Internal Affairs in Cime Drama

So I don't want to turn this into a thread about why I dislike Law and Order Special Victims Unit but it is the primary source of my ire. SVU loves to present IAB as strawman villains; incompetent, malicious and absolutely deadset on, for absolutely no reason, persecuting our heroes in their righteous cause.

But recently I was introduced to the show Blue Bloods. It presents itself as more Right Wing than L&O but it still labels an informant for IAB as a "rat" and a traitor to his "kind."

This, from what I've been told by crime drama buffs, is nothing new. IAB are the bad guys whenever they appear in cop shows.

Why? There is nothing more vital and necessary than Internal Affairs. Who watches the watchmen? They do. An organization like the police is ripe for abuse and corruption. An agency like Internal Affairs is not only required, it should be applauded and hailed as the heroes of heroes. They keep us safe from those who 'keep us safe."

But they're the Designated Villain in shows because...why?

edit: I meant "Crime Drama." Dammit.

edited 7th Nov '16 3:09:15 AM by Nikkolas

From what I've found, it's because cops can fall into a group mentality of them against others and internal are basically cops who aren't blindly supporting and following the group.

Basically, the group mind and sense of protectiveness makes them feel betrayed because a fellow cop didn't support their actions.

CSI Miami (And the CSI Verse in general) was big on this. CSI Miami had the IA guy as a recurring villain. But yeah, it's a recurring trope we even have a page on how Internal Affairs is always evil.

Basically, if the cops are the good guys on your show, then anyone impeding the good guys has to be a villain.

edited 7th Nov '16 6:34:30 AM by Ghilz

Funnily enough, there was a moderately succeful Brazilian crime drama that talked about Internal Affairs and they were portrayed as heroic (as far as the brazilian police system went in that show's portrayal anyway).

I'm trying to remember if the US has an equivalent (a cop procedural entirely about internal affairs).

edited 7th Nov '16 9:24:14 AM by Gaon

Dexter was really surprisingly bad about it, considering it's a Villain Protagonist work and all.

There's one season when an IA investigator is a secondary threat, and she's looking into a (definitely dirty, but mildly so) cop. She goes to her partner and is like "oh man, that Quinn, he's shady. Rat on him for me? I'm just going to threaten you for a bit and not provide any context." And then she just assumes the partner is helping her when the partner is clearly going "uh... no? Not interested" yet keeps acting like they're in this together. And in the end it turns out that it's all an ulterior motive because she used to be the guy's partner.

It was really weird in an already disjointed season.