History Characters / TheWireBaltimorePoliceDepartment

->'''Played by:''' Erik Todd Dellums

->'''Played by:''' Jeffrey Fugitt

'''Baltimore Police Department''' ([[Characters/TheWireMajorCrimesUnit Major Crimes Unit]] | [[Characters/TheWireHomicideUnit Homicide Unit]] | [[Characters/TheWirePoliceCommanders Police Commanders]] | [[Characters/TheWireWesternDistrict Western District]]) | [[Characters/TheWireBaltimoreUnderworld Baltimore Underworld]] ([[Characters/TheWireBarksdaleOrganization The Barksdale Organization]] | [[Characters/TheWireOmarAndAssociates Omar and Associates]] | [[Characters/TheWireTheGreeks The Greeks]] | [[Characters/TheWireTheStanfieldGang The Stanfield Gang]] | [[Characters/TheWireNewDayCoOp New Day Co-Op]]) | [[Characters/TheWireCourthouse Courthouse]] | [[Characters/TheWireBaltimoreDocks Baltimore Docks]] | [[Characters/TheWireCityHall City Hall]] | ''[[Characters/TheWireBaltimoreSun The Baltimore Sun]]'' | [[Characters/TheWireOtherCharacters Other Characters]] ([[Characters/TheWireHomelessPeopleAndAddicts Homeless People and Addicts]] | [[Characters/TheWireTheNextGeneration The Next Generation]]-]]]]]

'''Baltimore Police Department''' | [[Characters/TheWireMajorCrimesUnit Major Crimes Unit]] | [[Characters/TheWireHomicideUnit Homicide Unit]] | [[Characters/TheWirePoliceCommanders Police Commanders]] | [[Characters/TheWireWesternDistrict Western District]] | [[Characters/TheWireBaltimoreUnderworld Baltimore Underworld]] | [[Characters/TheWireBarksdaleOrganization The Barksdale Organization]] | [[Characters/TheWireOmarAndAssociates Omar and Associates]] | [[Characters/TheWireTheGreeks The Greeks]] | [[Characters/TheWireTheStanfieldGang The Stanfield Gang]] | [[Characters/TheWireNewDayCoOp New Day Co-Op]] | [[Characters/TheWireCourthouse Courthouse]] | [[Characters/TheWireCityHall City Hall]] | [[Characters/TheWireBaltimoreSun The Baltimore Sun]] | [[Characters/TheWireOtherCharacters Other Characters]] | [[Characters/TheWireHomelessPeopleAndAddicts Homeless People and Addicts]] | [[Characters/TheWireBaltimoreDocks Baltimore Docks]] | [[Characters/TheWireTheNextGeneration The Next Generation]]-]]]]]

[[center: [- [[Characters/TheWire Main Character Index]] | '''Baltimore Police Department''' | [[Characters/TheWireMajorCrimesUnit Major Crimes Unit]] | [[Characters/TheWireHomicideUnit Homicide Unit]] | [[Characters/TheWirePoliceCommanders Police Commanders]] | [[Characters/TheWireWesternDistrict Western District]] | [[Characters/TheWireBaltimoreUnderworld Baltimore Underworld]] | [[Characters/TheWireBarksdaleOrganization The Barksdale Organization]] | [[Characters/TheWireOmarAndAssociates Omar and Associates]] | [[Characters/TheWireTheGreeks The Greeks]] | [[Characters/TheWireTheStanfieldGang The Stanfield Gang]] | [[Characters/TheWireNewDayCoOp New Day Co-Op]] | [[Characters/TheWireCourthouse Courthouse]] | [[Characters/TheWireCityHall City Hall]] | [[Characters/TheWireBaltimoreSun The Baltimore Sun]] | [[Characters/TheWireOtherCharacters Other Characters]] | [[Characters/TheWireHomelessPeopleAndAddicts Homeless People and Addicts]] | [[Characters/TheWireBaltimoreDocks Baltimore Docks]] | [[Characters/TheWireTheNextGeneration The Next Generation]]]]-]

[[folder:Randall Friezer]]

->''You have to admit that whole Budapest thing was a hell of a pull''

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: The recurring medical examiner in the first three seasons, he doesn't come back for the final ones, when forensic medical analysis becomes even more relevant than usual as Marlo and ''[[ItMakesSenseInContext Jimmy]]'' become serial killers. Nobody misses him.

* TheSnackIsMoreInteresting: Seen taking a snack while exposing the cases, the man is not affected by the gruesome things he examines on a daily basis.

[[folder:Claude Diggins]]

* CoolBoat: Shares his fancy own boat with Bunk and [=McNulty=] to pose as a fishing craft and monitor Spiros Vondas from the sea.
* CoolOldGuy: Significantly older than [=McNulty=], Diggins is quite laid back and understanding. Jimmy could have landed much worse with another partner.
* {{Mentor}}: Eases [=McNulty=]'s transition into a sea boy considerably and tries to teach him the ropes. Not that Jimmy ever makes a decent sailor anyway.

[[center: [- [[Characters/TheWire Main Character Index]] | '''Baltimore Police Department''' | [[Characters/TheWireMajorCrimesUnit Major Crimes Unit]] | [[Characters/TheWireHomicideUnit Homicide Unit]] | [[Characters/TheWirePoliceCommanders Police Commanders]] | [[Characters/TheWireWesternDistrict Western District]] | [[Characters/TheWireBaltimoreUnderworld Baltimore Underworld]] | [[Characters/TheWireBarksdaleOrganization The Barksdale Organization]] | [[Characters/TheWireOmarAndAssociates Omar and Associates]] | [[Characters/TheWireTheGreeks The Greeks]] | [[Characters/TheWireStanfieldGang The Stanfield Gang]] | [[Characters/TheWireNewDayCoOp New Day Co-Op]] | [[Characters/TheWireCourthouse Courthouse]] | [[Characters/TheWireCityHall City Hall]] | [[Characters/TheWireBaltimoreSun The Baltimore Sun]] | [[Characters/TheWireOtherCharacters Other Characters]] | [[Characters/TheWireHomelessPeopleAndAddicts Homeless People and Addicts]] | [[Characters/TheWireBaltimoreDocks Baltimore Docks]] | [[Characters/TheWireTheNextGeneration The Next Generation]]]]-]

[[center: [- [[Characters/TheWire Main Character Index]] | '''Baltimore Police Department''' | [[Characters/TheWireMajorCrimesUnit Major Crimes Unit]] | [[Characters/TheWireHomicideUnit Homicide Unit]] | [[Characters/TheWirePoliceCommanders Police Commanders]] | [[Characters/TheWireWesternDistrict Western District]] | [[Characters/TheWireBaltimoreUnderworld Baltimore Underworld]] | [[Characters/TheWireBarksdaleOrganization The Barksdale Organization]] | [[Characters/TheWireOmarAndAssociates Omar and Associates]] | [[Characters/TheWireTheGreeks The Greeks]] | [[Characters/TheWireStanfieldOrganization Stanfield Organization]] | [[Characters/TheWireNewDayCoOp New Day Co-Op]] | [[Characters/TheWireCourthouse Courthouse]] | [[Characters/TheWireCityHall City Hall]] | [[Characters/TheWireBaltimoreSun The Baltimore Sun]] | [[Characters/TheWireOtherCharacters Other Characters]] | [[Characters/TheWireHomelessPeopleAndAddicts Homeless People and Addicts]] | [[Characters/TheWireBaltimoreDocks Baltimore Docks]] | [[Characters/TheWireTheNextGeneration The Next Generation]]]]-]

!Homicide
See the [[Characters/TheWirePoliceCommanders Police Commanders]] page.

[[center: [- [[Characters/TheWire Main Character Index]] | '''Baltimore Police Department''' | [[Characters/TheWireMajorCrimesUnit Major Crimes Unit]] | [[Characters/TheWireHomicideUnit Homicide Unit]] | [[Characters/TheWirePoliceCommanders Police Commanders]] | [[Characters/TheWireWesternDistrict Western District]] | [[Characters/TheWireBaltimoreUnderworld Baltimore Underworld]] |[[Characters/TheWireBarksdaleOrganization The Barksdale Organization]] | [[Characters/TheWireOmarAndAssociates Omar and Associates]] | [[Characters/TheWireTheGreeks The Greeks]] | [[Characters/TheWireStanfieldOrganization Stanfield Organization]] | [[Characters/TheWireNewDayCoOp New Day Co-Op]] | [[Characters/TheWireCourthouse Courthouse]] | [[Characters/TheWireCityHall City Hall]] | [[Characters/TheWireBaltimoreSun The Baltimore Sun]] | [[Characters/TheWireOtherCharacters Other Characters]] | [[Characters/TheWireHomelessPeopleAndAddicts Homeless People and Addicts]] | [[Characters/TheWireBaltimoreDocks Baltimore Docks]] | [[Characters/TheWireTheNextGeneration The Next Generation]]]]-]

[[center: [- [[Characters/TheWire Main Character Index]] | '''Baltimore Police Department''' |[[Characters/TheWireMajorCrimesUnit Major Crimes Unit]] | [[Characters/TheWireHomicideUnit Homicide Unit]] | [[Characters/TheWirePoliceCommanders Police Commanders]] | [[Characters/TheWireWesternDistrict Western District]] | [[Characters/TheWireBaltimoreUnderworld Baltimore Underworld]] |[[Characters/TheWireBarksdaleOrganization The Barksdale Organization]] | [[Characters/TheWireOmarAndAssociates Omar and Associates]] | [[Characters/TheWireTheGreeks The Greeks]] | [[Characters/TheWireStanfieldOrganization Stanfield Organization]] | [[Characters/TheWireNewDayCoOp New Day Co-Op]] | [[Characters/TheWireCourthouse Courthouse]] | [[Characters/TheWireCityHall City Hall]] | [[Characters/TheWireBaltimoreSun The Baltimore Sun]] | [[Characters/TheWireOtherCharacters Other Characters]] | [[Characters/TheWireHomelessPeopleAndAddicts Homeless People and Addicts]] | [[Characters/TheWireBaltimoreDocks Baltimore Docks]] | [[Characters/TheWireTheNextGeneration The Next Generation]]]]-]

! The Major Crimes Unit

! Police Commanders

! Other

-->''You have to admit that whole Budapest thing was a hell of a pull''

-->''You're deep into somebody's shit, [=McNulty=]. I can tell.''

Baltimore's Finest, the BPD is Baltimore's first and last line of defence against the hordes of dealers, fiends, and yos who present a grave and terrible threat to the civil society of the good, upstanding citizens of this fair city of neighbourhoods. Or at least, that's how they see themselves.

In reality, the BPD is dysfunctional and unwieldy. Decades of political obsession with producing good statistics and the War on Drugs have resulted in a department that is more concerned with massaging arrest figures and which has community relations which can be best described as "abysmal". Of all the institutions critiqued in ''The Wire'', the BPD comes in for the most extensive criticism, as it forms the backbone of the show. Whilst various police officers and units - such as the Homicide Unit, the Daniels-led details and later Major Case Squad - demonstrate great technical competence and integrity, by and large the department is clunking, bureacratic and brutal. Over the course of the series, various potential reformers step up and are in turn crushed by the inertia of the drug war and the political system.

[[folder:Bobby Brown]]
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/brown_7.jpg]]
->'''Played by:''' Bobby J. Brown

-->''Now I've seen everything.''

A Western District uniformed officer.

* DeadpanSnarker: Loves to joke about the job. After the tortured body of Brandon is discovered, he remarks it's the worst case of suicide he's ever seen.
* FunctionalAddict: Implied, he's very grateful of Jimmy for providing a box of beers before a stakeout and later they discuss how to deal with hangovers. Bobby says he can just throw up once or twice and goes to work without it having any negative effects.
* HeadbuttingHeroes: During the cutbacks, he starts a brawl with another police officer in the parking lot over the poor state of a vehicle he hands over.
* SeenItAll: His dismay is complete when he sees [=McNulty=] arriving at a (potential) crime scene [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd4u4AzkzYA on a bus]].

[[folder:Kenneth Dozerman]]
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_wire__clarifications_episode.jpg]]
->'''Played by:''' Rick Otto

He first shows up as a narcotics officer working in the Western District, and is shot during a routine and small time narcotics bust. His gun is also stolen, which is a [[SeriousBusiness very big deal]] for police departments, leading Bunk on a wild goose chase to try to recover it. After recovering from his wounds Dozerman joins the Major Crimes Unit at the same time that Herc rejoins it.

* PoliceAreUseless: Comes off as well meaning but bumbling and goofy during his little screentime.
* SmallRoleBigImpact: He is shot during a buy bust, while attempting to buy three vials. This is the catalyst for Major Colvin's "Hamsterdam" experiment.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anthony Colicchio]]
[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/anthony_colicchio_300.jpg]]
->'''Played by:''' Benjamin Busch

-->''Call it poetic injustice.''

A narcotics officer who serves in Carver's squad in the Western District. At the start he is often partnered with Herc, and the two share many qualities, including a brute force approach to the drug war. He's the one who inspires the nickname Hamsterdam when he compares the Free Zones to Amsterdamn in front of the street dealers. He despises the Free Zones, however, calling it "moral midgetry" and is delighted whenever he has the chance to bust heads. He increasingly goes off the rails in seasons 4 and 5, becoming more brutal and aggressive, until he actually attacks a school teacher who asks Colicchio to just move his police car out of the way so the teacher can make it to his job. Carver is disturbed by Colicchio's complete lack of remorse and refuses to cover for him, getting Colicchio charged with both excessive force and conduct unbecoming a police officer.
----
* DumbMuscle: Enforces drug rules by brute force, eschewing any subtlety or understanding of the streets, often to his detriment, including when he [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=va78f6p9hMc falls for a simplistic prank that winds up being the cause of his undoing]].
* HotBlooded
* JerkAss: Look no farther than when Carver tries to do a faux pleasant exchange with Bodie.
-->'''Bodie:''' And a very good evening to you, Officer Colicchio.\\
'''Colicchio:''' Go fuck yourself with a 40, shit breath.
* KickTheDog: Assaulting a citizen during the course of a bad day is already pretty bad, but showing a complete lack of remorse long after he should have calmed down is when Carver decides InUniverse that Colicchio has passed the MoralEventHorizon.
* PoliceBrutality
* RabidCop
* ShellShockedVeteran: Busch was a marine who served 2 tours in Iraq, there are hints that Colicchio was also in the Armed Forces and takes the soldier's mentality that Colvin decries to his approach as a cop.
* TookALevelInJerkass: He starts out as a background character without much flavor, but he gets progressively more jerkassish and aggressive throughout the series.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Eddie Walker]]
[[quoteright:200:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_wire__jimmy_walker.png]]
->'''Played by:''' Jonnie Louis Brown

-->'''Donut:''' Damn, that hurts!\\
'''Walker:''' You think ''that'' hurts? [Breaks one of Donut's fingers] You're so smart, lets see how easy you can boost a car now. [Breaks another finger]

A corrupt patrol officer in the Western District, he is feared on the streets because of his willingness to inflict PoliceBrutality on anyone from Omar to little kids, and to engage in acts such as robbing suspects before they are arrested. He clashes several times with the middle school friends focused on in season 4.
----
* BadLiar: When several of the middle schoolers pay him back by covering him in yellow paint, (and Michael steals the ring he stole from Omar, who stole it from Marlo) Walker claims that he was jumped by an entire gang of Bloods who were delivering a declaration of war against the police. [=McNulty=] calls bullshit on the story.
* BaseBreakingCharacter: An InUniverse case for his fellow cops, some think his brutal, no holds barred methods of policing are the only way to keep street kids in line, others, (most prominently [=McNulty=]) think he's a piece of shit who shouldn't be on the force.
* BoomerangBigot: Walker is black, but is perfectly willing to use racist terms and metaphors against the street youth, including one occasion where he tells the boys from season 4, who're in a nicer section of town eating some Chinese food "You're off the reservation".
* ChekhovsGunman: He (or at least the actor playing him) has a short scene is season 2 when Bunk and the MCU go to bust The Greek's brothel. A couple of years later, and he suddenly reappears and becomes a recurring character for season 4.
* CorruptCop: Frequently steals from or brutalizes anyone from the streets, including taking money from Randy, stealing bootleg [=DVDs=] from Bubbles when Bubs tries to report being robbed, and taking the ring that Omar stole from Marlo before Omar is arrested.
* DirtyCoward: He relies on his status as a police officer to protect him from any potential payback for his actions, as most gangsters are reluctant to mess with cops due to the massive consequences. When faced with someone willing to stand up to him despite him being a cop, his tough guy bravado disappears.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Snaps several of Donut's fingers because of the paperwork that Walker would have to fill out thanks to Donut driving into other vehicles while on a joyride.
* TheDreaded: Anyone from the streets knows who Officer Walker is, and they're in no hurry to meet him.
* KarmaHoudini: His worst comeuppance is having an outfit ruined when paint is tossed onto him, and losing a ring he stole from someone else days earlier. Maybe he also loses some of the tough guy swagger and respect he enjoyed among fellow hardliner cops, but that is implied at most, not directly said.
* PoliceBrutality: Breaks the fingers of a 6th grader who stole a car and went on a joyride simply because it meant that Walker would have to fill out extra paperwork.
* WouldHurtAChild: See PoliceBrutality.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Brian Baker]]
->'''Played by:''' Derek Horton

A rookie patrol officer introduced in Season 3. Colvin gives him and another newcomer a much repeated speech about knowing the street and their sense of direction, instructing the two to carry compasses until they can always accurately tell which direction they're facing. During season 4 he's briefly paired up with [=McNulty=] when Jimmy reassigned himself to patrol, and the two catch a pair of thieves that have been robbing many churches in the district together. Afterward [=McNulty=] tells Bunk that he thinks Baker will be good police, and Bunk concurs.
----
* AlmightyJanitor: [=McNulty=] encourages him to look at the rank of patrolman as this, as patrol doesn't have supervisor breathing down their back while on duty and thus have a ''lot'' of leeway in their interactions with the public, at least for as long as the other patrolmen will cover for them. This includes refusing to do busy work sent down by police brass in favor of catching actual criminals, as Jimmy and Baker do together.
* ByTheBookCop
* JustFollowingOrders: Why he initially goes along with the police brass ordering patrol to crack down on quality of life offenses, including ticketing every illegally parked car in the city. [=McNulty=] sets him straight and gives him a few new things to think about.
-->'''[=McNulty=]:''' [Seeing Baker writing up a ticket on a parked car] What's the violation?\\
'''Baker:''' Parking in a bus stop, expired registration.\\
'''[=McNulty=]:''' [[SarcasmMode First class police work there, Baker]].\\
'''Baker:''' Yeah, well, this is the word we got from up on high. [[DaChief Straight from the 8th floor downtown]]. I know you think it's bullshit, but I spend my shift where they tell me.\\
'''[=McNulty=]:''' Baker, let me tell you a little secret. A [[MeddlesomePatrolman patrolling officer on his beat]] is the one true dictatorship in America. We can lock a guy up on a humble, lock him up for real, or say "Fuck it, let's pull under the expressway and drink ourselves to death", and our side partners will cover it. So no one... and I mean ''no one'' tells us how to waste our shift.
* NaiveNewcomer
* NoSenseOfDirection: Downplayed. He might actually have a decent sense of direction for all we know, (only so many people can tell which compass point they're facing in an enclosed environment) but Colvin doesn't accept his patrolmen being anything less than {{Scarily Competent Tracker}}s, so Baker gets the fun of carrying around a compass until he knows which direction he's facing and where he is at all times.
[[/folder]]

! Other
[[folder:Randall Friezer]]
[[quoteright:241:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/randall_frazier.jpg]]
->'''Played by:''' Erik Todd Dellums

-->''You have to admit that whole Budapest thing was a hell of a pull''

A Baltimore police department medical examiner.
----
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: The recurring medical examiner in the first three seasons, he doesn't come back for the final ones, when forensic medical analysis becomes even more relevant than usual as Marlo and ''[[ItMakesSenseInContext Jimmy]]'' become serial killers. Nobody misses him.
* TheCoroner: The resident medical examiner of Homicide. Highly competent.
* TheSnackIsMoreInteresting: Seen taking a snack while exposing the cases, the man is not affected by the gruesome things he examines on a daily basis.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Claude Diggins]]
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thewireii_23.jpg]]
->'''Played by:''' Jeffrey Fugitt

-->''You're deep into somebody's shit, [=McNulty=]. I can tell.''

[=McNulty=]'s partner at the Marine Unit.
----

!Others

[[folder:Randall Friezer]]
[[quoteright:241:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/randall_frazier.jpg]]
->'''Played by:''' Erik Todd Dellums

-->''You have to admit that whole Budapest thing was a hell of a pull''

A Baltimore police department medical examiner.

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: The recurring medical examiner in the first three seasons, he doesn't come back for the final ones, when forensic medical analysis becomes even more relevant than usual as Marlo and ''[[ItMakesSenseInContext Jimmy]]'' become serial killers. Nobody misses him.
* TheCoroner: The resident medical examiner of Homicide. Highly competent.
* TheSnackIsMoreInteresting: Seen taking a snack while exposing the cases, the man is not affected by the gruesome things he examines on a daily basis.

[[folder:Claude Diggins]]
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thewireii_23.jpg]]
->'''Played by:''' Jeffrey Fugitt

-->''You're deep into somebody's shit, [=McNulty=]. I can tell.''

[=McNulty=]'s partner at the Marine Unit.

* CoolBoat: Shares his fancy own boat with Bunk and [=McNulty=] to pose as a fishing craft and monitor Spiros Vondas from the sea.
* CoolOldGuy: Significantly older than [=McNulty=], Diggins is quite laid back and understanding. Jimmy could have landed much worse with another partner.
* {{Mentor}}: Eases [=McNulty=]'s transition into a sea boy considerably and tries to teach him the ropes. Not that Jimmy ever makes a decent sailor anyway.

[[folder:Kenneth Dozerman]]
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_wire__clarifications_episode.jpg]]
->'''Played by:''' Rick Otto

He first shows up as a narcotics officer working in the Western District, and is shot during a routine and small time narcotics bust. His gun is also stolen, which is a [[SeriousBusiness very big deal]] for police departments, leading Bunk on a wild goose chase to try to recover it. After recovering from his wounds Dozerman joins the Major Crimes Unit at the same time that Herc rejoins it.

* PoliceAreUseless: Comes off as well meaning but bumbling and goofy during his little screentime.
* SmallRoleBigImpact: He is shot during a buy bust, while attempting to buy three vials. This is the catalyst for Major Colvin's "Hamsterdam" experiment.

[[folder:Anthony Colicchio]]
[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/anthony_colicchio_300.jpg]]
->'''Played by:''' Benjamin Busch

-->''Call it poetic injustice.''

A narcotics officer who serves in Carver's squad in the Western District. At the start he is often partnered with Herc, and the two share many qualities, including a brute force approach to the drug war. He's the one who inspires the nickname Hamsterdam when he compares the Free Zones to Amsterdamn in front of the street dealers. He despises the Free Zones, however, calling it "moral midgetry" and is delighted whenever he has the chance to bust heads. He increasingly goes off the rails in seasons 4 and 5, becoming more brutal and aggressive, until he actually attacks a school teacher who asks Colicchio to just move his police car out of the way so the teacher can make it to his job. Carver is disturbed by Colicchio's complete lack of remorse and refuses to cover for him, getting Colicchio charged with both excessive force and conduct unbecoming a police officer.

* DumbMuscle: Enforces drug rules by brute force, eschewing any subtlety or understanding of the streets, often to his detriment, including when he [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=va78f6p9hMc falls for a simplistic prank that winds up being the cause of his undoing]].
* HotBlooded
* JerkAss: Look no farther than when Carver tries to do a faux pleasant exchange with Bodie.
-->'''Bodie:''' And a very good evening to you, Officer Colicchio.\\
'''Colicchio:''' Go fuck yourself with a 40, shit breath.
* KickTheDog: Assaulting a citizen during the course of a bad day is already pretty bad, but showing a complete lack of remorse long after he should have calmed down is when Carver decides InUniverse that Colicchio has passed the MoralEventHorizon.
* PoliceBrutality
* RabidCop
* ShellShockedVeteran: Busch was a marine who served 2 tours in Iraq, there are hints that Colicchio was also in the Armed Forces and takes the soldier's mentality that Colvin decries to his approach as a cop.
* TookALevelInJerkass: He starts out as a background character without much flavor, but he gets progressively more jerkassish and aggressive throughout the series.

[[folder:Eddie Walker]]
[[quoteright:200:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_wire__jimmy_walker.png]]
->'''Played by:''' Jonnie Louis Brown

-->'''Donut:''' Damn, that hurts!\\
'''Walker:''' You think ''that'' hurts? [Breaks one of Donut's fingers] You're so smart, lets see how easy you can boost a car now. [Breaks another finger]

A corrupt patrol officer in the Western District, he is feared on the streets because of his willingness to inflict PoliceBrutality on anyone from Omar to little kids, and to engage in acts such as robbing suspects before they are arrested. He clashes several times with the middle school friends focused on in season 4.

* BadLiar: When several of the middle schoolers pay him back by covering him in yellow paint, (and Michael steals the ring he stole from Omar, who stole it from Marlo) Walker claims that he was jumped by an entire gang of Bloods who were delivering a declaration of war against the police. [=McNulty=] calls bullshit on the story.
* BaseBreakingCharacter: An InUniverse case for his fellow cops, some think his brutal, no holds barred methods of policing are the only way to keep street kids in line, others, (most prominently [=McNulty=]) think he's a piece of shit who shouldn't be on the force.
* BoomerangBigot: Walker is black, but is perfectly willing to use racist terms and metaphors against the street youth, including one occasion where he tells the boys from season 4, who're in a nicer section of town eating some Chinese food "You're off the reservation".
* ChekhovsGunman: He (or at least the actor playing him) has a short scene is season 2 when Bunk and the MCU go to bust The Greek's brothel. A couple of years later, and he suddenly reappears and becomes a recurring character for season 4.
* CorruptCop: Frequently steals from or brutalizes anyone from the streets, including taking money from Randy, stealing bootleg [=DVDs=] from Bubbles when Bubs tries to report being robbed, and taking the ring that Omar stole from Marlo before Omar is arrested.
* DirtyCoward: He relies on his status as a police officer to protect him from any potential payback for his actions, as most gangsters are reluctant to mess with cops due to the massive consequences. When faced with someone willing to stand up to him despite him being a cop, his tough guy bravado disappears.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Snaps several of Donut's fingers because of the paperwork that Walker would have to fill out thanks to Donut driving into other vehicles while on a joyride.
* TheDreaded: Anyone from the streets knows who Officer Walker is, and they're in no hurry to meet him.
* KarmaHoudini: His worst comeuppance is having an outfit ruined when paint is tossed onto him, and losing a ring he stole from someone else days earlier. Maybe he also loses some of the tough guy swagger and respect he enjoyed among fellow hardliner cops, but that is implied at most, not directly said.
* PoliceBrutality: Breaks the fingers of a 6th grader who stole a car and went on a joyride simply because it meant that Walker would have to fill out extra paperwork.
* WouldHurtAChild: See PoliceBrutality.

[[folder:Brian Baker]]
->'''Played by:''' Derek Horton

A rookie patrol officer introduced in Season 3. Colvin gives him and another newcomer a much repeated speech about knowing the street and their sense of direction, instructing the two to carry compasses until they can always accurately tell which direction they're facing. During season 4 he's briefly paired up with [=McNulty=] when Jimmy reassigned himself to patrol, and the two catch a pair of thieves that have been robbing many churches in the district together. Afterward [=McNulty=] tells Bunk that he thinks Baker will be good police, and Bunk concurs.

* AlmightyJanitor: [=McNulty=] encourages him to look at the rank of patrolman as this, as patrol doesn't have supervisor breathing down their back while on duty and thus have a ''lot'' of leeway in their interactions with the public, at least for as long as the other patrolmen will cover for them. This includes refusing to do busy work sent down by police brass in favor of catching actual criminals, as Jimmy and Baker do together.
* ByTheBookCop
* JustFollowingOrders: Why he initially goes along with the police brass ordering patrol to crack down on quality of life offenses, including ticketing every illegally parked car in the city. [=McNulty=] sets him straight and gives him a few new things to think about.
-->'''[=McNulty=]:''' [Seeing Baker writing up a ticket on a parked car] What's the violation?\\
'''Baker:''' Parking in a bus stop, expired registration.\\
'''[=McNulty=]:''' [[SarcasmMode First class police work there, Baker]].\\
'''Baker:''' Yeah, well, this is the word we got from up on high. [[DaChief Straight from the 8th floor downtown]]. I know you think it's bullshit, but I spend my shift where they tell me.\\
'''[=McNulty=]:''' Baker, let me tell you a little secret. A [[MeddlesomePatrolman patrolling officer on his beat]] is the one true dictatorship in America. We can lock a guy up on a humble, lock him up for real, or say "Fuck it, let's pull under the expressway and drink ourselves to death", and our side partners will cover it. So no one... and I mean ''no one'' tells us how to waste our shift.
* NaiveNewcomer
* NoSenseOfDirection: Downplayed. He might actually have a decent sense of direction for all we know, (only so many people can tell which compass point they're facing in an enclosed environment) but Colvin doesn't accept his patrolmen being anything less than {{Scarily Competent Tracker}}s, so Baker gets the fun of carrying around a compass until he knows which direction he's facing and where he is at all times.

[[/folder]]

!Family Members of Police Officers

[[folder:Cheryl]]
->'''Played by:''' Melanie Nicholls-King
[[quoteright:200:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hbo_the_wire_cheryl.jpg]]

-->''Police in this town ain't shit!''

Kima's live-in lover at the start of the series, it's implied that the two have been happily together for some time. Their relationship is not without friction, however, as Cheryl frequently worries about the danger of Kima's job and tries to push Kima towards getting a law degree, or at least working a desk job in safety, especially after Kima is nearly killed during a bust. Between Kima's return to investigative duties, a growing distance between them when Cheryl pushes ahead with having a child despite Kima's obvious but unvoiced doubts about being a parent, and Kima's infidelity, the two break up.
----
* AllLesbiansWantKids: Played straight, unlike Kima.
* ArmorPiercingResponse: When she and Kima finally fight over Kima's increased drinking, distance, and not acting like a parent to the baby, Kima says that she never voiced how much she truly objected to having the baby due to not wanting to disappoint Cheryl. Cheryl's response is ''devastating'', and pretty much the signal that their relationship is over.
-->'''Cheryl:''' [Looks at Kima, who's more than half drunk, angry, and confused] [[DisappointedInYou I don't think I could be more disappointed than I am now]].
* BabiesMakeEverythingBetter: Averted, although it's largely Kima's fault as she went along with Cheryl's pregnancy plans despite not really wanting to be a parent without voicing that until after the kid was born.
* DemotedToExtra: She has a fair amount of prominence in season 1, but her role gets smaller and smaller as distance grows between her and Kima. She only appears in 2 episodes in season 3, and 1 each in seasons 4 and 5.
* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: Late in season 1 she and Kima are out with some friends, and Cheryl drinks everyone present (except for Kima, who opts out with the excuse that she has to work in the morning) into submission without putting much effort into it. She credits journalism school as the source of her alcohol tolerance.
* IntrepidReporter: At one point Kima teases Cheryl about how she tries to act like this despite working backstage at a TV news channel.
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: She's not exceptionally girly by any means, but in comparison to Kima she certainly is the girlier of the two. She's also the one who's interested in having a kid and appears to do most of the cooking and cleaning when she and Kima are together.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Marla Daniels]]
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_wire_marla_daniels.jpg]]
->'''Played by:''' Maria Broom

-->''The game is rigged. But you cannot lose if you do not play.''

The wife of Cedric Daniels, she is an ambitious woman with a keen political eye. She spent years trying to support the career of Daniels and help guide him to the top of police hierarchy, but that fizzles out as Daniels increasingly comes to terms with the fact that he doesn't have the stomach for ladder climbing and political games and would rather dedicate himself to the job of what a policeman should be: a guardian of the city. As Cedric's ambition dies down so does their marriage, and Marla decides to live out her ambitions for herself by running in a city election when the two separate.
----
* AmbitionIsEvil: Not necessarily evil per se, more amoral, but ambition is her defining trait and to satisfy it she recommends practical, if amoral choices. She also cites ambition as being the chief trait that first attracted her to Daniels, but his ambition has since given way to his conscience.
* AmicableExes: With Cedric, after their separation. He's still willing to put his own private life on hold to support her political aspirations, and she's still willing to give him honest advice on difficult matters.
* BrutalHonesty: Surprisingly enough for someone as deeply into politics and ladder climbing, she seems to be a fan of this. At a debate with her opponent Eunetta Perkins it's Marla who flat out tells the voters what is true but they don't want to hear, despite the potential for losing votes, while Eunetta plays to the crowd and promises them anything. She also seems to approve of Colvin being honest in a town hall meeting rather than talking about matters in a politically smart and safe manner.
* DeadSparks: Her relationship with Cedric has become this by the start of the show, and it doesn't take too much for them to drift apart for good. She does actually suggest giving their relationship another try at one point, but he gently says it's just not going to work.
* HonestAdvisor: Played rather cynically, as her honest advice is tailored to the dirty and corrupt world of Baltimore politics, and thus often consists of advising people to make compromises with their integrity or do what they have to to get ahead.
* IronLady
* SocialClimber
* VicariouslyAmbitious: At first she seems dedicated to helping Cedric advance himself, and only looks to do the work of social climbing for herself when he announces he has come to care more about good casework than trying to become top dog in a horrifically dysfunctional and broken police department.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Elena [=McNulty=]]]
[[quoteright:296:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/e7a32fee12f647ad79ceb971b838ac6a.jpg]]
-> '''Played by:''' Callie Thorne

-->''I don't trust you. I can care about you, and I can want us to be friends, and if you give me enough time Jimmy I can actually want you to be happy. But how the hell am I supposed to trust you?''

A real estate agent and the ex-wife of Jimmy [=McNulty=]. They met in college, and her becoming pregnant was what prompted Jimmy to drop out of college and join the BPD. They separated before the start of the show, and season 1 finds them in the midst of a sometimes bitter divorce and child custody battle. This becomes less bitter over time, and as Jimmy gradually realizes that his efforts aren't going to result in them getting back together. In later seasons, she and Jimmy even become somewhat friendly again.
----
* AmicableExes: Very much averted in the first season, but in late seasons the interactions between Jimmy and Elena become much less charged and more affable. When she encounters him when he's gotten himself together with Beadie and has his drinking and other bad habits under control, you can see a look in Elena's eyes that seems to all but say "Now ''that's'' the man I first fell in love with."
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Her line to Jimmy about how she's ever supposed to trust him, as seen in her quote above. It finally destroys Jimmy's stubborn hope of them getting back together, and helps instigate one of Jimmy's most impressive and self-destructive drinking binges. (The one where he crashes his car twice in the same place.)
* DemotedToExtra: Much like Cheryl, starting in season 3 her screentime goes way downhill, resulting in her being in only 1 or 2 episodes per season.
* GoodParents: She's much better at being a parent than Jimmy is and much more considerate of the boys.
* SexWithTheEx: Does this once with Jimmy, but because she feels she cannot trust him and his vices are always about to get the better of him, she decides not to go any further towards a reunion.
* WomenAreWiser: Not that it's hard to be wiser than Jimmy...
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Shardene Innes]]
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/19shardene.png]]
->'''Played by:''' Wendy Grantham

-->''He seemed like he was different.''

A stripper working at Orlando's, the "gentleman's club" that operates as a front for the Barksdales. She's more or less completely uninvolved in The Game, and only works at the bar, spending time with the men who sit there drinking... as long as they keep buying drinks and tipping, that is. She begins a relationship with D'Angelo and even moves in with him, but is infuriated when Kima and Lester reveal that a group of the Barksdale lieutenants let a friend and co-worker of hers die unattended of an overdose at a party they had, and promptly moves back out and helps the MCU get some badly needed info to help put Avon away. During the investigation she grows close to Lester and remains in a relationship with him throughout the rest of the series.
----
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Shardene poses one to Dee after finding out her friend was found in a dumpster.
-->"Do I look like trash to you? Do I look like the kind of girl you wrap in a carpet and [[DisposableSexWorker throw in the trash]]?"
* BirdsOfAFeather: This is part of what first draws her toward D'Angelo, both of them are more empathetic and sensitive souls than the people they work with and find themselves surrounded by, and both of them long to escape the world they live in. A similar sort of kindness and bonding over Lester's dolls and dollhouse furniture is the first sign that relationship will bud between those two.
* DemotedToExtra: Appears again all of twice after the end of the first season, once in the second season and then not again until almost the very end of the very last episode.
* TheGlassesGottaGo: Is nearshigted and wears huge granny glasses, likely received for free or nearly so from some charity. She gets a "corrected vision" (either surgery or contact lenses) courtesy of the BPD.
* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Well, she's not exactly a hooker, but the trope is close enough in spirit.
* InnocentBystander: Despite working mere feet away from the heart and command center of Baltimore's most powerful and deadly drug empire, she's completely uninvolved in the game and while she realizes that the true owners of Orlando's aren't exactly legit, she didn't know just how deep into the Game they were.
* MayDecemberRomance: Lester is at least old enough to be her father, but the two forge a long lasting and successful relationship together.
* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: The fates of Avon, Stringer, and everyone within the Barksdale empire might have been very different if Wee-bey, Stinkum, and the others had just treated a stripper with a little more respect and tried to help her when she started having an OD...
* NeutralNoLonger: Goes from being a bystander unaffiliated with either criminals or the cops, (aside from a relationship with D'Angelo where they both discuss leaving their current lives behind them) to being willing to risk her life to help the cops get information on the Barksdale empire in the wake of her friend's death.
* NiceGirl: Discussed in universe, as Kima and Lester say that there's something about her, some quality that shows up in her picture that makes them think she'll be the best person from Orlando's to talk to.
* OnlyBadGuysCallTheirLawyers: Says something like this when Kima and Lester ask her to come with them. This is a sign of her innocence and relative naivety, as pretty much everyone else knows better than to deal with the police without a lawyer present.
* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan:
** The reason why she liked D'Angelo was because he was empathetic and sensitive as she is.
** Sardene gets together with Lester because of his kind nature.
* SmallRoleBigImpact: Not only does she play a key role in the first season investigation, but because of her help the group is able to put away Avon but not Stringer, leading to the gulf that grows between those two, planting the seeds that eventually leads to their final falling out, the death of Stringer and the final collapse of the Barksdale empire. ''Damn''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Michael and Sean [=McNulty=]]]
->'''Played by:''' Antonio Cordova and Eric G. Ryan

The two young sons of Jimmy and Elena.
----
* {{Morality Pet}}s: For Jimmy, not that he does everything he can or should to take good care of them.
* NotAllowedToGrowUp: Averted. It's a bit shocking when, after not having seen them for quite awhile, they appear in later seasons and the little boys we knew are gone and they're now in their early teens.
* SiblingRivalry: There's a mild and realistic older brother tends to lord over the younger brother vibe between them.
* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: Not as bad as many cases of this, but two little kids who apparently often employ police procedures to tail a target and find out information about them will give a normal person pause. Bunk does a downplayed WhatTheHellHero when he finds out about Jimmy using them to spy on Stringer, but Jimmy is oblivious as he so often is.

[[folder:]]


[[/folder]]

[[folder:]]


[[/folder]]

[[folder:]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:In General]]

->''"Same fuck-ups in the same shit detail, workin' out of the same shithouse kind of office. You people lack personal growth, you know that?"''
-->-- '''Lester Freamon'''

Intended as a temporary creation to address a specific problem, the MCU becomes the main focus of attention within the police. After Judge Phelan sees the Barksdale gang blatantly intimidate witnesses in his courtroom and is enlightened about the reach and scope of the organization by [=McNulty=], he complains to the police higher ups that he wants an investigation specifically targeting the Barksdales, and in response they create the first MCU squad. Populated largely by cops who are either worthless or perceived to be so, and commanded by the promising but career minded Lieutenant Cedric Daniels, the MCU is intended to do the absolute minimum amount of work necessary to satisfy Phelan without having to become too involved.

Against all odds, however, the MCU investigation picks up steam once they begin shedding dead weight and other officers assigned to it wind up being able to contribute much more than would be expected. As Daniels proves to be willing to put his career on the line to support the Unit's efforts, they manage to bring down a significant part of the Barksdale Empire including Avon Barksdale himself, although the fact that Stringer Bell remains free allows the Barksdales to remain a force within the drug trade.

The Unit is disbanded at the end of season 1, but put back together at the insistence of Valchek in season 2 due to his petty feud with Frank Sobotka and desire to have Sobotka and his union similarly dismantled. After that point the unit remains in place and works with other divisions of the police throughout season 3, although once Daniels is promoted and moved elsewhere it becomes a shell of itself in season 4. The Unit gets one last day in the sun, however, when it gets assigned the duty of taking down Marlo Stanfield.
----
!!! Tropes
* BasementDweller: The MCU is not given its own office until Valchek arranges a building for the Sobotka case, so they had to make do with a basement at city hall.
* CommandRoster
** TheCaptain: Daniels
** NumberTwo: Jimmy
** The Scientist: Freamon
** CunningLinguist: Prez, then later Massey
** CommunicationsOfficer: Carver
** Security Officer: Kima
** The Marine: Herc
* PyrrhicVictory: Two of the cops who bust Avon mess up their careers, one almost dies and almost everyone else doesn't seem to have anything to show for their sacrifices.
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits
* ReassignedToAntarctica: Daniel's detail is seen as a dumping ground for the worst of the worst in BPD.

[[folder:James "Jimmy" [=McNulty=]]]
->'''Played by''': Dominic West
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jimmy_mcnulty_7473.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"What the fuck did I do?"'']]

-->'''Bunk''': Jimmy [=McNulty=], when he ain't policing he's a picture postcard of a drunken, self-destructive fuck-up. And when he is policing... he's pretty much the same motherfucker. But on a good case, he runnin' in front of the pack. That's as close as the man comes to bein' right.

The closest thing to a main character in ''[=The Wire=]''. A detective in Homicide, [[ArsonMurderAndLifesaving he is an alcoholic womanizer, something of a deadbeat, insubordinate toward his supervisors, and known for coming up with creative solutions to hard cases]]. His disrespect for the chain of command makes him many enemies among his superiors, while his self-destructive behavior alienates his peers and friends.

[=McNulty=] is virtually responsible for the creation of the Major Crimes Unit in season 1, and at the end of the season due to him having irked Rawls and Burrell, he is assigned to what he sees as the worst possible position for him in the BPD: the marine unit. He spends the start of the second season there, but when Daniels [[PuttingTheBandBackTogether puts the band back together]], [=McNulty=] is recruited back into the MCU and spends the rest of season 2 and all of season 3 there. Burnt out on being a detective, at the end of season 3 he begins a relationship with Beadie Russel and puts in for a transfer to patrol, and spends the 4th season as a beat cop, happier in the less intense world of walking a beat.

[=McNulty=] proves unable to stay uninvolved with the reign of terror run by the Stansfield Gang, however, and attempts to get Bodie to cooperate with the police against Marlo. This quickly gets Bodie killed, and inflames both [=McNulty's=] guilt and his drive to catch and punish the bad guy. He returns to the MCU, and takes all his self-destructive behaviors UpToEleven as he takes part in the efforts to catch Marlo even while the police budget is slashed to the bone by Carcetii. At this point he dreams up the fake SerialKiller idea, and uses the resources sent to the department to illegally pursue Marlo. When his superiors finally catch on, it proves to be the last straw for [=McNulty's=] career and he's forced to resign.

Somehow he never actually receives a [[ArsonMurderAndLifesaving [=McCloud=] Speech]] to his face during the show (well, with the exception of Landsman's eulogy at his mock detective's wake), but other characters give descriptions of him that almost fit the trope.

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Jimmy usually takes with a smile many of the numerous jabs he receives.
* TheAlcoholic: It has been observed that he's one of the most realistic portrayals of a high-functioning alcoholic on television. His job is so important to him that he manages to be a FunctionalAddict outside of his private life. In his private life however, he's a complete wreck. When we see him regularly drinking on the job in season 5, it's a good sign of just how low he's sinking and how many of his own lines he's crossing.
* AmbiguousDisorder: He cites anger as a major source for his dysfunction and half the shit he does can be rooted back to his need to demonstrate that he's smarter than anybody else, but he gets a bit too involved and casual when tampering with the vagrants, like a child on a candy store, which doesn't go unnoticed by Bunk, Lester or the FBI.
-->'''Lester:''' [=McNulty=], you are deserving of serious psychological study.
* AntiHero: A drunken, philandering mess in his personal life. Jimmy might be a great cop when he has the will to be, but he's got serious personality issues that need addressing.
* BadassPacifist: [=McNulty=] rarely gets into a fight, but he regularly and casually stares down dangerous criminals. When the [=SWATs=] are ready to perform a full out assault, he simply strolls into the Barksdale lair, like a walk in the park, arrests Avon nonchalantly and delivers a BadassBoast to Stringer: "Catch you later."
* BunnyEarsLawyer: DiscussedTrope at length. Especially at his mock funeral in the finale.
-->'''Landsman''': Natural police, but Christ what an asshole!
* ByronicHero: Hot-blooded, alcoholic, workaholic [[TheCasanova womanizer]] with quite a reputation. This is his ironic answer to Landsman about his previous whereabouts in the very first episode.
-->Drinking. Crack smoking. Whoring myself on the streets of Baltimore.
* CatchPhrase: "What the fuck did I do?" Played for laughs [[ItsAllMyFault and drama]]. Frequently used sarcastically (i.e. "What the fuck did ''I'' do?"), to demonstrate [[NeverMyFault his inability to acknowledge his own stupid mistakes]].
* TheChainsOfCommanding: In season 5 he's trusted with some managerial duties and responsibilities, with varying and ironic results
-->'''[To Lester:]''' You're a supervisor's nightmare.
* CharacterDevelopment: Played with. After he settles down with Beadie he moves away from investigation quests, along with boozing and womanizing, "Good"-ol'Jimmy [[HesBack is back]] in Season 5, not before earning quite a few [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness incredulous remarks]] about his domesticated state.
-->'''Lester:''' World is on its hole when Jimmy [=McNulty=] is the most qualified to drive.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Toward his superiors. He has also been accused of doing this to his peers by Lester Freamon and Rhonda Pearlman.
-->Fuck the bosses!
* CommutingOnABus: in season 4, when he resigns from MCU, works as a patrolman and gets his personal life back together.
* CowboyCop: {{Deconstructed|Trope}}. [=McNulty=] plays by his own rules and goes against his superiors, and while he backs it up by being a brilliant detective, his antics end up destroying both his career and his family life.
** Also, on multiple occasions Jimmy bends and breaks rules to get information because he doesn't have the patience for doing things according to the rules... and gets exactly the same information that other good detectives like Bunk and Lester got by following procedure.
** He may also be seen as a [[ReconstructedTrope Reconstruction]] of the trope. He has the traits, but he's smart enough to gather evidence through surveillance and isn't one for hotheaded violence. Additionally, when he does break the rules, they tend not to be the constitutional ones intended to protect the individual rights of citizens (the biggest constitutional violation in the series is actually Freamon's illegal wire, which Jimmy merrily used but didn't actually come up with), but rather the budgetary and protocol rules that, while nominally aimed at keeping the police under the control of the elected politicians, are actually most often used to protect the asses of the BPD higher-ups.
* DeadpanSnarker: He usually voices his objections in a sardonic way.
* DefectiveDetective: {{Lampshade}}d; Freamon observes that despite his excellent police work, the rest of his life is a train wreck.
-->The things that make me right for this job, maybe they’re the same things that make me wrong for everything else.
* DrinkingOnDuty: Multiple examples. Prominent ones during season 5 ([[http://blog.nj.com/alltv/2008/01/large_wireep2-mcnulty.jpg pictured]]) and in his prequel segment.
* DrinkOrder: A Jameson. Not that he has much of a problem with Protestant whiskey anyway.
* DrowningMySorrows: Doesn't need much of an excuse to prop up the bar, but he always does it if he's distraught.
* DrunkDriver: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URupBZbfbJg At times]].
* {{Expy}}: WordOfGod confirms he's based heavily on Ed Burns, the co-creator of the show.
* FallenHero: By the end of the show. And despite his fake serial killer plan being somewhat successful, he is driven out of the force in the end. The ending does suggest that he's on a path to becoming a better person since he rekindles his relationship with Beadie and brings the homeless man he stashed in Virginia back to Baltimore, but he has a long way to go.
* FootDraggingDivorcee: Jimmy needs a lot of time to understand that Elena wants to move on with her life. He ends paying $3000 per month as alimony, and he can't afford it.
* GoodIsNotNice: Unlike many in the Baltimore Police Department, he has a deep emotional investment in bringing the bad guys to justice. He's also, as Rawls puts it, a [[{{Jerkass}} gaping asshole]].
* HandsomeLech: A drunken womanizer prone to banging floozies in bar parking lots.
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: In his quest against Marlo, [=McNulty=] becomes a prosecutable criminal by inventing a fake case, technically embezzling money and being indirectly responsible for the death of two vagrants. A [[WellIntentionedExtremist mild]] version of the trope in that he keeps his morals after all it's said and done in the Stanfield case, as illustrated by his last scenes.
* HellBentForLeather: Very fond of his vintage leather jacket, which evokes at least the looks of a HardboiledDetective.
* HeelRealization: It took him five seasons, but he does eventually come to see that ignoring good police procedural work and just doing his own thing without regard to the consequences ultimately causes more problems than it solves. Too bad he'll never work as a policeman again after the end. See HeWhoFightsMonsters below.
* HeroesWantRedheads: Had an affair with the redheaded lawyer [[HelloAttorney Rhonda Pearlman]] while he was still married. However, he only liked the relationship because of the sexual favors; predictably Rhonda gets fed up and moves on.
* HeroicBSOD: Briefly goes into one in the first season after Kima gets shot including acting out the VomitingCop trope. Rawls of all people snaps him out of it.
* HeroicWannabe: His desire to be a cop is driven by this persona.
* HiredToHuntYourself: In Season 5, he is the lead investigator on the SerialKiller case. He's so overwhelmed with resources that he quite capably diverts them to actual police work. Eventually he's given a right-on-the money [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn0ylNZhOJI FBI profile about himself.]]
* HowsYourBritishAccent: Pretends to be a British businessman to go undercover in a brothel. It's bloody ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBL2Wq5YjSw orrible]]''
-->''Cwoikey''! I was lookin' to get a little hanky-panky, and this one bloke gave me this number to ''cawl'' when I got ''acwoss'' the pond
* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: For all his arrogance and abrasiveness, [=McNulty=] believes deep down that if he isn't a detective his life is basically pointless.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Self-confessed. Jimmy doesn't lack empathy, but when he sets his mind to something, nothing will interfere with his quest, come hell or high water.
-->'''Landsman:''' Jimmy is an addict, sir. [To] himself. It's not funny, it's a fucking tragedy.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He may be a womanizing asshole, but he does care about being a good cop, and his screw-ups hit him VERY hard.
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: The fake serial killer in Season 5.
* KnightTemplar: His pals suggest it sometimes, due to the [[NiceJobBreakingItHero mayhem he causes]]. Jimmy himself wonders if they are right.
-->You start to tell the story, you think you're the hero, and then when you get done talking...
* TheLastDJ: Doing actual police work is a sure way to harm your career.
* LastNameBasis: Even Russell's kids call him [=McNulty=]. Bunk and Freamon do use Jimmy, especially when they want to talk him out of something.
* MakingLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces: Less wrong when you can flash a badge to the patrolmen and then [[CoitusUninterruptus continue about your business]].
* ManChild:
-->'''[=McNulty=]''': You know what they call a guy who pays that much attention to his clothes, don't you?
-->'''Bunk''': Mm-hmm, [[InsultBackfire a grown-up]].
* MarriedToTheJob: As Freamon says in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QEHlxICU3I this]] get-a-life scene.
-->'''Lester''': Oooh, you need somethin' outside of this here. The job won't save you Jimmy.
* MenCantKeepHouse: The status of his apartment is reflective of the status of his wrecked life.
* MistakenForRacist: Played with; he poses as a bigot with a sheriff, assuming the man would be a prejudiced hick. He has to backpedal when he learns that [[OhCrap the guy's wife is black]].
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: He is demoted at the end of season 1 for his role in bringing the Barksdales to justice.
* OfficerOHara: Averted - he's of Irish descent (and possesses a couple of stereotypical traits), but he is a competent detective and doesn't have a comedy accent.
* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: The way he sees his enemy, Stringer. He is the only one who is moved by his death soon after the latter was killed.
* OffTheWagon: In season 5.
* ParentalNeglect: [=McNulty=] loves his kids Sean and Michael but won't be up for any father-of-the year awards.
** Due to his tight schedule, he has his kids mixed with less-than-exemplary companions such as Omar and Bubbles.
** Loses sight of his children when they are made to play-tail Stringer in a market.
** He doesn't really know the first thing about his kids' education or whether Sean is in sixth or seventh grade.
** He leaves the kids alone in the house to have a quickie in a hotel, in the middle of the night.
* PetTheDog:
** Goes out of his way in the case of the thirteen "Jane Does" (unidentified dead women) and involves himself in a personal, humane level when nobody from Homicide gives a damn about'em. This shows Beadie that deep down, [=McNulty=] is a decent guy.
** Going to pick up the homeless man he stashed in Virginia as part of his scheme, the implication being that he's going to get him help.
* PhraseCatcher: His ''assholism'' is referenced by almost every character, often. He's also a magnet for "My office, now!"
* PoisonousFriend: To Bunk in season 5 because of his scheme and many other times, Jimmy is a dangerous chum.
-->'''Lester:''' You put fire to everything you touch [=McNulty=], then you walk away while it burns!
* PoliceBrutality: Averted; he's basically the only character affiliated with the police who's never seen beating a suspect.
* ProdigalHero: Considered and often called the prodigal son and the BlackSheep due to his on-off relationship with Homicide and the MCU.
* RaisedCatholic: Makes the sign of the Cross before tampering with the vagrants and Bunk theorizes his background is the reason behind Jimmy giving a damn about a random dead woman.
-->'''Bunk''': How does that matter? You see, this is that Catholic shit, Jimmy. This is that little altar-boy-guilt talking.
* ReassignedToAntarctica: Twice. The second time he actually prefers it though.
* ReassignmentBackfire: Rawls puts him on the boat. Jimmy still finds a way to get back at Rawls and shove one major case up his jurisdiction, for the lulz.
--->'''Rawls''': ''([[ActuallyPrettyFunny laughing]])'' Fuckin' Jimmy. Fuckin' with us for the fun of it. I gotta give the son of a bitch some credit for wit on this one. Cocksucker.
* RedOni: To Bunk's BlueOni (alternatively, to Kima's or Lester's Blue).
* SexWithTheEx: Just the once, leading Jimmy to think DivorceIsTemporary. It isn't.
* ShirtlessScene: Several.
* ShotgunWedding: He dropped out of college and married Elena after she got pregnant.
* SympatheticPOV: The narrative shows how some of his twisted shenanigans stem from an odd sense of justice and personal righteousness.
* TallDarkAndHandsome: Lean, black-haired and good-looking.
* ThreeWaySex: Jimmy is bloody [[http://cosmodromemag.com/files/still.png outnumbered]] in a bordello, [[HilarityEnsues with sexy results]]. Other characters are still talking about it [[NeverLiveItDown several seasons later]].
* TooCleverByHalf: He's too competent for his own good. It speaks volumes that his only period of stability happens when he is away from investigative tasks.
* VitriolicBestBuds: With Bunk.
* WhatTheHellHero: Receives these, in tandem with TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, on a regular basis.
-->'''Bunk''': There you go. Givin' a fuck when it ain't your turn to give a fuck.
** Subverted in season 5 when Bunk brings Lester to the loop, hoping to end the serial killer scheme. Lester objects because [[DoWrongRight the lie needs more wings to fly]].
--->'''Lester''': Shit like this actually goes through your fucking brain?
* WorkingWithTheEx: Has an affair with Rhonda at the beginning of the series. They keep working together occasionaly after the break-up. He's very cool about Daniels dating her.
* WorthyAdversary: Intellectual vanity is one of his motors. He is proud to be chasing Avon and Stringer, on the basis that stupid criminals make stupid cops.
* YourCheatingHeart: Chronic, although his condition does undergo a short-lived remission.
-->'''Lester''': Ain't he married or some shit now?

[[folder:Cedric Daniels]]
->'''Played by''': Creator/LanceReddick
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cedric_daniels_8405.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Bend too far and you are already broken"'']]

--> ''Comes a day you're gonna have to decide whether it's about you or about the work.''

Daniels begins the show as a Lieutenant in charge of the Narcotics Unit of the western district, and spends most of the series in charge of the special details that would become the model for the Major Crimes Unit. He is fiercely loyal to those under his command and demands similar loyalty in turn. He works to rein in the various excesses of [=McNulty=], Herc, Carver, and Pryzbylewski, while resisting the bureaucratic rot that has corrupted the district command. There is only so much he can do, given his superiors' impatience for in-depth police work, and the existence of a dossier implicating him in past corruption that Ervin Burrell holds over his head.

He begins the series as a career-minded officer who is pliant to the demands of his superiors, but when he's confronted with the deeds and scale of the Barksdale drug crew, realizes the inefficacy of the limited investigative measures that his bosses will allow, and is pressured by [=McNulty=], Greggs and Freamon to commit to the case, ultimately he jumps in with both feet. Daniels's renewed commitment to quality police work costs him much throughout the series (including his marriage), but in seasons 4 and 5, he receives a series of rapid promotions that ends with a gig as Police Commissioner. Daniels soon resigns after earning this top spot, since keeping the job would entail manipulating the crime statistics for the mayor, or a fight to keep the job which would put the lives and careers of his friends in jeopardy. At the end of the show he's become a prosecutor, finally making use of the law degree he'd earned before his police career.

* BadassPacifist: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaysD0qByUo Behold]] his peaceful arrest of Avon inside the Barksdale compound, taking over a [=SWAT=] operation.
* BadassBaritone: A deep voice that commands respect.
* BaldBlackLeaderGuy: Begins to sport a shaved head in season 3.
* TheBeard: A non-sexual-orientation version; after he and his wife split up in the third season he keeps up the act of them still being married so as not to damage her public image while she's running for office. This includes pretending to come home when she has company over, and he explains that after all she gave up to help his career it's the least he can do.
* BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord
* {{Catchphrase}}: Downplayed with "This is (some) bullshit."
* TheChainsOfCommanding: Daniels is always struggling between the politics of the higher-ups, his own judgement, the pressure and CowboyCop antics from some of his more uncontrollable but competent detectives and the need to protect his more inept underlings.
* ChekhovsGun: His law degree. This is TruthInTelevision, as one of the detectives David Simon shadowed when writing ''Homicide'', Terry [=McLarney=][[note]] Who [[Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet Detective Steve Crosetti]] was loosely based on[[/note]], was a law school graduate. Another gun of a much higher caliber is the corruption investigation in his past.
* CharacterDevelopment: He begins the series as a company man observant of the chain of command, but grows tired of the chronic obstructionism and he gradually becomes a reformist, it's not about him, but about the job.
* DaChief: Warns early on that he doesn't want "cowboy shit" and tries to reign [=McNulty=] in most of the time during the first season. He becomes a justified case in mid-season 3 when Jimmy and Kima abuse his confidence, force his hand and derail his investigation with their extracurricular activities, but is still willing to have [=McNulty=] in his unit after telling him that he's done.
* DeadpanSnarker: From time to time.
-->So one thieving politician trumps 22 murders. Good to know.
* DefectorFromDecadence: Daniels quits the force after being told to cheat on the crime stats.
* AFatherToHisMen: Tries to protect his subordinates after their numerous displays of incompetence or disloyalty, even when this reflects bad on him.
* GoodIsNotSoft: He can be quite reasonable and accommodating, but when something angers him, he'll be very vocal about it.
* GuileHero: After being burned a few times, he becomes relatively adept at playing office politics indirectly and/or without openly antagonizing other powerful officials.
* HeroesWantRedheads: Becomes an {{official couple}} with Rhonda.
* HonorBeforeReason: Several times, particularly toward the end of the series.
-->You bend too far and you are already broken.
* InternalReformist: Tries to transform the "stats game" into real police work.
* LargeAndInCharge: Usually the tallest police officer in any room.
* TheLastDJ
* MarriedToTheJob: Cedric literally tells his wife Marla that he loves the job, which eventually leads to the end of their marriage.
* TheMentor: He's not merely a commanding officer, he likes to give advice to his subordinates whenever he can. Carver pays good heed to it.
* TheMissusAndTheEx: A male example. He expects [=McNulty=] to not be very happy about his dating of Rhonda, but the two men have a friendly chat over it and everything goes fine and dandy.
* NervesOfSteel: He has the stones to hold his ground against Senator Davis and Deputy Burrell and stand tall while he's a mere Lieutenant.
* NotSoAboveItAll: At work, he cracks fewer jokes than the rest of the team. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE9-u26NOWI&feature=channel&list=UL At home,]] he's one of the few guys who can skewer Lester. And even he joins in on the asskicking when Bird refers to Kima as a [[CountryMatters cunt]], which [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness shows how much Bird has it coming]]. More so, Daniels later tells Bunk to send Bird his love when the trial approaches.
* NoodleIncident: The precise nature of the corruption allegation he faced earlier in his career is never revealed, though it is implied to have been something along the lines of skimming drug money.
* OfficialCouple: With lawyer [[IronLady Rhonda Pearlman]] in season 3.
* PassedOverPromotion: Burrell implies that Daniels will get the command of the next available district. The promise is nullified after their fallout over the Barksdale detail and the post goes to a more manageable officer.
* PerpetualFrowner: His typical expression borders on DeathGlare territory.
* RankUp: A rising star under Carcetti's New Day. He's too good to last. He's proud to be promoting Carver face to face in one of his last acts as policeman.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Eventually revealed to be one.
* ReassignedToAntarctica: After the first Barksdale detail is wrapped up, Burrell sends him to the basement to handle evidence control.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere:
** Subverted in Season 2; he grows tired of all the bullshit inherent in the BPD, sends in his resignation papers and is days aways from leaving the force, but he changes his mind after the Major Crimes Unit and actual police work become plausible.
** Played straight in Season 5 when he's put between a rock and a hard place.
* SecretKeeper: Daniels will keep secrets to save loyal subordinates and loved ones. In the end he is given a choice to either juke the stats or address his allegedly corrupt past that he is being blackmailed with. He could have fought but he [[TakeAThirdOption quits the force]] instead because it's implied his ex-wife was involved.
* ShirtlessScene: Several during his private life. The man is really ripped.

[[folder:Shakima "Kima" Greggs]]
->'''Played by''': Sonja Sohn
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kimagreggs2_407.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Don't tell me we're the same kind of asshole?"'']]

-->''I mean, I know you don’t like it. But shit, I was proud.''

Kima starts out as detective in Narcotics, working under Daniels, considered by Daniels to be his best and most reliable detective. As a result he promptly enlists her into the special detail investigating the Barksdales, as he needs someone he can trust and rely on. One of the more competent cops on the team, she does much work in surveillance and recruiting informants, particularly Bubbles.

While undercover she is shot and badly wounded in the first season, but recovers and, under pressure from her girlfriend, who doesn't like Kima's dangerous line of work, transfers to a desk job. Ultimately, Daniels lures her back into the fray and after spending season 2 and 3 as part of the MCU she eventually earns an assignment in Homicide.

Kima is completely beholden to her conscience and strong sense of ethics, ([[GoodIsNotNice which doesn't make her nice]]; while she'd never look the other way at a crime or lie to her superiors, she doesn't think twice about beating the crap out of a suspect) and as a result in the fifth season, she is the one who reports [=McNulty=] and Freamon's fake serial killer to Daniels.

* ActionGirl: She fights crime in a rather literal sense, and isn't averse to jumping into the fray or tuning up prisoners.
* AllLesbiansWantKids: Zig-zagged. Kima is talked into having a child with her girlfriend, but is completely unenthusiastic about it, which ultimately causes their separation. In season 5, she starts to regret her decision and spends more time with the child.
* BabiesMakeEverythingBetter: Averted; Kima's girlfriend having a baby makes their relationship worse, and eventually contributes to their breakup. Kima does come to care for her son however.
* BloodKnight: She doesn't find police work satisfying unless she has the chance to forcefully confront and bust criminals face-to-face.
* BruiserWithASoftCenter: The soft center comes out when children are involved.
* ButchLesbian: Kima is open with her colleagues about her sexual orientation, although the womanizing [=McNulty=] tries to hit on her before she tells him.
* ByTheBookCop: The closest thing to one on this show, as evidenced by her refusal to testify that she saw that Wee-Bey was the second gunman when she gets shot in Season 1 and her blowing the whistle on Freamon and [=McNulty=] in season 5; however, she still gets in on a little extracurricular brutality and other inappropriate conduct at times.
* CliffHanger: Whether she'll survive after her shooting in season 1 is in doubt for awhile.
* ConsummateProfessional
* FairCop: Despite -- or perhaps because of -- her butch attitude Kima is quite good-looking and attracts the attention of both men and women.
* TheFettered
* HenpeckedHusband: A lesbian example. A consequence of being the masculine half of her relationship. Lampshaded by Herc.
* HonorBeforeReason: Her refusal to falsely testify that she knows for a fact that it was Wee-Bey who shot her.
* TheLadette: She enjoys drinking, screwing, and busting heads as much as any of her male co-workers; conversely, she doesn't have much interest in "feminine" activities like shopping or homemaking.
* MarriedToTheJob: Her partner begins to resent her dedication to policework when it detracts from her willingness to be a parent to their child.
* MixedAncestry: Half black half Asian. Old Face Andre even hits on her because of this.
* NaiveNewcomer: When she lands in homicide, she experiences a number of novice-related pranks from the veteran cops. The audience surrogate part is downplayed, as this happens in season 4.
* NotSoDifferent: A minor story arc has Kima realizing she's following in Jimmy's [[CowboyCop foot]][[MarriedToTheJob steps]].
-->Don't tell me we're the same kind of asshole...
* SheCleansUpNicely: When she is posing as a criminal's girlfriend for a sting operation, she brings out her femme side and draws admiring comments from her male colleagues.
* TwoferTokenMinority: As a mixed black/Korean lesbian, she ought to count as a threefer, but in this case it's an aversion since the show realistically portrays the demographic makeup of Baltimore and she's not the only black, the only lesbian, or the only female detective around.

[[folder:Thomas "Herc" Hauk]]
->'''Played by''': Domenick Lombardozzi
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hercthomas_5483.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''The Western District Way'']]

--> ''I say we go down to the terrace and fuck some people up.''

One of {{Those Two Guys}} in Narcotics. Herc is probably the dumbest working detective on the show. To him, the job is all about the "rip and run" and banging heads on the corners (often literally). What little active detective work he does do often involves cutting corners (such as placing bugs and pulling a surveillance camera without proper authorization) or bumbling his way through ineffective interrogations. He's also not above stealing confiscated drug money. That said, he does have some positive qualities, such as loyalty to his friends and some capacity for self-reflection.

During season 3 he becomes a part of Mayor Royce's security team, and witnesses the mayor having an affair with his secretary. He is bought off with a promotion to sergeant and a transfer back to the MCU, but loses any political connections when Royce is voted out in favor of Carcetti. He is forced to resign in season 4 after acting on bad information and wrongfully arresting an influential black minister. He kicks around various private security agencies before settling into Maurice Levy's firm as a private investigator, where his friendships within the department and dumb luck earn him a bright future.

* AesopAmnesia: At the end of season 1 he's seen lecturing a couple of rookies on the importance of "smart" detective work as opposed to haphazard violent busts. This lesson is all but forgotten in the next seasons. The closest thing we get to an explanation of why he didn't pay attention to that aesop is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC8fhtqOlz0 him exclaiming about what a hassle police paperwork is when he tries doing some property seizures in season 2]], hinting that perhaps the bureaucratic nightmare of paperwork helped send him right back to his old ways.
* BoisterousBruiser: Always favors physical solutions to departmental problems.
* BrooklynRage: Lombardozzi's New York accent was so blatant that the show eventually wrote it in that Herc was originally from the Big Apple, and there are few cops in the show more violent or prone to PoliceBrutality.
* ButtMonkey: His incompetence often lands him in very hot water and is the eventual cause of his firing, coupled with dishonesty and thuggery. Even when he's right, his colleagues usually ignore him until someone competent can confirm it.
* {{Catchphrase}}: "The Western district way."
* CharacterDevelopment: In the last season, after he has been kicked off the force and is working for Levy as a consultant, he privately admits to Carver that he realizes he was a useless, brutal policeman and wishes he'd tried to make a better fist of it.
* CowboyCop: Like [=McNulty=], a deconstruction; in his case of the "cut corners and rough up the suspects" variety.
* TheDitz: For all his asshole-ish attitude and knuckle-headedness, it's really hard to stay mad at the guy, though.
* DudeWheresMyRespect: Like Carver, he gets tired of doing lowly surveillance jobs and transfers away from the MCU, but unlike Ellis, Herc earns little respect or knowledge and eventually comes back to the unit.
* DumbMuscle: A brute that approaches crimefighting with "the Western district way" motto; rounding up corners, knocking heads and a complete lack of subtlety, in a nutshell.
* EveryoneHasStandards: Appalled by the downward spiral of Hamsterdam with events such as the police having to hide a murder committed inside of the free zone, he blows the whistle and informs a reporter.
* FaceHeelTurn: After taking a job as an investigator with Levy. Although ironically, being fired from the BPD makes him a better person, even if his new job is unsympathetic.
** AntiVillain Type IV/ PunchClockVillain
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Dim witted, crass, and blunt, but not without decency.
** Apologizes to Bodie's grandmother for the inconvenience and foul language they used after the police come blazing into her house.
** For all his failings, when Internal Affairs descends on his department, he takes the fall himself, without implicating Sydnor or Dozerman.
** He supports Carver in his decision to bubble Colicchio to IID after Colicchio attacks a civilian for apparently no reason. Herc reflects that maybe Carver was right and comes to regret being a violent and incompetent cop.
* TheLoad: At the beginning of the show he and Carver are far and away the least competent detectives among the major characters; Daniels only trusts them to do surveillance work and half the time they can't even manage that. Carver eventually gets better, Herc doesn't.
* ManChild: At times even more immature than some of the hoppers.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: More than once, but his interrogation of Little Kevin, in which he lets slip that Randy talked to the police and thereby ruins his life, is the worst.
* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: His Bronx accent sticks out like a sore thumb; in season five he finally acknowledges he's originally from New York.
* PoliceAreUseless: You could fill several pages detailing his many screw-ups over the course of the show.
* PoliceBrutality: Most of the cops on the show engage in at one point or another, but Herc deserves special mention - brutality complaints are one of the main reasons he's not promoted to sergeant despite scoring well on the exam.
-->'''Daniels:''' ... a formal brutality charge, which for Herc will make an even four in the last two years.\\
'''Herc:''' None sustained...\\
'''Daniels: ''' But all of them true.
* RankUp: He scores surprisingly well on the Sergeant exam, but does not get a promotion until the mayor [[KickedUpstairs kicks him upstairs]] after Herc witnesses him in a [[InterruptedIntimacy delicate situation]].
* ThoseTwoGuys: With Carver.

[[folder:Ellis Carver]]
->'''Played by''': Seth Gilliam
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/elliscarver_5569.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"[[WhatYouAreInTheDark It all matters. Everything we do.]]"'']]

--> ''I don't need to chase these fucking knuckleheads. I know half of 'em. Shit, I know where they hang.''

The other of {{Those Two Guys}} in Narcotics. He starts out almost as stupid and corrupt as Herc, but begins to mature under the tutelage of Daniels, and later, Bunny Colvin. He is instrumental in keeping Hamsterdam running in Season 3. He tries to help out Randy Wagstaff, but makes the mistake of trusting Herc, out of guilt for maturing past his ex-partner. In one of the series' biggest {{Tear Jerker}}s, he cannot save Randy from the group home. Later, he is shown to regret the cavalier attitude towards policework that he and Herc had taken earlier in his career, and proves himself a competent commander with a strong sense of ethics. He is promoted to lieutenant in the finale, showing a strong resemblance to his early mentor, Daniels.

* BadassBoast: When he procures Marlo's number (courtesy of Herc actually), to an impressed Lester.
-->Police work detective, police work.
* BaldBlackLeaderGuy: On his way of becoming one, just like his two mentors before him.
* TheChainsOfCommanding: After he's promoted to sergeant, most notably when he's forced to write up Officer Colicchio for police brutality in season 5.
* ChangingOfTheGuard: He is the implied successor of both Colvin and Daniels.
* CharacterDevelopment: Goes from a [[HotBlooded hot-headed]] and [[NaiveNewcomer inexperienced]] rookie to a seasoned, streetwise veteran cop over the course of five seasons, and the transformation is entirely believable.
* DudeWheresMyRespect: Gets tired of doing lowly surveillance jobs after he has been promoted to Sergeant and asks for a transfer to another district.
* FairCop: Perlman dismisses him as an inside man on the brothel sting because he doesn't look like he'd have to pay for sex. He takes the compliment.
* HeroicBSOD: Has a truly heartbreaking one after what happens to Randy.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Evolves into this in Seasons 3 and 4.
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Has a hilarious moment of this in Season 2, when he and Herc are left watching a townhouse all day for a guy that had already turned himself in.
* TheMole: In Season 1, he feeds Burrell with inside information of Daniel's detail.
* RankUp: To Sergeant, with the implication that he's promoted because he was Burrell's mole, as Carver scored worse than Herc. Finally to Lieutenant, in one of the few meritorious and trully deserved promotions in the whole show.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: He follows Colvin's advice and becomes a reference in the neighbourhood, a policeman close to the citizen and not a perpetual antagonist to the street felon.
* ThoseTwoGuys: With Herc.
* TookALevelInBadass: He starts out incompetent but develops into a genuinely good cop by the end of the show.
* TookALevelInKindness: Carver starts actually caring about the community he polices.

[[folder:Lester Freamon]]
->'''Played by''': Clarke Peters
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lesterfreamon_1711.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"Cool Lester Smooth"'']]


-->''We're building something here, detective. From the ground up. And all the pieces matter.''

Detective transferred in to Daniels' unit from the Pawnshop Unit. At first he keeps to himself, spending much of his time applying his meticulous nature to making miniature furniture instead of doing police work, causing [=McNulty=] and others to write him off as a worthless hump. After watching the other detectives fail to secure so much as a photograph of the detail's intended target, Freamon comes off the bench and shows himself to be true "natural police" (in fact, he is a former Homicide detective), proving himself knowledgeable and adept at many of aspects of running a wiretap investigation (including an understanding of the legal and political nuances that even the other competent detectives lack), and serves as a mentor to Kima, Prez and Sydnor.

He is almost as insistent as (and at times, MORE insistent than) [=McNulty=] when it comes to pressing an investigation beyond what the department brass has tolerance for, but has more wisdom about how and when to fight for a case. While he's not above crossing his superiors and manipulating his coworkers, and goes along with Jimmy's 5th season serial killer scheme, he still lacks Jimmy's more self-destructive tendencies.

* TheAce: Subtle, but he's an elite investigator with a very wide range of talents, can play the role of a conman and put on accents, he has high social skill, which helps him in the job but also scoring with the ladies, and his manual ability and patience with his dollhouse furniture nets him an income superior to his own wage.
* AlmightyJanitor: A regular detective working secretly inside a closet and from an abandoned warehouse brings the crime lord of Baltimore down. He single handedly orchestrates a city-wide operation and then matter-of-factly debriefs the Deputy Ops about it as if Daniels were a subordinate.
* AwesomenessByAnalysis: In Daniels' words, he is by himself ''the'' Major Crimes Unit.
* BadassBoast: Near the end of the show, he wags a clock to Marlo's face to point out he has triumphed over the drug lord and cracked the code.
-->Me? [[IAmTheNoun I'm just the police]].
* BadassGrandpa: Natural police. Occasionally mounts up and shows his prowess during field operations, for instance when he punks Bird with a bottle, and is the only character able to dominate, blackmail and ''outcon'' Clay Davis.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Eccentricities such as his habit of painting dollhouse furniture at his desk lead the others to assume he's a hump; he's anything but.
* TheChessmaster: Probably the smartest of the police on the whole show.
* ConMan: He plays the role of one to fool a savvy street felon and further his wiretapping operation in season 3.
* CoolOldGuy: "Cool Lester Smooth".
* CowboyCop: Though he's much smarter and more careful about it than [=McNulty=] or Herc.
* DeadpanSnarker: Has a poignant remark for almost everything, usually with a cynical flavour.
* DoWrongRight: When he learns of [=McNulty=]'s scheme, he apparently reacts with a WhatTheHellHero, but what Lester means is the plot is weak and needs to be sensationalized.
* {{Expy}}: WordOfGod confirms Freamon is inspired by Harry Edgerton, Ed Burns' former partner in the Baltimore homicide unit; Edgerton was also the inspiration for [[Series/HomicideLifeontheStreet Frank Pembleton]].
* ForensicAccounting: One of his specialities, usually met with a stern opposition from the higher-ups, since drug money funds political campaigns. The few times he can use it, he compares it to a BoomHeadshot.
-->You follow drugs and you find drug addicts and drug dealers, you follow the money and you don't know where the fuck it's gonna take [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7M71wmwWRo you]].
* GuileHero: Very subtle and very good at making other people dance to his tune. For instance, he often adresses Daniels as Cedric, in a paternalist, almost condescending way to make Daniels do what Lester asks.
* HeadButtingHeroes: When [=McNulty=] keeps investigating Stringer Bell on his own, Lester is compliant out of loyalty to Daniels and happy to do actual police work after years in terrible units. They nearly come to blows when [=McNulty=] [[DareToBeBadass appeals to Lester's pride and dares him to be police]] and Freamon berates Jimmy for being a selfish jackass pissing on the unit he himself created. Hilariously, they both give themselves food for thought.
* InsistentTerminology: Worked the pawn shop unit for 13 years.
-->''and 4 months''
* {{The Last DJ}}
* MayDecemberRomance: Starts up a relationship with the much younger Shardene which continues through the end of the show.
* TheMentor: to Prez and (to a lesser extent) Kima.
* {{Obfuscating Stupidity}}: When everyone refers to the humps on the first season detail, they refer to Polk, Mahone and Lester; little do they know...
* ReassignedToAntarctica: Pawnshop unit after charging a politically connected fence in 1989 while working at Homicide. Thirteen years [[InsistentTerminology (and four months)]].
* SecondEpisodeIntroduction: A major and justified example. Buried in the pawnshop unit, he's miles away from police work, unlike the officers from homicide and narcotics. Absent in the pilot, he first shows up with the dead wood that is dumped into Daniel's detail in the second episode.
* SherlockScan: He figures out how Marlo is disposing of his victims immediately when he notices unusual nails in the boarded-up doorway of a vacant house.
* SmartPeopleWearGlasses: His glasses help to underscore that he's one of the smartest detectives out there.
* WellDoneSonGuy: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE9-u26NOWI Daniels jokes]] about how Lester invokes this, exploiting his TeamDad status to have his way by exploiting the guilty feelings of his younger protegees/disciples.
-->'''Daniels''': He stares at you over the top of his reading glasses, with that look that says ''I'm the father you never had, and I don't want to be disappointed in you ever again.''

[[folder:Roland "Prez" Pryzbylewski]]
->'''Played by''': Jim True-Frost
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/prezbaluski_2959.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"It's kinda fun, you know. Figuring shit out"'']]

-->''You juke the stats, and majors become colonels. I've been here before.''

Roland begins the series as dead weight that's dumped on the Barksdale detail from Auto, who only still has a career in the department thanks to the aid of his father-in-law, Major Stanislaus Valchek. Prez is unhappy in his job and has a hard time keeping his head while in the street. Early in the series he accompanies Herc and Carver on an ill-conceived recon mission in the high-rise projects, where he pistol-whips a youth (which results in permanent blindness in one eye for the kid). Daniels coaches Prez on how to answer IID's questions, and he is removed from street duty.

While indoors, he takes to Freamon's wiretapping, showing a real knack for codebreaking, deciphering the street talk through the tinny audio of the wiretap, following the paper trail and organizing the accumulated info on their targets. In the third season, when responding to a distress call while out making a food run, he accidentally shoots a plainclothes officer, and resigns. He becomes a middle school teacher in season four, helping out Randy and Dukie as best he can.

* AuthorAvatar: Series co-creator Ed Burns was also a Baltimore cop who later retired from the force and became a middle school teacher.
* AwesomenessByAnalysis: Downplayed if compared with Freamon's, but the man has his moments where he's viewed with admiration by his colleagues for being TheSmartGuy / TechnoWizard of the (not very literate) group, cracking codes, enhancing images and such.
* BadassBeard: in season 5. Also a literal case of GrowingTheBeard, since he's become a pillar of authority at his school.
* CallingTheOldManOut: With violence, when he snaps after Valchek pushes him around too far.
* CharacterDevelopment: He's initially incompetent, but he gets better.
* CoolTeacher: Season 4 onwards.
* DeskJockey: he becomes this at the beginning of season 1 and proves to be a valuable player in the position, in contrast to his ineptitude as a beat cop. According to Sydnor, Prez was unseemly good at paperwork when Sydnor himself has to pick up after him.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: A hopeless case of RecklessGunUsage -luckily against a wall- in his very first scene.
* AFatherToHisMen: The [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure teacher]] version, from season 4 onwards.
* FriendOrFoe: He mistakes a fellow cop for a gangster and shoots him to death by mistake in season 3.
* HiddenDepths: He becomes a gifted data analyst and paper chaser under Lester's wing.
* IJustShotMarvinInTheFace
* LeeroyJenkins: One of the reasons he's a poor street cop is his tendency to panic and rush in without a plan in dangerous situations. This flaw ultimately ends his police career when he accidentally shoots a fellow police officer to death during a firefight.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: After he accidentally shoots and kills Officer Waggoner.
* {{Nepotism}}: His career in the force exists because he is Valchek's son-in-law. He eventually grows tired of this and decides not to put a defense after his last accident and to pursue a new career..
* PrecisionFStrike: His pleased reaction to the pieces coming together in the Sobotka case. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMKjPRPcqw4 "Fucking A"]]
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: After becoming a teacher.
* ReassignmentBackfire: twice in the series - first when he becomes a DeskJockey instead of a beat cop, which allows him to bring his decoding skills to the table and aid the Barksdale investigation; then when he's kicked off the police force and becomes a teacher, a profession he turns out to be very well-suited for.
* RecklessGunUsage
* SecondEpisodeIntroduction: Another regular dumped into Daniel's detail in the second episode.
* TheSmartGuy: He's not much good as a street cop, but he turns out to be highly adept at cracking the Barksdale gang's various codes and figuring out how their organization fits together.
* TookALevelInBadass: Twice - first as a cop although he later backslides, then as a teacher.
* TheUnpronounceable: {{Lampshade}}d.
* WhatAnIdiot: In-universe. Practically the CatchPhrase of anyone working with him. He eventually gets better.
** Used rather painfully after his accidental shooting of Officer Waggoner in season 3. All the other police present are talking about how much of a fuck-up Prez is based off of his record prior to joining the MCU, not having seen the way that he's grown in the years since. [=McNulty's=] expression as he listens to Landsman lambaste the guy says it all: Prez's mistake is so huge [=McNulty=] can't really refute the talk, but at the same time he knows just how unfair it is that no one outside the unit will ever understand the true quality Prez has demonstrated to his comrades.

[[folder:Leander Sydnor]]
->'''Played by''': Corey Parker Robinson
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/leandersydnor_353.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Low bottom enough for you?"'']]

--> ''This is the best work I ever did. I never did a case like this. But it's not enough. I gotta go back to Auto tomorrow morning. I just feel like this just ain't finished...''

A promising young detective that Daniels fights to get assigned to the unit due to his skills and undercover abilities. Does surveillance and undercover work alongside Greggs and Bubbles. He is oddly absent from the reconstituted MCU in season 2, but returns in season 3 and remains a member from that point until the end of the show, even when at one point he is the ''only'' detective within the MCU. He agrees to help Freamon work his illegal wiretap in season 5, and in the finale, is shown going to Judge Phelan to get a case worked on, demonstrating his willingness to disregard the rules and chain-of-command to bring in a good case.

* CowboyCop: Goes along with Lester's illegal wiretap and doesn't get found out, so he gets a knack for circumventing the chain of command to obtain results, as seen in the finale.
* DressCode: Suits ''down'' to plausibly go undercover as a dope-fiend, but Bubbles still points out that his costume needs work.
-->Torn cammies by Versace, stained sweatshirt by Ralph Lauren. Haven't showered in two days, haven't shaved in four. I am one ripe, nasty son-of-a-bitch.
* EurekaMoment: After consulting a map of the city, he deduces most of the code used by Marlo; grid and coordinates.
* TheGenericGuy: Probably the least distinctive and well-developed among the members of the MCU.
* HistoryRepeats: In the finale, he asks Judge Phelan to help him circumvent the rules to advance a case in a way that [[CallBack closely echoes]] a similar scene featuring [=McNulty=] in season 1.
* LastChanceToQuit: Lester gives him a chance to avoid being involved in the illegal wiretap of Marlo, but Sydnor chooses to remain part of the Unit and keep working to bring Marlo down.
* OnlySaneMan: More or less becomes one by default in Season 4 when the MCU is made up of only himself, Herc, and Dozerman.
* OutOfFocus: Even when he is around, he gets less screen time and character development than most of the other cops.
* PutOnABus: For pretty much all of season 2. {{Lampshade}}d when Sydnor reminds the other detectives that he doesn't remember the details of the port case because he didn't work it with them.
* TheReliableOne: Stays in the background, but is always doing decent work, and aside from Season 2, he is part of the [=MCU=] for its entire existence. This makes his CharacterDevelopment into the next [=McNulty=] very unexpected. When Daniels picked him up for the MCU, his superior officer was unwilling to part from him, as he is one of his best men.
* SecondEpisodeIntroduction: Daniels successfully fights to get Sydnor assigned to the detail as a compensation for having to carry the seemingly useless Pryzbylewski.

[[folder:Augustus Polk and Patrick Mahon]]
->'''Played by''': Nat Benchley and Tom Quinn, respectively
-->'''Polk:''' Who signs the overtime slips?\\
'''Mahon:''' A case goes from red to black by way of green, Lieutenant.
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/augustus_polk.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Augutus Polk.]]
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/patrick_mahon.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Patrick Mahon.]]

Two old-timer detectives tranferred from the property department, they are among the useless detectives or "humps" thrown into the first incarnation of the MCU, and proved themselves to be exactly that even as others such as Prez or Lester showed that they had much more to contribute than expected. When the MCU attempts to raid a Barksdale stash house, Mahon is injured by Bodie and leaps at the chance for an early retirement, then encourages Polk to "accidentally" get himself injured on duty so he can do the same. Polk is ultimately unable to go through with it, and goes into a despondent drinking binge. Due to all the time he misses Daniels gives him an ultimatum to either get to work or go on medical leave to deal with his alcoholism. Polk chooses the latter.

* TheAlcoholic: Infamously notorious for it. Polk shows up drunk at 9am.
-->'''Daniels:''' Between the two of them, I don't have a designated driver.
* TheBusCameBack: Augustus Polk appears in Season 2 as one of the many humps of the first Sobotka detail and in Season 5 vegetating in the evidence control unit. Daniels tells Polk that he's glad to see that Augie landed ok.
-->Yeah, beats working.
* BilingualBonus: "Póg mo thóin" (pronounced Pogue Mahone and source of ThePogues' band name) is Irish for "Kiss my ass."
* CluelessDetective: Up to pathetically comical levels, they are tasked with putting a face to Barksdale and come up with a photo of a middle-aged white man.
-->'''Greggs:''' Maybe he's white. ([[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uqbr_fNiMcI laughs]])
* FatBastard: Cantankerous, sloven and with a beer gut.
* JerkassHasAPoint: Mahon's line about cases being solved by devoting at least ''some'' money into them gets vindicated and invoked by other characters in the final season when the Mayor cuts the Department budget dramatically.
* LazyBum: Two horrible "humps". They are allergic to any kind of work.
* OfficerOHara: Two terrible dumb flatfeet of Irish extraction.
* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Polk's only real concern about the job is paid overtime. Mahon is of the same ilk and jumps at the chance of early retirement, scheming he'll even complement his pension with a cushy underground economy job.
* PoliceAreUseless: Oh, yes. Largely because in this case they care about absolutely nothing but themselves and getting through the day with the least amount of fuss possible.
* PutOnABus: Mahon takes early retirement following his injury, and is last seen encouraging Polk to do the same.
* ThoseTwoGuys: They hang around together, doing very little until their shift is over. Probably for the best.
* TokenEvilTeammate: Mahon takes his laziness and dishonesty too far; he openly scoffs at being part of the unit and tries to convince Polk to hurt himself also to get retirement benefits, even if it means suing the city.

[[folder:Caroline Massey]]
[[quoteright:250:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/250px_the_wire_massey.jpg]]
->'''Played by:''' Joilet F. Harris.

A policewoman who joins the MCU in season three, very adept at deciphering street slang over the wire.

* CunningLinguist: Can decipher street lingo far better than most cops.
* SassyBlackWoman: She has a sharp tongue and plenty of sass for whoever tries to mess with her.

!Police Commanders

->''"It's the chain-of-command, baby, the shit always rolls downhill."''
-->-- '''Thomas Hauk'''

->''"When I came on in the Eastern, there was a piece-of-shit lieutenant hoping to be a captain, piece-of-shit sergeants hoping to be lieutenants. Pretty soon we had piece-of-shit patrolmen trying to figure the job for themselves."''
-->--'''Cedric Daniels'''

The commanders of the BPD are among some of its most competent and dedicated members... actually, no. While there are a few competent and dedicated personnel in the upper ranks, for the most part the commanders of the BPD reach that lofty status through politics, nepotism, (which is even lampshaded at one point, when Burrell says to a group of assembled commanders that "There isn't one of you here in this room that isn't here by appointment") ruthless self-serving careerism, and, above all, fixing the stats to make themselves look good. This contributes greatly to the overall dysfunction of the BPD, the ineffectiveness of the police department as a whole, and one of the show's overriding themes: institutions tend to lose sight of their original purpose and make self-preservation and the advancement of the people within them their ultimate goals.

[[folder:William "Bill" Rawls]]
->'''Played by''': Creator/JohnDoman
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/williamrawls_1781.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_X4tdPa1iU These are for you [=McNulty=]]]"'']]

-->''You, [=McNulty=], are a gaping asshole.''

An intelligent, hardass police commander and bureaucrat, once described by a fellow commander as "as ruthless a fuck as we have in this department." He begins the series as a major in charge of the Homicide department, and over the course of the series enjoys promotions to colonel, deputy commissioner, commissioner and state police superintendent. Rawls achieves this by mainly by doing everything in his power to produce good stats (murder clearances, lower crime rates, etc) -- though what looks good on paper doesn't necessarily shine so bright in reality. For example Rawls is not above making an arrest that has no real prayer of producing a conviction, even though it means severely compromising a major investigation -- all to make the crime stats look better on paper. While serving as a colonel and deputy commissioner, he applies severe pressure on subordinate officers, much of which is quite deserved, that causes most of his colleagues to "juke the stats" by reclassifying crimes (felonies are downgraded to misdemeanors, etc) -- a practice that he strongly encourages without actually being explicit about it.

Rawls has no patience for insubordination, or anything that might threaten his stats. As a result, [=McNulty=] makes himself an enemy of Rawls, who orders another cop to spy on him (in an attempt to get him fired), kicks him out of homicide and blocks his transfer to another, more desirable unit that could put [=McNulty=]'s skill as a detective to work. Still, there are limits to Rawls' animosity towards [=McNulty=]; when [=McNulty=] feels responsible for another cop getting shot, Rawls steps in to assure him that his guilt is misplaced.

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: A SmugSmiler most of the time. Rawls can't help but laugh about some situations that displease him, mostly Jimmy's shenanigans such as calling the first Federal deputy "an empty suit" or the stunts he pulls against Homicide from the Marine unit.
* BadassBureaucrat: Say what you will about Rawls, but the guy usually has his way and often wins his political or jurisdictional battles in a decisive, overwhelming fashion.
** When Kima gets shot, he demonstrates his leadership and reorganizes the overcrowded and chaotic crime scene with great efficiency. In seconds, actually.
** When he initially dodges the case of the 13 Jane Does, his relieved subordinates look at him with admiration and Landsman remarks that "the man is a God."
* DaChief: [=McNulty=]'s archnemesis, Rawls will thwart any policeman who shows any initiative or steps over the line.
* DeadpanSnarker: The man has an abrupt and pointed sense of humour.
* TheDreaded: Only suicidal characters like [=McNulty=] dare to antagonize Rawls openly, and the sneaky ones like Freamon and Colvin know very well the dangers of crossing him in any way. Even his equals in rank fear Rawls while he's still a major, before he gets more powerful.
-->'''Foerster:''' You're going to cross Bill Rawls, as ruthless a fuck as we have in this department? No. I like my career, thank you very much.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Flipping the bird to [=McNulty=] and a nasty tirade against his subordinate because the detective's extracurricular actions mean that some guetto homicides will have to be actually investigated by his department, which is both embarrassing and counter-productive to Rawls.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Displays signs of it occasionally. He's so immersed and invested in the stat games that he cannot fathom out why the detectives would actually want to chase the bad guys. He initially assumes the serial killer scheme was all about the money and the paid overtime, not about burying Marlo, "the motherfucker who put 22 bodies on them."
* FlippingTheBird: A double deuce during his establishing character moment. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_X4tdPa1iU These are for you McNulty]]
* HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday: Some of his crass jokes have this vibe. His sarcastic hope that Major Colvin has a stripper waiting behind the door to present more optimistic crime stats has a whiff of this.
* {{Jerkass}}: Abrasive and hardass most of the time. He's given a [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold few comforting moments]] to show that he's not completely horrible.
* JerkassHasAPoint:
** His lack of diplomacy and brusque ways are exactly what is needed in the aftermath of Kima getting shot. He barks orders and quickly removes unnecesary personnel from the crime scene. His blunt speech to [=McNulty=] makes Jimmy reconsider his guilt feelings.
** Rawls is not completely wrong for hating [=McNulty=] for his chronical insubordination.
--->'''Daniels:''' You ever see how a dog gets when he smells a bone buried in the yard?\\
'''Rawls:''' Yeah, and I seen one take a shit on my carpet, too. And don't give me that he's-got-that-fire-in-the-belly garbage, either. The answer is no.
** This might be the only reason he hasn't suffered or been kicked out of the force. The man ''does his job'', even when it's detrimental to others.
** When [[spoiler: the homeless killer scandal blows up]], Rawls finds himself in the advantageous position of not having any actual responsibility over the whole mess and yet having all the information available to screw '''everyone''' over. One look from the Mayor's staff after a remark about professionalism make them know that the bastard is already scheming, so they resort to [[spoiler:bribing him.]]
* LackOfEmpathy: With a few honorable exceptions, the man enjoys his own vileness. When Daniels asks him, as a personal favor, not to compromise the Barksdale case, Rawls pretends to be taking a moment to consider obliging, just to twist the knife and give a no for an answer anyway.
* MeanBoss: Loves to verbally demolish and threaten his underlings at the police department. Anyone who actually dares to cross Rawls comes to find out that he's a seriously vindictive SOB who will go out of his way to screw them over in return.
* NumberTwo: Burrell's executive officer as Deputy Ops. Despite their ups and downs, when Rawls crosses Burrell they still concur that they were a good team, and they continue their wicked association for a bit more until Burrell forcibly retires.
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Another enforcer of "the stats game". According to himself, he wouldn't mind doing it the proper way if there was someone else kicking the stones. The problem is there is no one, so he doesn't ruffle any feathers. Upon hearing it, Norman Wilson mocks this paragon of reform.
* PetTheDog: His speech to [=McNulty=] where he tells him that Kima getting shot wasn't his fault. Done with Rawls' usual bluntness, of course, and an explanation that if it was Rawls would be the first to lay into him for it.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Despite Norman's lack of amusement, Rawls words it beautifully to Carcetti.
-->[[NoExceptYes I'm no more racist than you are, Mr. Mayor]].
* RankUp: Starts as the Major of the homicide unit. He is later promoted to Colonel and Deputy Ops, thanks, ironically, to the clearance boosts from Daniel's details, has a gig as Commissioner thanks to seniority and ends up as Superintendent of the Maryland State Police.
* TheStarscream: Burrel views him as a traitorous number two after Rawls makes a failed move for the top spot.
-->'''Burrell:''' You made your move too soon. Politics doesn't suit you. Stick to operations. And don't you ever cross me like that again.
* StraightGay: If he's in the closet, then it's a pretty rare case of being neither armored nor transparent - no obviously-false-front of homophobia or anything remotely camp. Via photos and his ring, it's shown that he is married and has an infant son, which he fondly mentions. And then again he appears in the background in a scene at a gay club, among other hints such as "[[BathroomStallGraffiti Rawls Sucks Cock]]".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Ervin Burrell]]
->'''Played by''': Frankie Faison
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/burrell_8402.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"MAJOR! MY OFFICE! NOW!"'']]

-->''It's Baltimore, gentlemen. The gods will not save you.''

Deputy commissioner (later, commissioner). Burrell is a career-minded officer, more skilled at playing politics than actual police administration. He proves to be a major roadblock time and again for Daniels' unit, which has a tendency to run investigations that could implicate Burrell's politically connected friends. Eventually, when Carcetti is elected mayor, his fixing of crime statistics gets him forced to retire, though he is savvy enough to make sure he gets a golden parachute.
----
* BadassBoast: When Herc's latest wrongdoing puts a fresh Carcetti in a compromised position between the police force and the ministers, Burrell saves Carcetti's day by literally throwing the book (of regulations) at Herc. Burrell brags about the move beforehand.
-->Am I the only one who knows how to play this game?
* {{Blackmail}}:
** Threatens to air Daniel's dirt to halt the Barksdale investigation, but Daniels calls his bluff: "If you wanted to do me, I'd be done already". Much later, he contemplates smearing Daniels to save his own skin, but Burrell is the one already done by that point and hands the dossier over to Nerese Campbell.
** Facing the boot after the Hamsterdam scandal blows up, he warns the Mayor that he'll disclose "the truth", namely that he brought the matter to Royce's attention but had to sit on it, as the Mayor kept his hands tied for weeks (days, in reality). It works, and in turn, Colvin is forced to eat the full blame, quietly, or his officers will be persecuted.
** On the receiving end when Valchek, unhappy about the detail of humps assigned to Sobotka, demands a proper detail lead by Daniels, unless Burrell wants to face an embarrasing vote of confirmation as Commissioner and more fallout from the Barksdale case, closed prematurely.
* BookDumb: Described as "stone stupid" by fellow Dunbar High School alumnus Prop Joe. Still smart enough to play the connections game.
* TheDilbertPrinciple: Played with. He is put in the position of Commissioner as a lackey to the mayor; as such, he is mostly the butt of all the blame the mayor wants to pin on him. To be fair, without him the police's statistics system wouldn't work at all. According to him, he does as he's told; however, judging by the way the system is set up he is right in asserting that his replacement is not bound to do any better nor there is any initiative for breaking of the vicious cycle, as Daniels later finds out.
* HiddenDepths: According to Proposition Joe, Burrell was in glee club in high school.
* {{Jerkass}}
* JerkassHasAPoint: At the very end of his time in the BPD, as he is getting ready to leave his office for the last time he points out that no other public service/department gets completely interfered with by politicians the way that police do, and that the fickle nature of those politicians makes it impossible for the police to actually accomplish anything they're set to, and it's all compounded by the ''utter'' lack of knowledge that politicians have about the nature of policing. It doesn't change the fact that he's an ObstructiveBureaucrat who would rather make himself look good with rigged numbers than actually improve the city, but he ''definitely'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt0xkap-m6Y has a point]].
* JustFollowingOrders: Threatens the Mayor with invoking this publically during the Hamsterdam fracas. It's very effective. Generally speaking, he has interiorized this line of thinking and attributes some degree of dysfunctionality to doing what he is told.
* KickTheDog: Burrell personally informs Johns Hopkins University of Colvin's involvement with Hamsterdam, making the University withdraw Colvin's job offer.
* NothingPersonal: Both ways. Carcetti says so when he picks on Burrell to attack the administration. Unlike Rawls or Valchek, Burrell doesn't hold grudges against most of his adversaries and even understands the reasons for their affronts, mantaining a civil relationship with Daniels, whom he despises, until his career in the force is finished, that is. He tries to play the the long game without closing doors unnecessarily. That said, he'll KickTheDog if he has to, as Howard Colvin can bear witness to.
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: As Deputy Ops, he puts a stop on Daniels several times and finally punishes him when the Lieutenant stops acting on his dictates. Once he's Commissioner, it's clear his stint in the post is more focused in defending the administration and its political agenda than in doing police work. While he's portrayed as an antagonist who is in cahoots with Clay Davis and the powerful elite, the show makes the point that even the man in charge has to dance to the tune of the system and can do very little to change it.
* OfficeGolf: He's quite fond of it.
* PetTheDog: A minor one, but when Commissioner Frazier refuses to talk to Kima's partner Cheryl when Kima is shot and in danger of dying, Burrell goes ahead and does so alone.
* PutOnABus: Burrell is forcibly retired and given a desk job in DC halfway through the final season.
* SlaveToPR
-->'''Daniels:''' There ain't nothing you fear more than a bad headline, now, is there? You'd rather live in shit than let the world see you work a shovel.
** Outside of the office or the public life he isn't nearly as bad as he's known for. Put him in his uniform, though, and he becomes all hook-in-mouth.
* SleazyPolitician: It's politics that got him to his current rank, and Burrell definitely knows how to play that game. Give him credit, he is good at using politics, for example the way he uses InternalAffairs to get Herc fired for Carcetti without making it look as though Carcetti is caving to the deacons is a very effective piece of work.
* SmugSnake
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Stanislaus Valchek]]
->'''Played by''': Al Brown
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stanvalchek_7012.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Make nice or invest heavily in petroleum jelly."'']]
--> ''You want to do it your way, fine. But you ain't gonna use my people to fuck me.''

Commander of the Southeastern district. Father-in-law of Pryzbylewski, he uses his connections to get him out of trouble several times. Gets into a feud with Frank Sobotka over a stained glass window, leading to the theft of a security van by dockworkers, and an investigation into the stevedore's union's finances that brings them down. Later, he becomes a supporter of Carcetti. In the series finale, after Burrell has left, Rawls has been bribed into a state position and Daniels quits rather than juke the stats, he is promoted to Commissioner by virtue of being the last man standing.
----
* ActuallyPrettyFunny: After being humiliated during most of the second season, he finally finds some amusement in the stolen van being toured around the world due to the feud with the stevedores.
* AlmightyJanitor: Starts as Major, which is pretty low as far as the food chain goes, and stays there for most of the story. This doesn't preclude him from playing politics in the big league in any way, as he's very able to blackmail Burrell and dramatically influence his nomination as Commissioner, and later act as Carcetti's point man inside the department. All because Valchek has suction with the 1st district, home to many of the remaining white ethnic neighborhoods in Baltimore. He's well-connected politically and maintains good terms with various Democratic organizations and big-shots close to City Hall such as Andy Krawczyk.
* AntagonistInMourning:
** Not quite, but still notable by his callous standards after Sobotka's demise.
-->Almost feel sorry for the son of a bitch.
** Rushes to rally support for Prez, who had just shot a fellow officer, only to put a foot in his mouth by asking Daniels to attest that the incident had no racial element as if something like that would ever come into the play. Disgusted, Daniels doesn't even feign a response for him.
* DarkHorseVictory: He is the ''last'' character that people would expect to wind up as Commissioner, but in the last episode he becomes the last prominent member of the police hierarchy left...
* DeadpanSnarker: Has his moments. Although he prefers to be blunt and direct throwing expletives around, the man can also be witty and sarcastic, notably when the FBI seizes a huge shipment of Colombian crack cocaine.
-->Now, that, gentlemen, is a case. God forbid you two should put something like that on my friend, Frank Sobotka. I would die happy.
* EvilIsPetty: His feud with Sobotka is all about petty grudges.
* {{Foil}}: To Judge Phelan. Both are influential public servants who set in motion a major criminal investigation thanks to their political clout. While the judge also has some selfish reasons, he's mostly moved by professional offense and a sense of justice. For Valchek it's all personal and narrowminded.
* HistoryRepeats: Valchek becomes the new Burrell/Frazier after being promoted to Commissioner.
* IgnoredEpiphany: When Prez tells him the Sobotka case is going nowhere and gets him to finally realize Burrell screwed over the Barksdale case and potentially this one, Valcheck seemingly steps up and blackmails Burrell to get "real" police on the task squad. It quickly becomes apparent any recognition of the justice system's flaws went completely past him and all he ''really'' wants is to hurt Sobotka.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Concerned about petty personal schemes most of the time. Ironically some of those lead to actual police work when they spiral out of his control.
* ItsPersonal: Unsurprisingly, his feud with Frank Sobotka becomes personal after Frank gives Valchek a nasty TheReasonYouSuckSpeech:
-->'''Sobotka:''' What's right would be for you to come down here to my house like a decent human being and ask a common courtesy. But that's not you, it's not your way. My old man always said you were a half-ass punk over at Holy Redeemer as a kid. My sister said you were a pain in the ass pest at all them CYO dances where none of the girls would even look at you. Damn near everyone at the Point said when you got your badge it was too much for anybody named Valchek to have a patrolman's drag. And sure enough, you've been an official asshole every day since.
* {{Jerkass}}: The man seems to have "screw politeness" as some kind of motto, partly because he knows he is a necessary evil, as Burrell describes him.
* JerkassHasaPoint: He may have begun his crusade against Frank Sobotka due to a petty personal vendetta, but he's entirely correct that Frank's involved in some very dirty business.
* KarmaHoudini: No matter what he does or how much of a jerkass he is, he always gets away with it and winds up ''rising'' in the ranks.
* KickedUpstairs: Carcetti has to reward him with a promotion, so he makes sure it's one that strips Valchek of any real influence, Deputy Commissioner of Administration.
* MeanBoss: As far as he's concerned, the men working under him might as well be tools. If they do what he wants them to, they receive a sort of benign neglect. If not, then he goes berserk on them, and is quite willing to get verbally abusive as well.
* TheMole: Is Carcetti's mole inside the police force for much of Carcetti's primary run against Royce.
* NiceHat: Valchek wears and seems to like the police cap more than any other noteworthy commander. Appropriately, his last scene has him trading his then current cap for the Commissioner's cap.
-->Fits like a glove!
* ObnoxiousInLaws: Bosses Prez around, who never really wanted to be a policeman in the first place. Valchek confesses he told his daughter "not to marry that brain-dead son of a bitch."
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Quite possibly the worst example of this in the entire show, which is saying something. Even Rawls and Burrell do some actual "police shit" from time to time while Valchek rarely does, and he unabashedly tells the other Majors that he'll cheat the stats to make crime go down rather than making any effort to actually manage his district.
* PoliceAreUseless: He's far more concerned with furthering his own career and pursuing petty personal vendettas than he is with doing a good job policing the city.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain:
** Although he claims to be appalled over the prospect of the council choosing a white Colonel over Burrell, (an appointment that Valchek calls racist), the man still throws out a few hints of racism, most notably when he laughs at Rawls' hopes of replacing Burrell as Commissioner because "This is Baltimore, and you're not one of the natives, are ya?"
** He doesn't shy away from misogynist remarks either. When Kima is assigned to a red ball case, he casually denounces it because she's "a rookie, ''a broad'' no less," which gets a ''miffed'' ReactionShot from Theresa D'Agostino.
* RaisedCatholic: Father Lewandowski scolds him because at Sunday mass, Valchek can't be found but then he donates a window and a big sum of money in order to be perceived as a pillar of the church.
* SmugSmiler: Valchek is always too pleased with himself and finds amusement in many of the -admittedly ironic- events around him.
* SurroundedByIdiots: Vocally complains that the first Sobotka detail under Lieutenant Grayson is full of humps, and [[JerkassHasAPoint he's right]].
* VillainousBreakdown: In season 2, when the detectives and Rhonda tell him they can't charge Frank Sobotka in connection with drug smuggling because it would scuttle their broader investigation. He's in meltdown mode until Frank is arrested, even extending his wrath to the feds, who let him down, and to Daniels.
-->Fucking rat fuckers, all of you. This is my case. Mine! And now you're gonna tell me who the target is? Not fucking likely.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Commissioner Frazier]]
-> '''Played by''': Dick Stilwell

The police commissioner during the first season, an idiot boss of the highest order and totally removed from anything resembling real police work. He is off handedly mentioned as changing jobs and going to another department in Season 2, which is what leads to Burrell becoming Commissioner.
----
* PointyHairedBoss: Everything about him screams that he's both incompetent and isolated from the reality the police face.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Shown twice despite his little screentime. When Kima is shot he assumes that Norris, a white detective addressing Daniels, is Kima's superior, gives the condolences to him, and then seems rather nonplussed to be corrected about it and leaves without speaking to Daniels. Also, when he finds out that Kima is a lesbian he refuses to go to Kima's partner Cheryl to extend condolences to her, as police brass usually does to show they're standing with the family. The latter is a step too far for Burrell, who despite being no paragon of virtue at least [[PetTheDog goes to give condolences to Cheryl and talk with her]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Raymond Foerster]]
->'''Played by''': Richard De Angelis
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/foerster.jpg]]

A veteran Major in command of the Baltimore narcotics division, this makes him Daniels' immediate superior at the beginning of the series. Later he gets promoted to Colonel and takes over CID once Rawls becomes Deputy Comissioner. He's relatively apolitical and uninvolved in the schemes of the police brass, even willing to openly protest Burrell trying to interfere with a politically charged case. He develops cancer and grows progressively sicker due to it until he dies during the course of season 4.
----
* BenevolentBoss: At his wake Landsman says he was this, as he claims that Foerster spent 39 years in the BPD "without leaving a trace of bitterness or hatred with any officers, a miraculous career by BPD standards".
* CharacterDeath: The character and the actor died of cancer during Season 4. They receive an InMemoriam wake at Kavanaugh's Pub.
* GoodIsImpotent: He's well meaning and nice to his men, but he refuses to help Daniels in season 1 for fear of crossing Rawls and Burrell, and his protests against Burrell playing havok with a murder case get overridden and squashed.
* PetTheDog: Was more concerned about Kima getting shot than any of the other brass, later he protests when Burrell tries to stall a murder case to protect Mayor Royce.
* RankUp: Promoted to Colonel and head of the Criminal Investigations Division after Rawls leaves the post.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Howard "Bunny" Colvin]]
->'''Played by''': Robert Wisdom
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/howardbunnycolvin_1767.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"There's never been a paper bag for drugs. Until now.''"]]

-->'' But you know what? The shit out there, the city, is worse than when I first came on. So what does that say about me? About my life?''

Colvin is the Major in command of the Western District. He's a reasonable commander who is sincerely devoted to protecting the community and has become jaded after witnessing the corruption of Baltimore in general and its police department in particular for many years. Sick of seeing so much death related to the drug game, he comes up with the "Hamsterdam" free-zone experiment in Season 3. He is forced to retire in disgrace because of it. Afterward he goes on to try to rehabilitate delinquent middle school children and keep them from joining gangs. He find success in Namond Brice, whom he adopts.
----
* BaldBlackLeaderGuy
* CompassionateCritic: Most prominent when he explains the difference between soldiering and policing to a still green Carter.
-->You're a good man sergeant. You got good instincts, and as far as I can tell, you're a decent supervisor. But from where I sit, you ain't shit when it comes to policing. Oh, don't take it personal, it ain't just you, it's all our young police. Whole generation of y'all. No, you think about it; you've been here over a year now, Carver, and you got nobody [in the community] looking out for you. Nobody willing to talk to you.
* CoolTeacher: In Season 4.
* CowboyCop: Becomes a maverick among the police middle management, keeping the chain of command in the dark about his Hamsterdam business. He immediately clicks with Jimmy, right down to sharing the "fuck the bosses" motto.
* FallenOnHardTimesJob: His initial plan for a new job after retiring from the police was a position at the prestigious and powerful Johns Hopkins University, which would have also paid him very well. Once he is forced to retire in disgrace due to Hamsterdam, that job offer is withdrawn and Colvin instead winds up as the head of a hotel security team. And ''that'' job only lasts until the hotel management tell him to turn a blind eye to a businessman patron physically assaulting a prostitute in the hotel...
* FamedInStory: "Crazy-ass" Colvin is vilified by the traditional establishment as the man who legalized drugs, but he's loved in the academic and progressive circles for his unique approach.
* AFatherToHisMen: To [=McNulty=] and Carver in particular.
* GoodCounterpart: Stringer's good counterpart; they both try to rationalize the drug trade by breaking the old patterns and are both screwed over by the bosses for their trouble. This is lampshaded by Stringer himself when he says he went to Colvin because they were "both just trying to make sense out of this game." Later on he uses the same CurseCutShort (Just get on with it mother-) to Rawls and Burrel as they are cashiering him that Stringer used an episode earlier to Omar and Mouzone.
* HappilyMarried: We don't see a great deal of his home life, but he and his wife appear to be this.
* HeelRealization: Colvin was just riding out his last six months on the job until Dozerman getting shot makes him realize how useless and complacent he's been and he decides to give it one last go with Hamsterdam.
* HistoryRepeats: Colvin is all too aware of this trope, and thus does his best to help avoid it once he starts working with school kids.
-->Every single one of them know they're headed back to the corners. Their brothers and sisters, shit, their parents. They came through these same classrooms. We pretended to teach them, they pretended to learn and where'd they end up? Same damn corners. They're not fools, these kids. They don't know our world but they know their own. They see right through us.
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: His reason (in a nutshell) for creating 'Hamsterdam' in Season 3.
* InternalReformist: Fed up with the "statistics-game" and related bullshit, he tries a new approach in the so-called war on drugs.
* {{Mentor}}: The policeman who broke Jimmy's ass in when "Bushy Top" was a rookie. In addition to his stint as a teacher and his tutelage of Namond, he kindly gives a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to Carver regarding his policing style which makes a deep, positive impact on Carver's career and helps him to become a caring public servant. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA5za4VsskM Watch]]
* NiceGuy: Compassionate, empathic, friendly and fatherly. In a show like ''The Wire'' this is a TraumaCongaLine waiting to happen.
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: His reward for cutting the felony crime rate in his district by 14% and improving the general quality of life for its citizens is to be busted down to lieutenant, fired in disgrace, blacklisted and vilified to the media as an "amoral" and "incompetent" man who "buckled under the pressure" of his command. It also does significant damage to his plans for what to do when he retires from the police.
* NoodleIncident: Only his friends know how he got the EmbarrassingNickname "Bunny".
-->'''Colvin:''' (to Namond) If you tell anybody, I'll cut your balls off.
* TheNotSoHarmlessPunishment: He proceeds to break the rules regarding the Hamsterdam experiment under the impression that he at least has his Major's pension to fall on; unbeknownst to him, this is precisely where his superiors hit him, retiring him with a Lieutenant's pension.
* OldSoldier: Colvin often talks about his 30 years on duty.
* ParentalSubstitute: To Namond.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: One of the few police commanders willing to solve problems and help underlings in need.
* SarcasticConfession: When asked how he plans to lower the crime rate in his district:
-->"I thought I might legalize drugs."
* SaveOurStudents: Makes this his goal once he takes a job doing research work with the troubled "corner kids" at the school in season 4. He has some success.
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: In season 3, he goes against police department policy and essentially legalizes drugs in certain parts of his district because he believes it will reduce the amount of violent crime, (it has some other unintended benefits, such as making it easier for social services to reach out to addicts) and thus accomplish what he views as the ultimate goal of policework - making people safer. It works, but only for awhile, and at the price of Hamsterdam being shady at its best and nightmarish at its worst.
* TemptingFate: Bunny made the mistake of being too secure and sure that nothing too bad could happen to him.
-->"Another 6 months to my thirty and I'm out the door with a major's pension. What can ''they'' do to me?"
* TragicHero: He's a ReasonableAuthorityFigure who is passionate about doing the job right and protecting the community in a police force where most cops only care about working the numbers so that it makes them look good. His last big attempt to do something about the out of control drug and gang violence proves his undoing.
* WasItReallyWorthIt: Hamsterdam wrecks Colvin's career and in the end it makes little impact in the people's welfare.
* WhatTheHellHero: While several people object to Hamsterdam and are appalled by his idea, the Deacon is shown as making the best point, calling Colvin out on public safety grounds.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Dennis Mello]]
->'''Played by''': Jay Landsman
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dennismello_9638.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Don't get captured."'']]

-->''All right. Listen up, you mutts. This is complicated. I mean, it isn't complicated if you went to college or I don't know your mothers actually stopped drinking for a minute while they was pregnant. For Baltimore city police, this is complicated....''

Administrative lieutenant of the Western District working under Colvin, which effectively makes him Colvin's right hand. Eventually becomes commander of the Western.
----
* DeadpanSnarker: Jokes often about the absurdities of the job, most of them courtesy of the higher-ups. Sometimes he does it in a [[FacialDialogue non-verbal manner]].
* KickTheDog: Forces Carver to stop letting Randy stay in the police station and get pushed into the foster system. To be fair, he's right that the kid can't stay there forever and that the station is not a place for him, but his lack of care about the fate waiting for Randy in the foster system is troubling.
* MetaCasting: Played by the real Jay Landsman.
* NumberTwo: Colvin's second in command, later he plays a similar role under Daniels when Daniels is (fairly briefly) head of the Western District.
* RankUp: Commander of the Western District after Colvin and Daniels' stints.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Jimmy Asher]]
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wire_4_58.jpg]]
->'''Played by''': Gene Terinoni

-->'''Lester:''' That, Sergeant Hauk, is one of the most effective supervisors in our police department.

Lieutenant Asher is a friend of Lester Freamon's who is Lester's choice to take command of the MCU once Daniels is promoted and leaves... solely because Asher is such a hands off commander that he will let Freamon and the detectives do whatever they want. Indeed, Asher is far more concerned with his upcoming retirement and building a new beach home in Delaware than he is with anything going on within the MCU, so he will simply sign off on any papers Lester presents and then happily walk away with his head in the clouds. This comes to a screeching halt once Rawls replaces Asher with Marimow, but once Daniels becomes head of CID Asher is promptly reinstated as head of the MCU.
----
* BenevolentBoss: A somewhat deconstructed example, as Asher is a kind, well meaning man who is an ineffective and CluelessBoss. Freamon makes the point that his nonintrusive hands-off approach allows actual police work from the professionals.
* ButtMonkey: He doesn't get much respect and doesn't seek it either. He's a meek guy treated with polite condescension and interrupted mid-sentence several times.
* CluelessBoss
* OneSteveLimit: An aversion. While his part is tiny, he does happen to share the same first name with the closest thing the show has to a main character.
* PhraseCatcher: Everyone always asks him "How's that beach house coming?"
* PuppetKing: He is the head of the MCU only on paper. During his run there, the unquestioned true leader of the group is Lester Freamon.
* ReassignedToAntarctica: Briefly after his first stint. Rawls sends him to the telephone unit after the MCU raises too much stink.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Charles Marimow]]
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wire_4_57.jpg]]
->'''Played by''': Boris [=McGiver=]

-->Marimow does not cast off talent lightly. He heaves it away with great force.
-->--'''Jay Landsman'''

A jerkass lieutenant notorious for destroying units and alienating his men, he is put in charge of the MCU by Rawls specifically to break it when the MCU begins pressing corruption cases harmful to the Royce administration shortly before the election. His style of command quickly drives both Lester and Kima out of the unit, leaving Sydnor as his only actual detective, until a newly promoted Herc and Dozerman transfer in. It's not until he's replaced as head of the MCU that it begins to come out of its doldrums.
----
* BadBoss: He openly states that anyone who doesn't do exactly what he says and get exactly the results he wants will not only be bounced out of the MCU, but he will do his best to end their career within the Baltimore Police entirely.
* EpicFail: His attempts to take down the Stanfield gang.
* JerkAss: Arrogant, obnoxious, unreasonable, unlikable, and just generally a prick towards the people working under him.
* JerkassHasAPoint: While it does't excuse his generally obnoxious behavior, he does have legitimate reasons to despise Herc. Marimow correctly surmises that Herc owes his rank as a sergeant to Mayor Royce's influence, and later guesses that Herc's CI "Fuzzy" Dunlop is a fake. The cherry on top is when it gets revealed that has Herc stolen and lost an expensive camera from police stocks.
* HateAtFirstSight: Between him and Herc, when Herc rejoins the unit.
* HighTurnoverRate: All but the most dedicated or foolhardy detectives voluntarily transfer out of units that he commands.
* SmallNameBigEgo: Rawls intentionally uses him to break up problem units, but Marimow seems to truly believe that he is a tough but capable supervisor. He also voices the opinion that it will be easy to take down Marlo.
* TakeThat: The character shares a last name with a former boss of David Simon. A boss with whom Simon had a ''bitter'' feud while at the Baltimore Sun.
* ThePeterPrinciple: An ImpliedTrope. Marimow voices pride in having worked his way up the ranks from the bottom, but if he ever was competent at any level, he certainly isn't now.
* TyrantTakesTheHelm: Invoked by Rawls, who specifically uses Marimow to break up units he doesn't care for.
-->'''Rawls:''' Marimow... my TrojanHorse.
[[/folder]]

!Homicide

->"''We work murder cases here, as they come in, one at a fucking time. It's called a rotation. You're up till you catch one, then you step down, work it for a while someone else steps up. It's a simple but effective way to do business in a town that has 250 to 300 cases a year. But if someone gets it into his head to leave the rotation it puts an unfair burden on other detectives who have to pick up their casework. Overworked cops make mistakes. Mistakes lower the unit-wide clearance rate. And that can make someone who is otherwise as reasonable as me... [Unreasonable]"''
-->-- '''Major Rawls'''
----

[[folder:Bunk Moreland]]
->'''Played by''': Wendell Pierce
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bunkmoreland2_2714.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"You happy now, bitch?"'']]

-->''A man must have a code.''

A highly competent detective in Homicide, Bunk has a dry sense of humor, is almost always dressed in pinstripes, and enjoys his cigars. He begins the series as [=McNulty's=] partner in the Homicide department, and even after [=McNulty=] is transferred elsewhere Bunk and [=McNulty=] often partner up to drink and cruise for women -- in spite of the fact that Bunk is married. As a detective, Bunk is generally perfectly happy to work within the confines of the system in Homicide. In the fifth season, his tolerance for [=McNulty=]'s cowboy antics is put to the test when [=McNulty=] fakes several serial murders, which puts a deep strain on their friendship.
----
* AntagonistInMourning: When he's called to see the scene where Omar was killed, he's obviously shocked and disturbed, despite some of his less than friendly interactions with Omar.
* BlackBestFriend: Possibly only true friend our hero Jimmy [=McNulty=] can ever have in this world. As much as [=McNulty=] alienates everyone else, and as pissed as Bunk gets at him especially in Season 5, there's never any real danger of Bunk betraying him or casting him aside.
* BlueOni: To [=McNulty=]'s RedOni.
* CantHoldHisLiquor: Namecheked. He has some relative control, but Bunk vomits once in front of Daniels and several characters mention offscreen instances.
* CatchPhrase: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv063nzZIEk You happy now, bitch?]]
* CigarChomper: A [[SmokingIsCool cool, classy]] cigar aficionado.
* ConsummateProfessional: Compared to [=McNulty=] anyway, as Bunk reminds him.
-->I'm a murder police. I work murders. I don't fuck with no make-believe. I don't jerk shit around. I catch a murder, and I work it.
* DeadpanSnarker
* DeathGlare: Prominent in Season 5, the non verbal part of his WhatTheHellHero rebukes to [=McNulty=].
* GayBravado: Time for you to show the Bunk some love...
-->'''Bunk:''' You're my ''real'' partner, Lester. My life partner.
-->'''Lester:''' Don't tease, bitch.
-->'''Bunk:''' Look at that bow-legged motherfucker. I made him walk like that.
** Or how about:
--->'''[=McNulty=]:''' You know why I respect you so much, Bunk? ... It's because when it came time for you to fuck me, you were very gentle.\\
'''Bunk:''' You damn right.\\
'''[=McNulty=]:''' Because you see, you could have just hauled me out to the garage and bent me over the hood of a radio car... but no, you were very gentle.\\
'''Bunk:''' Well yeah. I knew it was your first time. I wanted to make that shit special.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: With [=McNulty=].
* NiceHat: a staple of his wardrobe.
* OneLinerEcho: "Giving a fuck when ain't your turn to give a fuck", originally coined by [=McNulty=].
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Moreland is just called "Bunk" most of the time. His first name, William, is hardly used.
* MrViceGuy: Women and booze, mild vices if compared to Jimmy, who has them by the metric ton.
* RealMenWearPink: Shown wearing a pink bathrobe after an intoxicated escapade and also a pink shirt at work. He is above Jimmy's jabs about PinkIsForSissies.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Gives an armor-piercing one to Omar and many to [=McNulty=]. Here's a representative example of the latter:
-->You've lost your fucking mind, Jimmy. Look at you. Half-lit every third night, dead drunk every second. Nut deep in random pussy. What little time you are sober and limp-dicked, you're working murders that don't even exist!
* SecretKeeper: The serial killer's identity.
* SharpDressedMan. The man "was born in pinstripes". The one time he is in casual wear - in season 2, when he is briefly working outside Homicide - it is to make a point about [=MCU=] not being his natural habitat.
-->'''Bunk''': The Bunk is strictly a suit-and-tie motherfucker.
* SpellMyNameWithAThe
* SuperDrowningSkills: "The Bunk can't swim, and ain't too good at floating either." When he has to do surveillance from the sea, he puts on a lifesaver that looks like armor, very early, before setting foot on the boat and is very nervous aboard. He relaxes quite a lot later.
* ThirdPersonPerson: "The Bunk."
* ThisIsForEmphasisBitch
* VitriolicBestBuds: With [=McNulty=].
* YourCheatingHeart: He's generally a good guy, but has issues staying faithful to his wife.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Jay Landsman]]
->'''Played by''': Delaney Williams
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jaylandsman_1237.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"No red on the board!"'']]

--> ''It's all about self-preservation, Jimmy. Something you never learned.''

Sergeant in Homicide who enjoys his pornography and food. Like Rawls, he has little patience for anything that threatens his squad's clearance rate, and spends much of his time belittling [=McNulty=]. While he appears aloof, he truly does care about his subordinates, and he demonstrates when he lobbies Rawls on [=McNulty=]'s behalf (although this partially comes from Jay's desire to keep the clearances that Jimmy brings in) and when he gives [[MeaningfulFuneral wakes to fallen officers]].
----
* BigEater: Often seen eating in his workplace.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: His unabashed food and porn routine doesn't kick off until Season 3. It's not mentioned in the show, but it coincides with Rawls being promoted elsewhere away from Homicide, where he ran a tight ship.
* DeadpanSnarker: Most or the time, he's equal parts sardonic and overbearing.
* FatBastard: Unattractive, crass and lecherous. Oddly enough his poignant sense of humor also makes him a BigFun.
* AFatherToHisMen: The above mentioned wakes.
* HiddenDepths: A good orator and apparently a caring father, judging by the photos of his children he keeps in his desk.
* InSeriesNickname: Jaybird.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Though he is often overbearing and obnoxious to his subordinates, he genuinely does care about them and attempt to protect them whenever the homicide unit comes under attack.
* TheNicknamer: Among other names, he calls [=McNulty=] "The Prince of Tides" and "[[SilenceOfTheLambs Clarice"]], and Lester "Madam Curie" when he is pestered and burdened by their ''overdiligent'' police work.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Plays down his true intelligence and puts on a subservient face for his commanders in order to get as little grief as possible from them.
-->[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFg4bhBV7pk Major, sir?]] I've been thinkin'. It's a clear violation of the general orders, I know, but....
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: He knows how destructive the stats game is, but he plays by it and enforces the system to avoid any trouble with or payback from the police brass, particularly Rawls. The biggest case of this is when [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek3bEPomAMM he attempts to keep Lester's discovery of Marlo's victims under wraps]]. As he says when Lester keeps digging up bodies:
-->You know what he is? He is a Vandal. He is vandalizing the board. He is vandalizing this unit. He is a Hun, a Visigoth, a barbarian at the gate, clamoring for noble Roman blood and what's left of our clearance rate!
* PornStash: More often than not seen reading a girlie mag.
* ThePunishmentIsTheCrime: His reason for letting Bubbles off the hook and [[PetTheDog "fuck the clearance"]].
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Downplayed, but considering that Rawls uses him as an attack dog to breathe down the necks of the detectives and watch over the clearance rate, he's sometimes more supportive and agreeable than expected.
* RightForTheWrongReasons: Repeatedly calls bullshit on anything related to [=McNulty=]'s murdered vagrants... not because it's all a lie (which it is from the beginning) but because Jay is annoyed by anyone who goes above and beyond to add new red names on the board, specially if they are forsaken "fiends" or "mopes".
* SideBet: In the pilot, he casually bets that Jimmy will be riding the boat in no time. He boasts about being right in the Season 2 premiere. He also tries to place other predictive bets over the course of the story.
* WhatTheHellHero: Daniels chews him out after Jay drops the ball and fails to inform the Major Crimes detail about the murder of Glekas in the storehouse, allowing the Greeks to clean the crime scene. It's particularly jarring because it's a rare example of sheer incompetence for once, not his usual and planned obstructionism. Landsman apologizes, but the damage is already done.
-->'''Daniels:''' Let me ask you, who exactly am I working all these dead girls for? The Homicide unit, right? The same Homicide unit that 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. [...] (Fuck. They cleaned everything else?) Even for a supremely fucked-up police department, this takes the prize.
* YesMan: Openly and overly sycophantic towards Rawls for the sake of his detectives, though he argues that he does it so that there is no backlash against him; this is a very valuable attitude to have in the face of Bill Rawls.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Michael Santangelo]]
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/michaelsantangelo_7238.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"Jesus Christ..."'']]

->'''Played by:''' Michael Salconi

-->''No disrespect to your appendix, but if them terrorists do fuck up the Western, could anybody even tell?''

A bumbling detective of the Homicide Unit, he is technically assigned to the MCU in Season 1 but rarely actually shows up there, with [=McNulty=] often covering for his absences. He was expected to be a mole for Rawls within the unit, but was unable to go through with spying on a fellow detective, particularly when Rawls makes it clear that he intends to get [=McNulty=] kicked off the force. Eventually Rawls presents him with an ultimatum: to either solve one of the many cases he has open, go through with being a spy, or get demoted out of Homicide. When [=McNulty=] and Bunk unknowingly help him solve the case he needs, he outright refuses to be a mole for Rawls and accepts a demotion to patrol.
----
* ActuallyPrettyFunny: He can be seen cracking up when Colicchio falls for Kennard's prank.
* CluelessDetective: He's terrible at the job, having less than 40% clearance rate. His excuse for his performance is the lack of "dunker" (easy) cases. When Avon and Stringer pay a rare visit to the pit, he's pissing at the oppossite side of the roof where he was supposed to be and misses them.
* DeadpanSnarker: Sanny has the time of his life as a patrolman and he's constantly witty and relaxed there. One time he says "I hear WMD is the bomb" (WMD being a drug package) after driving a group of addicts into Hamsterdam and they're all dumbfounded and unsure of what to do, another time he points out the futility of counter-terrorism training in a crime-ridden city like Baltimore. When Jimmy provides Omar with a phone call , Santangelo quips if he's some kind of Democrat.
* DemotedToExtra: Rawls demotes him to patrol officer, which gives him much less screen time. [[ReassignmentBackfire Santangelo actually prefers the less demanding job, however]].
* TheDriver: Responsible for driving the arrest van in the Western District.
* EveryoneHasStandards: He doesn't like [=McNulty=] much at first, but still refuses to inform on him. When [=McNulty=], innocent of all this, helps him out in his hour of need, Santangelo chooses to accept demotion and the wrath of Rawls instead of betraying Jimmy.
* TheMole: Subverted. Rawls sends him to the detail because he's one of the unit's more inept detectives and thus Rawls believes that Santangelo can be presured to do whatever Rawls wants. But when Bunk and Jimmy unknowingly help him, he clues [=McNulty=] in to what Rawls is doing.
* ThePeterPrinciple: Discussed with [=McNulty=] and Greggs. He realizes after Rawls busts him back to patrol that he was always much happier and more competent there, which is ultimately what gives [=McNulty=] the idea of going back too.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Ray Cole]]
->'''Played by: '''Robert F. Colesberry
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/raycole_1100.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Nobody ever thinks they are stupid. [[IgnorantOfTheirOwnIgnorance It's part of the stupidity]]."'']]

-->'''Landsman:''' He wasn't the greatest detective and he wasn't the worst. He put down some good cases and he dogged a few bad ones. But, the motherfucker had his moments.

A veteran homicide detective of middling quality, he is often seen plugging away on various cases, albeit usually pursuing bad hunches. He dies suddenly off screen and the first of the various police wakes led by Landsman is held for him.
----
* BluffingTheMurderer: Cole attempted to do this to Bodie after the shootout between a Barksdale crew and another gang resulted in an innocent boy being killed by a stray bullet. Bodie calls his bluff and gets Cole to make a mistake that shows that the cops have no hard evidence.
* ButtMonkey: Many jokes are made at his expense and is always getting stone-cold whodunit hard cases.
** When Omar is [[LetOffByTheDetective let off by the detectives]], they owe Cole a clearance that they never expect to pay.
** [=McNulty=] ended up in Homicide after solving a case that Cole closed badly after putting the wrong mope in bracelets.
* [[KilledOffScreen Died Off Screen]]: [=McNulty=] relates that Cole collapsed and died while exercising on the stairmaster.
* TheEveryman: Landsman pointed out at his wake that Cole was no better nor worse than any other Baltimore cop.
* IgnorantOfTheirOwnIgnorance: He accuses Bodie of this, only for Bodie to ironically turn it around and promptly show Cole that Cole isn't nearly as smart as he thinks.
* InMemoriam: In-universe the first police wake is held for Cole. David Simon [[http://davidsimon.com/the-wire-hd-with-videos/ dedicated the digital HD remasterization to Colesberry]], who was responsible for the cinematography of the show.
* ThrowTheDogABone: Cole dodges the hardball he was thrown when Landsman reassigns the case of the thirteen dead women to Bunk and Freamon because he needs his most competent detectives on it. Cole is delighted about not being one of them.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Edward Norris]]
->'''Played by: ''' Edward Norris
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ednorris_5083.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"Americans are a stupid people by and large. We pretty much believe everything we're told."'']]

-->''So our guy's dead because a bullet misses a bleach bottle and this fuck Carcetti gets to be the mayor behind the stupidity. I fucking love this town.''

A long-time homicide detective, (Season 4 mentions he has 15 years on the force) he has a tendency to make pointed barbs and to bemoan the sorry state of Baltimore in general and the BPD in particular.
----
* BaldOfAwesome: Has a short haircut when the story begins, he eventually shaves it all. It fits rather well with his rounded head and factions.
* TheCynic
* DeadpanSnarker: Always making ironic remarks or [[SilentSnarker facial gestures]] about the sorry state of Baltimore and its police department.
* DemotedToExtra: A recurring character during most of the series, he only appears during one episode in Season 2 (produced while the actor was the new Superintendent of the MSP). He investigates the shooting of a child by a stray bullet and interrogates Bodie with Cole.
* KnightInSourArmor
* MetaCasting: Det. Ed Norris is played by Edward Norris, former Baltimore Police Commissioner who had a somewhat... controversial career that ended in indictment and a felony conviction. His lack of respect for the current Commissioner is a running gag. As the first season was shot while he was still in office, some of his lines fall into SelfDeprecation humor.
-->I kid you not. I swear, you show me the son of a bitch who can fix this police department I'd give back half my overtime.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Vernon Holley]]
->'''Played by: ''' Brian Anthony Wilson
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vernomholleymedium_612.jpg]]

A seasoned, physically imposing, and short tempered homicide detective.
----
* BaldOfAwesome
* TheBigGuy: Of the Homicide Unit. He's built like a truck and is willing to use his physical appearance to intimidate suspects and witnesses.
* CassandraTruth: He's the first one on either side of the law who knows how dangerous and lethal Marlo is. Part of Marlo's backstory includes murdering a witness that Holley had convinced to cooperate with police, and when Kima asks about it Holley gives her an earful about Marlo. (Well, an earful [[TheQuietOne by his standards at least]].) Everyone else continues UnderestimatingBadassery for awhile afterward, however.
* TheEeyore: Seems to be convinced that he is jinxed and doomed to always get difficult to solve cases. This is best seen in Season 4, when he argues with himself over whether to take a homicide call, essentially trying to debate whether it should count as Norris' call, (and thus be an easier case) but will become a hard case if he tries to take it instead.
* HotBlooded
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Starts to dish one out on Bubbles after (wrongly) thinking the latter had something to do with [[spoiler: Kima Griggs getting shot]], but gets pulled away before he can damage him too much.
* PetTheDog: While Crutchfield vigorously refused to entertain the idea of reopening Omar's case to see if Omar had been framed, Holley agreed to do so with Bunk, albeit somewhat reluctantly. When he saw Old Face Andre's story fall apart Holley intimidated Andre into admitting the truth despite the fact that it would mean taking a hit to his stats.
* PoliceBrutality: Nothing too bad, but he is willing to rough up Bubbles in season 1 and to intimidate Old Faced Andre into admitting that Andre participated in framing Omar.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Frank Barlow]]
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/frank_barlow.jpg]]
->'''Played by: ''' Michael Stone Forrest

-->''Think I give a fuck? I'll be chalkin' you off one night.''

A homicide detective. Primary investigator in the case of D'Angelo Barksdale, who beats the charges in the trial.
----
* BadLiar: At first, he tries to disguise his trip to South Carolina as work-related, but Jimmy easily sees right through it. Another hint of Barlow's lack of competence.
* HistoryRepeats: A year prior to the start of the story, the Barksdales beat [=McNulty=] in the Gerard Bogue case, which is why Jimmy is present in D'Angelo's trial and acquittal in the first place.
* LongBusTrip: After D'Angelo's trial in the first episode, he's not seen again until the final season.
* PoliceAreUseless: Appears to be an average to mediocre detective not very dedicated to the job, almost always talking about private and domestic issues over the phone while on duty.
* ShameIfSomethingHappened: Blackmails [=McNulty=] -who on paper is investigating a serial killer but is diverting the resources to real police work- into providing funds so Barlow can take a long weekend to play golf in South Carolina.
-->I don't know exactly what you're up to, but I know this: If someone picked up a phone around here, your shit is critically fucked.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Michael Crutchfield]]
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cruthfield3_4728.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Did he fuck you?"'']]
->'''Played by: ''' Gregory L. Williams

-->''You should've let me give him the years, he would've been better off.''

A veteran homicide detective.
----
* AntagonistInMourning: He had no love lost for Omar, but despite joking and laughing that Omar would have been better off if Crutchfield had put him in jail, he seems somewhat affected by Omar's death and goes to great lengths to catch Kenard.
* DeadpanSnarker: On a few occasions, most notably when he lets Bunk and [=McNulty=] out of an interrogation room they locked themselves in. When he opens the door he immediately sniffs around and asks Bunk if Jimmy tried to proposition Bunk in the locked room.
* TheGhost: Mentioned a handful of times in the first two seasons, he doesn't appear on-screen until the middle of season 3. Then he becomes a recurring character.
* {{Malaproper}}: He's not very good with grammar.
-->'''Landsman: ''' The victim was ''prostate'' on the floor. That's a victim alright, that hurts ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QbqyArOTdI bad]]''.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: In revenge for Bunk fucking with his clearance rate by exonerating Omar, Crutchfield doesn't pass on news that Randy has information on Bunk's case, which means poor Randy is left in Herc's less than capable hands - the cause of life-changing troubles.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Winona]]

-> ''Jimmy, where you been?''

A recurring background character who maintains "The Board."
----
* FemaleGaze: She can be seen checking out [=McNulty's=] ass when he walks by if you're looking closely.
* LivingProp: Always on the background mantaining the board, and that's pretty much all there is to know about her.
* TheVoiceless: Doesn't say a thing aside from greeting [=McNulty=] when the sailor boy pays a visit to Homicide after being reassigned to the boat.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Christeson]]
->'''Played by: ''' Dennis Hill

--> ''What? He left and he came back?''


A rookie homicide detective who comes aboard in Season 5. He is repeatedly frustrated by the havoc that Carcetti's budget cuts wreak on the department.
----
* ButtMonkey: A minor case, being a rookie, he hasn't earned any respect and is still treated like the runt of the litter. When [=McNulty=] returns to homicide, Christeson has to abandon his desk and leave it to Jimmy. His joining during a time of cutbacks means that his job is continually hampered from the get-go.
* ByTheBookCop: While new to the job and frustrated by the sorry state of the BPD in Season 5 as Carcetti cuts the police budget to the bone to make up for the school budget shortfall, he's genuinely dedicated and tries his best to get results.
* NewMeat: The newest detective of the unit. Introduced in Season 5, he's the only policeman in the building who is not familiar with the photocopier/lie detector scheme.
[[/folder]]

!Others

[[folder:Bobby Brown]]
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/brown_7.jpg]]
->'''Played by:''' Bobby J. Brown

-->''Now I've seen everything.''

A Western District uniformed officer.
----
* DeadpanSnarker: Loves to joke about the job. After the tortured body of Brandon is discovered, he remarks it's the worst case of suicide he's ever seen.
* FunctionalAddict: Implied, he's very grateful of Jimmy for providing a box of beers before a stakeout and later they discuss how to deal with hangovers. Bobby says he can just throw up once or twice and goes to work without it having any negative effects.
* HeadbuttingHeroes: During the cutbacks, he starts a brawl with another police officer in the parking lot over the poor state of a vehicle he hands over.
* SeenItAll: His dismay is complete when he sees [=McNulty=] arriving at a (potential) crime scene [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd4u4AzkzYA on a bus]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Randall Friezer]]
[[quoteright:241:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/randall_frazier.jpg]]
->'''Played by:''' Erik Todd Dellums

-->''You have to admit that whole Budapest thing was a hell of a pull''

A Baltimore police department medical examiner.
----
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: The recurring medical examiner in the first three seasons, he doesn't come back for the final ones, when forensic medical analysis becomes even more relevant than usual as Marlo and ''[[ItMakesSenseInContext Jimmy]]'' become serial killers. Nobody misses him.
* TheCoroner: The resident medical examiner of Homicide. Highly competent.
* TheSnackIsMoreInteresting: Seen taking a snack while exposing the cases, the man is not affected by the gruesome things he examines on a daily basis.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Claude Diggins]]
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thewireii_23.jpg]]
->'''Played by:''' Jeffrey Fugitt

-->''You're deep into somebody's shit, [=McNulty=]. I can tell.''

[=McNulty=]'s partner at the Marine Unit.
----
* CoolBoat: Shares his fancy own boat with Bunk and [=McNulty=] to pose as a fishing craft and monitor Spiros Vondas from the sea.
* CoolOldGuy: Significantly older than [=McNulty=], Diggins is quite laid back and understanding. Jimmy could have landed much worse with another partner.
* {{Mentor}}: Eases [=McNulty=]'s transition into a sea boy considerably and tries to teach him the ropes. Not that Jimmy ever makes a decent sailor anyway.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Kenneth Dozerman]]
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_wire__clarifications_episode.jpg]]
->'''Played by:''' Rick Otto

He first shows up as a narcotics officer working in the Western District, and is shot during a routine and small time narcotics bust. His gun is also stolen, which is a [[SeriousBusiness very big deal]] for police departments, leading Bunk on a wild goose chase to try to recover it. After recovering from his wounds Dozerman joins the Major Crimes Unit at the same time that Herc rejoins it.
----
* PoliceAreUseless: Comes off as well meaning but bumbling and goofy during his little screentime.
* SmallRoleBigImpact: He is shot during a buy bust, while attempting to buy three vials. This is the catalyst for Major Colvin's "Hamsterdam" experiment.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anthony Colicchio]]
[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/anthony_colicchio_300.jpg]]
->'''Played by:''' Benjamin Busch

-->''Call it poetic injustice.''

A narcotics officer who serves in Carver's squad in the Western District. At the start he is often partnered with Herc, and the two share many qualities, including a brute force approach to the drug war. He's the one who inspires the nickname Hamsterdam when he compares the Free Zones to Amsterdamn in front of the street dealers. He despises the Free Zones, however, calling it "moral midgetry" and is delighted whenever he has the chance to bust heads. He increasingly goes off the rails in seasons 4 and 5, becoming more brutal and aggressive, until he actually attacks a school teacher who asks Colicchio to just move his police car out of the way so the teacher can make it to his job. Carver is disturbed by Colicchio's complete lack of remorse and refuses to cover for him, getting Colicchio charged with both excessive force and conduct unbecoming a police officer.
----
* DumbMuscle: Enforces drug rules by brute force, eschewing any subtlety or understanding of the streets, often to his detriment, including when he [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=va78f6p9hMc falls for a simplistic prank that winds up being the cause of his undoing]].
* HotBlooded
* JerkAss: Look no farther than when Carver tries to do a faux pleasant exchange with Bodie.
-->'''Bodie:''' And a very good evening to you, Officer Colicchio.\\
'''Colicchio:''' Go fuck yourself with a 40, shit breath.
* KickTheDog: Assaulting a citizen during the course of a bad day is already pretty bad, but showing a complete lack of remorse long after he should have calmed down is when Carver decides InUniverse that Colicchio has passed the MoralEventHorizon.
* PoliceBrutality
* RabidCop
* ShellShockedVeteran: Busch was a marine who served 2 tours in Iraq, there are hints that Colicchio was also in the Armed Forces and takes the soldier's mentality that Colvin decries to his approach as a cop.
* TookALevelInJerkass: He starts out as a background character without much flavor, but he gets progressively more jerkassish and aggressive throughout the series.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Eddie Walker]]
[[quoteright:200:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_wire__jimmy_walker.png]]
->'''Played by:''' Jonnie Louis Brown

-->'''Donut:''' Damn, that hurts!\\
'''Walker:''' You think ''that'' hurts? [Breaks one of Donut's fingers] You're so smart, lets see how easy you can boost a car now. [Breaks another finger]

A corrupt patrol officer in the Western District, he is feared on the streets because of his willingness to inflict PoliceBrutality on anyone from Omar to little kids, and to engage in acts such as robbing suspects before they are arrested. He clashes several times with the middle school friends focused on in season 4.
----
* BadLiar: When several of the middle schoolers pay him back by covering him in yellow paint, (and Michael steals the ring he stole from Omar, who stole it from Marlo) Walker claims that he was jumped by an entire gang of Bloods who were delivering a declaration of war against the police. [=McNulty=] calls bullshit on the story.
* BaseBreakingCharacter: An InUniverse case for his fellow cops, some think his brutal, no holds barred methods of policing are the only way to keep street kids in line, others, (most prominently [=McNulty=]) think he's a piece of shit who shouldn't be on the force.
* BoomerangBigot: Walker is black, but is perfectly willing to use racist terms and metaphors against the street youth, including one occasion where he tells the boys from season 4, who're in a nicer section of town eating some Chinese food "You're off the reservation".
* ChekhovsGunman: He (or at least the actor playing him) has a short scene is season 2 when Bunk and the MCU go to bust The Greek's brothel. A couple of years later, and he suddenly reappears and becomes a recurring character for season 4.
* CorruptCop: Frequently steals from or brutalizes anyone from the streets, including taking money from Randy, stealing bootleg [=DVDs=] from Bubbles when Bubs tries to report being robbed, and taking the ring that Omar stole from Marlo before Omar is arrested.
* DirtyCoward: He relies on his status as a police officer to protect him from any potential payback for his actions, as most gangsters are reluctant to mess with cops due to the massive consequences. When faced with someone willing to stand up to him despite him being a cop, his tough guy bravado disappears.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Snaps several of Donut's fingers because of the paperwork that Walker would have to fill out thanks to Donut driving into other vehicles while on a joyride.
* TheDreaded: Anyone from the streets knows who Officer Walker is, and they're in no hurry to meet him.
* KarmaHoudini: His worst comeuppance is having an outfit ruined when paint is tossed onto him, and losing a ring he stole from someone else days earlier. Maybe he also loses some of the tough guy swagger and respect he enjoyed among fellow hardliner cops, but that is implied at most, not directly said.
* PoliceBrutality: Breaks the fingers of a 6th grader who stole a car and went on a joyride simply because it meant that Walker would have to fill out extra paperwork.
* WouldHurtAChild: See PoliceBrutality.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Brian Baker]]
->'''Played by:''' Derek Horton

A rookie patrol officer introduced in Season 3. Colvin gives him and another newcomer a much repeated speech about knowing the street and their sense of direction, instructing the two to carry compasses until they can always accurately tell which direction they're facing. During season 4 he's briefly paired up with [=McNulty=] when Jimmy reassigned himself to patrol, and the two catch a pair of thieves that have been robbing many churches in the district together. Afterward [=McNulty=] tells Bunk that he thinks Baker will be good police, and Bunk concurs.
----
* AlmightyJanitor: [=McNulty=] encourages him to look at the rank of patrolman as this, as patrol doesn't have supervisor breathing down their back while on duty and thus have a ''lot'' of leeway in their interactions with the public, at least for as long as the other patrolmen will cover for them. This includes refusing to do busy work sent down by police brass in favor of catching actual criminals, as Jimmy and Baker do together.
* ByTheBookCop
* JustFollowingOrders: Why he initially goes along with the police brass ordering patrol to crack down on quality of life offenses, including ticketing every illegally parked car in the city. [=McNulty=] sets him straight and gives him a few new things to think about.
-->'''[=McNulty=]:''' [Seeing Baker writing up a ticket on a parked car] What's the violation?\\
'''Baker:''' Parking in a bus stop, expired registration.\\
'''[=McNulty=]:''' [[SarcasmMode First class police work there, Baker]].\\
'''Baker:''' Yeah, well, this is the word we got from up on high. [[DaChief Straight from the 8th floor downtown]]. I know you think it's bullshit, but I spend my shift where they tell me.\\
'''[=McNulty=]:''' Baker, let me tell you a little secret. A [[MeddlesomePatrolman patrolling officer on his beat]] is the one true dictatorship in America. We can lock a guy up on a humble, lock him up for real, or say "Fuck it, let's pull under the expressway and drink ourselves to death", and our side partners will cover it. So no one... and I mean ''no one'' tells us how to waste our shift.
* NaiveNewcomer
* NoSenseOfDirection: Downplayed. He might actually have a decent sense of direction for all we know, (only so many people can tell which compass point they're facing in an enclosed environment) but Colvin doesn't accept his patrolmen being anything less than {{Scarily Competent Tracker}}s, so Baker gets the fun of carrying around a compass until he knows which direction he's facing and where he is at all times.
[[/folder]]

!Family Members of Police Officers

[[folder:Cheryl]]
->'''Played by:''' Melanie Nicholls-King
[[quoteright:200:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hbo_the_wire_cheryl.jpg]]

-->''Police in this town ain't shit!''

Kima's live-in lover at the start of the series, it's implied that the two have been happily together for some time. Their relationship is not without friction, however, as Cheryl frequently worries about the danger of Kima's job and tries to push Kima towards getting a law degree, or at least working a desk job in safety, especially after Kima is nearly killed during a bust. Between Kima's return to investigative duties, a growing distance between them when Cheryl pushes ahead with having a child despite Kima's obvious but unvoiced doubts about being a parent, and Kima's infidelity, the two break up.
----
* AllLesbiansWantKids: Played straight, unlike Kima.
* ArmorPiercingResponse: When she and Kima finally fight over Kima's increased drinking, distance, and not acting like a parent to the baby, Kima says that she never voiced how much she truly objected to having the baby due to not wanting to disappoint Cheryl. Cheryl's response is ''devastating'', and pretty much the signal that their relationship is over.
-->'''Cheryl:''' [Looks at Kima, who's more than half drunk, angry, and confused] [[DisappointedInYou I don't think I could be more disappointed than I am now]].
* BabiesMakeEverythingBetter: Averted, although it's largely Kima's fault as she went along with Cheryl's pregnancy plans despite not really wanting to be a parent without voicing that until after the kid was born.
* DemotedToExtra: She has a fair amount of prominence in season 1, but her role gets smaller and smaller as distance grows between her and Kima. She only appears in 2 episodes in season 3, and 1 each in seasons 4 and 5.
* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: Late in season 1 she and Kima are out with some friends, and Cheryl drinks everyone present (except for Kima, who opts out with the excuse that she has to work in the morning) into submission without putting much effort into it. She credits journalism school as the source of her alcohol tolerance.
* IntrepidReporter: At one point Kima teases Cheryl about how she tries to act like this despite working backstage at a TV news channel.
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: She's not exceptionally girly by any means, but in comparison to Kima she certainly is the girlier of the two. She's also the one who's interested in having a kid and appears to do most of the cooking and cleaning when she and Kima are together.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Marla Daniels]]
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_wire_marla_daniels.jpg]]
->'''Played by:''' Maria Broom

-->''The game is rigged. But you cannot lose if you do not play.''

The wife of Cedric Daniels, she is an ambitious woman with a keen political eye. She spent years trying to support the career of Daniels and help guide him to the top of police hierarchy, but that fizzles out as Daniels increasingly comes to terms with the fact that he doesn't have the stomach for ladder climbing and political games and would rather dedicate himself to the job of what a policeman should be: a guardian of the city. As Cedric's ambition dies down so does their marriage, and Marla decides to live out her ambitions for herself by running in a city election when the two separate.
----
* AmbitionIsEvil: Not necessarily evil per se, more amoral, but ambition is her defining trait and to satisfy it she recommends practical, if amoral choices. She also cites ambition as being the chief trait that first attracted her to Daniels, but his ambition has since given way to his conscience.
* AmicableExes: With Cedric, after their separation. He's still willing to put his own private life on hold to support her political aspirations, and she's still willing to give him honest advice on difficult matters.
* BrutalHonesty: Surprisingly enough for someone as deeply into politics and ladder climbing, she seems to be a fan of this. At a debate with her opponent Eunetta Perkins it's Marla who flat out tells the voters what is true but they don't want to hear, despite the potential for losing votes, while Eunetta plays to the crowd and promises them anything. She also seems to approve of Colvin being honest in a town hall meeting rather than talking about matters in a politically smart and safe manner.
* DeadSparks: Her relationship with Cedric has become this by the start of the show, and it doesn't take too much for them to drift apart for good. She does actually suggest giving their relationship another try at one point, but he gently says it's just not going to work.
* HonestAdvisor: Played rather cynically, as her honest advice is tailored to the dirty and corrupt world of Baltimore politics, and thus often consists of advising people to make compromises with their integrity or do what they have to to get ahead.
* IronLady
* SocialClimber
* VicariouslyAmbitious: At first she seems dedicated to helping Cedric advance himself, and only looks to do the work of social climbing for herself when he announces he has come to care more about good casework than trying to become top dog in a horrifically dysfunctional and broken police department.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Elena [=McNulty=]]]
[[quoteright:296:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/e7a32fee12f647ad79ceb971b838ac6a.jpg]]
-> '''Played by:''' Callie Thorne

-->''I don't trust you. I can care about you, and I can want us to be friends, and if you give me enough time Jimmy I can actually want you to be happy. But how the hell am I supposed to trust you?''

A real estate agent and the ex-wife of Jimmy [=McNulty=]. They met in college, and her becoming pregnant was what prompted Jimmy to drop out of college and join the BPD. They separated before the start of the show, and season 1 finds them in the midst of a sometimes bitter divorce and child custody battle. This becomes less bitter over time, and as Jimmy gradually realizes that his efforts aren't going to result in them getting back together. In later seasons, she and Jimmy even become somewhat friendly again.
----
* AmicableExes: Very much averted in the first season, but in late seasons the interactions between Jimmy and Elena become much less charged and more affable. When she encounters him when he's gotten himself together with Beadie and has his drinking and other bad habits under control, you can see a look in Elena's eyes that seems to all but say "Now ''that's'' the man I first fell in love with."
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Her line to Jimmy about how she's ever supposed to trust him, as seen in her quote above. It finally destroys Jimmy's stubborn hope of them getting back together, and helps instigate one of Jimmy's most impressive and self-destructive drinking binges. (The one where he crashes his car twice in the same place.)
* DemotedToExtra: Much like Cheryl, starting in season 3 her screentime goes way downhill, resulting in her being in only 1 or 2 episodes per season.
* GoodParents: She's much better at being a parent than Jimmy is and much more considerate of the boys.
* SexWithTheEx: Does this once with Jimmy, but because she feels she cannot trust him and his vices are always about to get the better of him, she decides not to go any further towards a reunion.
* WomenAreWiser: Not that it's hard to be wiser than Jimmy...
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Shardene Innes]]
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/19shardene.png]]
->'''Played by:''' Wendy Grantham

-->''He seemed like he was different.''

A stripper working at Orlando's, the "gentleman's club" that operates as a front for the Barksdales. She's more or less completely uninvolved in The Game, and only works at the bar, spending time with the men who sit there drinking... as long as they keep buying drinks and tipping, that is. She begins a relationship with D'Angelo and even moves in with him, but is infuriated when Kima and Lester reveal that a group of the Barksdale lieutenants let a friend and co-worker of hers die unattended of an overdose at a party they had, and promptly moves back out and helps the MCU get some badly needed info to help put Avon away. During the investigation she grows close to Lester and remains in a relationship with him throughout the rest of the series.
----
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Shardene poses one to Dee after finding out her friend was found in a dumpster.
-->"Do I look like trash to you? Do I look like the kind of girl you wrap in a carpet and [[DisposableSexWorker throw in the trash]]?"
* BirdsOfAFeather: This is part of what first draws her toward D'Angelo, both of them are more empathetic and sensitive souls than the people they work with and find themselves surrounded by, and both of them long to escape the world they live in. A similar sort of kindness and bonding over Lester's dolls and dollhouse furniture is the first sign that relationship will bud between those two.
* DemotedToExtra: Appears again all of twice after the end of the first season, once in the second season and then not again until almost the very end of the very last episode.
* TheGlassesGottaGo: Is nearshigted and wears huge granny glasses, likely received for free or nearly so from some charity. She gets a "corrected vision" (either surgery or contact lenses) courtesy of the BPD.
* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Well, she's not exactly a hooker, but the trope is close enough in spirit.
* InnocentBystander: Despite working mere feet away from the heart and command center of Baltimore's most powerful and deadly drug empire, she's completely uninvolved in the game and while she realizes that the true owners of Orlando's aren't exactly legit, she didn't know just how deep into the Game they were.
* MayDecemberRomance: Lester is at least old enough to be her father, but the two forge a long lasting and successful relationship together.
* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: The fates of Avon, Stringer, and everyone within the Barksdale empire might have been very different if Wee-bey, Stinkum, and the others had just treated a stripper with a little more respect and tried to help her when she started having an OD...
* NeutralNoLonger: Goes from being a bystander unaffiliated with either criminals or the cops, (aside from a relationship with D'Angelo where they both discuss leaving their current lives behind them) to being willing to risk her life to help the cops get information on the Barksdale empire in the wake of her friend's death.
* NiceGirl: Discussed in universe, as Kima and Lester say that there's something about her, some quality that shows up in her picture that makes them think she'll be the best person from Orlando's to talk to.
* OnlyBadGuysCallTheirLawyers: Says something like this when Kima and Lester ask her to come with them. This is a sign of her innocence and relative naivety, as pretty much everyone else knows better than to deal with the police without a lawyer present.
* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan:
** The reason why she liked D'Angelo was because he was empathetic and sensitive as she is.
** Sardene gets together with Lester because of his kind nature.
* SmallRoleBigImpact: Not only does she play a key role in the first season investigation, but because of her help the group is able to put away Avon but not Stringer, leading to the gulf that grows between those two, planting the seeds that eventually leads to their final falling out, the death of Stringer and the final collapse of the Barksdale empire. ''Damn''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Michael and Sean [=McNulty=]]]
->'''Played by:''' Antonio Cordova and Eric G. Ryan

The two young sons of Jimmy and Elena.
----

* BaseBreaker: An InUniverse case for his fellow cops, some think his brutal, no holds barred methods of policing are the only way to keep street kids in line, others, (most prominently [=McNulty=]) think he's a piece of shit who shouldn't be on the force.