History Main / ArtisticLicenseLawEnforcement

* ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog'': Subverted. In the trailer, Sonic is tranquilized by Sheriff Tom Wachowski, but in the actual movie, it is revealed that the tranquilizer gun belongs to his wife, a veterinarian, rather than being issued to him to carry out his duties.

** In the pilot episode, after Murtaugh [[{{Irony}} shoots his suicidal partner Riggs in the foot to save him from a sniper atop a building]], he's isn't put on administrative leave and there's no investigation to see whether or not the use of said firearm was necessary.

** In the pilot episode, after Murtaugh [[{{Irony}} shoots his suicidal partner Riggs in the foot to save him from a sniper atop a building]], he's isn't put on administrative leave and no investigation is conducted.

* ''Series/LethalWeapon2016'': In "Flight Risk", Murtaugh interrogates his daughter, Riana. In RealLife, an officer would never be asked to interrogate a family member and they would get a different officer for that.

* CopKillerManhunt: A police officer's colleagues may hunt down someone who has killed him/her, but the priority shall always be to arrest, not [[VigilanteExecution summarily execute]], the murderer. Even the slightest suspicion of trying to exploit a fellow officer's death to justify PoliceBrutality usually gets InternalAffairs (and other superiors) very mad and the suspected officers to have very short careers.

* Being a pastiche of [[CowboyCop Cowboy Cops]] in general. ''VideoGame/PursuitForce'' features the titular elite task force where they regularly engage in high-speed shootouts and generally engage in lethal force against criminals (and when they do make an arrest, it involves violent beatdowns before cuffing them), own a helicopter ''armed'' with a Gatling gun, using guns owned by criminals, and, in the second game, one of the rookie PF officers is even armed with a ''light machine gun''.
* The first ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil1'' (and ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvilRemake Remake]]'') has the S.T.A.R.S. (for what is technically supposed to be an elite police force) be equipped with heavy duty, military-grade equipment such a grenade launcher, and even a ''rocket launcher'' (something that will not be issued to a real life law enforcement). Barry is an egregious case as he is armed with a .44 Magnum in a police operation (again, it is considered an unapproved firearm and such a caliber is forbidden for obvious reasons).

* ''Film/SpiderManHomecoming'': [=SpiderMan=] scales the Washington Monument while being pursued by a police helicopter. Contrary to popular belief, police helicopters are not a frontline service; they're a support for the ground units, since it's hard to shoot accurately from a helicopter.

* ''Series/PrisonBreak'': In the second season, Bellick is shown actively participating in the manhunt for the escaped prisoners. This wouldn't happen. He's a prison guard, not a law enforcement officer. His authority ends at the prison gate. State and local police would have handled the manhunt. Although, Bellick is basically acting as a CowboyCop at that point, pursuing the escapees out of pure anger for tying him up to secure their escape and embarassing him. When the escaped prisoners board a train and start to disperse through the country, the FBI takes over and Bellick is fired for his awful performance.

* ''Series/PrisonBreak'': In the second season, Bellick is shown actively participating in the manhunt for the escaped prisoners. This wouldn't happen. He's a prison guard, not a law enforcement officer. His authority ends at the prison gate. State and local police would have handled the manhunt.

* ''Series/{{Monk}}'': In "Mr. Monk And The Really, Really Dead Guy", the FBI are called in to take the lead on a case involving a victim who was murdered in an exceptionally brutal manner. In real life, the FBI wouldn't be anywhere near this case unless unless the killer had crossed state lines while committing the crime, the crime was committed during a federal offense, or the murder was a political assassination. None of these apply to the case in this episode.

Searching someone's vehicle requires that police either be given permission, have a search warrant, or that the driver be placed under arrest (conducting a Search-Incident-To-Arrest of a vehicle is allowed). However, if a police officer asks to search your vehicle and you refuse, they cannot search your vehicle and would be violating your Fourth Amendment rights if they went ahead and searched it anyway, plus any evidence they find would be ruled inadmissable. In fiction, cops ignore this all all the time.

* MustStateIfYoureACop: Contrary to popular belief, a police officer is not under obligation to answer truthfully when asked if they're a cop.

* Johnny Gat's backstory in ''VideoGame/AgentsOfMayhem'' reveals that he was kicked out of the Newark Police Department for his brutal methods with dealing with criminals. That is realistic in itself, but what makes it unrealistic is that the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency found his abilities to be very useful and is transferred to Seoul, Korea to fight crime. The real life SMPA would never allow the likes of Gat to join their ranks due to their even stricter rules and regulations compared to their American counterparts.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheNutJob'': Part of the robbers' getaway plan was to cross state lines, apparently expecting the police that were hot on their tails to suddenly break off pursuit at that invisible boundary. Police ''can'' cross state lines in pursuit of a suspect if the person is suspected of a felony (e.g. robbing a bank); that is the very definition of the term, "Hot Pursuit".

* ''Anime/DominionTankPolice'' parodies the over-militarization of police forces to extreme levels (such as issuing tanks to every police division just to fight crime), so it never takes itself too seriously despite the plot. An early scene features a JackBauerInterrogationTechnique where-in a criminal has a grenade shoved into his mouth, and the officers turn the interrogation into a game featuring a spin wheel and Leona dressed up as a PlayboyBunny. Police chief Brenten ''encourages'' this behavior.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'': Judy is excited to begin her first day as a police officer, only to find out she's stuck on parking duty. Most major cities in real life have a whole separate department of parking services whose primary job is issuing citations so that the police are free to handle bigger crimes. While suburbs and smaller towns (at least in the United States and its FantasyCounterpartCultures) might still leave this task to the police, a city as huge as Zootopia would not.

** He says the French police judiciaire is the equivalent of the FBI. It's not-this refers simply to detectives. The closest France has to the FBI is the National Police, but there is no exact equivalent because of the way France's government is organized. It is not federated like the US, so there's no need for an interstate agency. The National Police takes care of civil law enforcement duties for the entire country -- except in smaller towns and more remote areas, where the Gendarmerie has jurisdiction, and municipal police exist in some towns and cities -- and the police judiciaire is the section of the National Police that investigates the most serious crimes such as murders. Whether this is a case of CreatorProvincialism or just another case of Dan not doing the research (or both) isn't clear.

** On the other side of the issue, non-lethal weapons are treated as completely free in their use: You can use them to pacify defiant civilians and have no punishment in using them well beyond the point where a suspect is neutralised, both examples of which would be be considered improper use of force in reality.

** It is illegal to shoot a fleeing suspect as long as they have not fired their weapon. The ability for the police to shoot at fleeing suspects is one of the most controversial parts of police procedure, but to summarise, an armed and fleeing suspect who has already demonstrated themselves to be a threat to civilians or the police is generally seen as permissible to use deadly force against. In the context of the game, killing an armed suspect in the midst of a hostage situation would likely be easily justified due to the risk that letting them flee could allow them to harm civilians or get into a better defensive position.