History PoliceAreUseless / Literature

* In ''Literature/TheRulesOfSupervillainy'' the police of Falconcrest City are hopelessly overwhelmed by the city's supervillains. To be fair, they have super-tech and an army of thugs while the police... don't. It's also implied that many came to the city after the Nightwalker's death.

* ''Literature/EleanorAndPark'': When Eleanor calls the police after hearing gunshots right outside her house, not only seem less than interested, they make Eleanor get inside the house and let them despite the possibility there could be a violent criminal. To make matters worse, despite [[AbusiveParents Richie]] telling them that he ''shot at teenagers for being loud with an unlicensed handgun'', they don’t arrest him.

** Of particular note is the series' InspectorLestrade, Inspector Cramer, who is generally depicted as a good detective in his own right (and certainly, compared to most of the aforementioned careerists and authoritarians, is a certified genius) but who just has a bad habit of latching on to an obvious solution without adopting a more creative approach to the problem like Wolfe.

** Even leaving aside the lack of development in forensic science, at the time Doyle started writing the Metropolitan Police had developed a reputation for being woefully incompetent and corrupt. It was also around this time that the UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper murders occurred, and it soon became apparent that the police were completely ill-equipped to deal with what was going on; as a result of this, serious and long-needed reforms began to be introduced.

** In at least one book, deaths occur in part because civilians assume that this trope is in play and that the police will not be able to help them, leading them to try to take matters into their own hands without contacting the police for help. In ''Brotherhood In Death'', for instance, [[spoiler:the killers are rape victims who know enough about law to understand that their rapes are now past the statute of limitations. Initially they hope to have a fellow victim, whose rape was more recent, go to the police, but after she breaks under the pressure and kills herself, they assume that they have no choice but to make justice for themselves. It's only after the damage has been done that Eve gets a chance to tell them that what was done to them would be considered not just rape but ''conspiracy'' to commit rape - among several other crimes - which has a longer statute of limitations and could still have been prosecuted had it come to light before they'd resorted to murder (and the two surviving rapists have indeed been arrested and face prosecution)]].

* Part and parcel of the Literature/NancyDrew and Literature/TheHardyBoys books, since having a competent police force would render the need for crime solving eighteen-year-olds unnecessary. The same goes for Literature/TrixieBelden. Later books try to fix this slightly, making Chiefs [=McGinnis=] and Collig less actively incompetent and more of an "understaffed, overworked, SlaveToPR encouraged to wrap up cases in a pretty bow to keep their records looking good" kind of situation.

* ''Literature/TortallUniverse'': In the ''Literature/BekaCooper'' trilogy, this seems to be the case for Night Watch and any of the Dogs portrayed unsympathetically. Taken up [[UpToEleven a notch]] with Sir Lionel of Trebond, which causes this trope in the Port Caynn Guard by extension — he's not only incompetent, [[spoiler:he's an incredible coward willing to put up with huge amounts of criminal activity to save his skin]].

* In Barbara Paul's ''The Fourth Wall,'' somebody (who is unknown for most of the book) is killing members of an acting troupe. The police are sympathetic and well-meaning; they are honest and competent. But somehow, no matter how many times the villain attacks people (using methods ranging from lacing someone's cold cream with acid to blowing up someone's house), the police never have any clues to follow, and the surviving actors must take matters in their own hands.

* The City Watch in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novels started out in ''Discworld/GuardsGuards'' as basically an intentional parody of itself; the Thieves' Guild was better at regulating crime, for one, and eventually the watches were filled up by Vetinari with useless no-hopers, led by an alcoholic Sam Vimes on nights. Then events happened, propelling things to the current status- where the Watch is one of the most effective and best run parts of the city, and admired throughout the Disc.

* Cops tend to be fairly useless in Creator/StephenKing's books. Even when they're persuaded to investigate the strange goings-on in a particular novel, they have a tendency to get bumped off before they can help the heroes. There's a BIG exception in ''Literature/NeedfulThings'', though; the main character, a small-town sheriff, manages to single-handedly fight off a demonic PuppetMaster. Most of his deputies manage to handle themselves half-decently considering the circumstances, too.

* In ''{{Literature/One Of Us Is Lying}}''And how. Granted, there would be no plot if the police did an even half-competent job of investigating Simon's murder, but this novel reads like [=McManus=] has a personal grudge. Every time we see the police, they're being played like fiddles and out-copped by Bronwyn's fifteen-year-old sister. It's implied that they don't care who really did it, just who they can blame it on, for example when Nate is told early on that he's "the obvious outlier and scapegoat." [[spoiler: Sure enough, he's the one arrested on evidence that could easily have been planted, and was.]]

* In ''{{Literature/OneOfUsIsLying}}''And how. Granted, there would be no plot if the police did an even half-competent job of investigating Simon's murder, but this novel reads like [=McManus=] has a personal grudge. Every time we see the police, they're being played like fiddles and out-copped by Bronwyn's fifteen-year-old sister. It's implied that they don't care who really did it, just who they can blame it on, for example when Nate is told early on that he's "the obvious outlier and scapegoat." [[spoiler: Sure enough, he's the one arrested on evidence that could easily have been planted, and was.]]

* Played straight in most of the Franchise/CthulhuMythos, but subverted in ''Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth''. The narrator never meets any police officers during his stay in Innsmouth, but once he reports what happened to him during his time there to the government, a large number of policemen arrive in town and begin arresting most of the townspeople (which largely consist of HalfHumanHybrid cultists), destroying buildings with fire and dynamite, and to top it off, bombarded the nearby Devil Reef--which contained a portal to the Deep Ones' realm--with depth charges and torpedoes launched from a submarine. The narrator, while going insane towards the end of the story due to his psychic connections with the Deep Ones and utterly convinced of their power, still admits that the bombardment by a single submarine seriously hurt Y’ha-nthlei (though it wasn't destroyed).

* Played straight in most of the Franchise/CthulhuMythos, but subverted in ''Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth''. The narrator never meets any police officers during his stay in Innsmouth, but once he reports what happened to him during his time there to the government, a large number of policemen arrive in town and begin arresting most of the townspeople (which largely consist of HalfHumanHybrid cultists), destroying buildings with fire and dynamite, and to top it off, bombarded the nearby Devil Reef--which contained a portal to the Deep Ones' realm--with depth charges and torpedoes launched from a submarine.

* Generally played fairly straight in the Literature/NeroWolfe novels and stories, though it is often justified and played with as well. As a GreatDetective, Nero Wolfe is naturally the genius who solves the cases the cops can't, and his assistant Archie Goodwin -- as the DeadpanSnarker -- naturally has some sarcastic things to say about this. And certainly, a high percentage of cops and prosecutors who show up tend to be either spineless careerists who are so invested in personal advantage that they're terrified of making a single step lest they make a mistake and end their careers, or pig-headed authoritarians who'll latch on to any excuse to throw their weight around and bully someone. However, Wolfe himself acknowledges that in nine out of ten cases, the police are more than capable of solving the crime, and indeed have plenty of advantages that he himself lacks (such as a sheer volume of manpower to chase down leads that he, with only Archie and a handful of freelance operatives, cannot hope to summon); it's just that when that tenth case comes along, they're out of their depth and his genius is needed.

* The Aurors from ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'' do very little good, unless they work with the [[LaResistance Order of the Phoenix]]: since the Ministry officially refuses to acknowledge [[BigBad Voldemort]]'s return, they end up [[NiceJobBreakingItHero helping the Death Eaters]] more than anything. They start [[AvertedTrope averting it]] in [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince the sequel]], and actually try to stop Voldemort. But then again, most of the aurors who aren't part of the Order of the Phoenix still [[MilitariesAreUseless never do anything useful]] (for their side) anyway. Even the ones with the Order are still incompetent, except for Moody. Tonks loses every fight she's in. No Auror can handle Bellatrix Lestrange... who is beaten by a housewife. Another Auror loses a battle with Neville's grandmother.[[note]]In fairness to the Aurors, it should be noted that the housewife mentioned above was a MamaBear who'd just lost a son, and saw another of her children being threatened. And Harry himself noted that he wouldn't want to cross [[NeverMessWithGranny Neville's grandmother]].[[/note]] It would seem [=McGonagall=] was fibbing when she told Harry about the high standards just to qualify for training for the Aurors in an effort to trick him into focusing more on his studies.

** This, however, isn't shown to be the norm, but simply a narrow-mindedness, rather than genuine incompetence, of the investigator in question. Overall, most police services in the Honorverse are shown to be quite competent, and [[CorruptCop even when corrupt]], they at least aren't completely bumbling in their corruption.
** Also, Honor didn't deduce anything, she ''knew'' that Lt. Mears was under some sort of influence, because of her [[PsychicPowers empathic sense]]. Which she had to present as being that of her treecat, to keep the {{masquerade}}. The investigator simply didn't believe in the 'cats PsychicPowers, because at that time they were more of a hypothesis rather than an established fact, and were dismissed even by many respectable scientists.

* Played straight in most of the Literature/CthulhuMythos, but subverted in ''Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth''. The narrator never meets any police officers during his stay in Innsmouth, but once he reports what happened to him during his time there to the government, a large number of policemen arrive in town and begin arresting most of the townspeople (which largely consist of HalfHumanHybrid cultists), destroying buildings with fire and dynamite, and to top it off, bombarded the nearby Devil Reef--which contained a portal to the Deep Ones' realm--with depth charges and torpedoes launched from a submarine.

* In ''Literature/YouAreDeadSignHerePlease'' the city of Dead Donkey does have a police force, but they are very determinedly guarding the q-tip factory, and thus avoiding doing any real work.