History PoliceAreUseless / LiveActionTV

** In "Vicious Tiberius", an animal control officer arrives at Mrs. Hayfer's to take care of the titular Rottweiler. Once he actually comes across Tiberius, however, he flees and hides in the bathroom with Drake and Josh.

** In "Steered Straight", the cop is assigned to send Drake and Josh to jail, but forgets to lock the car while pursuing a robber, [[EpicFail allowing the robber to steal it]].

** In "The Gary Grill", two cops accuse Drake and Josh, who are high school students in California, of stealing a bunch of grills from ''New Jersey''. Fortunately, they do release them upon finding the real thieves.
** In "Theater Thug", the police end up arresting [[ButtMonkey Josh]] after mistaking him for the titular crook, [[FailedASpotCheck who was in plain sight]].
** In "Vicious Tiberius", an animal control officer arrives at Mrs. Hayfer's to take care of the titular rotweiller. Once he actually comes across Tiberius, however, he flees and hides in the bathroom with Drake and Josh.

** In "Steered Straight", the cop who was assigned to send Drake and Josh to jail forgets to lock the car while pursuing a robber, [[EpicFail allowing the robber to steal it]].
** In the Christmas special, the police arrest, once again, Josh after mistaking him for one of the party crashers, even though he was the one who reported them.

** In "Theater Thug", even though the [[FailedASpotCheck titular crook was in plain sight]], ''the police still end up arresting [[ButtMonkey Josh]] anyway''.

** In the Christmas special, the police, once again, arrest Josh after mistaking him for one of the party crashers, ''even though he was the one who called them in the first place''.

** "iStakeout" is built upon this. A pair of police officers use Carly and Spencer's apartment for a stakeout on a shopkeeper who presumably sells pirated [=DVDs=]. Instead of actually going down to the store and asking the shopkeeper if he sold pirated [=DVDs=] (which was suggested several times by the show's protagonists, who end up doing it themselves), the officers eat food out of their refrigerator, and interrupt their web show. One of the officers is a bully from Spencer's childhood, who brings his [[Main/BrattyHalfPint bratty young son]] over (who screams very loudly when they run out of soda). [[spoiler:The shopkeeper didn't sell pirated [=DVDs=], but instead he sold homemade [=DVDs=] where he and his friends played the roles of pirates.]]

* ''Film/TheBurningBed'' (1984): Francine goes to the police several times to have Mickey, but they do nothing. As the film is BasedOnATrueStory, this is very much TruthInTelevision. She's told they can't do anything unless he's caught in the act, and one of the officers actually testifies against ''her'' after she kills her husband to make the abuse stop. ''A Cry For Help: The Tracey Thurman Story'' (1989), also has this too, only the husband survives unharmed and the wife is permanently injured.

* ''China Lake'' (1983 short) and ''The China Lake Murders'' (1990) has its "Officer Donnelly" as a small town cop committing murders on travelers in his desert town during his vacations there.

** The episode "Creatures Who Came on Sunday" played with this by having the sheriff be in on the whole secret. He was stonewalling the Hardys with his useless act to ''deliberately'' keep them away from the top secret operation on top the mountain.

* ''Night of Courage'' (1987 movie) has this too when an elderly urban couple's home is attacked by thugs seeking a young man who ran inside from these attackers, who kill him outside the couple's door. The police don't investigate, writing the man's death up as "gang related", with a detective even saying "My mother neglected all her children equally".

** This makes sense to anyone who knows New Jersey politics; the state gives local government a lot of power and has a very town-centric mindset; areas that might be one municipality elsewhere often form several in New Jersey. Where Tony and his gang operates (Essex and Hudson counties) is essentially a city of 1.4 million people divided in 34 separate municipalities.[[note]]The two counties' land area is roughly equivalent to Queens plus Manhattan (i.e. smaller than NYC) and only a bit larger than Philadelphia, with a population of 1.5 million, and Philly is geographically small (of the top 20 largest cities in the US, only San Francisco has a smaller land area). To put it another way: One of the nation's largest and densest cities is in New Jersey; it's just that it's divided into 34 municipalities in two counties.[[/note]] Consequently, police forces are weakened by division: the towns with the most crime tend to be the poorest and most underfunded (and therefore most likely to be corrupt), while the ones with the cash to fund a good police force tend to be low-crime anyway, with cops mostly focusing on traffic violations and adolescent shenanigans rather than Mob business. So more generally, organized crime had, thanks to RICO, really become a main focus for the Feds by the 1990s, more or less preempting the local law-enforcement efforts.

** Although in one episode where Batman and Robin are unavailable, Commissioner Gordon laments the fact that he and Chief O'Hara will have to solve a crime ''all by themselves''. The episode later shows them their idea of how to fight crime is putting ''snipers with machine guns'' in the boxes of a crowded theatre.

** Although in one episode where Batman and Robin are unavailable, Commissioner Gordon laments the fact that he and Chief O'Hara will have to solve a crime ''all by themselves''. The episode later shows them their idea of how to fight crime is putting snipers ''with machine guns'' in the boxes of a crowded theatre.
-->'''Commissioner Gordon''': At the first sign of criminal activity, make every bullet count!

** Although in one episode where Batman and Robin are unavailable, Commissioner Gordon laments the fact that he and Chief O'Hara will have to solve a crime ''all by themselves''. This also shows that while they take solid steps, the episode's Super Criminal is clearly several steps ahead of them.

** In "Theater Thug", even though the titular crook was in plain sight, ''the police still end up arresting [[ButtMonkey Josh]] anyway.''
** In "Steered Straight", the cop who was assigned to send Drake and Josh to jail [[FailedASpotCheck forgets to lock the car]] while pursuing a robber, [[EpicFail allowing the robber to steal it]].
** In the Christmas special, the police, once again, arrest Josh after mistaking him for one of the party crashers, ''even though he was the one who called them in the first place.''

In ''Series/{{Diablero}}'', Ventura quickly figures out that the cops aren't going to help him much in finding his missing daughter; even discounting the supernatural elements, they seem apathetic about adding another missing person to their case load. He even calls them "fucking useless"[[labelnote:Spanish]]''"Pinches incompetentes!"''[[/labelnote]] when they brush him off.

In ''Series/Diablero'', Ventura quickly figures out that the cops aren't going to help him much in finding his missing daughter; even discounting the supernatural elements, they seem apathetic about adding another missing person to their case load. He even calls them "fucking useless"[[labelnote:Spanish]]''"Pinches incompetentes!"''[[/labelnote]] when they brush him off.

** In "Steered Straight", the cop who was assigned to send Drake and Josh to jail [[FailedASpotCheck forgets to lock the car]] while pursuing a robber, [[EpicFail giving the robber the opportunity to steal it]].

* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in an episode of ''Series/{{Goosebumps}}'': "The police don't help, Chuck. All the police in the world don't help."

** In "Steered Straight", the cop who was assigned to send Drake and Josh to jail [[FailedASpotCheck forgets to unlock the car]] while pursuing a robber, [[EpicFail giving the robber the opportunity to steal it]].

* In the ''Series/{{Friends}}'' episode "[[Recap/FriendsS4E22TheOneWithTheWorstBestManEver The One With The Worst Best Man Ever]]", Joey sleeps with the stripper from Ross's [[StagParty bachelor party]] only to find out that she [[spoiler: supposedly]] stole Ross's wedding ring the next morning. Ross decides to call the police, but Joey mentions that he already called them but they said they're "too busy solving all the murders".

* In the ''Series/{{Friends}}'' episode "[[Recap/FriendsS4E22TheOneWithTheWorstBestManEver The One With The Worst Best Man Ever]]", Joey sleeps with the stripper from Ross's [[StagParty bachelor party]] only to find out that she [[spoiler: supposedly]] stole Ross's wedding ring the next morning. Ross decides to call the police, but Joey mentions that he already called but they said they're "too busy solving all the murders".

%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order.

* While the security force on ''Series/BabylonFive'' are generally competent, a season 2 episode involving a Free Mars terrorist who's hunting down Talia Winters demonstrates a frightening bout of stupidity on their part. Basically, Talia, who is under protection for witnessing the murder of her friend by the terrorist, is summoned by her dead friend's business associate to meet in the associate's private quarters. Talia is given a security escort to the rendezvous point, but they then let her go into the private residence ALONE AND UNARMED, completely oblivious to the idea that it might be a trap. [[spoiler: Shock of shocks, it was (sort of)]].

* ''Series/BJAndTheBear'': Most often portrayed with B.J.'s arch enemies, Sheriff Elroy Lobo (in season 1) and Captain Rutherford Grant in season 3. He is rarely, if ever, able to get any other lawmen to help him in other episodes, leaving him to solve crimes alone.

** Incidentally, the fact that so many of Team Westen's plans rely on the principle of "get the bad guys to commit a crime out in the open, then have the police arrest them" arguably counts as a {{subver|tedTrope}}sion. The cops ''are'' useful, and ''are'' usually clean and competent--it's just that some jobs are simply too big for them to handle without help. One of their most used and successful tactics is to call a crime in advance just to get the cops on the scene quicker and the criminals are more often then not forced to surrender the moment they're surrounded by police.

* ''Series/Daredevil2015'': In season 1, Wilson Fisk has large numbers of NYPD cops on his payroll, ensuring that he's able to maintain control over the underworld in Hell's Kitchen with little resistance from law enforcement. Upon his release from prison in season 3, he similarly corrupts the FBI agents who are ostensibly guarding him into becoming his glorified enforcers.

* ''Series/HardyBoysNancyDrewMysteries'': not ONE episode on the Hardy Boys' side in season one or two had a single case of the cops ever believing what the brothers' say. At least, not at first. Usually, said cops were just as likely to toss the Hardys in jail for disturbing their peace. Averted in the third season when the Hardy brothers become US Justice Dept. police detectives themselves.

** Deconstructed as of ''Black Friday'' - Detective Chisolm and his entire division are fired for their incompetence.

** Finally, in the season 1 finale, [[spoiler:The Chanels]] are arrested as the Red Devil despite the fact the "evidence" against them is so flimsy a first-year law student could plow a hole through it.
** Lampshaded in season 2 when Dean Munsch gets ready to chase a killer, tells an aide to call the police, then immediately says "no, forget it, the police are idiots!"

** The shooting of the waiter in that one season 4 episode is the most surprising. Some guy goes out to confront two known gangsters, gets shot and there is no fallout for Chris and Paulie whatsoever. You would think such a case would quickly catch up to them, as one can't just pop somebody in a popular restaurant parking lot in Atlantic City like it's the 1920s. Not to mention a whole table of mobsters, including the boss of New Jersey, several of his capos, and the underboss of the Lupertazzis, spent the rest of the evening gambling in the same building, AFTER having eaten a meal served by the waiter who was found dead. Not to mention other spur of the moment crimes it wouldn't have been hard for the police to trace back to the gang, like the Pine Barrens; JT Dolan, Chris's sponsor; Tony killing Ralph; Janice and Ritchie; the guy Vito hits with his car on his way back to New Jersey. The only ones not really drawing heat are Ralphie and Ritchie, since nobody except maybe their spouses would report them missing, but most of the others, especially the ones who were civilians and not in the life should have drawn so much heat.

* Jim Hopper starts the first series of ''Series/StrangerThings'' utterly apathetic between the loss of his daughter Sara and his marriage ending as a result of that. He views the position of small-town police chief as an opportunity to bum around, show up to work late and indulge in his vices in a place where the worst incidents that are reported to the police are bird attacks and teenagers messing with people's lawn ornaments. Then Will Byers goes missing, a bizarre monster stalks the land, a sinister GovernmentConspiracy starts messing with the townsfolk and Hopper gradually rediscovers his long-dormant investigative abilities. It's all but outright stated that at one time he genuinely was a good cop, but he was psychologically shattered by Sarah's death and on some level views the case of Will Byers as an opportunity for [[TheAtoner atonement]]. By season 2, Hopper is more on top of things, and it's his deputies who are now falling into this trope, best shown when they end an investigation into a supernatural blight that's destroying farmers' crops because it was getting too dark for them ("It's called ''flashlights'', dipshits!").

* Another comedic example, ''Series/{{Trick}}'' detectives Yabe and Ishihara epitomize this trope. They're more often than not goofing off on the job, going to amusement parks and such, while physics professor Ueda and stage magician Naoko solve the case. The best example of their incompetence comes in season 2 when they run into a group of people in the woods. There's a dead body on the ground, in plain view, ''in daylight'', not a few feet away from them, with Naoko pointing at it. They ignore it and her and instead ask about the stolen macguffin.

* Subverted in ''Series/{{Highlander}}'': Methos repeatedly derails epic showdowns by calling the police on them. Apparently two men going at each other with broadswords is ''not'' an UnusuallyUninterestingSight in a modern day city.

** In "Theater Thug", even though the titular crook was in plain sight, ''the police still end up arresting [[ButtMonkey Josh]] anyways.''