History Main / SuspiciouslyIdleOfficers

* ''Film/{{Wonka}}'': After he's been bribed with 800 boxes of chocolate, the Chief of Police devotes all his and his men's efforts to capturing Wonka and making sure he 'suffers an accident'. Officer Affable, an honorable cop merely following orders, {{lampshade|d}}s this by asking whether all of the hunting down is necessary. They shouldn't be, like, investigating all those unsolved murders. This shows that the police have been blatantly neglecting their duties in favor of doing the chocolate cartel's bidding.

* This was a very common trope in UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}} films from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Most crime bosses had a few cops on their payroll who could be seen hanging around the villain's lair in most scenes without actually doing anything cop-like.

* ''Series/AlloAllo'': The German Nazi officers seem to be only focussed on their ZanyScheme in order to obtain the MacGuffin of the day or get out of the problem presented by their General. General von Klinkerhoffen at least seems interested in maintaining order and the performance of his officers. Colonel Kurt von Strohm, by contrast, would rather spend most of the war having sex with waitresses and stealing artifacts.

* ''Film/SinCity'':
** Detective Liebowitcz seems to exist purely to punch Hartigan in the face. His comic counterpart would show up in later installments, where he's taking orders from a guy who controls a guild for assassins.
** This trope is inverted when cops actually arrive ''too quickly'' to the scene of the crime in Marv's story, clueing him in that they work for the BigBad and are trying to frame him. He's right, too.

* ''Fanfic/WhatTheyWouldntDo'': {{Averted}}. After McDermott is killed, Ronan thinks that he can get to Sarah through her friend Lauren or through Matt and tells McDermott's partner Donovan to keep an eye on her until she makes contact with one of them. Donovan counters, "I can't follow her twenty-four-seven, you know. I do have an actual job."

* ''Series/AlloAllo'': The German Nazi officers seem to be only focussed on their ZanyScheme in order to obtain the MacGuffin of the day or get out of the problem presented by their General. General von Klinkerhoffen at least seems interested in maintaining order and the performance of his officers.

* ''Series/{{Vegas|2012}}'': When Sheriff Ralph Lamb confronts corrupt film mogul Barry Silver, he is surprised to discover that Silver's bodyguards are actually active-duty LAPD detectives. Ralph was previously warned about how rich and connected Silver was but he did not think that Silver actually had the LAPD on his payroll. The detectives are later shown willing to shoot Ralph and his deputies in order to prevent Silver's arrest.

* In ''Webcomic/DominicDeegan'', before Szark Sturtz's duel with Scarlatti, a battalion of Callanian knights arrives as part of Serk Brakkis's entourage, to make sure the duel is fought in all fairness. They're on Serk's payroll and intend to make sure Scarlatti (his proxy in the duel) wins.

* In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/14997911/chapters/34760702 The Horsewomen Of Las Vegas]]'', Wrestling/CharlotteFlair points out that Detective [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] spends more time with his wife, a co-owner/operator of a prostitution ring run from a yoga studio, than out in the field. Earlier, Bryan points out that he keeps the police away from his wife's "business".

* In the thriller ''Film/{{Confidence}}'', two members of ConMan Jake Vig's gang are actual members of the LAPD, whose role it is to bust in on the scene of the con and force the victim to leave in such a rush that he abandons his money. [[spoiler:Eventually, it is revealed that Gunther Bhutan, the federal agent who has seemingly come to town to bust Jake, is actually on his payroll, too. One wonders how he justified the trip to his supervisors.]]
* In the Mob comedy ''Film/TheFreshman1990'', the young student played by Matthew Broderick is unwittingly drawn into the schemes of a mobster played by Creator/MarlonBrando, and soon finds himself pursued by two agents of "Department of Justice, Fish, and Wildlife Division." Eventually, it is revealed that these agents are actually in the pay of a rival Mob family, and plan on killing both the student and the gangster and stealing the proceeds of their crimes.
* The DEA agents in ''Film/TheProfessional'' are hard-pressed to explain the brutal gunfight that stirred the plot into action, but nobody ever questions why they were there in the first place, and they are never seen pursuing actual police work throughout the film.

* Averted in ''Film/TheGodfather''. Captain [=McCluskey=] is on the villain's payroll but he's also an NYPD Captain and is, as such, required to be on call. The Corleones' own Dirty Cops learn where the Captain has scheduled himself during a supposedly secret meeting. Sonny is then able to plant a gun there in advance for Michael to ambush Sollozzo and [=McCluskey=].

* Mentioned and averted in the ''Literature/XWingSeries'' novel ''Solo Command''. When TheMole [[spoiler: Lara Notsil]] infiltrates ''Iron Fist'', she hatches a plan to subvert the ship's maintenance droids and have them perform sabotage on the basis that they are BeneathSuspicion. In order to keep the ship's crew and AIs from noticing anything is amiss, she orders half of the reprogrammed droids to continue on their usual duties for half of each day, then assumes the identity of another saboteur droid for the other half of the day, thus convincing the main computer that they're all still on the job.

* ''{{Series/Damages}}'' is quite enamored of this trope. In the first season, it is revealed in the finale that [[spoiler:Arthur Frobisher]]'s chief goon, who has been handling various bits of DirtyBusiness ranging from surveillance to contract murder, and who is responsible for [[spoiler:the murder of the protagonist's fiancee]], is actually a highly-decorated police detective. His efforts to keep his criminal activities secret form a major subplot in the second season. Meanwhile, in the main plot of the second season, a pair of FBI agents who are investigating Patty Hewes' law firm is revealed to actually be in league with one of the targets of her latest case. In this instance, these agents ''do'' have a supervisor looking over their shoulders. It's simply that he's in on the conspiracy, too.
* In the show ''Series/{{Life|2007}}'', which actually features as its MythArc an investigation into deep-rooted corruption inside the LAPD, Roman Nevikov, a member of TheMafiya and a DragonWithAnAgenda to the members of the conspiracy, is revealed to have a seemingly endless supply of FBI agents on his payroll, enabling him to set up entire fake operations that are actually covers for his own criminal dealings, with the Bureau higher-ups apparently none the wiser.
* The German Nazi officers in ''Series/AlloAllo'' seem to be only focussed on their ZanyScheme in order to obtain the MacGuffin of the day or get out of the problem presented by their General. General von Klinkerhoffen at least seems interested in maintaining order and the performance of his officers.
* In ''Series/{{Vegas|2012}}'' when Sheriff Ralph Lamb confronts corrupt film mogul Barry Silver, he is surprised to discover that Silver's bodyguards are actually active-duty LAPD detectives. Ralph was previously warned about how rich and connected Silver was but he did not think that Silver actually had the LAPD on his payroll. The detectives are later shown willing to shoot Ralph and his deputies in order to prevent Silver's arrest.

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[[folder: Fan Works]]

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[[folder: Film ]]

* This was a very common trope in UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}} films from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Most crime bosses had a few cops on their payroll who could be seen hanging around the villain's lair in most scenes without actually doing anything coplike.

* In the Mob comedy ''Film/TheFreshman1990'', the young student played by Matthew Broderick is unwittingly drawn into the schemes of a mobster played by Creator/MarlonBrando, and soon finds himself pursued by two agents of "Department of Justice, Fish and Wildlife Division." Eventually, it is revealed that these agents are actually in the pay of a rival Mob family, and plan on killing both the student and the gangster and stealing the proceeds of their crimes.
* The DEA agents in ''Film/TheProfessional'' are hard-pressed to explain the brutal gun fight that stirred the plot into action, but nobody ever questions why they were there in the first place, and they are never seen pursuing actual police work throughout the film.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* Mentioned and averted in the ''Literature/XWingSeries'' novel ''Solo Command''. When TheMole [[spoiler: Lara Notsil]] infiltrates ''Iron Fist'', she hatches a plan to subvert the ship's maintenance droids and have them perform sabotage on the basis that they are BeneathSuspicion. In order to keep the ship's crew and AIs from noticing anything is amiss, she orders half of the reprogrammed droids to continue on their usual duties for half of each day, then assume the identity of another saboteur droid for the other half of the day, thus convincing the main computer that they're all still on the job.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV ]]

* ''{{Series/Damages}}'' is quite enamored of this trope. In the first season, it is revealed in the finale that [[spoiler:Arthur Frobisher]]'s chief goon, who has been handling various bits of DirtyBusiness ranging from surveillance to contract murder, and who is responsible for [[spoiler:the murder of the protagonist's fiancee]], is actually a highly-decorated police detective. His efforts to keep his criminal activities secret form a major subplot in the second season. Meanwhile, in the main plot of the second season, a pair of FBI agents who are investigating Patty Hewes' law firm are revealed to actually be in league with one of the targets of her latest case. In this instance, these agents ''do'' have a supervisor looking over their shoulder. It's simply that he's in on the conspiracy, too.

* The German Nazi officers in ''Series/AlloAllo'' seem to be only focussed on their ZanyScheme in order to obtain the MacGuffin of the day or get out of the problem presented by their General. The General von Klinkerhoffen at least seems interested in maintaining order and the performance of his officers.

** Also when Reese gets a cover identity as a detective. In several episodes his boss complains about him not being present or taking an excessive amount of sick time due to him being off rescuing the VictimOfTheWeek.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

* In ''Webcomic/DominicDeegan'', before Szark Sturtz's duel with Scarlatti, a batallion of Callanian knights arrives as part of Serk Brakkis's entourage, to make sure the duel is fought in all fairness. They're on Serk's pay roll, and intend to make sure Scarlatti (his proxy in the duel) wins.

[[/folder]]

* In the show ''Series/{{Life}}'', which actually features as its MythArc an investigation into deep-rooted corruption inside the LAPD, Roman Nevikov, a member of TheMafiya and a DragonWithAnAgenda to the members of the conspiracy, is revealed to have a seemingly endless supply of FBI agents on his payroll, enabling him to set up entire fake operations that are actually covers for his own criminal dealings, with the Bureau higher-ups apparently none the wiser.