History PlayingWith / PoliceAreUseless

* '''Played for Drama''': The police fail to act on Rachel's report, and she is later found murdered. Rachel's family sues the police department for their failure to act. This then prompts a thorough investigation of the department, and the incompetent officers are sacked.

** The cops are easily defeated by the supervillain, who only consider them a minor threat.
* '''Exaggerated''':
** Rachel is being hunted by a vicious murderer and frantically goes to the police for help. Despite copious amounts of evidence in her favour, the police officer assigned to her matter loudly ridicules the impossibility of her claims, calls over all his friends so that they can laugh at her, and then attempts to arrest her for wasting police time.
** Same as above, but the police don't even bother to look at her, let alone talk to her, since they're all "too busy" [[DonutMessWithACop eating donuts]].

** Rachel's claims involve supernatural creatures or phenomena (i.e. supervillains, vampires, werewolves, aliens, eldritch monsters, leprechauns, etc.) which the police are unlikely to believe because very few other rational people would.

** Police ''are'' useful to stop whatever threat is happening... unfortunately [[UnscrupulousHero the heroes]] [[ShootTheDog have done]] [[DestructiveSavior many bad things]] [[ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption in the path to survival]] and are risking getting ArrestedForHeroism [[CavalryBetrayal or even killed as collateral damage]], because -- at least in the eyes of the resident InspectorJavert -- they ''[[DisasterScavengers are]]'' [[CrimeOfSelfDefense criminals]], no matter [[ScrewTheRulesItsTheApocalypse however]] [[JustifiedCriminal justified]].
* '''Subverted''': Rachel goes to a police officer for help, not expecting him to believe her. The police officer takes her seriously and helps her.
* '''Double Subverted''': Turns out the police officer was just putting on an act for Rachel's benefit. As soon as she's gone, he throws her statement in the trash and ignores it.

* '''Zig Zagged''': Rachel goes to report a crime to the police, only to be dismissed. After she's gone, however, the police officer finds that Rachel's report keeps nagging at him, and he goes through the records and discovers reports of a similar crime. Deciding that Rachel was telling the truth, the police officer acts upon Rachel's report in a competent and effective fashion. However, the threat that Rachel reported turns out to be more than the police officer can handle...
* '''Averted''':

** There aren't any cops around because [[ClosedCircle the crime takes place in the middle of the woods on an uninhabited island in deep space]]. [[AnthropicPrinciple Don't]] [[RuleOfDrama even ask]].
* '''Enforced''':
** The writer has a low opinion of the police force, and this is reflected in the story.
** The writer wants to write Rachel as an AmateurSleuth, but needs to deal with the issue that the matter Rachel is investigating would normally be handled by the police.

* '''Implied''': Rachel's friend Bob tells her to call the police when she's arming herself to fight a vampire. Rachel just gives him a glare that has "are you crazy?" written all over it and carries on like he never said anything.
* '''Defied''':
** Rachel goes to report a vampire attack to the police, suspecting that they won't believe her. As soon as he hears her report, however, the police officer transfers her to the police department's Anti-Paranormal Threat Taskforce, which [[CrazyPrepared they have set up for just this eventuality]].

** Rachel instead reports [[MetaphoricallyTrue "There's some nutjob dressed up like Dracula going around attacking people."]] The police would consider "a dangerous and delusional person" more plausible than "a real-life vampire".

** The failure of the police to act on Rachel's report means that a criminal gets away with a crime. Rachel is murdered by the criminal to keep her silent.

** It later turns out that Rachel faked her death in order to call attention to the incompetence of the law enforcement system. This allows a new commissioner to be elected to clean things up and get personnel to take crime reports more seriously.
** But then Rachel decides to [[StartMyOwn join the police]] and build a competent role model for the others.
* '''Played For Laughs''':

** The entire police force is deployed to give someone a speeding ticket, all while other more serious crimes go completely unnoticed.
* '''Played For Drama''': The police fail to act on Rachel's report, and she is later found murdered. Rachel's family sues the police department for their failure to act. This then prompts a thorough investigation of the department, and the incompetent officers are sacked.
* '''Played For Horror''':

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