Basic Trope: A renegade police officer who bucks authority and plays by his own rules.
- Straight: Bob is a detective who routinely cuts corners in his investigations in order to identify and apprehend the guilty party, creating tension between himself and his superior officer.
- Exaggerated: Bob engages in flagrant breaking of the law in his investigations, resulting in lots of deaths, destruction and property damage. Although his superiors hate him and Internal Affairs has sworn to throw him off the force, he nevertheless remains an integral part of the department.
- Downplayed:
- Bob breaks some rules set by the police force, but he does follow most other rules. He only breaks minor procedural rules, which only results in a minor infringement notice.
- Bob never breaks the rules... He just finds interesting ways to bend them to his (and justice's) favor!
- Bob's rule violations are towards laxness instead of overstep and either closer to the spirit of the law or a larger utility. He warns the delinquent Charlie to move along and head home after curfew and get to sleep and offers a ride but never arrests him as he fears that it would corrupt him more than any of his petty misdeeds .
- Justified: The rules of the system in which Bob operates are so antiquated, corrupt and ineffective that the only way to ensure that justice is done is to circumvent them.
- Inverted:
- Bob is a By-the-Book Cop.
- Every other cop in the precinct acts according to all of the traits and tropes that typically define a loose cannon cop. Bob challenges the system and plays by his own rules by going through proper police procedure.
- Bob defers to authority beyond not only the law and decency but against humanity.
- Subverted: Bob acts like a Cowboy Cop but is actually a By-the-Book Cop.
- Double Subverted: Bob gives the appearance of following the rules, but he's actually just a lot more subtle with his rule-breaking.
- Parodied:
- Bob's methods of fighting crime are ludicrously over the top; for example, he responds to a purse-snatcher by stealing a tank and running the purse-snatcher over with it.
- Bob's methods of fighting crime are ludicrously incompetent.
- The typical 'Cowboy Cop' character of Bob is transplanted out of a police/law-enforcement environment and into a less action-oriented or critical profession — such as a librarian, an insurance agent, a milkman, etc. The same tropes — such as the rule-bending and the "You're a loose cannon!" exchanges — are played out straight.
- Everyone in Bob's precinct is an exaggerated version of the By-the-Book Cop - except Bob, who takes one or two very minor liberties with the law. Because of this, he's painted as a Cowboy Cop.
- "What do I tell you — I don't agree with your methods, but you get results. Now, those are unequivocally bad results, for the department and everyone involved, but they are results."
- One of Bob's classic Character Catchphrases is "WE GOT A RUNNER! FREEEEZE!!!" before unloading three pistol magazines, five cans of pepper spray, two tasers, and several beatdowns on his target. Obviously indiscriminately, but more often than not the person on the receiving end is black.
- Zig Zagged: Bob flaunts some of the rules, but with others he's a complete stickler.
- Averted: See By-the-Book Cop.
- Enforced:
- The writers have a hearty disdain for the system and create the character of Bob in order to explore how in order to secure justice sometimes it is necessary to act outside of it.
- The writers feel that a charismatic rebel will interest more viewers than someone who strictly follows the rules.
- The writers are rather unoriginal and sloppy with facts regarding how a modern police department functions.
- Lampshaded: "You're a loose cannon, Bob!"
- Invoked: Bob actually wants to get fired from the police department and initially acts in a reckless, rule-flaunting fashion to see this come about.
- Exploited:
- Gangster Alice uses Bob's cowboy cop tendencies against him in a Batman Gambit so a hapless patsy is blamed for her crimes, since Bob killed him while making the arrest.
- Charlie the smooth-talking Amoral Attorney is able to get his client Dan off scot-free by weaving a story about how Bob roughed up Dan into confessing for the crime and generally framing Bob as a violent, power-abusing thug. Bob knows that Dan is guilty, but the court is convinced and Dan gets to walk.
- Defied: Bob becomes a By-the-Book Cop who actively discourages anyone from even trying to become a Cowboy Cop.
- Discussed: "Bob may play by his own rules, but damn if he's also the finest cop in this whole department".
- Conversed: "How's a character like Bob lasted so long in the police without being severely disciplined?"
- Implied: In one early scene, Harry Da Chief pulls out an absurdly thick file from his cabinet labeled "Bob-Related Complaints", thumbs through it, hands it to Agnes the Internal Affairs investigator and slams back the glass of whisky he had poured out ten seconds before.
- Deconstructed:
- Bob's methods of fighting crime are dangerous, corrupt and ultimately harmful to justice. Because he cuts corners, his cases get justifiably thrown out of court and guilty people walk free — and there's no one else to blame but him. His recklessness and violent approach to solving crimes endanger not only himself, but his fellow police officers and innocent civilians as well. In breaking the law to try and catch criminals, he is ultimately hypocritical and no better than the criminals he claims to despise. In short, he's someone who has no place being a police officer.
- Average civilians are utterly terrified of Bob due to how seemingly crude and violent he is, and eventually Bob's superiors have no choice but to sack him before he causes a major scandal.
- Alternatively, Bob becomes a Rabid Cop instead. The more he becomes a maverick, the more he breaks the rules, to the point that he becomes more dangerous than the criminals.
- Reconstructed:
- Although Bob's methods are questionable, the reason why he's still part of the force is because sometimes they're the only ones that work. Furthermore, being too bound by the rules can create inherent risks and dangers in itself.
- Bob is well aware that his behavior has resulted in him becoming a Hero with Bad Publicity, and decides to make efforts to become more personable and tone down his more extreme methods.
- The rules encourage Rabid Cop behavior. By breaking the rules, Bob actually becomes a nicer, better cop.
"I don't need no stinkin' link to get back to Cowboy Cop"
