman is a Chicago Police Department officer who, believing himself wrongly accused of murder, has taken hostages in police headquarters, but the building itself is owned by the Federal Government. The FBI agents agree to let the local authorities handle the situation temporarily, but then later take over. When Roman escapes the building, the local police take over again, because he is now at large in the city, which is not Federal jurisdiction. (Realistically, the Feds would still have jurisdiction because he was still a suspect in a crime committed on Federal property.)
* ''Film/TheMatrix'', this happens in the opening when Agent Smith, Agent Brown, and Agent Jones drive up to the Heart 'O the City Hotel where they've dispatched the police to capture Trinity. In the simulated world that the Matrix has created, blue pills see the Agents as the equivalent of the FBI.
-->'''Agent Smith:''' Lieutenant.\\
'''Lieutenant:''' Oh, shit.\\
'''Agent Smith:''' Lieutenant, you were given specific orders.\\
'''Lieutenant:''' Hey, I'm just doing my job. If you give me that "juris-my-dick-tion" crap, you can cram it up your ass.\\
'''Agent Smith:''' The orders were for your protection.\\
'''Lieutenant:''' ''[laughs]'' I think we can handle ''one'' little girl. ''[Smith ignores him and starts walking towards the building]'' I sent two units! They're bringing her down now.\\
'''Agent Smith:''' No, lieutenant. [[PreemptiveDeclaration Your men are already dead.]] ''[inside, as the one police officer prepares to put the handcuffs on Trinity, she attacks him and his comrades, knocking out or killing them]''
* Mysteriously avoided in ''Film/TakingLives'', in which the Sûreté du Québec swoop down in helicopters in front of a train station in Moncton, New Brunswick (somehow managing to get there from Quebec in 20 minutes).
* The Spurbury Police Department and the Vermont Highway Patrol continually clash over jurisdiction in ''Film/SuperTroopers'', even leading to an out-and-out brawl at a murder scene. There is a justification beyond general {{JerkAss}}ery, though: the state doesn't have the money to maintain a separate Highway Patrol station, so the "troopers" need to get big crimes on their record to justify their existence. [[spoiler:This ends up getting resolved when the Highway Patrolmen expose the massive amounts of corruption in the Police Department... and then, when the Highway Patrol station is shut down, they simply join the police department to replace the disgraced officers.]]

* ''Film/TheDarkKnight'':
** Shown when Batman appears at a crime scene and asks Gordon for a couple minutes alone before his men come in and contaminate it. Gordon is happy to oblige, but his officers take offense.
** Lau flies back to Hong Kong to escape prosecution in Gotham City, saying he's out of Dent's jurisdiction and confident that China won't extradite a national. The Joker retorts, in his warning about Batman to the mafia meeting, that Batman ''has'' no jurisdiction. Lo and behold, Batman comes a-knockin' on Lau's door.
** Though the point is moot, Lau was mistaken. Hong Kong has a completely separate legal system from the rest of China and it has an [[http://www.legislation.gov.hk/blis_ind.nsf/e1bf50c09a33d3dc482564840019d2f4/9a61090f8a225bc14825655500235c91?OpenDocument an extradition agreement]] with the United States. Mainland China will not extradite its own citizens ([[http://english.gov.cn/laws/2005-09/22/content_68710.htm see Article 8(1) of Extradition Law of the People's Republic of China]]) but it will try its own citizens for overseas crimes, which can be a bad thing because China has the death penalty and some states don't.
** Also, if Batman recovers Lau and brings him to Gotham police, he's acting as an agent of the police department and has to abide by all the same rules. Which is why the Gotham legal system insists that Lau just randomly decided to come back and was arrested. It's doubtful that would hold up in court.
* ''Franchise/DieHard'' films:
** Becomes a plot point in ''Film/DieHard'' because Hans Gruber knows the FBI's standard responses to a hostage situation, and was counting on them to take the case from the LAPD and follow their playbook, helping him crack a safe and cover his escape.
** Averted in ''Film/DieHardWithAVengeance''. The NYPD Captain is ordering his men to search the schools and challenges the FBI Agent not to pull a jurisdictional stunt. The FBI Agent has kids in one of the threatened schools, and he's more than happy to help.
* Averted in ''Film/TheBoondockSaints''. FBI Agent Smecker is called in to investigate a murder in Boston because the dead men were connected with the Russian Mob. He shows up with DaChief, who tells the detectives in no uncertain terms that they are to fully cooperate with Smecker. Smecker turns out to be incredibly good at his job and shortly earns the respect of the police.
* Subverted in ''Film/TheBoondockSaintsIIAllSaintsDay''. [[spoiler: The Detectives are trying to prevent Special Agent Bloom from finding out they were involved in Don Yakavetta's killing. Bloom knows, and is actually on their side, but is just [[ForTheLulz having fun fucking with them.]]]]
* Averted in ''Film/ThePresidio''. The Officer's Club at the Presidio is broken into, and an investigating military cop is shot on the scene. During the [[HotPursuit ensuing chase]], which spills out into the city of UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco, the SFPD take over, and two officers are killed when one of them is shot and their car crashes [[MadeOfExplodium and explodes]]. The SFPD and the Military Police decide to work together to solve the case, although it turns out the installation Provost Marshal and the police inspector assigned to work together on the case have a history with each other, and do ''not'' get along.
* First played straight then subverted in the film adaptation of ''Film/AlongCameASpider''. Alex Cross is brought in to investigate the kidnapping of a U.S. Senator's daughter from their exclusive, secured private school. The Secret Service representative is at first cagey and defensive about having a simple detective being brought in lead the case, but later approaches Cross and apologizes, says he thinks jurisdiction arguments are "a massive waste of time", then asks what he can do to help.
* In ''Film/TheAvengers2012'', the World Security Council berates ComicBook/NickFury for handing over Loki to [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]] to "face Asgardian justice" instead of letting him be tried on Earth as a war criminal. Fury replies by saying that he didn't ''give'' Loki to Thor, he just didn't see fit to start an argument with a demi-god over the matter.
** ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' reveals that during the Avengers movie itself, Alexander Pierce, the U.S. Secretary of Defense [[spoiler:and a major operative of HYDRA]], wanted Loki and the Tesseract, since Loki should answer to the US Government and its people, rather than Odin, and the fact that the Tesseract itself has been S.H.I.E.L.D. property for 70 years. And unlike Nick Fury, he had the Pokeballs to start an argument with a demi-god over the matter. However, [[ForegoneConclusion Loki and the Tesseract still have to go to Asgard regardless of Pierce's intervention]].
* ''Film/CatsAndDogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore'' has this as a minor plot-point (while the organizations in question are not ''technically'' government arms, they act like it and actually ''refer'' to the issue as a jurisdiction problem): generally the cats' MEOWS and the dogs' DOG goes after threats from the ''other'' species, but in the Kitty Galore case MEOWS also claims jurisdiction on the logic that she's a RogueAgent of MEOWS. To sidestep the jurisdiction issue, the two organizations agree to work together.
* Although mostly averted on ''Series/TwinPeaks'' (see below), played pretty straight in TheMovie, ''Film/TwinPeaksFireWalkWithMe'', in the run-in between FBI Special Agent [[Creator/ChrisIsaak Chet Desmond]] and the startlingly corrupt Deer Meadows Sheriff's Office. Desmond ends up beating up all the local cops.
* In ''Film/{{Airheads}}'', the disagreements between LAPD's Sgt. O'Malley and SWAT leader Carl Mace cause many problems, as Mace threatens to undermine O'Malley's negotiations by trying to take down Chazz.
* In the 2002 film ''Film/BloodWork'', based on a novel by Creator/MichaelConnelly, the killer pursued by former FBI agent Terry [=McCaleb=] (Creator/ClintEastwood) pulls this intentionally-he dumps a body on the exact boundary between two police forces to create a jurisdictional dispute and slow down their investigation.
* Mullins and Asburn in ''Film/TheHeat'', at first. Also, the DEA.
* ''Parkland'' shows a small brawl between the Secret Service who want to take JFK's body back to Washington and the Dallas police who insist that Texas law requires him to stay in the state.
* A particularly absurd example occurs in ''Film/{{Hitman}}'', between InterpolSpecialAgent Mike Whittier and the Russian FSB. Not only does the real Interpol have no jurisdiction over ''any'' crimes,[[note]]its RealLife purpose is maintaining crime databases and facilitating information sharing between member law enforcement agencies[[/note]] the investigation they are fighting over is [[spoiler: the attempted assassination of the Russian President -- ''in Russia!'']]
* The film adaptation of Stuart Woods' novel ''Film/{{Chiefs}}'' has a problem wherein the chief of the Delano City Police wants to investigate a suspected murderer - except the suspect lives in Justin County, and Delano is in Mainbridge County.
* A fair deal of the conflict among the heroes in the film ''Black Dog'' come from the FBI agent and the ATF agent over who has jurisdiction in their investigation of a gun-smuggling operation.[[note]]in RealLife, it's the ATF, unequivocally. The FBI has no jurisdiction in gun-smuggling cases.[[/note]]
* ''Film/HaloNightfall'' features tension between the Sedran Colonial Guard and Jameson Locke's team from the United Nations Space Command's Office of Naval Intelligence. ONI, particularly [[{{Jerkass}} Horrigan]], consider the Sedrans backward hicks [[OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions who still believe in Valhalla]], and notes their tech is at least 200 years behind current UNSC standard. The Sedrans, meanwhile, are suspicious of the UNSC's motives: yes, they did beat the Covenant and save humanity, but in the wider ExpandedUniverse of ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' they've basically turned into a military dictatorship.
* ''Film/{{Vacation}}'': Rusty and Debbie escape from being arrested for trying to have sex at Four Corners because the park rangers are too busy arguing among themselves over which one has the authority to arrest them.
* ''Film/Predator2''. During the first half of the movie, Lieutenant Harrigan of the LAPD has an ongoing feud with Peter Keyes of the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) over the investigation of a war between Los Angeles drug gangs. [[MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot It turns out to be worse than that]]: Keyes is actually a Federal agent hunting for an extraterrestrial killer.
* ''Film/MulhollandFalls'':
** The LAPD detectives' investigation leads them onto restricted military areas. When they're inevitably arrested by the [=MPs=] for trespassing, the Colonel points out that they're out of their jurisdiction.
** When the detectives' investigation starts to uncover a high-level conspiracy within the U.S. military, an FBIAgent is sent to Los Angeles in a slimy attempt to intimidate the local cops. This falls flat on its face when Hoover (the main character--an LAPD homicide detective--, not the FBI director of the same name) and the Chief immediately call it out for what it is, and Hoover later ambushes the FBI agent to beat him up. Then he drags the guy out of the federal building they're in and points to a line on the floor to tell him where his jurisdiction ends.
* ''Film/TheDeathOfStalin'': Suffice it to say that the NKVD and the Red Army do not like each other much. There is palpable glee in the army officer's voice when he arrives at NKVD headquarters and announces "The army is back in town".
* ''Film/TheHighwaymen'': Hamer and Gault are technically only allowed to investigate crimes within the State of Texas and run into a smarmy FBI agent several times. At one point, when they're told to turn back by a roadblock for crossing state lines, Hamer decides to ignore it.
* ''Film/DeathLine'': When Inspector Calhoun starts investigating Manfred's disappearance, Stratton-Villiers from MI5 turns up to tell him there is nothing to investigate. Inspector Calhoun is secretly delighted when the cleaners are murdered at Russell Square station, as murders are definitely police business, and that they occurred at the same location as Manfred's disappearance is a happy coincidence.

* In ''Film/TrustNo1'', Officer Doug Bradley is forced to hand his case over to the FBI and the NSA, both of whom are in on a vast conspiracy.
* In ''Film/TheSiege'', the FBI agent investigating a terrorist incident actually arrests the U.S. General whom Congress has appointed to head the handling of that incident. The soldiers supporting the general back down in the face of the FBI, showing the supremacy of the civilian arm.
* ''Film/ElectraGlideInBlue'': When police arrive on the scene of Frank's [[NeverSuicide "suicide,"]] Wintergreen tries to stop the coroner from touching the body because he has deduced that Frank was murdered, and he doesn't want the coroner messing up the evidence. The two of them get into a fight about whether the officer in charge has more authority than the coroner. When Sgt. Ryker breaks up the fight and then asks the coroner an innocuous question, the coroner is so worked up that he starts screaming at Ryker too, then asks the corpse, "Why did you have to shoot yourself in my jurisdiction?"
* ''Film/EndOfWatch'': Officers Zavala and Taylor are told to step aside by DEA.

* PlayedForLaughs, and also {{Exploited|Trope}} in ''Film/Vengeance2022''. Ben speaks to '''four''' separate law enforcement agencies in the area, and all four tend to shift responsibility of "the Afterparty" to another agency because it's in a spot where the jurisdictions overlap. Ben later discovers that [[spoiler:Quinten has been [[ExploitedTrope exploiting]] this overlap so that none of the agencies actually investigate the Afterparty, specifically the people who die there]].
* ''Film/ToCatchAKiller2023'': Played with. The FBI and BPD cooperate very well in the manhunt, but intra-agency friction between different FBI departments creates more than a few messes. Lammark in particular feuds a lot with his counterpart in the D.C. counterterrorism unit.

-->'''Justice;''' This is Sheriff Buford T. Justice. I'm in pursuit of a black Trans Am. He's all mine, so stay out of the way.\\

'''Justice:''' '''''That's a big 10-4!!! Sheriff Buford T. Justice of Texas!!!'''''\\

'''Justice:''' That's very comforting, son. But I'm in a high speed pursuit. Don't you hear good?\\

'''Justice:''' [[{{Malaproper}} The Goddamn Germans]] got nothin' to do with it!!

[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
* ''Film/MuppetsMostWanted'' has crimes committed by Constantine and Dominic being investigated by Sam the Eagle (who is shown to be part of the [[UsefulNotes/AmericanLawEnforcement CIA]]) and Interpol agent Jean Pierre Napoleon. They get very little done until the end of the movie due to a "[[CompensatingForSomething mine is bigger than yours]]" RunningGag and because the Interpol agent is a JokeCharacter who is constantly on breaks for the purpose of [[TakeThat poking fun]] at French workers' entitlements.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''Website/TheOnion'' parodied this, in their article: [[http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/local_authorities_more_than "Local Authorities More Than Happy To Let FBI Take Over."]]

** In "The Snuke", which parodied ''Series/TwentyFour'': Kyle's attempt to track down a terrorist cell through social networking websites is taken over in sequence by Homeland Security, the FBI, the ATF, the Secret Service, and the NSA, all within less than two minutes. Kyle then takes it back [[BavarianFireDrill by just saying so]].

** This was also parodied in "Lil' Crime Stoppers" when the boys were playing detective agency and had their game taken over by a bunch of kids playing FBI. Later, real cops are taken over by the real FBI in exactly the same fashion.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** "Marge vs. the Monorail" had Police Chief Wiggum and Mayor Quimby arguing about which of them is in charge of handling the out-of-control monorail situation. In the end, neither of them does anything about the monorail because they're too busy reading the town charter to see who really ''is'' in charge of the situation (and getting [[DistractedByTheSexy distracted when Wiggum notices he's entitled to "comely lasses"]]).
** In "Catch 'Em If You Can", when Homer and Marge needed to be rescued from Niagara Falls, American and Canadian Coast Guard captains argued over who had the authority to do the rescuing.
** Subverted in the episode "The Bob Next Door", where Sideshow Bob's plan to murder Bart without legal consequences involves the murder taking place in "Five Corners", the point where five US states meet (he would stand in one state, shoot the gun in the second, the bullet would pass through the third, hit Bart in the fourth, and he would die in the fifth, Bob reasoning that no single act is against any law in any state). Chief Wiggum arrives to arrest him at the last minute, so Bob steps into another state where the Springfield PD has no jurisdiction. It's then revealed that Wiggum contacted the police of the other four states, and each is waiting in their respective jurisdictions, and amicably work together to bring him in.
* In the "Hot Shots" episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', Joe Swanson of the Quahog Police Department gets into an argument with a state police officer over jurisdiction in the town after it's put under quarantine, who then argues with an FBI official over the matter. As all three of them are wheelchair-bound and are on the road, a crossing guard tells them that he has jurisdiction over all of them.
* A minor one occurred in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' where [[KidHero Timmy]] [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor wished]] he was the [[LiteralGenie most wanted kid]] in the world. This prompted the Dimmsdale Police Department at his house, then the FBI helicopters arrived a few seconds later. One of the police officers then shouted: "Hey, we were here first!"
* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'':
** In "Elementary My Dear Stacy", Perry is forced to work alongside the Franchise/JamesBond-expy/parody agent Double 0-0 because both OWCA and the British Secret Service claim jurisdiction over stopping Doofenshmirtz while he is on British soil.
** In "Sidetracked", Perry has to work with agent Lyla Lollibery of COWCA (The Canadian Organization Without a Cool Acronym) to stop one of Doof's schemes on a train that runs along the border between the United States and Canada, due to the fact that each organization only has jurisdiction on one side of the train.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' episode "High Anxiety", a murder case in Arlen is investigated by both a County Sheriff and a Texas Ranger who constantly bickered and criticized each other's investigation methods.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'' episode "Old Friends, New Planets", Admiral Vassery tells Captain Freeman to not get involved in Nova Fleet despite her daughter Beckett Mariner being held against her will there. This is because Nova Fleet is comprised of various other races -- Klingons, Romulans, Ferengi, Cardassians, Bynars, etc. -- and they do ''not'' need a diplomatic incident. [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight Freeman and the crew ignore orders and mount a rescue]]. However, because Mariner's attempt to escape didn't lead to any deaths and Freeman's actions lead to opening talks with the Orions, [[DisobeyedOrdersNotPunished Freeman is let off the hook]].

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/BatmanYearOneHundred https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/batman_year_100_jurisdiction.png]]]]

Which side of the dispute is sympathetic and which is heartless/incompetent/arrogant/corrupt/trigger happy/working for the shadow government depends entirely on who the main characters are. FBI agent series such as ''Series/TheXFiles'' and ''Series/WithoutATrace'' naturally will have them in the right, while a PoliceProcedural like ''Series/LawAndOrder'' is frequently on the other side.

* ''Film/AmericanMade'': When Barry Seal gets burned by his CIA handler, his property gets raided at the same time by the DEA, ATF and the Arkansas State Police. Nobody had any foreknowledge of the others raids and argument breaks out over whose bust this is. And then everybody has a collective groan when the FBI shows up...

See also InterserviceRivalry for the military version.

* The synopsis for the multi-fandom crossover [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9280076/1/Like-Broken-Glass "Like Broken Glass"]] openly says "a double murder turns into a jurisdictional nightmare." First, [[Series/{{Castle}} Kate Beckett and Rick Castle]] investigate the murder of a Boston cop and a Navy officer. The cop happens to be a partner of [[Series/RizzoliAndIsles Jane Rizzoli]] which brings her and Maura Isles to town and demanding to take the lead. However, because the other victim was Navy, that brings in agents from Series/{{NCIS}} who want to take over. They track down a possible suspect only to find it's Series/NCISLosAngeles agent Kensi Blye on vacation. And ''then'', Kensi's partner, LAPD officer Deeks, shows up and poor Beckett is ready to smash her head against a wall.

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* The German ''[[UsefulNotes/GermanTVStations KiKa]]'' teen drama ''Series/AlleinGegenDieZeit'' features two BKA officers (Bundeskriminalamt -- Federal Criminal Police Office) rescuing top-secret documents from the Ministry of the Interior's archives from two shadowy figures. They later get suspected of being part of the conspiracy when it turns out they just stole files from investigating BND agents (Bundesnachrichtendienst -- Federal Intelligence Service).
* ''Series/MiamiVice'' did this often with the standard local vs. Feds variety. Sometimes averted when the Feds specifically asked for Vice assistance. Notably, sometimes the Vice squad bumped heads with detectives in other Miami police divisions like homicide or theft.
* Happens a fair bit in ''Series/SonsOfAnarchy''; there are various clashes between the local police, the local sheriffs, the ATF, the FBI [[spoiler:and even the CIA at the end of season 4.]]
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** The Maquis freedom fighters were attacking Cardassians, but while based outside Federation space they were still technically Federation citizens, making it very testy--if not an outright race--as to whether Starfleet was going to find them and stop them, or the Cardassians were going to find them and kill them.
** You won't find many Starfleet officers who actually like (or even know about) Section 31, and most 31 operatives regard Starfleet as idealistic dreamers with no idea of how the universe truly works. Yet both are sanctioned forces of the Federation.
** The initial Starfleet/Bajoran Militia team up at the beginning of ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'' was like this.
** It's implied in the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Face of the Enemy" that many Romulan military commanders are resentful of the Tal Shiar, the Romulan SecretPolice.
** Similarly, ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'' goes in depth into the rivalry between the Cardassian Central Command (military) and the Obsidian Order (very powerful civilian secret police.) Given that the Obsidian Order is an extremely powerful entity in Cardassia, which is basically fascist, it's inevitable that they and the military will come into serious conflict on a regular basis. Really, any time a secret police force exists in Star Trek, you can expect it to come into conflict with the military at some point, probably quite a lot.
** In the ''Deep Space Nine'' episode "Hippocratic Oath," Worf, new to the station and acting on behalf of Starfleet, arrests a smuggler. However, Odo, the station's Chief of Security, operating on behalf of Bajor, had planned to allow the smuggler to go free, having shape-shifted into the smuggler's bag of latinum, allowing him to infiltrate the entire smuggling operation.
** This is a major problem in the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "The Doomsday Machine". Commodore Matt Decker, mad with grief over the loss of the crew of the ''Constitution'', takes control of the ''Enterprise'' while Kirk is investigating the rest of the ''Constellation'' -class vessel. Since communications between both ships are spotty, Decker takes control of the ship and goes on a SuicideMission to stop the titular weapon. The crew knows this is crazy, but they can't actually stop him without a checkup and he's not stopping for one. It isn't until Kirk is able to finally get ahold of his ship are they able to stop Decker.
* In ''Series/TwentyFour'', a great many plots and subplots involve Jurisdiction Friction. ''24'' being the way it is, the conflict spirals way beyond Fed vs. Local. Past conflicts have involved CTU vs. The U.S. Secret Service, CTU vs. LAPD, CTU vs. The Armed Forces, CTU vs. The FBI; it gets pretty interesting. Subverted though, in that in several instances, various organizations will team up to stop their common BigBad.
** In the ''24: Live Another Day'' novel ''Deadline'', a character thinks to himself about the fact that contrary to the way things are usually portrayed in the movies, the arrival of the FBI generally doesn't spark an immediate rivalry with law enforcement agencies.
-->In Kilner's experience, the opposite was usually the truth. State or county cops with less manpower and typically with operational budgets that were already stretched to the limit would welcome the involvement of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
* ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'' franchise:
** Friction often occurs not only between the NYPD and feds but between their Order equivalents, the Manhattan District Attorney and the US Attorney's office. Also, the other boroughs, other towns or counties in the state, the state government, the Port Authority, New Jersey, other U.S. States, the U.S. military, Canada, and other nations. It's one of the writers' favorite ways to disrupt a case that [[YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle could be a slam dunk by the 45-minute mark.]] It helps that New York's unique position in geography and politics -- specifically, New York being America's largest city means that Feds are often brought in, while three other states (Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania) are very nearby -- means it has a lot of overlapping government spheres of influence, second only perhaps to Washington, D.C.
** In only the first season, for example, one of three Federal inmates in a prison van is murdered during transport to court in Manhattan, leading to NYPD detectives and FBI agents bickering over who has the jurisdiction to question the other two prisoners while the deceased is [[BlackComedy lying dead on the pavement]]. It then gets averted when the investigation leads them to Ian O'Connell, an accused killer with ties to [[UsefulNotes/TheTroubles the IRA]]. A British agent observing the subsequent trial not only cedes authority to Ben Stone, he offers to have a character witness from the U.K. fly to New York on the next Concorde to rebut the defendant's testimony. As he says to Stone, "O'Connell belongs in jail. Your jail, our jail, it doesn't matter."
** Two episodes ("Jurisdiction" and "Bronx Cheer") both dealt with overlapping jurisdictions where the Manhattan DA prosecuted one person and another jurisdiction prosecuted (or convicted) someone else for the same crime. Both times, the people the other jurisdiction prosecuted were actually innocent and had been railroaded for political reasons.
** This works to the good guy's advantage in one episode where Ben Stone is forced to cut a very cushy plea deal to get testimony out of a member of the Russian Mafia which gives him immunity for any crimes he admits to in Manhattan. As soon as the mobster is off the stand, the police and the District Attorney for ''Brooklyn'' show up and arrest him, since his testimony implicates him for crimes in another jurisdiction which Stone smugly points out he has no control over.
--->'''Attorney:''' We had a deal! No prosecution in New York City.\\
'''Stone:''' In [[ExactWords New York]] ''[[ExactWords County]]'' — that's Manhattan. I never gave your client immunity in Brooklyn; that's ''Kings'' County. ''[To the client]'' If you want some free advice, sir, next time get a better lawyer.
* ''Series/LethalWeapon'': In episode 7 Riggs tells a woman he's a cop and that she's interfering with his investigation, only for her to tell him she's a DEA agent and that ''he's'' interfering with ''her'' investigation.
-->'''Detective Riggs''': LAPD! You're interfering with an investigation.\\
'''Agent Palmer''': Yeah, DEA. And you're interfering with my investigation.
* ''Series/TheWire'':
** In most cases, it's actually a reverse of the standard version. One law enforcement jurisdiction will often try to foist murder cases onto another to avoid having their numbers go down when the case inevitably goes unsolved. The city police actually go ''to'' the FBI, begging for their assistance in busting criminals or solving crimes, but the Feds usually turn them down due to their new, mandated focus on terrorism.
** In Season 2, the Baltimore ''City'' police, the Baltimore ''County'' police, the Port Police, and the Coast Guard all fight ''not'' to take a huge murder case, as they know there's no chance of solving it and will damage their clearance rates (ratio of homicides solved to homicides reported). Jimmy [=McNulty=]--a City cop--eventually sabotages City's attempt not to be saddled with the murders because he wants to get revenge at City Homicide's bosses for [[ReassignedToAntarctica exiling him to the Harbor Division]].
** Valchek brings the FBI into the investigation of his nemesis Frank Sobotka, which is welcome news to the police unit, but it also means they'll have to re-prioritize their targets. The feds ultimately withdraw their support when union corruption charges are made, since the feds were only interested in international racketeering.
** When Frank Sobotka's son Ziggy gets arrested for murder, Ziggy gets arrested, taken to Homicide, and processed by Jay Landsman. But Landsman forgets to bring the Sobotka detail in the loop about this important arrest, meaning that the Greeks are able to clear out their operation before the police can serve warrants on them, including Glekas' store. Understandably, Daniels is very pissed.
--->'''Daniels:''' Let me ask you, who exactly am I working all these dead girls for? The Homicide unit, right? The same Homicide unit that [[RightHandVersusLeftHand can't put two and two together and pick up a phone leaving me to read it a day-and-a-half later in The Baltimore Sun]]. (''{{Beat}}'') What did you take from the scene?\\
'''Jay:''' Photos, latents, spent casings... Fuck, they cleaned everything else?\\
'''Daniels:''' [[PoliceAreUseless Even for a supremely fucked-up police department this takes the prize.]]
** Season 5 features a straight version: the FBI expressed a willingness to take on the ''massive'' drug/murder investigation of Marlo Stanfield, but only if the Baltimore State's Attorney (the local prosecutor) would hand over the prosecution of corrupt State Senator Clay Davis to the United States Attorney (the federal prosecutor). Everyone knows that a federal case would be much more likely to get a conviction, because the jury pool would include the suburbs in Baltimore and Anne Arundel Counties, and possibly even rural areas even further out (where jurors would either not know Davis or regard him as a corrupt City politician long overdue for a commuppeance), while a state trial would draw only from the City of Baltimore (where Davis had his base of support and could [[UnconventionalCourtroomTactics grandstand]] as a defender of Black interests--never mind that the State's Attorney was himself Black). However, the State's Attorney shuts down this deal, because he wants to take Davis down personally so he can run for Mayor after Carcetti runs for Governor. Sure enough, the City jury acquits Davis after he engages in just the kind of grandstanding everyone predicted, and the State's Attorney is left a laughingstock of Baltimore politics. Another factor complicating the whole mess beyond jurisdiction is party politics: all the Baltimore politicians including Davis are Democrats, but the US Attorney is a Republican.
* ''Series/{{Reno 911}}'':
** Subverted when the clearly-more-competent FBI comes to town to investigate a serial killer and the local crew try desperately (and fail) to (in the words of Lt. Dangle) "not seem like dicks" to them.
** Played for laughs on another occasion where the Reno sheriffs' drug sting operation (posing as a buyer) nets-a DEA sting operation (posing as the seller), after both go through a LongList of humorous drug euphemisms.
* ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'':
** Dr. Huang (an FBI profiler) often acted as a mediator between the squad and the feds. One gets the feeling during the times he actually takes the FBI's side, he does so not because he thinks they're right, but because he doesn't particularly like [[strike:Stabler]] most of the SVU team.
** Another episode featured Benson and Stabler going up against the FBI when one of the key participants in their case was revealed to be in the Federal Witness Protection Program as a witness to a key Federal case. Subverted, in that Benson and Stabler's interference in the Federal case merely ended up getting the guy killed and screwing up both the FBI and NYPD investigations.
** On another episode, Internal Affairs shows up to ream Stabler and Huang after a suspect commits suicide in custody. Since Huang is FBI, everyone in the scene is perfectly well aware IA can't touch him. The IA guy starts blustering ineffectually "And you -- Dr. Huang -- you better watch yourself too!" Huang proceeds to openly roll his eyes and scoff at the guy in one of the greatest "bitch, please" moments in the series.
** They also occasionally clash with detectives from other departments. In "Countdown", while searching for an 8-year-old who's been kidnapped and has only three days before she's murdered, they discover that the perpetrator is a SerialKiller with victims from all over the city. The detectives who handled the case of the Brooklyn girl outright refuse to cooperate because of the underhanded way Benson and Stabler got their files until the latter pair remind them that yet another little girl is going to die if they don't help.
** At the end of one episode then-Captain Cragen lampshades that this trope actually helps criminals [[KarmaHoudini get away with their actions far too often because they can actually cooperate]] while the several police departments [[WeAreStrugglingTogether have to be convinced to work together]].
* Largely averted in ''Series/CriminalMinds'': the FBI main cast won't get involved in a case until the local authorities ask for help since they don't want the locals to stop asking. This was a minor problem in one episode until an agent notices that a letter from the [=UnSub=] was sent from a different state, giving the FBI jurisdiction anyway.
** It was a major issue in the Season Four episode "Minimal Loss", where Reid and Prentiss are sent into a cult compound to investigate allegations of pedophilia, posing as social workers (since the FBI isn't welcomed by cultists). Before they sent agents in, the FBI checked to make sure that no other law enforcement organizations were planning operations that could interfere, receiving negative answers from police at all levels. In fact the state AG had been planning a major raid by the state police and lied about it, since he didn't want the FBI co-opting his big operation (which was essentially a publicity stunt for a gubernatorial run next year), and went ahead with it while Reid and Prentiss were still inside, sending the cultists into a siege and endangering the agent's lives. When Hotch takes command of the situation he essentially bans the state authorities from the scene in retribution, relying solely on the county sheriffs.
* ''Series/StargateSG1'' bristles when it comes to the NID, but it all gets really simple once [[spoiler:they turn out to be the Bad Guys anyway.]]
* In ''Series/{{CSI}}'', the titular ''forensic technicians'' have apparently unlimited authority to interrogate suspects, pursue fugitives, engage in gun battles, make arrests, and cut deals. In the real world, their obviously massive share of departmental funding alone would make the normal cops psychotically jealous -- but the eager and justifiable use of the LawOfConservationOfDetail makes many a FanDumb believe that in the Series/CSIVerse the [[PoliceAreUseless normal cops are useless]]. Also, it seems that CSI also have ridiculous authority to investigate crimes and incidents that clearly would fall under Federal Jurisdiction (The bus accident in ''CSI'', and the plane crash in ''CSI: Miami'' being prime examples which would fall under National Transportation Safety Board, a federal agency). The first season had at least one episode where the [=CSIs=] clashed with the FBI.
* In ''Series/{{CSINY}}'':
** Mac butting heads with the U.N. over a French diplomat who died during a New York party. Mac wanted to move the body for an autopsy but got refused for a while.
** Mac flashing his badge in Chicago to get into the Tribune building didn't amuse Chicago P.D., who quickly reminded him he had no jurisdiction.
** However, it does mimic the original at times, such with the case involving blood on the Statue of Liberty. That would be investigated by National Parks police in real life since it's a national monument. There was also a case with a dead Marine that would clearly have been [=NCIS=] territory in real life. (This last one was {{Handwaved}} by a Marine who told Mac that he'd been instructed by his superiors to cooperate with the investigation.)
* ''Series/{{Psych}}'':
** Parodied when the Treasury Department horns in on a case. Naturally, they have their own ''Federal'' psychic consultant.
** When Chief Vick (police) and her sister (Coast Guard) [[SiblingRivalry get in a fight]] over which of them has jurisdiction over a case. Vick's sister even hired Shawn and Gus and ''sidelined them'' just so Vick wouldn't have their service.
* Comes up frequently in ''Series/{{NCIS}}''. Is the dead body of the week a matter for NCIS, their counterparts in the Army, the FBI, or a local enforcement agency? Sometimes, characters on all sides get so snappy about jurisdiction that it seems they're more interested in having cases on their records than catching the bad guys... and the main characters are not above playing some dirty tricks in order to keep control of an investigation, such as when they agree to hand over a corpse to the FBI but put one of their own (live) agents in the body bag instead.
** The pilot episode both played it straight and subverted it. First, a Navy Commander dies on UsefulNotes/AirForceOne, and the case is fought over by NCIS, FBI, and the Secret Service. Then a Marine Major dies in identical circumstances and the local police have no problems handing the case over, 'cause they've got another body across town to deal with.
** A couple of episodes later, the NCIS team manage to basically seize a crime scene from the local cop after [[WhatTheHellHero browbeating him over his slipshod approach to crime scene investigation]] (which included handling evidence with his bare hands, allowing reporters onto the scene, and presuming that the victim was a drug dealer without evidence). A few miles away, meanwhile, there are a couple of dead drug dealers at a crime scene controlled by Army CID, who happily turns it over to NCIS and the DEA because the two crime scenes seem related, and because the local CID office is shorthanded that day.
** Gibbs has a [[CowboyCop frontierish]] eye-for-an-eye attitude toward justice that in some ways resembles that of a [[ThePatriarch clan chief]] more then that of a cop. The cases he demands are often those in which he vaguely feels he has some reason to think ItsPersonal.
** Averted in another episode of ''NCIS''; the local cop offers to cooperate fully, in exchange for all credit.
** Played with in an episode where the case is under clear FBI jurisdiction and NCIS is called in only as a courtesy since the main suspect is a spy NCIS once arrested. When the NCIS team starts investigating, FBI agent Fornell makes a big stink about NCIS interfering in his case. He is then told that the NCIS and FBI directors talked about the issue and the FBI director used his discretion to transfer the case to NCIS jurisdiction. It is then revealed that Fornell was pulling a BatmanGambit on NCIS. He did not want the case so he made a big stink about jurisdiction specifically so that the NCIS team would go above his head and take the case from him. However, in the end, the joke is on him since the directors decide that the FBI should be represented in the investigation and Fornell is assigned back to it.
** Sometimes it goes well, though; Team Gibbs has a comfortable working relationship with CGIS Agent Abigail Borin, who shows up on a fairly regular basis when NCIS and the Coast Guard both have an interest in the same case.
** Gibbs in particular has an ''excellent'' relationship with Army CID Colonel Hollis Mann -- so good they begin dating each other in fairly short order, and stay together for nearly a year -- though that doesn't stop them from bickering over jurisdiction when their cases overlap. It's fairly clear that one of the reasons Gibbs is so into her is that she can go toe-to-toe with him on equal terms.
--->'''Hollis:''' If this is going to turn into a pissing match, you'd better bring an umbrella.
* Mostly ignored on ''Series/NCISLosAngeles'' as the LAPD usually isn't informed of what's happening. Did show up in an episode where each group was conducting an undercover op into the same people, which caused enough of a problem that the team gained an LAPD detective as a liaison and member of the team. ''Los Angeles'' also tends to give this a nod whenever the team has to do something that would require going through local channels, but don't have the time -- Hettie goes a long way back with a lot of people and can easily procure the warrants needed to veto the usual chain of command. This gets played for laughs at one point where the local cops hand over a case with absolutely no hesitation. The team thinks this is suspicious... then notice the dead guy kept a meticulous filing system ''without'' a computer.
** A major case is when Callen and Mosley work with the ATF tracking some weapons dealers. Mosley, naturally, tries to assume command only to be told by the ATF that this is their case. It gets dramatic when an ATF undercover agent is killed when one of the gang members recognizes him. Mosley wants to charge in but the ATF agent insists they keep to the plan so the agent's sacrifice won't be for nothing. When the arms dealer is about to escape, Mosley demands Callen arrest him with the ATF head telling her they need to let him go in order to track his clients. When Mosley demands again, the ATF operative snaps that she will arrest Mosley on the spot if she opens her mouth and lets the man go. While Mosley rants about this, she's put in her place that this was an ATF operation and Mosley nearly ruined it.
* ''Series/NCISNewOrleans'' is currently featuring a ''lot'' of friction between the FBI and the NCIS branch in NOLA. Especially now that there's an FBI agent full-time in Pride's office.
* Built into ''Series/TheCloser'', given that Brenda Leigh Johnson, a detective with the LAPD, is married to an FBI agent.
* ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard'' occasionally saw this, when Hazzard's Sheriff Rosco Coltrane clashed with Sheriff Little of neighboring Chickasaw County. And it usually works in ''favor'' of the protagonists. Since Little is honest in comparison to Rosco being in [[SmallTownTyrant Boss Hogg's pocket]], he isn't interested in helping to railroad the Duke Boys any more than he is in getting them on actual crimes.
* Inverted in ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'', when a detective takes a corruption case involving a judge and local drug dealers to the local office of the FBI and the friction comes from the fact that the FBI ''don't'' seem interested in taking the case or what the cop has to say. Disgruntled, the cop leaves, but one of the agents corners him and explains off-the-record that they're ''already'' investigating the case; official policy is not to let on to the locals, hence their apparent lack of interest. Satisfied, the cop agrees not to let on that he talked to them.
* Played variously on ''Series/TheXFiles''. Considering that AgentMulder is the TropeNamer for a conspiracy believing weirdo, understandably some local cops are annoyed when he shows up spouting his nonsense, others are happy to let him take the case off their hands, a tiny minority even believe him, and a few are in on the crime.
* ''Series/{{Castle}}'':
** The FBI shows up in a Season Two episode, and there's a little Jurisdiction Friction but they ultimately wind up helping more than getting in the way (although [[spoiler: they still need Castle's insight to actually get the case solved]]), and the FBI agents in question are nice people. Most of what tension there is seems to stem primarily from the fact that Beckett is [[{{UST}} seething with jealousy]] (not that she admits it) about Castle's fascination with the gadgets the FBI bring with them and the way he clicks with the lead FBI profiler.
** "Setup"/"Countdown," when the Department of Homeland Security pulls rank once the case involves possible radiation and foreign terrorism. The DHS agent in charge, while a hard-ass, is actually a reasonable guy; the fact that Castle [[spoiler:had a private meeting with a member of a foreign government's SecretPolice]] is a valid reason to be furious.
** Comes up again in "Lynchpin." There's Jurisdiction Friction but Castle and Beckett are on the ''other'' side of it as they're working with the CIA and required to keep secrets from their colleagues at the NYPD.
** Once again comes up in "The Human Factor". An American dissident is killed by a military drone missile and the Feds completely block the NYPD's attempts at investigation at an apparent attempt at coverup. Once Beckett gets her hands on the Special Investigator from the Attorney General's office, however, and extracts a promise of help from the Attorney General himself, they get along better.
** Played straight in the Sixth season episode "Need to Know", only with Beckett now working for a Federal task-force taking the case away from Castle and the NYPD. [[spoiler:In order to help her colleagues with the NYPD, Beckett goes against her Federal partner [=McCord=] and provides the press with an anonymous tip. [=McCord=] later tells her that she thinks Beckett did the right thing, but their superiors disagree, and Beckett is fired.]]
* ''Series/RizzoliAndIsles'': When the FBI shows up, the only real friction is between Detective Frost and the head agent, and it's immediately obvious that it's something personal. [[spoiler:She was Frost's former fiancé.]]
** Some serious jurisdiction friction crops up "You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone" when the NSA decides a murder has national security implications. Although the NSA has no authority to investigate homicides, they seize all of the evidence they claim has security implications and refuse to grant the BPD team access to it.
* Mostly absent on ''Series/NUMB3RS'' -- when the LAPD show up, it's usually to provide the FBI with more boots on the ground. However, Don Eppes did clash with a narcotics detective in the episode "Man Hunt", and with the NSA in the episode "Finders Keepers".
* Although the ''Series/{{Sanctuary}}'' team has no real jurisdiction, this trope comes into play a few times as they try to gather abnormal-related evidence before the law enforcement comes in and sets up jurisdiction.
* Played straight and parodied on ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}''. FBI Agent Ballard gets stonewalled by an ATF Agent after the latter completely botches a high-risk warrant on a religious cult (DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything?). Later, several of the Dolls and their human handlers are sent to investigate an outbreak, but the handlers are only given cover identities as private security. Topher, as a joke, programs the Dolls to think they are NSA Agents, who act like jurisdiction-stripping jackasses to their handlers.
* ''Series/TheShield'': Played for serious drama, as Vic manipulates the LAPD and ICE against each other in an effort to get a job offer and an immunity deal from the latter.
* ''Series/{{JAG}}'': Occurs in several episodes. Not only with external parties (i.e. non-military) such as local police or FBI; but often the local commanding officer does not like the presence of JAG officers from Washington in his/her fiefdom.
* ''Series/BabylonFive'':
** When an [[http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/019.html alien structure]] is found on the planet near Babylon 5, an Earth Force cruiser arrives and the Captain argues with Commander Sinclair over who should investigate it. The Captain wins at first, by right of seniority (a Captain outranks a Commander), but Sinclair proceeds to use every trick he can to hinder the Captain's misguided attempts to sieze control of the machine. Both end up [[EnemyMine teaming up]] against an alien warship that arrives and attacks the station, wanting to stake their own claim. [[spoiler: At the end of the episode, once the crisis has passed, the Captain informs Sinclair that their higher-ups decided that Sinclair was the one in the right, and [[GracefulLoser apologizes before departing.]]]]
** Talia Winters and Susan Ivanova argued on what to do with a teenage thief who just awakened with Telepathic abilities; Talia wanted the teenager to join the Psicorps, and Susan wanted to have her go through the justice system. Dr. Stephen Franklin intervened, saying that since the teenager is unconscious, she is in medical care, and both of them should leave as they could be disturbing the patient.
** When the war criminal known as Deathwalker turns up on Babylon 5, just about every member race of the League of Non-Aligned Worlds sends a warship that demands that she be turned over or else they would attack the station. Ivanova defuses the situation by getting them to argue with each other over ''which one'' of the threatening warships Deathwalker should be turned over to, as there was only one of her. Also, the major powers want her immortality drug or want to [[TreacheryCoverUp avoid a trial]]. Sinclair negotiates a truce that allows the development of the immortality drug, and a trial. Deathwalker reveals that the drug requires a death for a life. Then Kosh asserts his jurisdictional claim as [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien a Vorlon]] and [[spoiler: kills Deathwalker]].
** When a bomb goes off in one of the fighter bays soon before the President of the Earth Alliance is expected to arrive on Babylon 5, a detachment of his security detail arrives to try and take control of the situation. [[DaChief Garibaldi]] is accused of being behind the bombing, and ends up going into hiding while he [[ClearMyName tries to find out what is going on]]. Commander Sinclair covertly helps him while Lt. Commander Ivanova [[ObstructiveBureaucrat is as unhelpful as possible]] for the security detail's commander. [[spoiler:The security detail's second in command is revealed to be TheMole and Garibaldi saves the day.]]
* Michael Westen in ''Series/BurnNotice'' made use of this trope one time, walking into a torched building and claiming to be from the county government. He didn't get free access to the site, but it bought him a few minutes while the city fire chief called the county office.
* The second season of ''Series/{{Dexter}}'' has a variation. When Dexter's victims are discovered, an FBI taskforce is sent to assist Miami Metro, because the task force leader (Special Agent Lundy) is an expert at difficult serial killer cases. This trope is [[DefiedTrope defied]] by Captain Matthews, who insists that the case will not be a "jurisdictional circle-jerk". Lundy joins his task force with the Homicide team and generally works well and respectfully with them. When another killer starts copycatting Dexter, Lundy warns that the FBI may seize total control of the investigation; Dexter ends up killing the copycat, so that he won't be locked out of the loop.
** Happens again (briefly) in the Third Season: A series of murders are blamed on a local drug dealer that killed the kid brother of a Crusading ADA and a high-ranking Miami-Dade Sheriff's Deputy. ([[spoiler:Dexter actually killed both the dealer and the brother, the latter by accident.]]) When a body is found matching the killer's MO but outside Miami's metro area, the Deputy uses this to shoehorn his way into Miami PD and take over the investigation.
** The fourth season has the FBI take control of the investigation into the Trinity Killer. The Homicide team is especially bitter about this, since they had not only done pretty much all of the legwork by then, but the FBI had been ignoring Lundy's insistence that the killings were connected for 15 years.
* On ''Series/TheMentalist'', the [=CBI=] often finds itself bumping up against local police departments who are not happy about them having jurisdiction.
** A finger of a missing (later revealed to be murdered) man from Nevada was found in the desert and a team of experts was needed to establish which side of the California-Nevada border the spot where the finger was found was in. If it was in Nevada, the [=CBI=] would have no jurisdiction. If in California, they'd be allowed to work on the investigations. Considering who the protagonists of the show are, it's obvious which state the finger was found in.
** In the fifth season premiere "The Crimson Ticket," the F.B.I. and C.B.I. agents have a throwdown regarding the events of the previous season's finale.
** Subverted in another episode in which the titular mentalist actually expresses hope that they could just pass the buck on a missing persons case involving a rich-and-well-connected type he's not interested in investigating to the FBI.
--->'''Jane:''' Can't we just give it to the FBI? They love that stuff.\\
'''Lisbon:''' Oh, I wish. Boss is doing on-cameras - it's our baby.
* A non-law enforcement example occurs in the last episode of ''Series/TheWestWing'', where a train is caught in an ice-storm at a point hazily around the Massachusetts / New Hampshire border and both state governors are dithering about exactly who's responsibility it is to send the rescue teams out. This means that one of President Bartlet's last official acts in office turns out to be calling both governors at the same time, picking one at random, and basically telling him not to be such a damn idiot and send his state's National Guard out anyway, since no one cares who's job it is to rescue the train as long as ''someone'' does it.
* On ''Series/NewTricks'' the team occasionally experiences this when a cold case they are investigating turns out to be connected to an active case. They are not supposed to be investing active cases since most of them are not actually police officers any more.
* In an episode of ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'', Officer Don's sting operation against a video pirate is taken over by a state cop played by Miguel Ferrer:
-->'''Jack:''' Jack [=McMannus=], state crime division.\\
'''Don:''' What? Like the Feds?\\
'''Jack:''' No. Feds are federal. I'm with the state. See, it's Feds, ''[gestures up high]'' state, ''[gestures slightly lower]'' you. ''[gestures way down low]''\\
''[later]''\\
'''Tommy:''' Hey, who's this guy?\\
'''Jack:''' Jack [=McMannus=], with the state.\\
'''Harry:''' Ooh, a Fed! ''[gestures up high]''
* ''Series/{{Alcatraz}}'': Since Alcatraz was a federal prison, Hauser's federal taskforce should have jurisdiction over capturing the returning "63s". However, since the government's been keeping a tight [[TheMasquerade Masquerade]] on the disappearance and return of the inmates, and the crimes committed by the 63s so far have fallen under SFPD jurisdiction, there's been a lot of headbutting between the groups. Fortunately, since Rebecca's a cop, she's able to handle the cases without stepping on toes.
** Episode 4 has Hauser intentionally invoking this trope as a delaying tactic -- the villain of the week has taken hostages in a bank, and the police have arrived to deal with it. Hauser plays the role of traditional FBI agent in these situations in order to distract the cops long enough for Rebecca to sneak in and extract the target.
--->"I'm going to go join that jurisdictional pissing match over there and buy you some time."
* A big part of early episodes of ''Series/{{Chuck}}'', in which CIA agent Sarah and NSA agent Casey have to work together with Chuck. This fades in later episodes to the point where the writers seem to forget that Sarah and Casey work for two different agencies, though it could just be argued that Sarah and Casey had transitioned from TeethClenchedTeamwork to FireForgedFriends in that time.
* The main concept of ''Series/TheBridge2011''. A serial murderer dumps human remains exactly on the border between two countries, so that the police of the cities on each side of the border have to co-operate unwillingly.
** Likewise the concept of its many remakes: ''Series/TheBridgeUS'' (UsefulNotes/{{Texas}} and [[UsefulNotes/TheFreeAndSovereignStatesOfMexico Chihuahua]]), ''Series/TheTunnel'' ([[UsefulNotes/HomeCounties Kent]] and [[UsefulNotes/DepartementalIssues Hauts-de-France]]), ''The Bridge (Russia)'' ([[UsefulNotes/TheGloriousFederalSubjects Leningrad]] and [[UsefulNotes/{{Estonia}} Ida-Viru]]), ''The Bridge (Asia)'' ([[UsefulNotes/{{Malaysia}} Johor Bahru]] and UsefulNotes/{{Singapore}}) and ''The Pass'' ([[UsefulNotes/TheSixteenLandsOfDeutschland Bavaria]] and [[UsefulNotes/{{Austria}} Salzburg]]).
* ''Series/MurdochMysteries'':
** "Anything You Can Do" begins with a Mountie taking control of Murdoch's investigation on the grounds that the victim is a suspect he's been pursuing.
** In "Kommando", the Toronto Constabulary clashed with the Army over has jurisdiction over the case of a murdered soldier, with Inspector Brackenried threatening to arrest Colonel Haywood for obstruction of justice at on point.
** In "Shadows Are Falling", an old friend of Murdoch's comes to him for help when he's accused of murder by Station House No. 1, who resent Station House No. 5 getting involved and asking awkward questions, especially since they know Murdoch's station considers them to be [[BadCopIncompetentCop incompetent and corrupt]].
--->'''Inspector [=McWorthy=]''': This is not in your jurisdiction, Murdoch.\\
'''Murdoch''': At the moment, it's in my home!
* The ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' team uses this to their advantage in one episode. In "The Radio Job", they get barricaded by FBI inside a building, so they fake a terrorist threat and turn the situation into a turf war between the Feds and Homeland Security. While the two team leaders are butting heads, they buy themselves times and escape through a series of distractions.
* In ''Series/GameOfThrones'', Lannister soldiers claiming the king's authority come to arrest Gendry, who has joined the Night's Watch. Yoren asserts that recruits of the Night's Watch are immune from arrest, but the Lannister men refuse to back down, resulting in a fight.
* ''Series/TwinPeaks'':
** The events surrounding the murder of Laura Palmer crossed the county line, thus necessitating the presence of FBI agent Dale Cooper. When he arrives in Twin Peaks, he tells Sheriff Truman that he's encountered this trope in past dealings with local law (see above under '''Film''' for an instance of his colleague dealing with it) and hopes to avoid any friction here. In pleasant defiance of the trope, Truman completely agrees and the two quickly become friends, with one exception: when Cooper advises Truman, on scant evidence, to release Ben Horne and drop the charge of [[spoiler:Laura Palmer's murder]], Truman, for the first time, refuses point blank, declaring he's "had enough of the mumbo jumbo" involved in Cooper's [[TheExoticDetective eccentric approach to law enforcement]]. Of course the whole thing is quickly resolved when they discover [[spoiler:the killer was Laura's father Leland, [[GrandTheftMe possessed by]] [[HumanoidAbomination BOB]]]].
** Played straight in Sheriff Truman's antagonistic relationship to Agent Rosenfeld, the FBI forensics specialist, who acts much more like the classic JerkAss fed trope until eventually [[CharacterDevelopment chilling out]].
** In the second season, when Cooper's pursuit of cocaine smugglers crossing the Canadian border puts him in a feud with an RCMP officer ([[spoiler:who turns out to be crooked]]) and under investigation by the DEA. The DEA agent turns out to be an entirely reasonable cop who ends up helping Cooper to prove his innocence.
** In sequel series ''Twin Peaks: The Return'', Denise Bryson's gender identity (she's either a {{transvestite}} or UsefulNotes/{{transgender}}- it's never made entirely clear, though Season 3 seems to lean towards the latter) became a source of this while she was transferred to work for the DEA and before eventually returning to the FBI. Gordon Cole recounts that he instructed them to "open their hearts or die".
* An episode of ''Series/{{Bones}}'' had the Roswell Sheriff refuse to release a mysterious body to the FBI. For good reason.
-->'''Sheriff:''' I'm not allowing the Feds to swoop in and take off with a mysterious body. (''Gets a painful look on his face.'') Not after what happened last time.
* An episode of ''Series/{{Southland}}'' sees two LAPD officers, one of them Jessica Tang, argue with a pair of LA County officers over who takes responsibility for cleaning up a guy hit by a train, with his remains spread from the track (County jurisdiction) to the road. However, when Tang tongue-lashes someone down the phone over getting help for a homeless retired Marine, the County officers quickly agree to take the body.
* This is a recurring problem on ''Series/{{Longmire}}''. Longmire has no jurisdiction on the Native reserve and is openly despised by the tribal police because he got their old police chief arrested for corruption. In turn both police forces hate getting the feds involved if they can avoid it. Longmire also gets into trouble when an investigation leads into the neighboring county and that county's sheriff is not happy that Longmire did not notify him.
* The rivalry between the Metropolitan Police and the City Police causes problems in the ''Series/RipperStreet'' episode "The King Came Calling".
* Happened in ''Series/DoctorWho'' in "The Claws of Axos". Britain's Ministry of Security wanted to control UNIT, and the Brigadier spends the episode battling bureaucrat Horatio Chinn over the issue.
* In the original ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|1978}}'' episode "Greetings from Earth", there's a clash between the military and civilian authorities over who should control a shuttlecraft full of humans in suspended animation.
* An episode of ''Series/ATouchOfFrost'' has David Jason's Inspector Frost (Britain's answer to Columbo) seeking to investigate a suspected murder on an Army base. Frost is hindered and frustrated by the Royal Military Police (who at the time of screening were following the old principle of demarcation between British civilian and military authorities: if a serious crime happened on a military base, it was for the RMP to investigate and no business of the civilian cops, whose remit ends at the barracks gates). Frost sees how amateurish and incompetent the Army cops are at investigating murder, and gets involved anyway: as he uncovers skullduggery, financial corruption, bullying, illegal sale of military equipment, etc, the Army cops eventually realise they're all on the same team. Eventually.
* In the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode [[Recap/SupernaturalS09E02DevilMayCare "Devil May Care" (S09, Ep02)]], Kevin blackmails a Navy officer to persuade her to allow Sam and Dean, who are posing as FBI agents, to investigate a crime on the Navy base where the FBI would not have jurisdiction.
* ''Series/{{Monk}}'':
** "Mr. Monk Gets Jury Duty", involved an actual dispute over jurisdiction: the San Francisco Police Department captures Top Ten Most Wanted fugitive Miguel Escobar and charged with him with a local homicide case. But the FBI and the DEA want to try Escobar first because he's wanted for drug trafficking charges in multiple states. Stottlemeyer is reluctant until the FBI agent who passes him word of the transfer of custody produces a warrant from the U.S. attorney general.
** Whenever the Feds get involved in an SFPD homicide case, what usually happens is that the Feds and SFPD have very tense cooperation, and in the end, Monk and the SFPD end up invariably closing the case and embarrassing the feds.
*** "Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect" has a mailbombing case which is handled by the ATF (who technically ''do'' have jurisdiction as crimes involving the postal service are federal offenses). Stottlemeyer does show contempt for Special Agent Josh Grooms, the agent in charge.
*** "Mr. Monk Meets the Godfather" does this with the investigation into the quintuple homicide of some mobsters in a barbershop, and the mob family they worked for was under investigation by a joint ATF-FBI task force. When boss Salvatore Lucarelli recruits Monk to look for the man responsible for the shooting, Monk finds himself getting involved with the FBI who want him to go undercover to recover evidence implicating them in other crimes, which Stottlemeyer is against as the Lucarelli family killed and dismembered the last guy who tried to infiltrate the family.
*** "Mr. Monk Gets Cabin Fever" has Monk get put in WitnessProtection, under Agent Grooms's custody. Stottlemeyer and Natalie also are brought along, with Stottlemeyer not only doing so out of loyalty to Monk, but also because he doesn't trust Grooms with Monk's safety.
*** "Mr. Monk and the Really, Really Dead Guy" had jurisdiction friction over a particularly gruesome homicide involving a street musician who was killed six ways ([[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill struck over the head, suffocated with a plastic bag, poisoned, stabbed four times, shot two times, and run over with a car]], in that order). In that one, the Mayor has called in the Feds, and Stottlemeyer doesn't like this, nor the fact that the FBI guys treat Monk with contempt. (In reality, the FBI wouldn't have jurisdiction over this case, unless the victim was a political figure, someone in the witness protection program, the homicide was committed during a crime that is a federal offense (like a security guard being killed during a bank robbery) or the killer crossed state lines in committing the crime. The entire case should have been handled by the SFPD only.)
** There is evidence that the Feds and SFPD sometimes get along: in "Mr. Monk Is Someone Else", there's smooth cooperation between Team Monk and the FBI Los Angeles field office. In "Mr. Monk Bumps His Head", Randy persuades the FBI to lend the SFPD a plane when Monk is found with amnesia in Wyoming. And in "Mr. Monk and the Election", when evidence shows up at the crime scene that the shooter used an AK-47, Stottlemeyer tells Randy to call the ATF and request their help (though the ATF doesn't show up onscreen, it is mentioned that the two forces are working together on the investigation: the SFPD to look for the suspect, and the ATF to locate the gun).
* ''Series/GoodNewsWeek'': Invoked by Paul [=McDermott=] when [[UsefulNotes/AustralianPolitics John Howard's]] government was considering sending in the army to deal with a docks dispute:
-->"No, no, no. You send the ''navy'' in to deal with a dock strike. You send the army to deal with a coal miners' strike, and you send the air force in to deal with a pilots' strike! Otherwise, the navy, army, and air force get into a big demarcation dispute and go out on strike, and the government has to send in the wharfies to defend us against invasion! [[FridgeBrilliance Which isn't a bad idea]] -- when those wharfies cover the coastline, '''nothing''' gets ashore!
* Arises several times in ''Series/{{Fringe}}'', not helped by the fact that the Fringe department generally can't explain what they are doing and would sound insane if they did. They also had to deal with higher-ups who viewed them as a rogue group occasionally.
* In ''Series/{{Gotham}}'', Gotham PD has the Homicide Division and the Major Crimes Division constantly clashing over who gets the murder cases. Not to mention the hostility due to accusations of one side being corrupt over the other.
* ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'':
** Major Crimes is mostly seen through Detective "The Vulture" Pembroke, who's notorious for waiting until cases are basically solved, claiming jurisdiction over it, and taking all the credit.
** Jake pretty much starts a feud with the FDNY over an arson case of a beloved pizzeria when he believes that the fire marshal is wrongly going after the owner for the fire.
** He also refuses to believe that the US Postal Inspection Service is a real federal agency until it takes his case away for not cooperating with them.
* ''Series/TheGlades'': Happens between the FDLE and the Seminole Tribal Police when Jim is called in to help investigate a murder on an Indian reservation in "Honey".
* ''Series/MissFishersMurderMysteries'': In "Murder and the Maiden", tension between the police and the military complicates the investigation of a murder on an RAAF base.
* ''Series/TotalRecall2070'': The main characters, including Hume and Farve, work for the CPB (Citizens' Protection Bureau), a civilian agency that deals with general criminal investigations. Calley represents the Assessor's Office, another agency that has official judicial oversight over the Consortium, the five most powerful {{Mega Corp}}s. Although they're both generally opposed to the Consortium, at times the interests of the CPB and the Assessor's office would conflict and Calley would run his own investigation behind the detectives' backs.
* In ''Series/{{Powers}}'' in season 2 the FBI is called in to investigate [[spoiler: Retro Girl's murder.]]
* ''Series/KamenRiderDrive'': In the ''Drive Saga: Kamen Rider Chaser'' movie, a corpse is found sprawled across the border between Tokyo and Futo. Both cities' police departments want to take charge of the investigation, since they suspect that the victim had something to do with their respective city's super-criminals (Roidmudes and Dopants respectively), which leads to [[TheHero Shinnosuke]] having to deal with Futo's stern and stoic [[Series/KamenRiderDouble Detective Ryu Terui]]. [[spoiler:It turns out that both groups are right -- the perp is a Roidmude who stole a [[TransformationTrinket Gaia Memory]], and on top of that he's only pretending to be dead. When he springs to life and starts running amok, the heroes transform into their Rider gear and kick butt together.]]
* In the Series/AgentCarter episode [[Recap/AgentCarterS2E1TheLadyInTheLake "The Lady in the Lake"]], LAPD Detective Andrew Henry isn't happy when the SSR take the lead in his murder investigation [[spoiler:as they're likely to uncover evidence of his corruption]], while back in New York, the FBI claim jurisdiction over the interrogation of Dottie Underwood, a Soviet spy that the SSR spent a lot of time and manpower capturing.
* On ''Series/DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency'', the [=FBI=], Missing Persons and the [=CIA=] are all mixed in investigating the mess of events that is the show's plot and none of them are particularly happy with each other.
* ''Series/TheIndianDetective'': With the CBSA in the first episode. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] as they're suppose to take the lead in any criminal situation on the Canadian side of the American-Canadian border.
** Later on, between Doug and the officers from the Mumbai Police. Justified in that he's only visiting Mumbai to see his dad and he's not working in an official capacity. He's even accused of working such cases to discredit the force.
* ''Series/StrangerThings'': The Indiana State Police find Will Byers's body in a quarry near Hawkins. They refuse to give the Hawkins police access to even see the body close up, and even have the local coroner sent home so someone "from state" can perform the autopsy. Hopper finds this all to be very suspicious, combined with the fact that the body looks way too intact for someone who supposedly fell into water from a high cliff, and suspects there's some sort of cover-up going on. To prove his theory, he strikes up a conversation with O'Bannon, the trooper who called it in. O'Bannon claims the quarry was state-owned, and Hopper agrees, only for him to then immediately reveal the quarry is actually privately owned, so O'Bannon would have no business being there, and makes O'Bannon quickly fess up. Hopper then goes to the morgue, and tries to bluff his way past the state trooper assigned to guard the door, but quickly catches on that he's in on the conspiracy, there to make sure no one gets close enough to find out [[spoiler:that the body is actually a fake mannequin stuffed with cotton]]:
-->'''State Trooper:''' Hey, you can't be back here!\\
'''Jim Hopper:''' Yeah, I just got off the line with O'Bannon. He said that he needs to see you at the station. It's some emergency ...\\
'''State Trooper:''' What the hell are you talking about? I don't work with O'Bannon.\\
'''Jim Hopper:''' Did I say O'Bannon? I meant ...\\
'''State Trooper:''' ''(vacant, hostile staring)''\\
'''Jim Hopper:''' ''(grimaces)'' [[LetsGetDangerous Okay.]] ''(punches the trooper out cold)''
* ''Series/Deception2018'':
** An intriguing version in that the friction comes within the ''same'' agency. The FBI Homicide division is investigating the murder of a psychic. Agent Kay finds a suspect is under investigation by the Counter Intelligence division, checking in with him. He tells her it's just a routine investigation into money launderers. Later, he saves Kay and Cameron from a hitman and reveals that the suspect is a major arms dealer and they didn't want Homicide messing up their case. Cameron lampshades on how he somehow always assumed the FBI was on the same side and they both give him a "don't be ridiculous" look.
** A later episode has Kay's ex-boyfriend, a CIA operative, involved in the chase for a thief. When the thief is captured, she escapes into the building. The agent is forced to admit that she's heading for a secret CIA black ops site that the FBI didn't even know was in the same building for some information on a past case. Kay notes how the CIA's refusal to share information with other agencies just causes a lot of problems.
* ''Series/TheKillPoint'': The FBI takes over negotiations from the Pittsburg P.D. after one of their agents, who happened to be in the bank during the initial robbery, dies in the hospital from injuries sustained in the shoot-out. The new FBI negotiator immediately tries to throw her weight around, and proves to be far more incompetent than Horst Cali in dealing with the situation. First, she antagonizes Mr. Wolf instead of agreeing to his comically small demands (he's willing to surrender a hostage in exchange for a birthday cake), then declares that the FBI "doesn't negotiate with terrorists". As Cali points out, this defeats the whole purpose of communicating with the hostage takers at all and means they might as well storm in guns blazing and apologize to the families of the dead civilians afterwards. Some of the things that go wrong are indeed beyond her control, such as an independent sniper trying to kill one of the hostage takers. When Wolf refuses to deal with her any longer and Cali rescues another hostage by giving Wolf what he wants, he is put back in charge of negotations with Wolf and his gang.
* ''Series/Daredevil2015'':
** The third season sees some of this going on between the NYPD and the FBI, since the FBI are in Wilson Fisk's pocket and corrupt, and the NYPD are not (anymore). Foggy is quick to note that Fisk's "deal" only applies to his federal case, and that he can still be prosecuted for his crimes at state level irregardless of the outcome of his federal case. District Attorney Blake Tower is reluctant to pursue a case against Fisk, citing jurisdictional matters. Foggy sees this as Tower not wanting to jeopardize his reelection chances, though Tower could have other motives (like not wanting Fisk to get a chance to expose the fact that Tower knew all about Reyes ordering a DNR on Frank Castle, covering up the massacre of Frank's family, and later using Grotto as bait to capture the Punisher).
** In "Karen," Fisk sends Dex to kill Karen as revenge for her murder of James Wesley. As he fails to kill Karen, only succeeding at killing Father Lantom, Dex is forced to return after changing into his FBI windbreaker to smoke out Karen and Matt, who are hiding in the basement, as the NYPD are conducting their investigation. Matt eventually gets an idea as to get Karen out of the church alive. He has Foggy show up to the church, and announce loudly that Karen will only surrender to the NYPD. There's a bit of back and forth between Brett Mahoney and Dex, with Ray Nadeem (who had served as Dex's getaway driver during the hit) defusing the tension by quietly warning Brett about Dex's treachery. So Brett "arrests" Karen and escorts her and Foggy out of the church, puts them in the back of a squad car, and drives them to a point a few blocks away where they then reconvene with Matt.
* Played with in ''Series/{{Justified}}'', where the U.S. Marshals, FBI, Kentucky state troopers, and local Harlan County sheriffs can ''usually'' get along. The friction usually comes into play when somebody on any one of these sides turns out to be a DirtyCop working with the criminals (with the others either unaware or ''knowing'' but unable to touch them due to the fact they haven't done anything necessarily illegal yet and been caught), or when [[CowboyCop Raylan Givens]] is getting on everyone's nerves with his actions violating procedures even if for a good cause.
* In ''Series/EarthFinalConflict'', this can happen whenever a Companion Protector shows up at a crime scene or at a place of interest and starts to pull rank on the local police. In one case, an American cop clashes with the Protector to the U.K. Companion, who points out that Companion Protectors have worldwide jurisdiction. In some cases, Protectors keep their rank and authority from their previous job, like Agent Ronald Sandoval still being in the FBI, even though his primary loyalty is now to the Taelons, not the United States.
* ''Series/{{Yellowstone}}'': This is SeriousBusiness when all three law enforcement agencies in the area are [[DirtyCops just minions of rival strongmen]]. The livestock agents are loyal to the Duttons, the Broken Rock tribal police are loyal to Rainwater, and the sheriff's office serves any interest the sheriff finds expedient. Asserting jurisdiction over a case means that someone gets control over it. In the pilot episode, livestock agents and tribal police nearly get into a shootout over a jurisdictional dispute involving a fortune of stolen Yellowstone cattle.
* ''Series/{{Bosch}}'':
** Cooperation between the LAPD and the FBI is rather shaky in some of the plots. In season 2's adaptation of ''Literature/TrunkMusic'', when a mob-affiliated producer is murdered, Bosch and Edgar find out he's being investigated by the FBI for his ties to an Armenian outfit based out of Las Vegas. Agent Jay Griffin admits that the FBI was wiretapping Tony Allen's office, but won't say why and won't share any intel. Bosch escalates the matter up the chain of command to Deputy Chief Irving. Irving gets the feds to turn over what they have but is suspicious with how readily they do it.
** Season 4 sees it happen in the adaptation of ''Literature/NineDragons'', after Bosch's ex-wife Eleanor is gunned down in a drive-by shooting while helping the FBI pursue some Triad gangsters laundering their money through casinos in Los Angeles.
** Season 6, which adapts ''Literature/TheOverlook'', sees Bosch lock horns with the FBI agents while both agencies are investigating the murder of Stanley Kent, with Bosch telling SAC Jack Brenner, "This you bigfooting my case in the name of national security?" Later, one of the agents, Clifford Maxwell, inserts himself into the serving of a warrant on Waylon Strout in an aggressive, cowboyish way, when they'd agreed to let the LAPD lead, provoking a shootout that ends in the death of Travis Strout and an LAPD officer being wounded. Bosch, who is furious about Travis getting killed before he could be questioned, says Maxwell went in "too fast, too fuckin' hard." [[spoiler:Maxwell later turns out to be the one who killed Stanley Kent, as he was having an affair with Kent's wife.]]
** In season 7, the LAPD eventually determine that gangster Mickey Pena is responsible for ordering the East Hollywood arson fire. However, the FBI refuse to let the LAPD near Pena because they're using Pena as an informant in a big RICO case that's about to go down (and the LAPD won't be able to get to him at all afterwards since Pena will be going into witness protection), with SAC Brenner holding the line even when Irving reminds him that a little girl died in the fire. [[spoiler:Then Irving, who's worried about the possibility that he won't get a second term as Chief of Police, remembers that the FBI just closed a corruption investigation into newly elected Mayor Susanna Lopez due to "insufficient evidence". After some consideration, he agrees to Brenner's request to back off Pena in return for Brenner turning over the FBI's files on Lopez, so he can coerce her into endorsing his second term. None of this goes over well with Bosch, who uses a workaround to snatch Pena out from under the Feds' nose, and gets promptly suspended by Irving (which Bosch turns into a resignation after Pena is [[VigilanteExecution gunned down outside the police station by the father of the girl who died in the fire]]).]]
* ''Series/{{Fargo}}'': In [[Series/FargoSeasonTwo season 2]], the crimes of the Gerhardt family are spread across three different states and four different jurisdictions. Lou Solverson and Hank Larson, being competent officers as well as family (Lou is married to Hank's daughter), are only to happy to work together. The Fargo PD play nice with the Minnesota State Troopers, but Ben Schmidt resists doing anything to upset the Gerhardts. In the final episodes, however, when the Rock County Sheriff, Minnesota State Troopers, Fargo Police Department and South Dakota State Troopers all must work together, friction comes to a boil, mostly due to the South Dakota State Police insisting on running the show and making bad calls [[spoiler:culminating in most of them being massacred after Hanzee Dent tricks the Gerhardts into attacking them thinking they're Kansas City mobsters]]. When Lou objects to their handling of it, he's petulantly ejected from the state. Even when Lou stumbles on a murder committed by Hanzee on his way out, the troopers ignore his observations and kick him out.
* ''Series/{{Clarice}}'': In "Father Time" the DC Police and FBI both get called to a crime scene, which causes a heated argument as their commanders fight over who has jurisdiction until the DC commander at last gives up.
* In ''Series/TheFalconAndTheWinterSoldier'' John Walker in his role as Captain America points out that the Dora Milaje have no jurisdiction in Latvia, even while he has gone off the books in his own investigation. The Dora Milaje are having none of it, and argue that they have authority wherever they find themselves, [[MightMakesRight delivering a beatdown to prove their point]].
* A rare example from ''Franchise/PowerRangers'', of all shows -- [[{{Crossover}} the teamup between]] [[Series/PowerRangersTimeForce Time Force]] and [[Series/PowerRangersWildForce Wild Force]] is instigated by a dispute between the Wild Force team and the Silver Guardians (whose leaders, Wes and Eric, are/were the Red Time Force Ranger and the Quantum Ranger, respectively) over whether the monsters they fought were either mutants (which Time Force and the Silver Guardians fought) or Orgs (who the Wild Force team is currently fighting). It soon emerges that [[TakeAThirdOption they're both mutant and Org]] (dubbed "Mut-Orgs"), and they got this way thanks to Ransik, the BigBad of ''Time Force'', who then becomes a BoxedCrook of sorts to make up for his part in their re-emergence. The two teams' cooperation is somewhat stymied at first because, at the start of the episode, Eric happens to pull over the Yellow Wild Force Ranger, Taylor, and gives her a ticket for speeding (which quickly turns into UnresolvedSexualTension).
* The ''Series/MurderSheWrote'' episode "Mrs. Parker's Revenge" features an FBI sting operation to expose a bioweapon-purchasing terrorist that, of necessity, brings in the head of security for the virology lab, who insists that as long as his lab is involved, so is he, long after the senior FBI agent thinks his role in proceedings is over. The FBI guy also doesn't understand why a CIA agent has muscled into the operation, although he and the CIA agent have a moment of shared annoyance when the NSA guy shows up. The police detective investigating the lab security chief's murder, on the other hand, tries to avoid stepping on ''any'' agency toes, even if that means not really investigating at all. It eventually turns out [[spoiler:that the FBI guy is part of a conspiracy to use the sting as cover for actually stealing and selling the virus, so naturally doesn't want too many other parties taking an interest in the situation]].
[[/folder]]

* "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14255922/1/Spider-Man-and-Power-Girl Spider-Man and Power Girl]]" features a sci-fi version of this when ComicBook/PowerGirl finds herself in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, as it's noted that her status as a dimensionally displaced alien means that S.W.O.R.D. (Sentient World Observation and Response Department) and A.R.M.O.R. (Altered-Reality Monitoring and Operational Response Agency) could lay claim to being responsible for her. Abigail Brand explicitly states that she considers herself having "lost" for having gained responsibility for the situation, since Power Girl is "a walking administrative nightmare" given how she technically falls under the heading of both departments.

* A rare example from ''Franchise/PowerRangers'', of all shows -- [[{{Crossover}} the teamup between]] [[Series/PowerRangersTimeForce Time Force]] and [[Series/PowerRangersWildForce Wild Force]] is instigated by a dispute between the Wild Force team and the Silver Guardians (whose leaders, Wes and Eric, are/were the Red Time Force Ranger and the Quantum Ranger, respectively) over whether the monsters they fought were either mutants (which Time Force and the Silver Guardians fought) or Orgs (who the Wild Force team is currently fighting). It soon emerges that [[TakeAThirdOption they're both mutant and Org]] (dubbed "Mut-Orgs"), and they got this way thanks to Ransik, the BigBad of ''Time Force'', who then becomes a BoxedCrook of sorts to make up for his part in their re-emergence. The two teams' cooperation is somewhat stymied at first because, at the start of the episode, Eric happened to pull over the Yellow Wild Force Ranger, Taylor, and gave her a ticket for speeding (which quickly turns into UnresolvedSexualTension)!
* The ''Series/MurderSheWrote'' episode "Mrs Parker's Revenge" features an FBI sting operation to expose a bioweapon-purchasing terrorist that, of necessity, brings in the head of security for the virology lab, who insists that as long as his lab is involved, so is he, long after the senior FBI agent thinks his role in procedings is over. The FBI guy also doesn't understand why a CIA agent has muscled into the operation, although he and the CIA agent have a moment of shared annoyance when the NSA guy shows up. Averted with the police detective investigating the lab security chief's murder, who tries to avoid stepping on ''any'' agency toes, even if that means not really investigating at all. It eventually turns out [[spoiler: that the FBI guy was part of a conspiracy to use the sting as cover for actually stealing and selling the virus, so naturally didn't want too many other parties taking an interest in the situation.]]

* ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard'' occasionally saw this, when Hazzard's Sheriff Rosco Coltrane clashed with Sheriff Little of neighboring Chickasaw County. And it usually works in ''favor'' of the protagonists. Since Little is honest in comparison to Rosco being in [[CorruptHick Boss Hogg's pocket]], he isn't interested in helping to railroad the Duke Boys any more than he is in getting them on actual crimes.

'''Branford:''' I hear perfectly. The fact that you are a sheriff is not germain to the situation.\\

'''Justice:''' '''''That's a big 10-4!!! Sheriff Buford T. Justice of Texas!!!'''''

* Any society where the population is divided into several ca can fall victim to this trope.

* ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard'' occasionally saw this, when Hazzard's Sheriff Rosco Coltrane clashed with Sheriff Little of neighboring Chickasaw County.

* The main concept of ''Series/BronBroen''. A serial murderer dumps human remains exactly on the border between two countries, so that the police of the cities on each side of the border have to co-operate unwillingly.

* In ''FanFic/BadFutureCrusaders'', Equestria's forces consist of the regular guards, [[TheDreaded Captain Rumble]] and his [[EliteMooks elite Stormfront unit]], the Canterlot Criminal Investigation Department, the Royal Equestria Air Force, and Featherweight's changeling spy network. They are ''constantly'' bickering over who should handle what except for Featherweight, who only provides the other groups with Intel rather than actually acting.

* In ''FanFic/ImGivingYouANightCall'': The murder of Sergeant Matthew Halsey puts in the investigation in the hands of both the police and the military much to Ed's ire, especially since the military liaison is his ex, who he's avoiding.

* Although mostly averted on ''Series/TwinPeaks'' (see below), played pretty straight in TheMovie, ''Film/TwinPeaksFireWalkWithMe'', in the run-in between FBI Special Agent [[ChrisIsaak Chet Desmond]] and the startlingly corrupt Deer Meadows Sheriff's Office. Desmond ends up beating up all the local cops.

** In TheReturn, Denise Bryson's gender identity (she's either a {{transvestite}} or UsefulNotes/{{transgender}}- it's never made entirely clear, though Season 3 seems to lean towards the latter) became a source of this while she was transferred to work for the DEA and before eventually returning to the FBI. Gordon Cole recounts that he instructed them to "open their hearts or die".

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''WebComic/GrrlPower'' addresses this [[http://grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1902 in a way only a Superpowers-based comic can.]] Maxima explains that ARCHON has been set up to deal with "atypical threats" (both criminals with superpowers and disasters where superpowers would be helpful), and that as a federal agency, they'll be able to take over investigations from pretty much everyone else. She thinks this is the best solution, even though "human ego being what it is," obviously other departments are going to be annoyed at this. Once video of the first superpowered brawl gets out, it turns out that she might have been underestimating the human survival instinct.

%%* [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_country_jurisdiction Jurisdiction with Indigenous Americans]] is a patchwork of hundreds of years of treaties between different tribal nations and the federal government as well as numerous Supreme Court rulings.

** Still the situation in 2009.[[http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1932091,00.html This article]] details, among other things, the ATF and FBI arguing over who should investigate explosions on a routine basis.

** However, in Toni Morrison's ''Literature/{{Beloved}}'', which was VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory, Sethe is put in a state jail immediately, frustrating the slave catchers.

* In British Policing (at least, say 90% of the time), whether this is any uncertainty whatsoever, the bickering will be over why one's own force shouldn't be responsible for an investigation. This shouldn't be complicated because jurisdiction in Great Britain is very simple on paper -- the force which polices the area where the crime happened investigates -- but it never works that way in practice. Where there are no cross-border issues, it becomes a question of which squad or team within the individual force gets lumbered with the responsibility -- and then it gets ugly.
** The exception to this is any incident involving armed forces personnel, because they're subject to military law and are supposed to be handed over to the military police... unless civilians were involved, in which case it gets complicated. For example, the submarine HMS ''Astute'' was paying a goodwill visit to the city of Southampton when one of the posted sentries suffered some sort of mental breakdown (as it turned out, he had been on a 48-hour drinking binge and had had over 20 pints of cider and beer, plus other drinks) and opened fire in the control room, killing one officer and wounding another. The perpetrator and his victims were all Royal Navy personnel, but the ship was in a civilian port rather than a Royal Dockyard and when the shooting occurred, several members of the city council were in the compartment whilst being given a tour of the non-classified areas. Figuring out whose jurisdiction ''that'' falls under will probably take much longer than the actual trial.
*** In fact, it took less time than feared since Ryan Donovan, the shooter, was convicted in 2011, the same year as the crime, to life by a civilian court, the option of a military trial being also available.

*** Health care remains a sticking point, as although it's a provincial responsibility, most of the funding comes from the federal government due to its more extensive taxation powers, giving them a great deal of leverage for enforcing its conditions on the provinces. This naturally leads to frequent complaints of federal interference in provincial affairs.
* Speaking of Canada, this trope, influenced by national politics, helped trip up efforts to stop a major crime war in 1990s Quebec. The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_Biker_War Quebec Biker War]] was a MobWar between the Hells Angels (with support from the Rizzuto family of mobsters) and the Rock Machine, a splinter group of bikers that began operation in the 1980s (with support from various other biker groups that were united to get rid of the Hells Angels). After a car bomb set by some of the bikers accidentally killed a child, the RCMP teamed up with the Quebec provincial police and the Montreal city police to try and bring an end to things. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_Biker_War#Operation_Carcajou The result was a complete failure to actually stop the bikers or anyone else]] -- thanks to the Quebec separatist movement being at its' apex, relations between the RCMP and the Quebec authorities were never good (as there were repeated disputes over the lack of a law like the US' RICO Act that could be used to stop the criminals), while the detectives spent more time feuding with one another and taking advantage of being on such a high-profile assignment; as a result, the war dragged on for several more years.
* A strange subversion of this exists in the West Bank/Palestinian Territory, as Israeli citizens (regardless of race or religion) fall under Israeli law, while the Palestinians who are not citizens are under martial law, especially in zones B and C. Things are kept so separate that if an Israeli soldier actually witnesses a citizen commit a crime against a Palestinian in the territory, that soldier cannot arrest the citizen but must call the police.[[note]]Even if the soldier is inclined to do so, which is an arguable moot point. For a practical beither, neither the IDF nor the police cares about crimes committed against Palestinians.[[/note]]