Line #92 Main/AlwaysGetsHisMan


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15	[[quoteright:300:[[ComicBook/JudgeDredd https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cliff_robinson_dredd_foot_on_perp.png]]]]
16	[[caption-width-right:300:No perp can escape the Law.]]
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21
22	->''[slams jail cell door on fugitive] "That's the last time ''he'll'' fish over the limit."[[note]]The guy was using dynamite in a protected wilderness area, and there was implied to be a case of ThereShouldBeALaw.[[/note]]''
23	-->-- '''Fraser''', ''Series/DueSouth''
24
25	This is a cop's cop. He is incorruptible, competent, and feared by evildoers. If he is not DaChief it is likely because either he is too young, or his path is blocked by {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s who fear him for obvious reasons.
26
27	He is often a ByTheBookCop, though some versions have a bit of CowboyCop in them. May be a SympatheticInspectorAntagonist. If he is an InspectorJavert, he will be portrayed sympathetically as a WorthyOpponent and he is only on the opposite side by an unfortunate error in the system or else because the protagonist is a VillainProtagonist. Often, because ElitesAreMoreGlamorous, this kind of Cop belongs to a famous law enforcement organization: effectively the constabulary equivalent of a BadassArmy. He may also be SmithOfTheYard.
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29	Very often, he's a {{Determinator}} who is LawfulGood-- with a strong accent on ''lawful''. Generally a fair cop, though if the protagonist is operating outside the law, he'll pursue him as relentlessly as anyone else. You very much do not want to do something to make him follow you. This type is more common in the CopShow than the PoliceProcedural, as the former presents an idealized and actionized version of police work, while the latter more often depicts flawed heroes because of its focus on the system as a whole.
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31	Not to be confused with SuperCop, which is a cop with superpowers (though the tropes can obviously overlap).
32
33	The {{Trope Namer\|s}} is the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, one of those "constabulary BadassArmy" type organizations, thanks to the famous motto: "[[BadassCreed The Mountie always gets his man!]]" (It's not ''really'' their motto--that's "Maintain The Right"--but it's [[BeamMeUpScotty gotten established in pop culture that way.]])
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35	----
36	!!Examples:
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38	[[foldercontrol]]
39
40	%%[[folder:Advertising]]
41	%%* Molson Lager commercials: "Malcolm the Mountie Always Gets his Can".
42	%%[[/folder]]
43
44	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
45	* [[SympatheticInspectorAntagonist Inspector Zenigata]] from ''Characters/LupinIII'' thinks of himself this way. To be fair, he's successfully caught everyone he's gone after who ''isn't'' part of Lupin's gang, and he makes it look easy. He's even caught them a couple times -- getting them to ''stay'' caught, however....
46	* [[InspectorJavert Inspector Lunge]] from ''Anime/{{Monster}}'' loses his family and eventually takes an unpaid vacation of several months to try and catch Tenma. He's so determined that, while dying of blood loss he handcuffs himself to Tenma to try and stop him from escaping.
47	[[/folder]]
48
49	[[folder:Comic Books]]
50	* Donald Duck in the story "The Mountless Mountie" joins the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and proudly recites the motto; his colonel is unimpressed and rejoins, "I doubt it."
51	* Colonel Samuel Benfield Steele of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, in Creator/DonRosa's ''ComicBook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck: Hearts of Yukon''. The trope title is even played with, as Steele is trying to perfect the Mounties' motto, with the help of Creator/JackLondon:
52	-->'''Steele''': '''I invariably apprehend my criminal!''' ''(sotto)'' How was that, London?\
53	'''London''': Still needs work, sir.
54	** Eventually he settles on "We always get our ''duck''"! [[note]] Steele is later forced to change it to "We always get our ''man''" since, as Scrooge himself pointed out, he ''didn't'' get his duck.[[/note]]
55	* ''Franchise/GreenLantern'': "No man escapes the Manhunters!"''
56	* Inspector Ishida in ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo'' is a police detective in a large city whose government was corrupted by at least two villains. Ishida, however, is a steadfastly honest officer with a deep commitment to the cause of justice, regardless of who the criminals and their victims are, and sometimes even seeing justice done if there is no legal way of achieving it.
57	* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'': Dredd is a satire of this archetype. He's a stellar and incorruptible cop who always gets his man by resorting to violence and brutality, but he's still a ByTheBookCop because he lives in a dystopian PoliceState where such behavior is institutionalized.
58	[[/folder]]
59
60	%%[[folder:Comic Strips]]
61	%%* ''ComicStrip/DickTracy.''
62	%%[[/folder]]
63
64	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
65	* From ''Film/{{Clue}}'':
66	-->'''Wadsworth:''' Like the mounties, we always get our man!\
67	'''Green:''' ''Mrs. Peacock was a man?!'' (Mustard and Wadsworth [[DopeSlap slap him]])
68	* The ''Film/DickTracy'' movie. [[FemmeFatale Breathless Mahoney]] also has a song called "I Always Get My Man" but it's about... [[IntercourseWithYou something else.]]
69	* Samuel Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones) in ''Film/TheFugitive'' and ''Film/USMarshals''. A modern day version of InspectorJavert from ''Literature/LesMiserables'', he will not allow a criminal to escape if it is in his power to stop them, and will not rest in his pursuit of a fugitive until he has captured them.
70	* ''Film/HorseFeathers''' Professor Wagstaff ([[Creator/MarxBrothers Groucho Marx]]) is no lawman, but at one point he invokes the trope in song anyway:
71	-->''My son is right, I'm quick to fight, I'm from a fighting clan\
72	When I'm abused or badly used, I always get my man\
73	No matter if he's in Peru, Paducah, or Japan\
74	I go ahead, alive or dead, I always get my man''
75	* Jack Valentine in ''Film/LordOfWar'' spends more than a decade chasing ArmsDealer Yuri Orlov, doing it all [[ByTheBookCop by the book]] despite Yuri using all sorts of tricks and schemes to stay one step ahead of the law. After all that time and effort, Valentine finally catches Yuri... [[spoiler:and Yuri has a GetOutOfJailFreeCard due to his [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections connections]] with the US government.]]
76	* Inspector Clouseau from ''Franchise/ThePinkPanther'' believes he is this, and will pursue his quarry across continents to bring them in: even if it is almost invariably the wrong person..
77	[[/folder]]
78
79	[[folder:Literature]]
80	* ''Literature/TwentySixSixtySix'': Subverted with Kessler, the American inspector sent in to instruct the Mexican police force and aid in the investigation.
81	* In the ''Literature/CommonwealthSaga'', Paula Myo fits this trope to a T. Genetically engineered to be an incorruptible super-cop, she has been working for the Serious Crimes Directorate for centuries, and in all that time has only failed to solve ''one'' case. Which she is still pursuing, after a century and a half. [[spoiler: When circumstances force her to decide between arresting the WellIntentionedExtremist perpetrator and saving the human race from extinction, she suffers a near-fatal nervous breakdown.]]
82	* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': Sam Vimes, serving as the anchor through which Pratchett explores law and order in his typical fashion, wanders between a straight-laced version of this trope and a deconstruction depending on the book. After [[spoiler: his ascension to Commander of the Watch,]] he acquires a reputation for being this trope across the Disc. Combined with his reputation for honesty, this means that when a politically-sensitive crime is committed, tensions between leaders can be held at bay if they know Vimes is on the case, as they accept that not only will he catch someone, he'll catch the ''right'' people responsible.
83	%%* Literature/HarryBosch is this with CowboyCop mixed in.
84	%%* Lt. Eve Dallas in J.D. Robb's ''Literature/InDeath'' series.
85	* The Rhodian Navy collectively in ''Literature/OverTheWineDarkSea''. They keep the peace in the Aegean and they are feared by pirates.
86	* Zinc Chandler, a Mountie from Creator/MichaelSlade's ''RCMP'' novels, recited the Mounties' "Get Your Man" slogan repeatedly in his head when he shook off the effects of being rendered nearly unconscious. Nearly all of Slade's Mountie heroes fit this trope, singly or collectively.
87	%%* Creator/MichaelSlade was inspired by the TropeNamer to write about the Mounties. This became the Special X division which is central to his novels.
88	* ''Literature/SolomonKane'', who once pursued a bandit from France into the middle of DarkestAfrica.
89	* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': Corellian Jedi are characterized as utterly devoted and incorruptible [[SuperCop lawmen]] who are feared by evildoers in the Corellian sector. The Corellian Security Force ([=CorSec=]) has this reputation as well, and Jedi Master Corran Horn is both a Corellian Jedi and an ex-cop.
90	* ''Literature/TortallUniverse'': ''Literature/BekaCooper''. She relentlessly pursues criminals who seem invisible or impossible to nab because of their position. She's a little ByTheBookCop and a little CowboyCop (as most Dogs are, since it's a proto-police force), but on one occassion she actually arrested her partner for taking a bribe to ignore murder.
91	[[/folder]]
92
93	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
94	* ''Series/BabylonFive'': Security Chief Michael Garibaldi, formerly of Mars. His past isn't that important, and [[DarkAndTroubledPast he prefers not to talk about it, anyway]]. The Mars colony is considered to be the most dangerous place in the Earth Alliance--doubtless his instincts as a detective were honed on Mars before he was reassigned to [=B5=]. (He swore never to return to that planet after it nearly killed him multiple times. [[WhyDidItHaveTobeSnakes Naturally]], he ends up returning multiple times in the later seasons.)
95	* In ''Series/{{Bones}}'', Booth mentions this trope when Brennan comments that he could never catch her if she were to commit a murder:
96	-->'''Booth:''' That's right. See? Because I always get my man.\
97	'''Bones''': [[NoManOfWomanBorn I am a woman.]]
98	* Columbo in ''Series/{{Columbo}}''. Every time the killer thinks they have got away with it, Columbo suddenly appears to ask them "just one more thing".
99	%%* Horatio of ''Series/CSIMiami'' is a suspected AffectionateParody of this trope.
100	%%* Joe Friday in ''Franchise/{{Dragnet}}''.
101	* Fraser in ''Series/DueSouth'', although he protests whenever someone claims that the Mounties' slogan is "We Always Get Our Man."
102	** In the pilot Fraser's father evens says "You shoot a Mountie, they'll hunt you to the ends of the Earth".
103	* Sheriff Carter in ''Series/{{Eureka}}'' is a more mild version of this.
104	* Such characters are a staple of the ''Series/{{Fargo}}'' universe; Hank and Lou in season 2 and Lou's daughter Molly in season 1, in addition to Marge Gunderson from [[Film/{{Fargo}} the movie]]. All of them serve against a backdrop of PoliceAreUseless.
105	* Kojak of... ''Series/{{Kojak}}'' is an idealized cop: feared in the underworld, and zealous in weeding out corruption. The only reason he hasn't been promoted to Chief is because of insubordination (and a desk jockey isn't as exciting to watch). In the TV movies, he is rewarded with his own Major Case squad.
106	-->"What's the point? Where would you go? If the subway ran to Outer Mongolia I'd still come after you."
107	* Olivia Benson of ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' is a female version.
108	* Sterling on ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' is a rare morally ambiguous version of this role that is only out for himself. While he is against the [[JustLikeRobinHood heroic thief]] main characters they are clearly [[WeHelpTheHelpless doing it to help people]], whereas he works for [[CorruptCorporateExecutive an insurance company.]] He is made somewhat more heroic when he joins [[InterpolSpecialAgent Interpol]] but he still serves himself over others. The conflict between him and Nate comes down to ToBeLawfulOrGood with Sterling choosing lawful with Nate choosing good.
109	* In ''Series/MurdochMysteries'' the excessively perfect [[TheAce Sargeant Jasper Linney]] from the episode "Anything You Can Do" has this as his personal motto as befitting a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Of course, most his trait apply equally to [[spoiler:his half-brother]] William Murdoch.
110	* Leroy Jethro Gibbs in ''Series/{{NCIS}}''. Ditto Fornell.
111	* Don Eppes in ''Series/{{Numb3rs}}''.
112	* Odo of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', a mix of ByTheBookCop (when it's his own rules) and CowboyCop (when it's other people's rules). He was modeled after the sheriff archetype in Westerns.
113	* Tuvok in ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', as the ship's security officer, occasionally conducts or assists in investigations those times that someone commits a crime aboard ship, or one of his crewmates gets [[ClearMyName falsely accused of a crime]] by aliens. In one episode he even works out that the perpetrator of a series of crimes is himself being mind controlled and having the memories wiped afterwards and promptly relieves ''himself'' of duty and informs the rest of the command staff so they can place him under arrest while they figure out who's actually responsible.
114	* Cordell Walker (Creator/ChuckNorris) in ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger''.
115	* Josh Randall from ''Series/WantedDeadOrAlive'' is the BountyHunter version.
116	%%* Peter Burke in ''Series/WhiteCollar''
117	[[/folder]]
118
119	[[folder:Pro Wrestling]]
120	* Jacques Rougeau, during his portrayal of [[ForeignWrestlingHeel The Mountie]] in [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} World Wrestling Federation]] during 1991-1992, always boasted "I always get my man!" His entrance theme, "I'm the Mountie!" – a heel-type marching tune performed by Rougeau – spelled this out perfectly.
121	-->"I'm The Mountie... I'm handsome, I'm brave, I'm strong.\
122	I'm The Mountie... and I enforce the law.\
123	You can try to run but you can never hide.\
124	I'm the Mountie... I always get my man."
125	* Partially lampshaded when the WWE were forced to change Rougeau's gimmick after pressure from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who weren't fond of a man dressed as one of their officers committing stereotypical acts of wrestling villainy. Rougeau was instead teamed up with fellow Canadian Carl "Pierre" Ouellet as The Quebecers, they kept the same entrance music but with altered lyrics:
126	-->"We're not The Mounties... we're handsome, we're brave, we're strong.\
127	We're not The Mounties... but we enforce the law.\
128	You can try to run but you can never hide.\
129	Unlike the Mounties... we always get our man."
130	[[/folder]]
131
132	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
133	* In ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}' ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' ''Sword Worlds'' the Confederation Patrol provides a lot of these kinds of SpacePolice for the Sword Worlds Confederation.
134	[[/folder]]
135
136	[[folder:Video Games]]
137	* In ''VideoGame/EveOnline'', Concord, the space police, will punish attacks on innocent players by immediately appearing to destroy your ship, having first locked it down to prevent you moving, shooting, or even being able to target anything. In the past, it could occasionally be possible to escape from them by setting up some very unusual situations that allowed you to escape to low-security space. CCP, the developer, responded to this by updating the rules to say that escaping from Concord is officially considered an exploit no matter how you manage it, and your ship will be removed anyway. Concord always get their man, even if they have to work through the metagame to manage it.
138	* In ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' and, by extension, ''VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon'', Nanu is the sheriff on Alola's Ula'Ula Island and is by far the most skilled cop in the entire region. Team Skull hasn't run amok over Alola like the other regions' villanous teams, and that's because Nanu placed his police station right by Team Skull's hideout and has been holding them off, all by himself, the whole time Team Skull has existed. That being said, the "getting" part he doesn't care much about. He's BrilliantButLazy, not showing much interest in arresting them and more on simply corraling them if they get loose.[[note]]That being said, it can also be interpreted that Nanu has turned Team Skull's own hideout into their prison.[[/note]]
139	[[/folder]]
140
141	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
142	* Mortelli from ''VisualNovel/DaughterForDessert'' finds the protagonist's stolen toaster (though he declines to say who was responsible), and he figures out that the protagonist was the one who broke into his office.
143	[[/folder]]
144
145	[[folder:Web Comics]]
146	%%* ''Webcomic/AModestDestiny'' parodies the [[http://www.squidi.net/comic/amd/view.php?series=amd&ep=1&id=8 fugitive speech.]]
147	* ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'': Captain Emil Toma has a reputation for always capturing the brigands he's after. While he's not nearly as perfect as his propaganda spread reputation he is tenacious and keeps after criminals long after anyone else would have given up, even after being betrayed by his superiors and running afoul of much larger plots than he was expecting he still strives to do the best he can in the situation he's in.
148	[[/folder]]
149
150	[[folder:Western Animation]]
151	* ''WesternAnimation/DudleyDoRight Of The Mounties''. Sometimes he gets his man [[DastardlyWhiplash (Snidley Whiplash)]], sometimes not.
152	* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/EvilConCarne'', when Hector is told that he is being targeted by the Mounted Police, he shouts "The Mounties!? They ''always'' get their man!".
153	* Joe Swanson in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' ''has always gotten his man.'' Always. One episode actually centered around him losing his first criminal ever, but of course [[StatusQuoIsGod he catches him by the end of the episode]].
154	* WesternAnimation/HeckleAndJeckle are mounties in the cartoon "Sno' Fun." They go after their man Powerful Pierre in what appears to be Terrytoons' carbon copy of Tex Avery's ''Northwest Hounded Police''.
155	* "[[WesternAnimation/{{Underdog}} Klondike Kat]] always gets his mouse!" (The mouse in question being the rodent thief Savoir Faire, and the Mounties in this case are the Klondike Kops.)
156	* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' examples:
157	** ''Big Man From The North'' (1932) has Bosko going after his man.
158	** ''Fresh Hare'' (1942) has Mountie Elmer Fudd going after Bugs Bunny for a number of crimes he's committed (as opposed to hunting him for game as is the norm).
159	** ''Snow Man's Land'' (1939) has a Pinto Colvig-voiced derp of a Mountie going after a bullying bruiser.
160	[[/folder]]
161
162	[[folder:Real Life]]
163	* Though they may or may not qualify under the trope, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, one of those "constabulary BadassArmy" type organizations that have a lot of these kind both in fiction and presumably in RealLife, are the TropeNamers here, thanks to the famous motto: "[[BadassCreed The Mountie always gets his man!]]". (It's not ''really'' their motto--that's "Maintain The Right"--but it's [[BeamMeUpScotty gotten established in pop culture that way.]])
164	** Even referenced in ''Peabody's Improbable History'' segment of ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'' when Peabody and Sherman went back in time to Canada to meet a Mountie who ''always gets his man''. He couldn't arrest a wanted Native American because she's a woman which turns out to be a man in disguise at the end.
165	* Robert Carrey, an Elizabethan adventurer who served as Warden of the Northern Marches and patrolled the Anglo-Scottish border keeping evildoers at bay. A decent and honest man and too seldom remembered.
166	** As Sir Robert Carey,[[note]]a wrong-side-of-the-blankets relative of Queen Elizabeth 1st, who is exiled to the Borders both as unacknowledged royal patronage and to remove him from the seat of power in London lest he get ambitions ,[[/note]] he is fictionalised in the novels of P.F. Chisholm, who dramatises the man, the place, and the period.
167	* Eliot Ness: He and his men were not called "the Untouchables" for nothing. He was an US Treasury agent who kept [[TheMafia organized crime]] at bay in Chicago in the days of Al Capone.
168	* Combining this with VigilanteMan and BestServedCold: In a town in Arizona a highwayman lies buried at the graveyard. Marked on his tombstone is "[[BadassBoast Wells Fargo Never Forgets]]". Yes, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells_Fargo that]] Wells Fargo. Yeah, if you thought messing with the bank was bad today...
169	* UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt apparently acted like this back in his days as a New York Police Chief. He'd go patrolling in the streets and if he saw a cop acting corrupt (taking bribes, hassling people for no good reason), he slapped them and then fired them on the spot.
170	* The “Encounter Specialists” of the UsefulNotes/{{Mumbai}} Metropolitan Police acquired such a reputation as they went after the city’s organized crime rings during the [=90s=] and the aughts. If they couldn’t build a prosecutable case against a crime lord, they would extrajudicially execute him, writing it off as “killed during an encounter with police”. Hence the name. Many of them became so famous for taking down gangsters that the terrorists who attacked Mumbai on November 26 2008, specifically targeted these policemen first, before hitting their primary targets.
171	[[/folder]]

Context Main / AlwaysGetsHisMan