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* CatSmile: Rollins' slanted eyes only adds to her cat-like appearance everytime she grins.
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* AmbiguousDisorder: Besides being an insomniac, Lake states on occasion that the city speaks to him. Whether or not he's speaking figuratively or literally is unclear, but thankfully, it hasn't had any effect on his job.
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* CloudCuckoolander: Besides being an insomniac, Lake states on occasion that the city speaks to him. Whether or not he's speaking figuratively or literally is unclear, but thankfully, it hasn't had any effect on his job.
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* BoobsOfSteel: She's well-endowed and willing to get physical with perps and does so skillfully, more than Olivia or Amanda (it helps that she's younger).
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* RatedMForManly: Compared to his snarky partner Munch, but most especially so after Stabler leaves amongst the new personnel introduced to the series.
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* RatedMForManly: He's cop whose a former UsefulNotes/{{Mixed Martial Art|s}}ist.
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* OfficialCouple:
** [[spoiler: With Amaro, though probably not for very long.]]
** [[spoiler: And then with Carisi. This'll probably last way longer than with Amaro.]]
** [[spoiler: With Amaro, though probably not for very long.]]
** [[spoiler: And then with Carisi. This'll probably last way longer than with Amaro.]]
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* RapeAsBackstory: [[spoiler: She left Atlanta after being raped by her chief.]]
* ShipTease: Has had plenty of it with Fin. And with Amaro in season 15. In one episode, Benson opines that they should GetARoom and another character asks Amaro if he's the boyfriend (a single scene and a couple of references after the fact reveal that TheyDo, at least briefly). And then there's a lot of it with Carisi, who is shown to be very much in love with her. It's heavily implied that she reciprocates but she CannotSpitItOut, [[spoiler:at least until the finale of Season 22, when they finally have a BigDamnKiss.]]
* ShipTease: Has had plenty of it with Fin. And with Amaro in season 15. In one episode, Benson opines that they should GetARoom and another character asks Amaro if he's the boyfriend (a single scene and a couple of references after the fact reveal that TheyDo, at least briefly). And then there's a lot of it with Carisi, who is shown to be very much in love with her. It's heavily implied that she reciprocates but she CannotSpitItOut, [[spoiler:at least until the finale of Season 22, when they finally have a BigDamnKiss.]]
to:
* RapeAsBackstory: [[spoiler: She [[spoiler:She left Atlanta after being raped by her chief.]]
* ShipTease: Has had plenty of it with Fin. And with Amaro in season 15. In one episode, Benson opines that they should GetARoom and another character asks Amaro if he's the boyfriend (a single scene and a couple of references after the fact reveal thatTheyDo, yes, at least briefly). And then there's a lot of it with Carisi, who is shown to be very much in love with her. It's heavily implied that she reciprocates but she CannotSpitItOut, [[spoiler:at least until the finale of Season 22, when they finally have a BigDamnKiss.]]
* ShipTease: Has had plenty of it with Fin. And with Amaro in season 15. In one episode, Benson opines that they should GetARoom and another character asks Amaro if he's the boyfriend (a single scene and a couple of references after the fact reveal that
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* TheyDo: [[spoiler: With Amaro, though probably not for very long.]]
** [[spoiler: And then with Carisi. This'll probably last way longer than with Amaro.]]
** [[spoiler: And then with Carisi. This'll probably last way longer than with Amaro.]]
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* DarkSkinnedBlonde: Her hair is notably dyed.
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The following lists all characters, major and minor, who are/were members of NYPD's 16th precinct, or the Manhattan Special Victims Unit.
[[foldercontrol]]
!!Current Personnel
%%Please list by order of joining
[[folder:Capt. Olivia Benson]]
--> see Sandbox/LawAndOrderOliviaBenson
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Sgt. Odafin "Fin" Tutuola]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tutuola_odafin_9321.jpg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' | ''Series/LawAndOrder''
!!!'''Other Appearances:''' ''Series/ChicagoPD''
!!!'''Played By:''' Music/IceT
A sergeant in the Manhattan Special Victims Unit. He was raised in Harlem and he served in the United States Army, where he saw combat in Mogadishu. A former undercover narcotics detective, Tutuola replaced Monique Jeffries after she left the squad in 2000. He transferred out of narcotics after his partner was shot. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, he ends up cutting off ties with this partner, and his crazy daughter goes on a such murderous rampage that they have to call in [[Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent Eames]] and the Anti-Terrorism Taskforce.]]
----
* ActionDad: To his estranged son, Ken.
* TheAtoner: A couple times, usually having to do with narcotics cases.
* BigBrotherInstinct: Toward Rollins. When he finds out a bookie roughed her up over her gambling debts, he has the crook's place raided. He even punches him in the stomach, as he'd previously done to Rollins, telling him he knows what that was for.
* TheBigGuy: To John Munch's TheSmartGuy.
* BigScrewedUpFamily: Let's see, a gay son who resents him, [[spoiler:an ex-wife who was raped by her own father, producing a son who committed murder and got away scot free…]], and a brother in law who gets out of jail only to be falsely arrested on Christmas Eve… yep, definitely a nice family.
* BlackAndNerdy: Is an unapologetic gamer, which Benson teases him over.
-->'''Olivia''': So, all those years of gaming finally paid off?
* BlackAndWhiteMorality: Sees all offenders as scum, [[ReformedButRejected reformed or not]].
* BlackRepublican: Registered as such, apparently.
* BreakoutCharacter: Was originally supposed to be a four episode character. However, because he was well received by fans, he was kept on the show for good.
* CatchPhrase: "That's messed up."
* ChivalrousPervert: Believe it or not. Though used for comedic effect, it's definitely not brought up often given the sensitive kinds of crimes on the show. Fin [[ImAManICantHelpIt doesn't try to cover up the fact that he's subject to a man's needs whenever it comes up]], but he doesn't allow that to blur the boundaries required to do his job and he's clearly very angered/annoyed when they come across particularly disturbing cases. One notable instance that this part of Fin's nature is really helpful is when Fin recognizes a young woman that held a position in a low-level public office from a porn he's watched (that's he's later shown in possession of), which allows the SVU detectives to follow a string of unlawful appointments that were coverups to the various flings of a mayoral candidate.
* DadTheVeteran: Father to Ken and served in the U.S. Army during the Somalia Civil War.
* ADayInTheLimelight: Handled a case on his own in "Anchor".
* DisappearedDad: Fin's undercover work in Narcotics often resulted in him being gone for weeks if months at a time, leaving Ken to essentially grow up without a father, which later caused significant tension between them. Eventually, the amount of Fin's undercover stretches brought he and his wife to divorce.
* FatalFlaw: He was not a good father or husband. It still haunts him, and it comes back to bite him several times.
* FireForgedFriends: He and Munch used to not get along. In later seasons, they were quite willing to go the extra mile to help each other out.
* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: His usual response to being told an offender's sob story.
* AFriendInNeed: To Rollins, both when she's getting screwed over by her sister and when she later appears to be in over her head with [[TrappedByGamblingDebts gambling debts]], and Fin is the one Rollins calls for a ride when [[spoiler: she goes into labour in Season 17]]. Also to Olivia in subtle ways, pre-Season 12 - he's the only one that knows she's going to therapy post-"Undercover".
* GayBravado: Generally rolls with it whenever he's MistakenForGay alongside Munch or Lake. He also fusses at Amaro for not being dressed well enough when they go undercover in a gay club.
* GenreSavvy: "Intimidation Game" ''tries'' to make Fin out to be this, using his 20 years of gamer expertise to foil a kidnapping plot by deranged gamers, but it amounts to little else but him making lots of painful video game analogies.
** Back in season 3 "Care", the background funny moment may have actually been this when he and Munch play the same video game in order to try and enter the mindset of a murder witness with autism who was obsessed with it.
-->'''Munch''': Damn it!\\
'''Game''': You have lost.\\
'''Tutuola''': Pathetic. Give me that; let me show you how to do it.
* GoodIsNotSoft: Possibly the finest example out of all the characters.
* HeelFaceDoorSlam: Despite Fin and Ken mostly repairing their relationship, Ken is still hesitant to introduce his fiance Alejandro out of fear of Fin's reaction. Because of this, Fin doesn't get to meet Alejandro [[spoiler:before Alejandro is brutally beaten into a coma]], and deeply regrets it.
* HeelRealization: The episode "Strain" has him discover that his son Ken is gay, and Fin is initially exasperated about this development. After seeing the grief of another father who was [[IWishedYouWereDead estranged from his gay son]] and [[NeverGotToSayGoodbye lost him suddenly]], Fin realizes that justified or not, he was largely absent from Ken's childhood, and the distance between him and his son will only grow if he cannot accept him. The episode ends with Fin calling Ken.
* HiddenDepths: According to the official Twitter Account, Fin enjoys Shakespearean tragedies, his favorite being Cymbeline.
* HopelessWithTech:
-->'''Fin:''' ''(after watching a video of a Latino gang member bragging about raping a white girl)'' What, those fools think the cops don't know how to use the Internet?
-->'''Rollins:''' Well, it did take me a year to teach you how to.
* HotBlooded: Less so than Stabler and Amaro, but if he has to go after your ass instead of you going quietly, he's gonna be pretty pissed when he finally catches you.
* IconicSequelCharacter: Finn is the show's original BreakoutCharacter and the second most tenured character by mid-Season 15, but he doesn't make an appearance until the very end of the Season 2 premiere.
* IronicName: Tutuola is a Yoruba name meaning "The Gentle One". One need not watch Fin [[GoodIsNotNice in action for very long]] to see how non-descriptive that name is.
* TheLancer: As the main character with the second longest tenure on the show by Season 15, it makes sense. After his promotion to Sergeant, he gets transferred to another precinct but later gets himself moved back to SVU as Benson's second-in-command.
* MeaningfulName: Odafin means lawmaker or establisher of laws.
* MrExposition: In "Intimidation Game", he explains gaming terms to the audience through Benson, who doesn't play video games.
* NaiveNewcomer: An interesting example. Fin's definitely been around the block a few times, both before and after his run as a narc, but he's woefully out of his depth when it comes to sex crimes. The show gets a good deal of [[LetMeGetThisStraight exposition]] of it.
* NumberTwo: Becomes this when Olivia takes over the squad, with her referring to him as her second in command when asked and trying to convince him to take the Sergeant's exam. He's somewhat reluctant to take the position at first but eventually accepts it.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Rarely called Odafin.
* OnlySaneMan: He seems to be the only one who's aware of just how messed up everyone in SVU is. There actually came a point where he, [[AudienceSurrogate like many in the audience]], just wrote Stabler off as an out-of-control lunatic. He wasn't shy about it either, describing Stabler as "a head case" to both Cragen and to Stabler's face.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Fin was just ''that'' pissed off about the suspect targeting people [[ItsPersonal close to him]].
** He's usually not into roughing up suspects (that's more Stabler's thing), but during a case involving children being sold as slaves, the man behind the slave ring attempts to run. Fin chases him down and gives him a well deserved NoHoldsBarredBeatdown.
* OutOfCharacterMoment: That time he took a page out of [=UnStabler=]'s book and threatened to gouge an uncooperative suspect's eyes out with a spoon. He actually produced the spoon, too.
* OutOfFocus: Pre-season 12, very few episodes focused on him and even then they were more about his family's problems than Fin himself. Post Season 12, Fin's son Ken is nowhere to be seen, and Fin himself has only had a couple of episodes of any focus.
* PapaWolf: First appears in the seventh season episode "Strain", when Ken is under investigation. While Fin is more stable in his methods than Elliot, he could still give him a good run for his money. After some initial strain, he extended this to his future son-in-law.
* PerpetualFrowner: An entire episode has a victim pointing out this from the moment she meets him to the moment the episode concludes. He still doesn't smile.
* PromotionToOpeningTitles: Ice-T was billed as a guest star in his introduction but is immediately added to the opening credits the following episode.
* RankUp: Promoted to Sergeant in season 18
* RatedMForManly: Compared to his snarky partner Munch, but most especially so after Stabler leaves amongst the new personnel introduced to the series.
* RefusalOfTheCall: Despite being the second most tenured cast member by mid-Season 15, Fin refused to take the sergeants exam to make him Olivia's official second-in-command until Season 18.
* ScaryBlackMan: Averted. Despite being on a New York detective unit known for using more, uh, [[PoliceBrutality unorthodox]] tactics to wring confessions out of suspects, he's generally more calm and emotionally stable than most of his colleagues, especially in comparison to Stabler.
* SoProudOfYou: He feels this way towards Ken, telling Rollins that his son is the bravest man he knows.
* TheStoic: Is better at hiding his emotions than anyone else.
* SurvivorGuilt: In "Manhunt", it's revealed that his partner in Narcotics [[TakingTheBullet took a bullet]] from a drug lord meant for him. In "Poisoned Motive", we learn that he distanced himself from his former partner after the shooting because he couldn't deal with feeling responsible for the man's condition.
* TokenMinority: Lampshaded when he replaces Jeffries.
* UndyingLoyalty: In terms of loyalty to Liv, Fin takes the cake. When Dodds starts interviewing people to potentially replace Liv, Fin makes it clear that if Liv is replaced, there will be consequences.
* WhenHeSmiles: Fin often scowls and is quite convincing as a tough, intimidating cop, but the occasional times when he has a genuinely happy smile, such as the ending to "Haunted", his face positively transforms.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Det. Amanda Rollins]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rollins_amanda_6890.jpg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''
!!!'''Other Appearances:''' ''Series/ChicagoPD'' | ''Series/ChicagoFire''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/KelliGiddish
A detective from Atlanta, Georgia, who moves to New York City to join the Special Victims Unit. Rollins appears to be a detective who is very anxious to do her job, often being told not to get ahead of herself by Detectives Benson and Amaro, and Captain Cragen.
----
* AesopAmnesia: Rollins can't seem to stop herself from doing really risky investigative work without getting permission or at least notifying someone beforehand, no matter how many times it gets her and/or the team screwed over.
* ActionGirl: Just as much as Benson. Also, like Benson, graduates to ActionMom in the 17th season.
* BerserkButton: As much of a spitfire as she can be, she gets two of hers pressed '''hard''' in ''Post-Graduate Psychopath,'' when the perp (who she'd helped send to juvenile detention years earlier) stalks her and Jessie, and then stabs [[ImpliedLoveInterest Carisi]] to boot. She makes it a point to go to the psyche ward that he's been sent back to and pointedly tell him that if he ever goes near her family (Carisi included) again, [[IllKillYou "that'll be your last day on this Earth."]]
* BigScrewedUpFamily: Claims she's the [[OnlySaneMan only sane woman]] in her family and doesn't go home for Christmas (she does visit for Easter).
* BigSisterInstinct: Despite her younger sister being a mess, Rollins doesn't hesitate to protect her sister from bad men.
* BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord: Averted, as she [[spoiler:doesn't even bother with a euphemism when she blackmails Wilkes' wife into getting the charges against Amaro dropped.]]
* CainAndAbel: Her relationship with Kim is eventually revealed to be this.
* CatSmile: Rollins' slanted eyes only adds to her cat-like appearance everytime she grins.
* ChekhovsClassroom: One episode opens with the SVU team undergoing routine training. Rollins is established as an excellent shot, but also as having a blind spot about a female domestic violence victim who actually turns out to be aggressive. Later in the episode, [[spoiler:Rollins' [[ManipulativeBastard scheming]] younger sister Kim uses both of these traits as part of a BatmanGambit to get Rollins to kill her abusive boyfriend so that she (Kim) can collect an insurance payout on him.]]
* CoolBigSis: She's very protective of her [[ManChild younger sister Kim]], who takes advantage of this several times.
* CowboyCop: Dips into this at times. Rollins has a tendency to leap into action with her own ideas of what to do without permission... and it almost always ends up more harmful than helpful.
* DaddyIssues: Temporary Sergeant Murphy points out she's had "complicated" relationships with men, particularly if they're authority figures (see: her former sergeant who assaulted her and the Gamblers Anonymous sponsor who slept with her; this even extends to non-romantic relationships as she stuck up for Cragen after the dead hooker incident and is willing to give the benefit of a doubt a Creator/WoodyAllen (incest)[=/=]Creator/RomanPolanski (fled overseas)-type suspect).
-->'''Rollins''': My father was a gambler until mom nagged him out of the house.\\
'''Murphy''': Did you ever think she had a ''reason'' for doing that?
** This ends up being HilariousInHindsight when [[spoiler: she ends up getting pregnant by Murphy]]
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Her family of origin is a DysfunctionJunction, she's gotten in over her head with gambling debts, and she was sexually assaulted by a higher-up at her precinct in Atlanta.
* DeadpanSnarker: Mainly to Carisi when she's annoyed by him.
* DeepSouth: Hails from Georgia.
* DirtyHarriet: Inherited this role from Olivia, having gone undercover as a drunk party girl in an effort to lure out a DirtyCop rapist.
* DontYouDarePityMe: This is frequently her response to squadmates attempting to help her with her gambling or family issues.
* EasilyForgiven: A Downplayed example. Benson has no problem chewing her out for dragging her gambling debts into her work life, threatening to transfer her to another unit for her behaivior. It takes a while before Benson forgives Rollins, and is outright snide towards her before that, but the fact that Amanda is never fired or given any reprimand more serious than a tongue-lashing is overly generous on Benson's part.
** It's a similar situation when her gambling is first revealed, but in that case it's {{justified|Trope}} both because it didn't have an impact on her work the same way and because it's Cragen, who's had his own struggles with addiction and recognizes that his own superior officer's decision to help him rather than punish him was what got him to turn his life around.
* EtTuBrute: Gets an absolutely brutal knife in the back from [[spoiler:her younger sister]].
* EveryoneLovesBlondes: She's pretty popular with the guys in-universe, both inside and out of the squad room.
* FairCop: Dem cheekbones. Dose eyes. Dat Hair. Even ''Stephanie March'' felt threatened. Rollins has also caught the eye of several male characters.
* TheFarmerAndTheViper: Learns the very, very hard way that kindness is wasted on her sister.
* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Her sister Kim has substance abuse issues and an abusive boyfriend [[spoiler: who she set up to be shot by Amanda (she has a history of threatening him) for insurance money which she forged her sister's name to; she also knows about the gambling debts. When Amanda learns the whole truth and Amaro gets Kim on tape, she skips town along with all of her sister's possessions -- literally, the only things Amanda has left is her fridge, an ice tray, and Kim's goodbye note]].
* TheGamblingAddict: Her mounting gambling debts get her into a lot of trouble with some very dodgy people. She's been attending Gamblers Anonymous per Cragen's orders.
* HereditaryHairstyle: She and her sister got their blonde hair from their mother, a trait Amanda's daughter herself would inherit.
* HeroesLoveDogs: She has a pit bull named Frannie that has appeared and been mentioned in several episodes. Frannie even helped Amanda run down William Lewis after he flashed two tourists in Central Park.
* HisOwnWorstEnemy: Is quite prone to self-sabotage, particularly in her personal life, which leads her into relationships with men who are physically/emotionally unavailable, or just otherwise awful. She's self-aware enough to know this is an [[FreudianExcuse inherited issue]] from her mother, but it isn't until season 21, when she starts seeing a therapist, that she starts getting out of her own way. It doesn't stop Olivia from pulling her into her office in a season 23 episode to ask if her offer to be the HoneyTrap on a case isn't her doing this with [[spoiler: Carisi]]; Olivia expresses concern that there's a part of Amanda that "that thinks that you don't deserve to be happy."
* HoneyTrap: One of her specialties. She's volunteered herself as bait to catch more than one criminal and she's very good at it.
* [[HonoraryUncle Honorary Aunt]]: To Olivia's adopted son Noah, and specifically referred to this way in "Chasing Demons."[[note]]"Lucy" is Noah's regular nanny.[[/note]]
-->"Okay, so, Noah, Auntie Amanda is gonna take you to school, and Lucy is gonna pick you up."
* HumiliationConga: Between "Rapist Anonymous" and "Gambler's Fallacy," season 15 is this for her.
* IconicSequelCharacter: Doesn't make an appearance until the Season 13 premiere, but now holds place as the third longest serving member of the current main cast by Season 17.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: When the squad visits the shooting range for practice, she's the best shot of all of them.
* IronicName: Amanda means "having to be loved", "deserving to be loved" and "worthy of love", which are all poignant for a character who was awfully betrayed numerous times.
* JuniorCounterpart: Much like Liv during the series premiere, Rollins is the new transfer of the squad along with a male detective (Cassidy for Liv, Amaro for Rollns).
* KarmaHoudini: Deconstructed. ''So'' deconstructed. [[spoiler:Her gambling debts cause her to stumble into working for the owner of a sketchy gambling parlor, then rescued by an undercover cop working as the owner's enforcer, who gets her involved in the case. It backfires partially as the wife of an involved party gets raped, getting SVU involved and nearly blowing Rollins' cover; when the dust clears, the undercover cop commends Rollins for her work and tells her to stay clean, but a furious Benson, not happy with being put on the spot as a newbie squad commander (including lying to Amaro and Fin about what Rollins was up to), says that if SVU wasn't so understaffed, Rollins would be on her way to a new department.]] Borders on PyrrhicVictory, as a matter of fact.
* TheLadette: Compared to Olivia, especially after Olivia's personality mellowed out. While both women are "OneOfTheBoys" to an extent, Rollins is more overtly prone to profanity or recklessness, and has a number of stereotypically "masculine" hobbies and vices, especially gambling. She seems to have a habit of sleeping around, is occasionally seen smoking, and is also the closest thing the main team has to a resident computer geek.
* LikeBrotherAndSister: Arguably her relationship with Carisi at least at first, with Rollins's actress describing Carisi as like "her annoying younger brother." They bicker, but constantly have each other's back and Carisi is her daughter's godfather. It's somewhat more complicated than that, though: Carisi has a thing for her, and steadfastly supports her and her daughters to the point where he's essentially the only father figure Jesse and Billie have ever known. Amanda ''finally'' gets her LoveEpiphany at the end of season 22.
* LoveMakesYouDumb: Poor Rollins had this publicly exposed in "Rapist Anonymous." Additionally, [[spoiler: the blackmail stunt she pulled to save Amaro from prison time has a strong chance of turning out this way]].
* MamaBear:
** {{Inverted}}. Kim recalls how she threatened to shoot a guy in the knees if he bothered their mother again when they were kids.
** While Rollins hasn't been given a moment yet, she did state that she would ''kill'' anyone that tried to harm Jesse.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Has a heartbreaking moment of this when she realizes she's been manipulated by her sister [[spoiler:into killing a man.]]
* NewMeat: In season 13, along with Amaro.
* MsFanservice: Being the HoneyTrap expert, Rollins [[ExploitedTrope deliberately]] plays on this role to catch the perps.
* OffTheWagon: [[spoiler:She starts gambling again in "Rapist Anonymous", and it continues through to "Gambler's Fallacy", where it nearly gets her in serious trouble. She gets back on the wagon after that and appears to have stayed there since.]]
* OnceDoneNeverForgotten:: Her gambling addiction is this for Rollins, although somewhat deservedly as its consequences constantly pop up.
* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Seems to be ''inverted'' - sometimes, she'll slip ''into'' a southern drawl that she (and her actress) doesn't normally have. Note that her mother and sister ''do'' have southern accents so it's implied to be something that she trained herself out of but reverts to when she gets emotionally riled.
* OutOfCharacterMoment: Tried to provoke Amaro into hitting her in "Spousal Privilege", apparently because she wanted to [[BreakTheHaughty call him out on his pride at being better than the abusers while ignoring his own anger management issues]] (she saw him yelling at Maria over the phone on top of the suspect of the week being her weakness, an abusive authority figure). Amaro doesn't take the bait and leaves. She may have been drunk (this took place in a bar) and the next several episodes focus on their traumatic pasts.
* PregnantBadass: [[spoiler:Is revealed to be pregnant with Declan Murphy's child as of Season 17, not that this slows her down in her police work. Also a case of RealLifeWritesThePlot , as the actress was pregnant in real life.]]
* ProperlyParanoid: She is the first to seriously suspect William Lewis of being NotSoHarmless, even when the SVU squad doesn't officially have anything to hold him on. On the flip side, in "Dissonant Voices," Rollins [[spoiler:is the only person who suspects the allegations against the music teacher are false, and is unsympathetic to the other characters' MyGodWhatHaveIDone reaction when they realize she's right and they've ruined his life]].
* RapeAsBackstory: [[spoiler: She left Atlanta after being raped by her chief.]]
* ShipTease: Has had plenty of it with Fin. And with Amaro in season 15. In one episode, Benson opines that they should GetARoom and another character asks Amaro if he's the boyfriend (a single scene and a couple of references after the fact reveal that TheyDo, at least briefly). And then there's a lot of it with Carisi, who is shown to be very much in love with her. It's heavily implied that she reciprocates but she CannotSpitItOut, [[spoiler:at least until the finale of Season 22, when they finally have a BigDamnKiss.]]
* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: Rollins originally was a bit loose and wasn't seeking anything serious, having fathered two kids from two different men, and even refused a proposal from one of those two. Then she, despite herself, [[spoiler:falls for the one guy who's been her rock and a father figure to her kids: Carisi.]]
* SouthernFriedGenius: Rollins is the squad member most likely to be seen [[BuffySpeak doing computer stuff]] during investigations.
* TallPoppySyndrome: Kim regards her horrible treatment of Amanda as justified at least in part due to her seething resentment over Amanda having made something of herself.
* TheOneWhoMadeItOut: Of her dysfunctional family and their hometown in Georgia. Kim shamelessly uses accusations that Amanda now thinks she's "too good for them" to [[ManipulativeBastard manipulate]] her.
* TheyDo: [[spoiler: With Amaro, though probably not for very long.]]
** [[spoiler: And then with Carisi. This'll probably last way longer than with Amaro.]]
* ThickerThanWater: She worries over her little sister's fate even after it's clear Kim has catapulted herself waaaaaay over the MoralEventHorizon.
* TrappedByGamblingDebts: Rollins initially gets out of the debts she owes due to the guy going to prison, but even after that she's haunted by them, most notably [[spoiler:when Kim uses her gambling problem as part of her FrameUp of Rollins, and then later in Season 15 when she falls OffTheWagon and gets sucked into Murphy's undercover operation as a result.]]
* ThatOneCase: A rapist she'd tracked along the eastern seaboard resurfaces in New York in one episode.
* {{Tsundere}}: She's always a spitfire, but she is very much a tsundere [[spoiler:to Carisi. Naturally, she ends up falling for him.]]
* TheUnfavorite: Her sister Kim is clearly the apple of their mother, Beth Anne, who supports Kim even when she's on the run. When Kim is arrested for drugging a john who then raped a woman under the influence and for shooting her pimp, Beth Anne actually blames ''Amanda'' for not helping her sister out and that she shouldn't return home until she "figures out how to be a real family."
* UpThroughTheRanks: Averted. While Rollins has been described as having an ambitious go-getter personality, she's explicitly stated she's not interested in climbing the rank ladder from where she currently stands.
* WhiteSheep: In a family with a alcoholic, gambler father, an alcoholic mother and a drug-addicted, criminal sister, Amanda is the only member of her family who has gotten her act together by becoming a police officer. Slightly subverted though as she has had a previous history of getting into gambling debts.
* {{Workaholic}}: Really, ''really'' resents being placed on desk duty even when its within reason. When she gets pregnant, she dodges every order to take it easy until she ''faints'' and is forced into bedrest, obscenely close to giving birth. [[spoiler: And then she basically repeats this when she gets pregnant a second time, staying on active field duty long after she probably should despite everyone else's recommendation. Although thankfully this time she actually eventually admits when she needs to rest]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Det. Joe Velasco]]
[[quoteright:232:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/joevelasco.jpg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''
!!!'''Played By:''' Octavio Pisano
Detective Joe Velasco is a detective with the Special Victims Unit. He was assigned to the squad following the retirement of Katriona Tamin.
* AbusiveParents: He tells a victim in "Never Turn Your Back on Them" that his father used to beat him with his belt. When his father died, he kept the belt.
* TeensAreMonsters: Joe reveals to Fin in "Nightmares in Drill City", that he once got caught up in criminal activity and ended up changing his life around if the tortured victim lived (the victim did live).
[[/folder]]
!!Former Personnel
%%Please list by order of joining
[[folder:Capt. Donald Cragen]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cragen_donald_5338.jpg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrder'' | ''Exiled: A Law & Order Movie'' | ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/DannFlorek
TheCaptain of the 27th, later 16th Precinct. As SVU Commanding Officer, he is portrayed as a somewhat stern but understanding father figure to the detectives who work under him, often giving them a great deal of leniency because he trusts their ability to get results. Retires at the end of ''SVU'' Season 15's Amaro's One-Eighty, giving command of the Squad to the newly promoted Sgt. Benson.
----
* TheAlcoholic: Part of his backstory. He finally got off the sauce when he came out of a blackout in the middle of Lexington Avenue pointing his gun at a cabbie "because I didn't like the way he was honking his horn". He's still recovering by the time he became Captain of the 16th Precicnct, and he frequently mentions attending [=AA=] meetings.
* AndStarring: Until Dann Florek leaves the show in season 15.
* BadassDecay: In season 1 of classic Law & Order Cragen kept Max Greevy's MoralGuardian tendencies in line. Cragen made it clear that despite their personal friendship, he expected Greevy to put aside his feelings about the victim and the crime and carry out his duties professionally. When he became captain of SVU he never held Benson and Stabler to any such standards. In fact, he showed understanding in the face of their constant emotional outbursts to the point of being an ExtremeDoormat.
* BaldOfAuthority: Captain Cragen was the completely bald police chief that led the eponymous Special Victims Unit. He later retires and appoints the very much not bald Olivia Benson as the new head of the unit.
* BigGood: As the original head of the SVU unit, he is also highly moral and loyal.
* TheBusCameBack: After being PutOnABus in Season 15, he returns 8 seasons later in "The 500th Episode".
** He made his ''Organized Crime'' debut later in the 2021-22 season in "Can't Knock the Hustle" to help Stabler get closure about his father, after he had lingering questions regarding the circumstances of the elder Stabler getting an honor cross award.
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: His departure wasn't explained until the episode "Bad Faith" three years later, which revealed that he was heading up the Anti-Corruption Task Force.
* ClearMyName: In "Blue Wall," in which he is suspected of corruption due to guilt by association.
* DaChief: First head of the 27th in the series. He's hard-nosed and stern with his detectives, but he gives them room to run with their hunches when they seem plausible. He later becomes the Head of the SVU unit until Season 15, makjng Cragen the only character serving this role i two separate shows in the franchise.
* DeadpanSnarker: Merciless. Don't ask him about ''verbal altercations''.
* AFatherToHisMen: Feels this way, and is regarded this way, as he admits in Season 14.
* HappilyMarried: To his wife, Marge, in the original series. She dies offscreen sometime between his departure from the mothership and the premiere of SVU.
* HiddenDepths:
** One episode in one of the earlier seasons shows that while he's not an avid video gamer, he's actually a quite talented one, easily beating a game that neither Munch or Fin could get past the first level on.[[note]]They were playing the game to get insight into a adolescent suspect who was obsessed with it and had problems separating fantasy and reality. The climax of the game mirrored the crime scene exactly.[[/note]]
** A sadder example occurs in Season 14 when Cragen is forced to admit he solicited prostitutes out of loneliness and desperation for companionship.
* LimitedAdvancementOpportunities: He's been a captain since ''at least'' 1988. It might have something to do with his inability to keep the SVU detectives in line.
* MeaningfulName: Donald means "great chief, world mighty", as in ''DaChief'' of the tough world called Special Victim's Unit. He also holds the distinction of serving as DaChief of two different shows in the franchise.
* MistakenForMurderer: Cragen's main arc in the Season 14 premiere is him being used as TheScapegoat by making it look like he murdered an escort.
* NoIndoorVoice: Considering the rate of turnover, can you blame him?
* NotSoAboveItAll: When Munch and Fin play a video game to get into the headspace of an autistic witness to a foster sibling's murder, he teasingly calls them the "Mario Bros." Later, he's seen playing the same game and making it to the final level (which actually helps him talk with said witness later on).
* OffTheWagon: Was at one point. Now, he tries VERY hard to make sure he stays sober, though his job doesn't make it easy.
* PutOnABus: He retires at the end of "Amaro's One-Eighty" in Season 15.
* RecoveredAddict: Captain Cragen drank like a fish in his back story. His recovered status is repeatedly brought up. Mostly by Cragen himself.
* SharpDressedMan: Casual attire for him his a dress shirt and suspenders, at minimum.
* SoProudOfYou: When he talks to Benson in the 500th episode, he beams with pride over her now being a captain as well.
* TeamDad: As opposed to active leadership of the detectives. Many of the characters actually do see him like a father figure. In "Russian Brides," as part of an undercover operation in which Cragen poses as a lonely, vulnerable older man, he admits to feeling this way about his people in turn. Even in his original run in the Mothership, he has his moments with Logan.
* TrademarkFavouriteFood: He has a 5lb bucket of Red Vines on his desk. Also a case of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, as they disappear after the first season.
* {{Transplant}}: From the [[Series/LawAndOrder original series]] to ''SVU''.
* TheVietnamVet: Captain Cragen was a Green Beret during UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar.
* VitriolicBestBuds: With Greevey, since they used to be partners before Cragen got promoted. They'll argue, particularly when Greevey's morals conflict with the case, but in the end they're still friends.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Sgt. John Munch]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/munch_john_3602.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"If you don't question authority, you lose your humanity."'']]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrder'' | ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' | ''Series/LawAndOrderTrialByJury''
!!!'''Other Appearances:''' ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'' | ''Homicide: The Movie'' | ''Series/TheWire''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/RichardBelzer
A detective and now a Sergeant in the Manhattan Special Victims Unit. A conspiracy theorist and dedicated detective, Munch is first partnered with Brian Cassidy, whom he thinks of as a kind of younger brother, alternately poking fun at him and imparting (often questionable) advice on life and women. When Cassidy leaves the precinct in 2000, Munch is briefly partnered with Monique Jeffries, and then with Odafin Tutuola. He and the gruff, uncompromising Tutuola get off to a rough start, but gradually came to like and respect each other. As of the Season 15 episode "Wonderland Story", he has retired from the Special Victims Unit, although he has taken a role as an investigator for the DA's office, allowing him to have a recurring role.
----
* AgentMulder: Munch is the most likely to catch the phrase "that's nuts!" when suggesting a lead. To his credit, he's right most of the time. It's most notable on the occasions where a cop is the perp, as Munch will usually be the first to suggest that possibility. [[note]]Potentially an ironic trope, considering Munch met the actual Agent Mulder in an ''[[Series/TheXFiles X-Files]]'' crossover episode in TheNineties[[/note]]
* BigBrotherMentor: Serves this role to everyone at some point, though Cassidy especially saw him as one. Amaro also feels close to Munch and is the most devastated when he leaves.
* CartwrightCurse: Expect any woman he's got any remote romantic interest in to be unavailable by some means by the end of the episode.
* ConspiracyTheorist: An avid consumer and producer, with particular interest in the Kennedy Assassination and government cover-ups. Ironic as it is for a cop, it actually makes him a better detective. He's naturally suspicious and very difficult to fool, with an uncanny attention to detail, a lot quicker at connecting dots than the others, and the least susceptible to "The Thin Blue Line".
* DeadpanSnarker: Has a sarcastic comment for almost everything.
-->'''Teenager, as he's being arrested:''' I want my parents!
-->'''Munch:''' Yeah, and I want the troops home, the Kyoto Protocol signed, and a Tijuana oil job from Miss February.
* DirtyOldMan: Sometimes comes off as this, but most of his comments are harmless and in good fun. Other times, people just assume he's automatically this because of his line of work.
-->'''Teenager:''' Let go of me, you dirty old man!
-->'''Munch:''' [[ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne Who you calling 'old'?]]
* FriendToAllChildren: Though he won't actually admit to liking them, he is very good at working with young children, as well as very kind to them.
* HiddenDepths: He seemed quite happy to get into a public pillow fight in "Authority".
* {{Hypocrite}}: Despite constantly talking about the importance of civil rights, he ignores, enables, and occasionally joins his coworkers when they blatantly violate the civil rights of suspects.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: On the surface, he's a grizzled cynic with a sharp tongue. Underneath is a soft spot the size of Baltimore, especially where children are involved.
* KavorkaMan: And freaking how, although not nearly as showcased as in ''Homicide''.
** A case of [[RealLifeWritesThePlot real-world influence on the show]] as Richard Belzer is married to a former Playboy model.
* LongRunners: At the end of season 14, Richard Belzer will have played Munch for 20 years (and 21 seasons) as a regular on two different shows (along with [[TheCameo cameos]] and [[CrossOver crossover appearances]] on 8 others), tying him with (or putting him one year ahead of, if measuring by seasons) Kelsey Grammer as Frasier Crane (on ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' and ''Series/{{Frasier}}''), James Arness as Matt Dillon and Milburn Stone as Doc Adams (both on ''Series/{{Gunsmoke}}'') as American television's longest running live action character.
* NumberTwo: After passing the Sergents exam in the Season 9 premiere, he becomes Cragen's deputy until Munch's retirement in Season 15.
* OutOfFocus: In later seasons. Munch is often underused, Season 9 featured him in only about half of the episodes and overall Munch has missed 65 episodes of SVU compared to just three episodes of Homicide.
* PaperThinDisguise: Whenever Munch goes undercover, this usually ensues, and it's a rare instance of this trope being both PlayedForLaughs ''and'' weirdly effective. In one episode his undercover "disguise" as a pedophile involved no more than taking off his shades, dressing slightly differently, and ''smiling.'' In another case, his disguise consisted of dressing like a hobo and shouting conspiracy theories.
--> '''Fin''': That's the same old crap he says every day, only louder.
* PartingWordsRegret: Munch told his bipolar father that he hated his guts. They would be the last words he would tell his father before he killed himself. He considers this [[MyGreatestFailure His Greatest Failure]], and now suicide is a sore spot for him.
* PersonalHorror: Munch is sensitive to abused children, particularly girls, because as a teenager, he witnessed a neighbor throwing her daughter through a plate glass window, and after the girl's death, the mother only expressed concern about replacing the window. He is also sensitive to those with mental illness because his father had bipolar disorder, and his ex-wife Gwen has an unspecified paranoid condition.
* ProperlyParanoid: He's appeared in an X-Files crossover. With a world like that in the background, he has every right to be a little paranoid. Lampshaded in another episode when he plays the part of a deranged hobo spouting ConspiracyTheorist rhetoric to draw out youths assaulting the homeless: Fin says it's "the same stuff he says every day, only louder".
* PutOnABus: He's transferred to the Cold Case unit after "Manhattan Vigil". He comes back for a while, then he retires from the Special Victims Unit in Season 15's "Wonderland Story", although Belzer has stated he'd like to return in the future. Fortunately, Munch has become an investigator for the DA's office, leaving the door open for a recurring role.
* QuipToBlack: He and Elliot are tied for these.
* RankUp: To the shock of everyone on the squad, Munch secretly takes the sergeant's exam and is promoted despite his outspoken distaste for authority and the higher-ups in the NYPD. Munch insists that he only took the exam on a bar bet and that he never expected to score well enough to actually be promoted.
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: In the few times he allows himself to get personally involved in the victims' lives, he's usually doing so because it's morally right rather than it being an extension of his job (and in "Parts", actually does something that would have cost him his job if any of the higher-ups found out). When Elliot asks him why he'd take such a risk:
--> '''Munch''': I have to be able to sleep at night.
* SerialSpouse: Subverted. None of his marriages ever last. He finally gave up after the fourth time.
--> '''Munch''': You gotta play to win.
* SmallNameBigEgo: Lowered as time goes by but in the early days, did think his lifelong conspiracy rants meant his FBI file was so huge, he'd need to carry it in a car. He got a dose of humility upon finding out his entire "file" was ''a single sheet of paper'' which noted that most of the radical community consider him a crank.
* SharpDressedMan: Almost always wears a suit.
* SunglassesAtNight: He wears shades at all times.
* TallDarkAndSnarky: Richard Belzer had dark brown hair in his youth and is the tallest main cast member to date at 6'1. Suffice to say, Munch's snarkiness is unparalleled.
* TheSmartGuy: Very, VERY smart. If the squad needs the cliff notes on a new subject, he'll have them in his head. If they need o know about literature or high culture he'll comply, and if they need to interview a witness or suspect in French or Yiddish he'll be able to do that too.
* TheyCallMeMisterTibbs: Sharply corrects Capt. Harris on his rank, which at that point is Sergeant.
* {{Transplant}}: From ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'' to ''SVU''.
* WhatTheHellHero: Although he's fairly likable--[[GoodIsNotNice to a fault, anyway]]--he has had his moments over the years, such as [[NoSympathy casually]] talking about a former partner of his who committed suicide because he took the job too seriously and referring to coma patients ([[CrossesTheLineTwice one of whom was a]] ''[[CrossesTheLineTwice rape victim]]'') as "produce" and "a member of the drool squad".
* WriterOnBoard: An actor variant. Munch's conspiracy theories and admiration of John Kennedy come directly from his actor, Richard Belzer, who has written books on the subject. Belzer himself has gone on record saying that John Munch is basically "me as a cop".
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Sgt. Michael 'Mike' Dodds]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dodds.jpg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/AndyKarl
The son of SVU's Deputy Chief, William Dodds, Mike is drafted in at the beginning of the seventeenth season to serve as Benson's second-in-command following her promotion to Lieutenant. At first appearing to be his father's proxy, he clashes with the team due to his clinical approach, but his eyes are soon opened to the realities of working at SVU. [[spoiler: As of the season finale, his desire to do what's right has brought him lethal consequences. He is the only policing member of the SVU to be killed in the line of duty.]]
----
* ByTheBookCop: Zig-zagged. He takes this approach on occasion (i.e. "Patrimonial Burden", when he's ready to shrug off the case for jurisdictional reasons as Benson is insisting they can't just let it go because a child has been hurt), especially in the beginning, but in "Melancholy Pursuit", after he's become emotionally involved in the case, Benson and Carisi have to remind ''him'' of the rules when he suggests a blatantly illegal move to get suspects' DNA. He cements his departure from this in "Unholiest Alliance", when he continues to work with Benson and Tucker to break the case even when they're officially suspended.
* FollowInMyFootsteps: His father clearly wants and expects Mike to do this and potentially even to ''surpass'' him. Mike himself, as it turns out, doesn't love the idea, but struggles with telling his father no.
* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: From what little we learn of his brother Matthew, it's clear that Mike is the Responsible to his brother's Foolish. He uses this in a couple of episodes to relate to witnesses.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Saves a woman from being shot by her abusive husband in a hostage situation... only to wind up shot himself, and later dying from complications. On his last day at SVU, to boot.]]
* IAmNotMyFather: A rare example in that his relationship with his father is pretty good, but as his character develops, it becomes clear that he doesn't have his father's aspirations -- which is a bit of a problem, because Chief Dodds has, if anything, even more aspirations for Mike than for himself. On a more surface level, he also invokes this with Benson when he makes it clear that his professional loyalties lie with SVU.
--> '''Dodds''': ''(to Benson)'' I just want you to know, what happens at SVU stays at SVU. You have my word.
* ILetGwenStacyDie: [[spoiler:A Season 22 episode indicates that Mike's death is this for Benson.]]
* ItsPersonal: In "Melancholy Pursuit", Dodds blames himself for not taking a missing persons report seriously and gets extremely emotionally invested in the ensuing murder case as a result.
* JerkassHasAPoint: Before the team warms up to him, his suggestions on how to improve productivity at SVU come across as this.
* {{Nepotism}}: Appears to be played straight at first; his father is the Deputy Chief, after all, and he blatantly and overtly greased Mike's way in.
--> '''Tutuola''': Dodds' oldest son, huh? Wonder how he got this job.
** Subverted as the season goes on and Mike proves to be a more than competent officer in his own right.
* ParentalFavoritism: Has a drug addict brother called Matt. His father is open about his preference for Mike.
* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Andy Karl was headed to the West End to star in the ''Film/GroundhogDay'' musical, [[spoiler: so Dodds is shot and killed by Gary Munson in the Season 17 finale.]]
%%* ReasonableAuthorityFigure
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: To an extent. He uses his relationship with his father, and his father's relationships with pretty much everyone, to get around bureaucracy quicker, but doesn't use it to outright manipulate people.
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Turns out to have a streak of this mentality, much to the surprise of the unit (who were expecting him to be like his rule-following father). It's most prominently on display in "Unholiest Alliance".
* WeHardlyKnewYe: [[spoiler: Killed off just as the audience was beginning to get to know him.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Det. Elliot Stabler]]
--> see Sandbox/LawAndOrderElliotStabler
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Det. Monique Jeffries]]
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/monique_jeffries.jpg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/MichelleHurd
A police detective with Manhattan's Special Victims Unit and was one of the initial detectives in the SVU squad.
----
* EightiesHair: She occasionally had her hair in a perm.
* TheBusCameBack: We later find she's been transferred to Vice and collaborates with SVU again in one episode.
* DarkSkinnedBlonde: Her hair is notably dyed.
* DatingCatwoman: Deconstructed. Sleeping with a former suspect got her kicked out of the department.
* PromotionToOpeningTitles: For about half of Season 1 upon Cassidy's departure.
* PutOnABus: She leaves the unit after sleeping with a former suspect.
* StrawFeminist: Up until her PromotionToOpeningTitles, her only scenes were just to get her dandruff up anytime Munch said something. Even then she still would get pissy with Munch.
* TokenMinority: Until Fin joined the show.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Det. Brian Cassidy]]
[[quoteright:150:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/662967d0_5009.jpg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/DeanWinters
A detective formerly employed by the Special Victims Unit. He started out as a NaiveNewcomer to the squad, but he couldn't take the graphic nature of the crimes and transferred to narcotics. Flashforward to the Season 13 finale, and we find him undercover and far less naive. He is now a RecurringCharacter, and stuck working at IAB. Oh, and he's [[spoiler:dating and living with Benson.]]
----
* BreakTheCutie: Done purposely in-universe, in Cassidy's first season, when Cragen sends him to investigate a particularly brutal gang rape to see if he can handle SVU. He can't.
* TheBusCameBack: Returned in the Season 13 finale, "Rhodium Nights", as an undercover cop, and has now become a recurring character and [[spoiler:Benson's boyfriend.]]
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: He returns for the Season 13 finale totally different--they might as well be different characters. He went from being the overly passionate rookie to a pervy perp who enables and has sex with underage sex traffickers. He's actually playing a part while undercover, although he's still far more gruff than his first appearances. There was also the implication that he might have been a dirty cop, although this turned out to be false.
* ADayInTheLimelight: "Internal Affairs."
* DistinguishingMark: A scar on the inside of his thigh, used to show who has had sex with him.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: He seems very attached to his mother, and even [[spoiler: takes Olivia on a date to have dinner with her.]]
* FakeGuestStar: He's practically part of the main cast during the first half of Season 1, yet is only credited as a guest star.
* GoodIsNotNice: When he's re-introduced in season 13.
* ImAManICantHelpIt: Averted when he's presented with a [[IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten test]] while undercover, ordered to "break in" a prostitute. He takes her into a room but makes an excuse and does not actually have sex with her. Later, after the prostitute accuses him of rape, the prosecutor tries to use this trope against him in court anyway.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: When he returns in season 13, he's not the friendliest guy, but he is ultimately on the side of good.
* NewMeat: Like Liv in the first season, but he ultimately can't handle SVU and leaves.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero : When Cassidy is on trial for rape, his lawyer's attempt to discredit Amaro's testimony unwittingly causes it to come to light that Amaro [[spoiler:has a son he never knew about... which comes as a complete shock to Amaro himself, who only learns the news when he gets suddenly sued for child support. On top of that, Amaro ''then'' discovers his son is being groomed as a drug runner by his [[WickedStepmother stepfather]], and goes full PapaWolf about getting the kid out of there. Cassidy, who had meant to make Amaro look bad on the witness stand but not to throw his life into total chaos, ends up helping Amaro take down the drug dealer stepfather.]]. In truth, this trope was only invoked, as none of the aforementioned problems were actually caused by Cassidy. Amaro just acted like they were.
* PutOnABus:
** Sex Crimes became too much for him so Cragen recommends his transfer to Narcotics. He won't show up again until the Season 13 finale.
** Back on the bus after [[spoiler: amicably breaking up with Benson the second time.]]
* RealLifeWritesThePlot: [[spoiler:Cassidy's breakup with Benson coincides with Dean Winters' other television show getting picked up.]]
* TokenEvilTeammate: While not necessarily evil, he is stuck at IAB for the foreseeable future.
* TwoFirstNames: Cassidy is a common female name.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Det. Chester Lake]]
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chesterlake.jpg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/AdamBeach
Detective Chester Lake transferred to the Manhattan SVU from Brooklyn SVU at the end of the eighth season and was partnered with Detective Fin Tutuola. He is of Native American ancestry, specifically Mohawk, and speaks proudly of his ancestors, noting that many of them helped to build the city's skyscrapers and subway tunnels. He also used to compete as an amateur mixed martial artist under the name "Naptime", but had to quit after tearing his ACL. Lake suffers from insomnia and often takes walks at night when he cannot sleep.
----
* AmbiguousDisorder: Besides being an insomniac, Lake states on occasion that the city speaks to him. Whether or not he's speaking figuratively or literally is unclear, but thankfully, it hasn't had any effect on his job.
* AntiVillain: In his initial appearance, due to JurisdictionFriction with Fin. [[spoiler: Also in his last appearance, where he ends up on trial for murdering a crooked cop.]]
* BadassNative: Inverted. He is somewhat of a badass, and definitely Native American. But he is the farthest thing from the trope.
* BrooklynRage: Was transferred in from the SVU in Brooklyn. Fits the "Rage" part of the trope's equation in "Cold".
* ByTheBookCop: Especially in contrast to Fin.
* ChekhovsHobby: His habit of walking the city, familiarizing himself with it, later helps him identify a suspect's location based on background noises in a phone call.
* FireForgedFriends: With Fin. The two men do ''not'' get along when they're first paired together, but warm up to each other in the process of solving a series of rape-homicides that affect both their boroughs.
* FosterKid: He's been raised by multiple families.
* GayBravado: Plays along with the assumption that a mother makes that he and Fin are a gay couple with a giant smile on his face.
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Typical for ''Law & Order'', but doubly unfortunate in that he spends most of his central season encountering cases like this [[spoiler:and ultimately takes a turn for the worse himself]].
* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler:Yes, he is a cop. Yes, he is mentally unstable. Yes, he is sent to prison, with a lot of people he sent to prison.]]
* MistakenNationality: From "Fight":
-->"Her pimp called me a Mexican."
* MrFanservice
* PromotionToOpeningTitles: Was a two-episode guest star in Season 8 before being upgraded to a series regular in Season 9.
* PutOnABus: [[spoiler: To prison.]]
* RabidCop: In ''Cold''.
* RatedMForManly: He's cop whose a former UsefulNotes/{{Mixed Martial Art|s}}ist.
* RealLifeWritesThePlot: An unfortunate case in that fans didn't warm up to the character because they thought Lake was written in to possibly replace Fin or Munch. Without approval of the fanbase, the writers wrote him out.
* RedBaron: During his MMA career, he's dubbed "Naptime" due to his mean right hook.
* ShipTease: Had a bit with Casey Novak in his first appearance and in the Season 9 finale, though this immediately got [[ShipSinking sunk]] since he's [[spoiler: off to prison at the end of the episode]].
* SixthRangerTraitor: [[spoiler:Not really a traitor, but Lake did commit a murder. Then again, [[AssholeVictim the victim wasn't exactly someone to cry over]]]].
* TallDarkAndHandsome
* TallDarkAndSnarky
* TokenMinority: Only Native American main character on the series.
* WeHardlyKnewYe: Written off the show after one season.
* {{Workaholic}}: Oh, yes. He spends his downtime listening to the police scanner and attending meetings of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidocq_Society Vidocq Society]].
* WorkingClassHero: Comes from a long line of ironworkers, and takes great pride in the fact that his family practically built the city of New York. TruthInTelevision, as there was a sizable and famous population of Native American ironworkers in the city.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Det. Nick Amaro]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/amaro_nick_2239.jpg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''
!!!'''Other Appearances:''' ''Series/ChicagoPD''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/DannyPino
A NYPD detective who has transferred to the Special Victims Unit from Warrants and Narcotics. Initially, Amaro did not see eye to eye with his new partner, Detective Benson, mainly because she was adjusting to having him as a partner instead of Elliot Stabler. After their rocky start, Amaro and Benson begin to have a mutual respect for each other and work well together.
----
* AbusiveParents: Growing up, he was physically abused by his father. Nick himself thankfully averts this.
* ActionDad: To six-year-old Zara and later nine-year-old Gilberto 'Gil'.
* AmazonChaser: When first introduced, his wife is in the Army and serving in Iraq. His affair with [[spoiler:fellow cop Rollins]] could fall under this as well.
* BeardOfSorrow: Any time Amaro's life is going badly, count on the five o'clock shadow showing up.
* BigBrotherInstinct: Has a tendency to "helpfully" get involved in other people's problems, Rollins' in particular.
* BreakTheHaughty: His heart's generally in the right place, but Amaro has a touch of the IneffectualLoner when he joins SVU, and is distinctly unafraid to challenge his squadmates on what he regards as poor police work. The episodes "Undercover Blue" and "Amaro's One-Eighty" sharply humble him on both counts. Combined with the failure of his marriage, by the end of season 15 he's pretty much in HeroicBSOD territory.
* CallingTheOldManOut: Non-stop, and with complete justification, when his dad shows up in season 16.
* TheCharmer: Can be this when dealing with difficult suspects or witnesses, to GuileHero levels. Perhaps most spectacularly when he [[spoiler:out-manipulates Rollins' ManipulativeBastard sister, and manages to talk a ''very'' hostile grand jury into not indicting him.]]
* ChekhovsSkill: Amaro's background in Narcotics, in which he did a lot of undercover work, frequently shows up in his approach at SVU. Namely, he's excellent at [[GuileHero pretending to play along and manipulating suspects and witnesses]], and also has a fondness for the use of HiddenWire.
* ChickMagnet: Many women have found him attractive and actively flirted to him.
* ConsummateLiar: Amaro is really, ''really'' good at LyingToThePerp. Such as the episode where he opens an interrogation with an absolute whopper of a lie, and then uses the lie to shamelessly manipulate the suspect's religious guilt, and then does ''that'' so successfully that the perp regards Amaro as a "brother in Christ" and spills everything.
* ContrastingSequelMainCharacter: Initially, Amaro was this to Stabler, as he was more of a GuileHero compared to Stabler's violent tendencies. Unfortunately, within a few seasons his character had suffered the same {{Flanderization}} as Stabler.
* CrazyJealousGuy: Has an attack of this when he suspects his wife of infidelity.
* CruelToBeKind: In "October Surprise," Amaro gets in Barba's face with taunts of being a sellout who went away to Harvard and forgot where he came from. However, Amaro's purpose is to drive home to Barba exactly how his old friend Muñoz is manipulating him (especially given that Barba had just pulled an [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness uncharacteristically]] [[HonorBeforeReason risky]] stunt to help Muñoz).
* DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou: Amaro [[spoiler:discovered the existence of his son when he was sued for child support ten years after he'd broken it off with the mother.]]
* DisappearedDad: His father walked out when he was a kid. Unlike most examples, Amaro indicates he doesn't miss him at all due to the DomesticAbuse he inflicted on Amaro's mother, and even states they "threw a party" when he left.
** Amaro himself was this to his son Gil, although it's {{justified|Trope}} because he was never told the child existed. As soon as he found out, he made an effort to be in the boy's life.
* DivorceAssetsConflict: Maria takes a [[TookALevelInJerkass level in jerkass]] and pulls this on him [[spoiler:by taking their daughter to California.]]
* DomesticAbuse: Grew up in a household characterized by this. As he tells Benson, his father "liked to bounce [his] mom off the walls."
* DotingParent: Very clearly adores his daughter. [[spoiler: He wastes no time becoming this to his son once he finds out the kid exists.]]
* EntitledBastard: When he beats a suspect into a coma, the day after the suspect was acquitted, he never acknowledges his actions were wrong, he just wallows in self pity as he faces the consequences of his actions. After Rollins gets the criminal charges dropped (with a little police misconduct of her own), he acts indignant about getting demoted to patrol and constantly pesters Benson that it's taking her too long to get him his detective shield back. Then he feels sorry for himself when he learns that his actions mean he would never be eligible for a promotion. (This last part is partially justified by the fact that Benson was still promoted after she had, over the course of the series, technically accumulated an even longer list of questionable actions).
* FairCop: Lampshaded, as more than one character has remarked on his good looks.
* FamilyRelationshipSwitcheroo: He's initially introduced [[spoiler:as an "uncle" to the boy who is really his son,]] and hates it.
* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: The Responsible to his sister Sonya's Foolish.
* {{Foil}}: To Rafael Barba. Both are Cuban-American Latino men who grew up with abusive fathers, but their personalities and the paths in life they took are quite different, which lead them to clash at times. Amaro is impatient with formalities and has a more explosive temper which leads him to try to take things into his own hands. Barba on the other hand has taken to the finer things in life, TranquilFury is more his brand of anger, and as a lawyer his preferred battleground is in Court.
* FriendToAllChildren: As the father to a little girl he's generally good with kids, but Amaro really exemplifies this trope in "Born Psychopath" when he [[spoiler:manages to talk down a [[EnfantTerrible psychopathic child on a killing spree]]. He successfully defuses the situation, but gets shot in the chest as a result of [[HonorBeforeReason his reluctance to use too much force]]. And then even after being shot, he ''shields the kid with his own body'' to prevent the police from shooting him because he can't countenance the killing of a child, even a sociopathic one. Amaro firmly stands by that decision even after Benson points out it's pure luck he wasn't shot in the head or some other part of the body not covered by his bulletproof vest]]. He also plays with [[spoiler: Benson's adopted son Noah and she notes that Noah seems to like Nick]].
* {{Gaslighting}}: His father attempts this in Padre Sandunguero; his mother and sister also express the view that Amaro is overdramatizing or remembering things wrong, albeit they are expressing their own massive denial about Amaro Sr.'s abuse.
* GoThroughMe: When vigilantes shoot at his house, Amaro ''immediately'' rushes to shield his daughter with his own body.
* GoodParents: One of his defining traits is that he's fiercely protective and loving towards Gil and Zara. It's their moving with their mothers to the West Coast (to San Diego and Los Angeles, respectively) that ultimately catalyzes him to follow them out and leave New York.
* GuileHero: Especially compared to his predecessor Stabler, Amaro usually prefers to quietly manipulate suspects into confessing and is excellent at pretending to take their side.
* HeCleansUpNicely: Invoked in his first episode when he arrives from Narcotics scruffy and bearded. Cragen orders him to wear a jacket and tie.
* HeadbuttingHeroes: He and Brian Cassidy despise each other. He and Barba have their moments as well, at least until they find some common ground later, at least partly due to them both being Latino. In a more general sense in most episodes, Nick is often the first to bring up other possibilities that the detectives may have been blind to initially, but won't argue when he knows the other detectives are too emotionally involved to listen.
* HoneyTrap: He's been the target of at least two, but wasn't stupid enough to fall for either. He's also acted as a honeytrap ''himself'', having flirted [[spoiler:Rollins' sister Kim]] into incriminating herself on tape.
* HonoraryUncle: To [[spoiler:Olivia's son, Noah. Even helped take care of him on a few occasions.]]
* HotBlooded: He can get very angry whenever something pisses him off enough. He can give Stabler a run for his money in this department.
* IAmNotMyFather: '''Hoo boy.''' Amaro's father is a gaslighting abuser. Amaro succeeds (mostly) in breaking this cycle where his own intimate relationships are concerned, although he struggles badly with anger issues.
* IconicSequelCharacter: One of the show's notable detectives but didn't make an appearance until the second episode of Season 13.
* JuniorCounterpart: To Finn, despite being Elliot's replacement. Like Finn, Amaro was introduced as a new transfer from the Narcotics Division who happens to be non-Caucasian male and was having a "shabby" appearance during said introduction. Both are also connected to the U.S. Army, though in Nick's case it's through his (eventual ex-) wife.
** Amaro also mentions at one point having worked military intelligence.
* KarmaHoudini: He threatened Cassidy at gunpoint, assaulted Murphy, and beat a man into coma after the man was acquitted. Ultimately, the only long-term consequence was that he found himself ineligible for promotion, and thanks to an on-the-job injury (from which he was expected to make a full recovery), he was able to retire on a three-quarter pension and start over in California.
* KnightTemplar: Crossed the line when he beat a man into a coma the day after the man was acquitted.
* TheLancer: To Olivia.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Gets in in two ways after he's arrested in the season 15 finale. [[spoiler:On the bad karma side, that time Amaro punched the crap out of an undercover Murphy? Comes back to bite him ''hard'', as now-CO Murphy refuses to waste any favors getting Amaro his old job back at SVU. On the good karma side, Rollins gets the charges against Amaro dropped, which is a nice callback to the episode in which Amaro saved Rollins from murder charges.]]
* LatinLover: Played with. Other characters sometimes ''react'' to him as if he's one, but in reality he's a pretty straightlaced family man.
* LongDistanceRelationship: One of the factors for his and Maria's separation is due to the stress of them not being there for each other all the time due to Nick's job and Maria being deployed in Iraq.
* ManipulativeBastard: On the other side of being TheCharmer, both Benson and his own wife have called Amaro out on trying to slip an interrogation into an otherwise innocuous conversation.
* MrFanservice: The show regularly provides scenes of Amaro working out, waking up [[ShirtlessScene shirtless]] in the middle of the night, having a shirtless AfterActionPatchUp, etc.
* MyGreatestFailure: Failing to understand his wife's PTSD after she returned from Iraq, leading to the failure of their marriage, or so he admits to Rollins.
* NeverMyFault: After Cassidy found out about his undercover affair, Amaro blamed Cassidy, not himself, for all the problems that came with it. He also never accepted responsibility for beating Simon Wilkes.
* NewMeat: In season 13, along with Rollins.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: He attempts to help Rollins [[spoiler:by infiltrating her Gamblers Anonymous group and exposing her sponsor-slash-lover as a womanizing sleazebag. However, since it relates to the case of the week, it also more or less forces Barba to expose Rollins' private life in open court. She's badly humiliated, and arguably this is part of what helps push her OffTheWagon.]]
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: His attempt to save a fellow officer's life in "Amaro's One Eighty" causes Amaro to [[spoiler:come under investigation by InternalAffairs, nearly lose his badge, get falsely tarred by the public as a racist, and have his house shot at by vigilantes who only by pure luck miss Amaro's mother and young daughter. Later, this contributes to the complete loss of any semblance of a future with NYPD, forcing him to retire after being injured.]]
* NoodleIncident: While investigating a college football hazing incident, Amaro references his own time on a school football team and tells Fin "I did things I'm not proud of" in the name of team unity. What those things were is never elaborated upon.
* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Much like his predecessor, Amaro is dogged by his "getting furious" incidents.
* PapaWolf:
** Don't even breathe around Zara.
** Also goes into this mode in ''Undercover Blue'' when [[spoiler:he discovers he'd fathered a child while undercover. When he discovers the child's stepfather is involving the kid in drug deals, Amaro is ''pissed.'']]
* PersonAsVerb: In one episode Rollins starts to cast doubt on a seemingly ironclad confession by a suspect, and Cragen tells her not to "go Amaro" on him.
* PoorCommunicationKills: His and his wife's inability to communicate with each other ultimately leads to the end of their marriage.
* ProperlyParanoid: His obsessive checking of bathroom stalls in the season 13 finale/season 14 premiere is a little OTT, but justified by the fact that he was individually targeted for a FrameUp.
* PutOnABus: [[spoiler:To California in the Season 16 finale, to join his two children over there]].
* SecondEpisodeIntroduction: Though his actor is credited in the Season 13 premiere, he only makes his debut in the following episode.
* ShipTease: With Rollins, of whom he's quite protective.
* StarCrossedLovers: With Cynthia, the sister of a drug kingpin in whose organization Amaro went undercover.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: He eventually forged his own identity as a character, but the first several things we learn about Nick are that he's a devout Catholic family man with a rocky marriage and a bit of a temper (up to and including a voiced desire to physically assault perps). Sure reminds one of his predecessor, Elliot Stabler. As Stabler's season 12 departure wasn't pre-planned as such, there's some speculation that early scripts in season 13 all but literally had Amaro inserted to filling Elliot's position in the story.
** {{Deconstruction}}: As of "Surrendering Noah," [[spoiler:all of Amaro's Elliot-like actions have resulted in actual punishments and consequences, the likes of which Elliot himself always seemed to escape. It's explicitly said that Amaro is "damaged goods" and has no hope of career advancement at the NYPD.]] Verges a little bit on CantGetAwayWithNuthin territory considering some of the incidents were Amaro responding to direct violence ([[spoiler:the shooting in "Amaro's One-Eighty", the subsequent attack on his house and family]]) rather than initiating it for the sake of interrogation.
* TallDarkAndHandsome: He is repeatedly told that he's a FairCop, and stands 6 feet to boot.
* TokenMinority: The show's first Latino main character, though Barba is introduced a season later (and joins the main cast the following one).
* TwoFirstNames: Amaro is actually used as a given name in countries with Latino heritage.
* TheUnfavorite: It is said in "Padre Sandunguero" that his father never abused his sister like he did to him.
* TheVillainKnowsWhereYouLive: The BigBad of season 14's opener shows up at Amaro's house while he's playing with his daughter. Amaro is, naturally, [[PapaWolf furious.]]
* WhatTheHellHero: He gets a spectacular one from Rollins after he [[spoiler:infiltrates her Gamblers Anonymous group.]]
* WifeBasherBasher: Played with. While it's established early on that Amaro has issues relating to his father's abuse of his mother, and violence against women and children is certainly a sore spot for him at times, he's also unafraid to express skepticism of victims when necessary (and has correctly identified a WoundedGazelleGambit or two). This makes sense due to his conflicted feelings toward his mother and sister, who are among his father's biggest defenders.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Det./A.D.A. Dominick "Sonny" Carisi, Jr.]]
--> see Sandbox/LawAndOrderSexCrimesBureau
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Det. Katriona "Kat" Tamin]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/katorinatamin.PNG]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/JamieGrayHyder
A fiery young cop of Lebanese descent originally from a rough neighbourhood, transferred from Vice into Special Victims after impressing Benson during a collaboration in catching a famous rapist and acting as Carisi's replacement.
----
* ActionGirl: Her first episode shows her willingness to get physical with perps. Of the three women on the squad, she's probably the best fighter.
* AloofDarkHairedGirl: She has little to no patience dealing with hard-ass suspects.
* BoobsOfSteel: She's well-endowed and willing to get physical with perps and does so skillfully, more than Olivia or Amanda (it helps that she's younger).
* DisneyDeath: [[spoiler: She gets shot during a raid and flatlines in the ambulance, but ultimately survives.]]
* FairCop: She's a good-looking and youthful detective for the NYPD, joining the ranks of Rollins in that regard.
* LeeroyJenkins: She has a tendency to get hostile and confrontational when her colleagues are trying to get the suspect to talk by being friendly. She also talks to suspects off the cuff without preparation or permission.
* NewMeat: As of Season 21. She has a lot of issues getting used to the CrapsackWorld of Special Victims, and the team has to teach her how to correctly get information from victims without being too brazen. She does get better though.
* PutOnABus: [[spoiler:Quits the force after surviving a gunshot wound in season 23.]]
* StatuesqueStunner: A FairCop standing at 5'9" -- she's even taller than Benson, who isn't exactly short.
* TwoferTokenMinority: She's the second Asian main character in the show's history since George Huang's departure in Season 12. Like Huang she is also LGBT+, in her case being bisexual. More specifically, Kat is the first Middle Eastern main character. Of course she's also the first woman who fits into those categories as well.
* VitriolicBestBuds: With Carisi in particular, as she often gets on his case (pun intended) when he won't give the squad what they want, e.g. a warrant. At one point she lampshades this when they wind up on the same side of an argument by saying, "Hey, I'm on your side this time!" That said, though, she doesn't take kindly to it when he gets hurt, and does seem to understand that he's just doing his job. She doesn't ''like'' it, but she gets it.
[[/folder]]
[[foldercontrol]]
!!Current Personnel
%%Please list by order of joining
[[folder:Capt. Olivia Benson]]
--> see Sandbox/LawAndOrderOliviaBenson
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Sgt. Odafin "Fin" Tutuola]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tutuola_odafin_9321.jpg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' | ''Series/LawAndOrder''
!!!'''Other Appearances:''' ''Series/ChicagoPD''
!!!'''Played By:''' Music/IceT
A sergeant in the Manhattan Special Victims Unit. He was raised in Harlem and he served in the United States Army, where he saw combat in Mogadishu. A former undercover narcotics detective, Tutuola replaced Monique Jeffries after she left the squad in 2000. He transferred out of narcotics after his partner was shot. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, he ends up cutting off ties with this partner, and his crazy daughter goes on a such murderous rampage that they have to call in [[Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent Eames]] and the Anti-Terrorism Taskforce.]]
----
* ActionDad: To his estranged son, Ken.
* TheAtoner: A couple times, usually having to do with narcotics cases.
* BigBrotherInstinct: Toward Rollins. When he finds out a bookie roughed her up over her gambling debts, he has the crook's place raided. He even punches him in the stomach, as he'd previously done to Rollins, telling him he knows what that was for.
* TheBigGuy: To John Munch's TheSmartGuy.
* BigScrewedUpFamily: Let's see, a gay son who resents him, [[spoiler:an ex-wife who was raped by her own father, producing a son who committed murder and got away scot free…]], and a brother in law who gets out of jail only to be falsely arrested on Christmas Eve… yep, definitely a nice family.
* BlackAndNerdy: Is an unapologetic gamer, which Benson teases him over.
-->'''Olivia''': So, all those years of gaming finally paid off?
* BlackAndWhiteMorality: Sees all offenders as scum, [[ReformedButRejected reformed or not]].
* BlackRepublican: Registered as such, apparently.
* BreakoutCharacter: Was originally supposed to be a four episode character. However, because he was well received by fans, he was kept on the show for good.
* CatchPhrase: "That's messed up."
* ChivalrousPervert: Believe it or not. Though used for comedic effect, it's definitely not brought up often given the sensitive kinds of crimes on the show. Fin [[ImAManICantHelpIt doesn't try to cover up the fact that he's subject to a man's needs whenever it comes up]], but he doesn't allow that to blur the boundaries required to do his job and he's clearly very angered/annoyed when they come across particularly disturbing cases. One notable instance that this part of Fin's nature is really helpful is when Fin recognizes a young woman that held a position in a low-level public office from a porn he's watched (that's he's later shown in possession of), which allows the SVU detectives to follow a string of unlawful appointments that were coverups to the various flings of a mayoral candidate.
* DadTheVeteran: Father to Ken and served in the U.S. Army during the Somalia Civil War.
* ADayInTheLimelight: Handled a case on his own in "Anchor".
* DisappearedDad: Fin's undercover work in Narcotics often resulted in him being gone for weeks if months at a time, leaving Ken to essentially grow up without a father, which later caused significant tension between them. Eventually, the amount of Fin's undercover stretches brought he and his wife to divorce.
* FatalFlaw: He was not a good father or husband. It still haunts him, and it comes back to bite him several times.
* FireForgedFriends: He and Munch used to not get along. In later seasons, they were quite willing to go the extra mile to help each other out.
* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: His usual response to being told an offender's sob story.
* AFriendInNeed: To Rollins, both when she's getting screwed over by her sister and when she later appears to be in over her head with [[TrappedByGamblingDebts gambling debts]], and Fin is the one Rollins calls for a ride when [[spoiler: she goes into labour in Season 17]]. Also to Olivia in subtle ways, pre-Season 12 - he's the only one that knows she's going to therapy post-"Undercover".
* GayBravado: Generally rolls with it whenever he's MistakenForGay alongside Munch or Lake. He also fusses at Amaro for not being dressed well enough when they go undercover in a gay club.
* GenreSavvy: "Intimidation Game" ''tries'' to make Fin out to be this, using his 20 years of gamer expertise to foil a kidnapping plot by deranged gamers, but it amounts to little else but him making lots of painful video game analogies.
** Back in season 3 "Care", the background funny moment may have actually been this when he and Munch play the same video game in order to try and enter the mindset of a murder witness with autism who was obsessed with it.
-->'''Munch''': Damn it!\\
'''Game''': You have lost.\\
'''Tutuola''': Pathetic. Give me that; let me show you how to do it.
* GoodIsNotSoft: Possibly the finest example out of all the characters.
* HeelFaceDoorSlam: Despite Fin and Ken mostly repairing their relationship, Ken is still hesitant to introduce his fiance Alejandro out of fear of Fin's reaction. Because of this, Fin doesn't get to meet Alejandro [[spoiler:before Alejandro is brutally beaten into a coma]], and deeply regrets it.
* HeelRealization: The episode "Strain" has him discover that his son Ken is gay, and Fin is initially exasperated about this development. After seeing the grief of another father who was [[IWishedYouWereDead estranged from his gay son]] and [[NeverGotToSayGoodbye lost him suddenly]], Fin realizes that justified or not, he was largely absent from Ken's childhood, and the distance between him and his son will only grow if he cannot accept him. The episode ends with Fin calling Ken.
* HiddenDepths: According to the official Twitter Account, Fin enjoys Shakespearean tragedies, his favorite being Cymbeline.
* HopelessWithTech:
-->'''Fin:''' ''(after watching a video of a Latino gang member bragging about raping a white girl)'' What, those fools think the cops don't know how to use the Internet?
-->'''Rollins:''' Well, it did take me a year to teach you how to.
* HotBlooded: Less so than Stabler and Amaro, but if he has to go after your ass instead of you going quietly, he's gonna be pretty pissed when he finally catches you.
* IconicSequelCharacter: Finn is the show's original BreakoutCharacter and the second most tenured character by mid-Season 15, but he doesn't make an appearance until the very end of the Season 2 premiere.
* IronicName: Tutuola is a Yoruba name meaning "The Gentle One". One need not watch Fin [[GoodIsNotNice in action for very long]] to see how non-descriptive that name is.
* TheLancer: As the main character with the second longest tenure on the show by Season 15, it makes sense. After his promotion to Sergeant, he gets transferred to another precinct but later gets himself moved back to SVU as Benson's second-in-command.
* MeaningfulName: Odafin means lawmaker or establisher of laws.
* MrExposition: In "Intimidation Game", he explains gaming terms to the audience through Benson, who doesn't play video games.
* NaiveNewcomer: An interesting example. Fin's definitely been around the block a few times, both before and after his run as a narc, but he's woefully out of his depth when it comes to sex crimes. The show gets a good deal of [[LetMeGetThisStraight exposition]] of it.
* NumberTwo: Becomes this when Olivia takes over the squad, with her referring to him as her second in command when asked and trying to convince him to take the Sergeant's exam. He's somewhat reluctant to take the position at first but eventually accepts it.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Rarely called Odafin.
* OnlySaneMan: He seems to be the only one who's aware of just how messed up everyone in SVU is. There actually came a point where he, [[AudienceSurrogate like many in the audience]], just wrote Stabler off as an out-of-control lunatic. He wasn't shy about it either, describing Stabler as "a head case" to both Cragen and to Stabler's face.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Fin was just ''that'' pissed off about the suspect targeting people [[ItsPersonal close to him]].
** He's usually not into roughing up suspects (that's more Stabler's thing), but during a case involving children being sold as slaves, the man behind the slave ring attempts to run. Fin chases him down and gives him a well deserved NoHoldsBarredBeatdown.
* OutOfCharacterMoment: That time he took a page out of [=UnStabler=]'s book and threatened to gouge an uncooperative suspect's eyes out with a spoon. He actually produced the spoon, too.
* OutOfFocus: Pre-season 12, very few episodes focused on him and even then they were more about his family's problems than Fin himself. Post Season 12, Fin's son Ken is nowhere to be seen, and Fin himself has only had a couple of episodes of any focus.
* PapaWolf: First appears in the seventh season episode "Strain", when Ken is under investigation. While Fin is more stable in his methods than Elliot, he could still give him a good run for his money. After some initial strain, he extended this to his future son-in-law.
* PerpetualFrowner: An entire episode has a victim pointing out this from the moment she meets him to the moment the episode concludes. He still doesn't smile.
* PromotionToOpeningTitles: Ice-T was billed as a guest star in his introduction but is immediately added to the opening credits the following episode.
* RankUp: Promoted to Sergeant in season 18
* RatedMForManly: Compared to his snarky partner Munch, but most especially so after Stabler leaves amongst the new personnel introduced to the series.
* RefusalOfTheCall: Despite being the second most tenured cast member by mid-Season 15, Fin refused to take the sergeants exam to make him Olivia's official second-in-command until Season 18.
* ScaryBlackMan: Averted. Despite being on a New York detective unit known for using more, uh, [[PoliceBrutality unorthodox]] tactics to wring confessions out of suspects, he's generally more calm and emotionally stable than most of his colleagues, especially in comparison to Stabler.
* SoProudOfYou: He feels this way towards Ken, telling Rollins that his son is the bravest man he knows.
* TheStoic: Is better at hiding his emotions than anyone else.
* SurvivorGuilt: In "Manhunt", it's revealed that his partner in Narcotics [[TakingTheBullet took a bullet]] from a drug lord meant for him. In "Poisoned Motive", we learn that he distanced himself from his former partner after the shooting because he couldn't deal with feeling responsible for the man's condition.
* TokenMinority: Lampshaded when he replaces Jeffries.
* UndyingLoyalty: In terms of loyalty to Liv, Fin takes the cake. When Dodds starts interviewing people to potentially replace Liv, Fin makes it clear that if Liv is replaced, there will be consequences.
* WhenHeSmiles: Fin often scowls and is quite convincing as a tough, intimidating cop, but the occasional times when he has a genuinely happy smile, such as the ending to "Haunted", his face positively transforms.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Det. Amanda Rollins]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rollins_amanda_6890.jpg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''
!!!'''Other Appearances:''' ''Series/ChicagoPD'' | ''Series/ChicagoFire''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/KelliGiddish
A detective from Atlanta, Georgia, who moves to New York City to join the Special Victims Unit. Rollins appears to be a detective who is very anxious to do her job, often being told not to get ahead of herself by Detectives Benson and Amaro, and Captain Cragen.
----
* AesopAmnesia: Rollins can't seem to stop herself from doing really risky investigative work without getting permission or at least notifying someone beforehand, no matter how many times it gets her and/or the team screwed over.
* ActionGirl: Just as much as Benson. Also, like Benson, graduates to ActionMom in the 17th season.
* BerserkButton: As much of a spitfire as she can be, she gets two of hers pressed '''hard''' in ''Post-Graduate Psychopath,'' when the perp (who she'd helped send to juvenile detention years earlier) stalks her and Jessie, and then stabs [[ImpliedLoveInterest Carisi]] to boot. She makes it a point to go to the psyche ward that he's been sent back to and pointedly tell him that if he ever goes near her family (Carisi included) again, [[IllKillYou "that'll be your last day on this Earth."]]
* BigScrewedUpFamily: Claims she's the [[OnlySaneMan only sane woman]] in her family and doesn't go home for Christmas (she does visit for Easter).
* BigSisterInstinct: Despite her younger sister being a mess, Rollins doesn't hesitate to protect her sister from bad men.
* BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord: Averted, as she [[spoiler:doesn't even bother with a euphemism when she blackmails Wilkes' wife into getting the charges against Amaro dropped.]]
* CainAndAbel: Her relationship with Kim is eventually revealed to be this.
* CatSmile: Rollins' slanted eyes only adds to her cat-like appearance everytime she grins.
* ChekhovsClassroom: One episode opens with the SVU team undergoing routine training. Rollins is established as an excellent shot, but also as having a blind spot about a female domestic violence victim who actually turns out to be aggressive. Later in the episode, [[spoiler:Rollins' [[ManipulativeBastard scheming]] younger sister Kim uses both of these traits as part of a BatmanGambit to get Rollins to kill her abusive boyfriend so that she (Kim) can collect an insurance payout on him.]]
* CoolBigSis: She's very protective of her [[ManChild younger sister Kim]], who takes advantage of this several times.
* CowboyCop: Dips into this at times. Rollins has a tendency to leap into action with her own ideas of what to do without permission... and it almost always ends up more harmful than helpful.
* DaddyIssues: Temporary Sergeant Murphy points out she's had "complicated" relationships with men, particularly if they're authority figures (see: her former sergeant who assaulted her and the Gamblers Anonymous sponsor who slept with her; this even extends to non-romantic relationships as she stuck up for Cragen after the dead hooker incident and is willing to give the benefit of a doubt a Creator/WoodyAllen (incest)[=/=]Creator/RomanPolanski (fled overseas)-type suspect).
-->'''Rollins''': My father was a gambler until mom nagged him out of the house.\\
'''Murphy''': Did you ever think she had a ''reason'' for doing that?
** This ends up being HilariousInHindsight when [[spoiler: she ends up getting pregnant by Murphy]]
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Her family of origin is a DysfunctionJunction, she's gotten in over her head with gambling debts, and she was sexually assaulted by a higher-up at her precinct in Atlanta.
* DeadpanSnarker: Mainly to Carisi when she's annoyed by him.
* DeepSouth: Hails from Georgia.
* DirtyHarriet: Inherited this role from Olivia, having gone undercover as a drunk party girl in an effort to lure out a DirtyCop rapist.
* DontYouDarePityMe: This is frequently her response to squadmates attempting to help her with her gambling or family issues.
* EasilyForgiven: A Downplayed example. Benson has no problem chewing her out for dragging her gambling debts into her work life, threatening to transfer her to another unit for her behaivior. It takes a while before Benson forgives Rollins, and is outright snide towards her before that, but the fact that Amanda is never fired or given any reprimand more serious than a tongue-lashing is overly generous on Benson's part.
** It's a similar situation when her gambling is first revealed, but in that case it's {{justified|Trope}} both because it didn't have an impact on her work the same way and because it's Cragen, who's had his own struggles with addiction and recognizes that his own superior officer's decision to help him rather than punish him was what got him to turn his life around.
* EtTuBrute: Gets an absolutely brutal knife in the back from [[spoiler:her younger sister]].
* EveryoneLovesBlondes: She's pretty popular with the guys in-universe, both inside and out of the squad room.
* FairCop: Dem cheekbones. Dose eyes. Dat Hair. Even ''Stephanie March'' felt threatened. Rollins has also caught the eye of several male characters.
* TheFarmerAndTheViper: Learns the very, very hard way that kindness is wasted on her sister.
* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Her sister Kim has substance abuse issues and an abusive boyfriend [[spoiler: who she set up to be shot by Amanda (she has a history of threatening him) for insurance money which she forged her sister's name to; she also knows about the gambling debts. When Amanda learns the whole truth and Amaro gets Kim on tape, she skips town along with all of her sister's possessions -- literally, the only things Amanda has left is her fridge, an ice tray, and Kim's goodbye note]].
* TheGamblingAddict: Her mounting gambling debts get her into a lot of trouble with some very dodgy people. She's been attending Gamblers Anonymous per Cragen's orders.
* HereditaryHairstyle: She and her sister got their blonde hair from their mother, a trait Amanda's daughter herself would inherit.
* HeroesLoveDogs: She has a pit bull named Frannie that has appeared and been mentioned in several episodes. Frannie even helped Amanda run down William Lewis after he flashed two tourists in Central Park.
* HisOwnWorstEnemy: Is quite prone to self-sabotage, particularly in her personal life, which leads her into relationships with men who are physically/emotionally unavailable, or just otherwise awful. She's self-aware enough to know this is an [[FreudianExcuse inherited issue]] from her mother, but it isn't until season 21, when she starts seeing a therapist, that she starts getting out of her own way. It doesn't stop Olivia from pulling her into her office in a season 23 episode to ask if her offer to be the HoneyTrap on a case isn't her doing this with [[spoiler: Carisi]]; Olivia expresses concern that there's a part of Amanda that "that thinks that you don't deserve to be happy."
* HoneyTrap: One of her specialties. She's volunteered herself as bait to catch more than one criminal and she's very good at it.
* [[HonoraryUncle Honorary Aunt]]: To Olivia's adopted son Noah, and specifically referred to this way in "Chasing Demons."[[note]]"Lucy" is Noah's regular nanny.[[/note]]
-->"Okay, so, Noah, Auntie Amanda is gonna take you to school, and Lucy is gonna pick you up."
* HumiliationConga: Between "Rapist Anonymous" and "Gambler's Fallacy," season 15 is this for her.
* IconicSequelCharacter: Doesn't make an appearance until the Season 13 premiere, but now holds place as the third longest serving member of the current main cast by Season 17.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: When the squad visits the shooting range for practice, she's the best shot of all of them.
* IronicName: Amanda means "having to be loved", "deserving to be loved" and "worthy of love", which are all poignant for a character who was awfully betrayed numerous times.
* JuniorCounterpart: Much like Liv during the series premiere, Rollins is the new transfer of the squad along with a male detective (Cassidy for Liv, Amaro for Rollns).
* KarmaHoudini: Deconstructed. ''So'' deconstructed. [[spoiler:Her gambling debts cause her to stumble into working for the owner of a sketchy gambling parlor, then rescued by an undercover cop working as the owner's enforcer, who gets her involved in the case. It backfires partially as the wife of an involved party gets raped, getting SVU involved and nearly blowing Rollins' cover; when the dust clears, the undercover cop commends Rollins for her work and tells her to stay clean, but a furious Benson, not happy with being put on the spot as a newbie squad commander (including lying to Amaro and Fin about what Rollins was up to), says that if SVU wasn't so understaffed, Rollins would be on her way to a new department.]] Borders on PyrrhicVictory, as a matter of fact.
* TheLadette: Compared to Olivia, especially after Olivia's personality mellowed out. While both women are "OneOfTheBoys" to an extent, Rollins is more overtly prone to profanity or recklessness, and has a number of stereotypically "masculine" hobbies and vices, especially gambling. She seems to have a habit of sleeping around, is occasionally seen smoking, and is also the closest thing the main team has to a resident computer geek.
* LikeBrotherAndSister: Arguably her relationship with Carisi at least at first, with Rollins's actress describing Carisi as like "her annoying younger brother." They bicker, but constantly have each other's back and Carisi is her daughter's godfather. It's somewhat more complicated than that, though: Carisi has a thing for her, and steadfastly supports her and her daughters to the point where he's essentially the only father figure Jesse and Billie have ever known. Amanda ''finally'' gets her LoveEpiphany at the end of season 22.
* LoveMakesYouDumb: Poor Rollins had this publicly exposed in "Rapist Anonymous." Additionally, [[spoiler: the blackmail stunt she pulled to save Amaro from prison time has a strong chance of turning out this way]].
* MamaBear:
** {{Inverted}}. Kim recalls how she threatened to shoot a guy in the knees if he bothered their mother again when they were kids.
** While Rollins hasn't been given a moment yet, she did state that she would ''kill'' anyone that tried to harm Jesse.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Has a heartbreaking moment of this when she realizes she's been manipulated by her sister [[spoiler:into killing a man.]]
* NewMeat: In season 13, along with Amaro.
* MsFanservice: Being the HoneyTrap expert, Rollins [[ExploitedTrope deliberately]] plays on this role to catch the perps.
* OffTheWagon: [[spoiler:She starts gambling again in "Rapist Anonymous", and it continues through to "Gambler's Fallacy", where it nearly gets her in serious trouble. She gets back on the wagon after that and appears to have stayed there since.]]
* OnceDoneNeverForgotten:: Her gambling addiction is this for Rollins, although somewhat deservedly as its consequences constantly pop up.
* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Seems to be ''inverted'' - sometimes, she'll slip ''into'' a southern drawl that she (and her actress) doesn't normally have. Note that her mother and sister ''do'' have southern accents so it's implied to be something that she trained herself out of but reverts to when she gets emotionally riled.
* OutOfCharacterMoment: Tried to provoke Amaro into hitting her in "Spousal Privilege", apparently because she wanted to [[BreakTheHaughty call him out on his pride at being better than the abusers while ignoring his own anger management issues]] (she saw him yelling at Maria over the phone on top of the suspect of the week being her weakness, an abusive authority figure). Amaro doesn't take the bait and leaves. She may have been drunk (this took place in a bar) and the next several episodes focus on their traumatic pasts.
* PregnantBadass: [[spoiler:Is revealed to be pregnant with Declan Murphy's child as of Season 17, not that this slows her down in her police work. Also a case of RealLifeWritesThePlot , as the actress was pregnant in real life.]]
* ProperlyParanoid: She is the first to seriously suspect William Lewis of being NotSoHarmless, even when the SVU squad doesn't officially have anything to hold him on. On the flip side, in "Dissonant Voices," Rollins [[spoiler:is the only person who suspects the allegations against the music teacher are false, and is unsympathetic to the other characters' MyGodWhatHaveIDone reaction when they realize she's right and they've ruined his life]].
* RapeAsBackstory: [[spoiler: She left Atlanta after being raped by her chief.]]
* ShipTease: Has had plenty of it with Fin. And with Amaro in season 15. In one episode, Benson opines that they should GetARoom and another character asks Amaro if he's the boyfriend (a single scene and a couple of references after the fact reveal that TheyDo, at least briefly). And then there's a lot of it with Carisi, who is shown to be very much in love with her. It's heavily implied that she reciprocates but she CannotSpitItOut, [[spoiler:at least until the finale of Season 22, when they finally have a BigDamnKiss.]]
* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: Rollins originally was a bit loose and wasn't seeking anything serious, having fathered two kids from two different men, and even refused a proposal from one of those two. Then she, despite herself, [[spoiler:falls for the one guy who's been her rock and a father figure to her kids: Carisi.]]
* SouthernFriedGenius: Rollins is the squad member most likely to be seen [[BuffySpeak doing computer stuff]] during investigations.
* TallPoppySyndrome: Kim regards her horrible treatment of Amanda as justified at least in part due to her seething resentment over Amanda having made something of herself.
* TheOneWhoMadeItOut: Of her dysfunctional family and their hometown in Georgia. Kim shamelessly uses accusations that Amanda now thinks she's "too good for them" to [[ManipulativeBastard manipulate]] her.
* TheyDo: [[spoiler: With Amaro, though probably not for very long.]]
** [[spoiler: And then with Carisi. This'll probably last way longer than with Amaro.]]
* ThickerThanWater: She worries over her little sister's fate even after it's clear Kim has catapulted herself waaaaaay over the MoralEventHorizon.
* TrappedByGamblingDebts: Rollins initially gets out of the debts she owes due to the guy going to prison, but even after that she's haunted by them, most notably [[spoiler:when Kim uses her gambling problem as part of her FrameUp of Rollins, and then later in Season 15 when she falls OffTheWagon and gets sucked into Murphy's undercover operation as a result.]]
* ThatOneCase: A rapist she'd tracked along the eastern seaboard resurfaces in New York in one episode.
* {{Tsundere}}: She's always a spitfire, but she is very much a tsundere [[spoiler:to Carisi. Naturally, she ends up falling for him.]]
* TheUnfavorite: Her sister Kim is clearly the apple of their mother, Beth Anne, who supports Kim even when she's on the run. When Kim is arrested for drugging a john who then raped a woman under the influence and for shooting her pimp, Beth Anne actually blames ''Amanda'' for not helping her sister out and that she shouldn't return home until she "figures out how to be a real family."
* UpThroughTheRanks: Averted. While Rollins has been described as having an ambitious go-getter personality, she's explicitly stated she's not interested in climbing the rank ladder from where she currently stands.
* WhiteSheep: In a family with a alcoholic, gambler father, an alcoholic mother and a drug-addicted, criminal sister, Amanda is the only member of her family who has gotten her act together by becoming a police officer. Slightly subverted though as she has had a previous history of getting into gambling debts.
* {{Workaholic}}: Really, ''really'' resents being placed on desk duty even when its within reason. When she gets pregnant, she dodges every order to take it easy until she ''faints'' and is forced into bedrest, obscenely close to giving birth. [[spoiler: And then she basically repeats this when she gets pregnant a second time, staying on active field duty long after she probably should despite everyone else's recommendation. Although thankfully this time she actually eventually admits when she needs to rest]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Det. Joe Velasco]]
[[quoteright:232:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/joevelasco.jpg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''
!!!'''Played By:''' Octavio Pisano
Detective Joe Velasco is a detective with the Special Victims Unit. He was assigned to the squad following the retirement of Katriona Tamin.
* AbusiveParents: He tells a victim in "Never Turn Your Back on Them" that his father used to beat him with his belt. When his father died, he kept the belt.
* TeensAreMonsters: Joe reveals to Fin in "Nightmares in Drill City", that he once got caught up in criminal activity and ended up changing his life around if the tortured victim lived (the victim did live).
[[/folder]]
!!Former Personnel
%%Please list by order of joining
[[folder:Capt. Donald Cragen]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cragen_donald_5338.jpg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrder'' | ''Exiled: A Law & Order Movie'' | ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/DannFlorek
TheCaptain of the 27th, later 16th Precinct. As SVU Commanding Officer, he is portrayed as a somewhat stern but understanding father figure to the detectives who work under him, often giving them a great deal of leniency because he trusts their ability to get results. Retires at the end of ''SVU'' Season 15's Amaro's One-Eighty, giving command of the Squad to the newly promoted Sgt. Benson.
----
* TheAlcoholic: Part of his backstory. He finally got off the sauce when he came out of a blackout in the middle of Lexington Avenue pointing his gun at a cabbie "because I didn't like the way he was honking his horn". He's still recovering by the time he became Captain of the 16th Precicnct, and he frequently mentions attending [=AA=] meetings.
* AndStarring: Until Dann Florek leaves the show in season 15.
* BadassDecay: In season 1 of classic Law & Order Cragen kept Max Greevy's MoralGuardian tendencies in line. Cragen made it clear that despite their personal friendship, he expected Greevy to put aside his feelings about the victim and the crime and carry out his duties professionally. When he became captain of SVU he never held Benson and Stabler to any such standards. In fact, he showed understanding in the face of their constant emotional outbursts to the point of being an ExtremeDoormat.
* BaldOfAuthority: Captain Cragen was the completely bald police chief that led the eponymous Special Victims Unit. He later retires and appoints the very much not bald Olivia Benson as the new head of the unit.
* BigGood: As the original head of the SVU unit, he is also highly moral and loyal.
* TheBusCameBack: After being PutOnABus in Season 15, he returns 8 seasons later in "The 500th Episode".
** He made his ''Organized Crime'' debut later in the 2021-22 season in "Can't Knock the Hustle" to help Stabler get closure about his father, after he had lingering questions regarding the circumstances of the elder Stabler getting an honor cross award.
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: His departure wasn't explained until the episode "Bad Faith" three years later, which revealed that he was heading up the Anti-Corruption Task Force.
* ClearMyName: In "Blue Wall," in which he is suspected of corruption due to guilt by association.
* DaChief: First head of the 27th in the series. He's hard-nosed and stern with his detectives, but he gives them room to run with their hunches when they seem plausible. He later becomes the Head of the SVU unit until Season 15, makjng Cragen the only character serving this role i two separate shows in the franchise.
* DeadpanSnarker: Merciless. Don't ask him about ''verbal altercations''.
* AFatherToHisMen: Feels this way, and is regarded this way, as he admits in Season 14.
* HappilyMarried: To his wife, Marge, in the original series. She dies offscreen sometime between his departure from the mothership and the premiere of SVU.
* HiddenDepths:
** One episode in one of the earlier seasons shows that while he's not an avid video gamer, he's actually a quite talented one, easily beating a game that neither Munch or Fin could get past the first level on.[[note]]They were playing the game to get insight into a adolescent suspect who was obsessed with it and had problems separating fantasy and reality. The climax of the game mirrored the crime scene exactly.[[/note]]
** A sadder example occurs in Season 14 when Cragen is forced to admit he solicited prostitutes out of loneliness and desperation for companionship.
* LimitedAdvancementOpportunities: He's been a captain since ''at least'' 1988. It might have something to do with his inability to keep the SVU detectives in line.
* MeaningfulName: Donald means "great chief, world mighty", as in ''DaChief'' of the tough world called Special Victim's Unit. He also holds the distinction of serving as DaChief of two different shows in the franchise.
* MistakenForMurderer: Cragen's main arc in the Season 14 premiere is him being used as TheScapegoat by making it look like he murdered an escort.
* NoIndoorVoice: Considering the rate of turnover, can you blame him?
* NotSoAboveItAll: When Munch and Fin play a video game to get into the headspace of an autistic witness to a foster sibling's murder, he teasingly calls them the "Mario Bros." Later, he's seen playing the same game and making it to the final level (which actually helps him talk with said witness later on).
* OffTheWagon: Was at one point. Now, he tries VERY hard to make sure he stays sober, though his job doesn't make it easy.
* PutOnABus: He retires at the end of "Amaro's One-Eighty" in Season 15.
* RecoveredAddict: Captain Cragen drank like a fish in his back story. His recovered status is repeatedly brought up. Mostly by Cragen himself.
* SharpDressedMan: Casual attire for him his a dress shirt and suspenders, at minimum.
* SoProudOfYou: When he talks to Benson in the 500th episode, he beams with pride over her now being a captain as well.
* TeamDad: As opposed to active leadership of the detectives. Many of the characters actually do see him like a father figure. In "Russian Brides," as part of an undercover operation in which Cragen poses as a lonely, vulnerable older man, he admits to feeling this way about his people in turn. Even in his original run in the Mothership, he has his moments with Logan.
* TrademarkFavouriteFood: He has a 5lb bucket of Red Vines on his desk. Also a case of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, as they disappear after the first season.
* {{Transplant}}: From the [[Series/LawAndOrder original series]] to ''SVU''.
* TheVietnamVet: Captain Cragen was a Green Beret during UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar.
* VitriolicBestBuds: With Greevey, since they used to be partners before Cragen got promoted. They'll argue, particularly when Greevey's morals conflict with the case, but in the end they're still friends.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Sgt. John Munch]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/munch_john_3602.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"If you don't question authority, you lose your humanity."'']]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrder'' | ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' | ''Series/LawAndOrderTrialByJury''
!!!'''Other Appearances:''' ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'' | ''Homicide: The Movie'' | ''Series/TheWire''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/RichardBelzer
A detective and now a Sergeant in the Manhattan Special Victims Unit. A conspiracy theorist and dedicated detective, Munch is first partnered with Brian Cassidy, whom he thinks of as a kind of younger brother, alternately poking fun at him and imparting (often questionable) advice on life and women. When Cassidy leaves the precinct in 2000, Munch is briefly partnered with Monique Jeffries, and then with Odafin Tutuola. He and the gruff, uncompromising Tutuola get off to a rough start, but gradually came to like and respect each other. As of the Season 15 episode "Wonderland Story", he has retired from the Special Victims Unit, although he has taken a role as an investigator for the DA's office, allowing him to have a recurring role.
----
* AgentMulder: Munch is the most likely to catch the phrase "that's nuts!" when suggesting a lead. To his credit, he's right most of the time. It's most notable on the occasions where a cop is the perp, as Munch will usually be the first to suggest that possibility. [[note]]Potentially an ironic trope, considering Munch met the actual Agent Mulder in an ''[[Series/TheXFiles X-Files]]'' crossover episode in TheNineties[[/note]]
* BigBrotherMentor: Serves this role to everyone at some point, though Cassidy especially saw him as one. Amaro also feels close to Munch and is the most devastated when he leaves.
* CartwrightCurse: Expect any woman he's got any remote romantic interest in to be unavailable by some means by the end of the episode.
* ConspiracyTheorist: An avid consumer and producer, with particular interest in the Kennedy Assassination and government cover-ups. Ironic as it is for a cop, it actually makes him a better detective. He's naturally suspicious and very difficult to fool, with an uncanny attention to detail, a lot quicker at connecting dots than the others, and the least susceptible to "The Thin Blue Line".
* DeadpanSnarker: Has a sarcastic comment for almost everything.
-->'''Teenager, as he's being arrested:''' I want my parents!
-->'''Munch:''' Yeah, and I want the troops home, the Kyoto Protocol signed, and a Tijuana oil job from Miss February.
* DirtyOldMan: Sometimes comes off as this, but most of his comments are harmless and in good fun. Other times, people just assume he's automatically this because of his line of work.
-->'''Teenager:''' Let go of me, you dirty old man!
-->'''Munch:''' [[ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne Who you calling 'old'?]]
* FriendToAllChildren: Though he won't actually admit to liking them, he is very good at working with young children, as well as very kind to them.
* HiddenDepths: He seemed quite happy to get into a public pillow fight in "Authority".
* {{Hypocrite}}: Despite constantly talking about the importance of civil rights, he ignores, enables, and occasionally joins his coworkers when they blatantly violate the civil rights of suspects.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: On the surface, he's a grizzled cynic with a sharp tongue. Underneath is a soft spot the size of Baltimore, especially where children are involved.
* KavorkaMan: And freaking how, although not nearly as showcased as in ''Homicide''.
** A case of [[RealLifeWritesThePlot real-world influence on the show]] as Richard Belzer is married to a former Playboy model.
* LongRunners: At the end of season 14, Richard Belzer will have played Munch for 20 years (and 21 seasons) as a regular on two different shows (along with [[TheCameo cameos]] and [[CrossOver crossover appearances]] on 8 others), tying him with (or putting him one year ahead of, if measuring by seasons) Kelsey Grammer as Frasier Crane (on ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' and ''Series/{{Frasier}}''), James Arness as Matt Dillon and Milburn Stone as Doc Adams (both on ''Series/{{Gunsmoke}}'') as American television's longest running live action character.
* NumberTwo: After passing the Sergents exam in the Season 9 premiere, he becomes Cragen's deputy until Munch's retirement in Season 15.
* OutOfFocus: In later seasons. Munch is often underused, Season 9 featured him in only about half of the episodes and overall Munch has missed 65 episodes of SVU compared to just three episodes of Homicide.
* PaperThinDisguise: Whenever Munch goes undercover, this usually ensues, and it's a rare instance of this trope being both PlayedForLaughs ''and'' weirdly effective. In one episode his undercover "disguise" as a pedophile involved no more than taking off his shades, dressing slightly differently, and ''smiling.'' In another case, his disguise consisted of dressing like a hobo and shouting conspiracy theories.
--> '''Fin''': That's the same old crap he says every day, only louder.
* PartingWordsRegret: Munch told his bipolar father that he hated his guts. They would be the last words he would tell his father before he killed himself. He considers this [[MyGreatestFailure His Greatest Failure]], and now suicide is a sore spot for him.
* PersonalHorror: Munch is sensitive to abused children, particularly girls, because as a teenager, he witnessed a neighbor throwing her daughter through a plate glass window, and after the girl's death, the mother only expressed concern about replacing the window. He is also sensitive to those with mental illness because his father had bipolar disorder, and his ex-wife Gwen has an unspecified paranoid condition.
* ProperlyParanoid: He's appeared in an X-Files crossover. With a world like that in the background, he has every right to be a little paranoid. Lampshaded in another episode when he plays the part of a deranged hobo spouting ConspiracyTheorist rhetoric to draw out youths assaulting the homeless: Fin says it's "the same stuff he says every day, only louder".
* PutOnABus: He's transferred to the Cold Case unit after "Manhattan Vigil". He comes back for a while, then he retires from the Special Victims Unit in Season 15's "Wonderland Story", although Belzer has stated he'd like to return in the future. Fortunately, Munch has become an investigator for the DA's office, leaving the door open for a recurring role.
* QuipToBlack: He and Elliot are tied for these.
* RankUp: To the shock of everyone on the squad, Munch secretly takes the sergeant's exam and is promoted despite his outspoken distaste for authority and the higher-ups in the NYPD. Munch insists that he only took the exam on a bar bet and that he never expected to score well enough to actually be promoted.
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: In the few times he allows himself to get personally involved in the victims' lives, he's usually doing so because it's morally right rather than it being an extension of his job (and in "Parts", actually does something that would have cost him his job if any of the higher-ups found out). When Elliot asks him why he'd take such a risk:
--> '''Munch''': I have to be able to sleep at night.
* SerialSpouse: Subverted. None of his marriages ever last. He finally gave up after the fourth time.
--> '''Munch''': You gotta play to win.
* SmallNameBigEgo: Lowered as time goes by but in the early days, did think his lifelong conspiracy rants meant his FBI file was so huge, he'd need to carry it in a car. He got a dose of humility upon finding out his entire "file" was ''a single sheet of paper'' which noted that most of the radical community consider him a crank.
* SharpDressedMan: Almost always wears a suit.
* SunglassesAtNight: He wears shades at all times.
* TallDarkAndSnarky: Richard Belzer had dark brown hair in his youth and is the tallest main cast member to date at 6'1. Suffice to say, Munch's snarkiness is unparalleled.
* TheSmartGuy: Very, VERY smart. If the squad needs the cliff notes on a new subject, he'll have them in his head. If they need o know about literature or high culture he'll comply, and if they need to interview a witness or suspect in French or Yiddish he'll be able to do that too.
* TheyCallMeMisterTibbs: Sharply corrects Capt. Harris on his rank, which at that point is Sergeant.
* {{Transplant}}: From ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'' to ''SVU''.
* WhatTheHellHero: Although he's fairly likable--[[GoodIsNotNice to a fault, anyway]]--he has had his moments over the years, such as [[NoSympathy casually]] talking about a former partner of his who committed suicide because he took the job too seriously and referring to coma patients ([[CrossesTheLineTwice one of whom was a]] ''[[CrossesTheLineTwice rape victim]]'') as "produce" and "a member of the drool squad".
* WriterOnBoard: An actor variant. Munch's conspiracy theories and admiration of John Kennedy come directly from his actor, Richard Belzer, who has written books on the subject. Belzer himself has gone on record saying that John Munch is basically "me as a cop".
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Sgt. Michael 'Mike' Dodds]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dodds.jpg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/AndyKarl
The son of SVU's Deputy Chief, William Dodds, Mike is drafted in at the beginning of the seventeenth season to serve as Benson's second-in-command following her promotion to Lieutenant. At first appearing to be his father's proxy, he clashes with the team due to his clinical approach, but his eyes are soon opened to the realities of working at SVU. [[spoiler: As of the season finale, his desire to do what's right has brought him lethal consequences. He is the only policing member of the SVU to be killed in the line of duty.]]
----
* ByTheBookCop: Zig-zagged. He takes this approach on occasion (i.e. "Patrimonial Burden", when he's ready to shrug off the case for jurisdictional reasons as Benson is insisting they can't just let it go because a child has been hurt), especially in the beginning, but in "Melancholy Pursuit", after he's become emotionally involved in the case, Benson and Carisi have to remind ''him'' of the rules when he suggests a blatantly illegal move to get suspects' DNA. He cements his departure from this in "Unholiest Alliance", when he continues to work with Benson and Tucker to break the case even when they're officially suspended.
* FollowInMyFootsteps: His father clearly wants and expects Mike to do this and potentially even to ''surpass'' him. Mike himself, as it turns out, doesn't love the idea, but struggles with telling his father no.
* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: From what little we learn of his brother Matthew, it's clear that Mike is the Responsible to his brother's Foolish. He uses this in a couple of episodes to relate to witnesses.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Saves a woman from being shot by her abusive husband in a hostage situation... only to wind up shot himself, and later dying from complications. On his last day at SVU, to boot.]]
* IAmNotMyFather: A rare example in that his relationship with his father is pretty good, but as his character develops, it becomes clear that he doesn't have his father's aspirations -- which is a bit of a problem, because Chief Dodds has, if anything, even more aspirations for Mike than for himself. On a more surface level, he also invokes this with Benson when he makes it clear that his professional loyalties lie with SVU.
--> '''Dodds''': ''(to Benson)'' I just want you to know, what happens at SVU stays at SVU. You have my word.
* ILetGwenStacyDie: [[spoiler:A Season 22 episode indicates that Mike's death is this for Benson.]]
* ItsPersonal: In "Melancholy Pursuit", Dodds blames himself for not taking a missing persons report seriously and gets extremely emotionally invested in the ensuing murder case as a result.
* JerkassHasAPoint: Before the team warms up to him, his suggestions on how to improve productivity at SVU come across as this.
* {{Nepotism}}: Appears to be played straight at first; his father is the Deputy Chief, after all, and he blatantly and overtly greased Mike's way in.
--> '''Tutuola''': Dodds' oldest son, huh? Wonder how he got this job.
** Subverted as the season goes on and Mike proves to be a more than competent officer in his own right.
* ParentalFavoritism: Has a drug addict brother called Matt. His father is open about his preference for Mike.
* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Andy Karl was headed to the West End to star in the ''Film/GroundhogDay'' musical, [[spoiler: so Dodds is shot and killed by Gary Munson in the Season 17 finale.]]
%%* ReasonableAuthorityFigure
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: To an extent. He uses his relationship with his father, and his father's relationships with pretty much everyone, to get around bureaucracy quicker, but doesn't use it to outright manipulate people.
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Turns out to have a streak of this mentality, much to the surprise of the unit (who were expecting him to be like his rule-following father). It's most prominently on display in "Unholiest Alliance".
* WeHardlyKnewYe: [[spoiler: Killed off just as the audience was beginning to get to know him.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Det. Elliot Stabler]]
--> see Sandbox/LawAndOrderElliotStabler
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Det. Monique Jeffries]]
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/monique_jeffries.jpg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/MichelleHurd
A police detective with Manhattan's Special Victims Unit and was one of the initial detectives in the SVU squad.
----
* EightiesHair: She occasionally had her hair in a perm.
* TheBusCameBack: We later find she's been transferred to Vice and collaborates with SVU again in one episode.
* DarkSkinnedBlonde: Her hair is notably dyed.
* DatingCatwoman: Deconstructed. Sleeping with a former suspect got her kicked out of the department.
* PromotionToOpeningTitles: For about half of Season 1 upon Cassidy's departure.
* PutOnABus: She leaves the unit after sleeping with a former suspect.
* StrawFeminist: Up until her PromotionToOpeningTitles, her only scenes were just to get her dandruff up anytime Munch said something. Even then she still would get pissy with Munch.
* TokenMinority: Until Fin joined the show.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Det. Brian Cassidy]]
[[quoteright:150:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/662967d0_5009.jpg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/DeanWinters
A detective formerly employed by the Special Victims Unit. He started out as a NaiveNewcomer to the squad, but he couldn't take the graphic nature of the crimes and transferred to narcotics. Flashforward to the Season 13 finale, and we find him undercover and far less naive. He is now a RecurringCharacter, and stuck working at IAB. Oh, and he's [[spoiler:dating and living with Benson.]]
----
* BreakTheCutie: Done purposely in-universe, in Cassidy's first season, when Cragen sends him to investigate a particularly brutal gang rape to see if he can handle SVU. He can't.
* TheBusCameBack: Returned in the Season 13 finale, "Rhodium Nights", as an undercover cop, and has now become a recurring character and [[spoiler:Benson's boyfriend.]]
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: He returns for the Season 13 finale totally different--they might as well be different characters. He went from being the overly passionate rookie to a pervy perp who enables and has sex with underage sex traffickers. He's actually playing a part while undercover, although he's still far more gruff than his first appearances. There was also the implication that he might have been a dirty cop, although this turned out to be false.
* ADayInTheLimelight: "Internal Affairs."
* DistinguishingMark: A scar on the inside of his thigh, used to show who has had sex with him.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: He seems very attached to his mother, and even [[spoiler: takes Olivia on a date to have dinner with her.]]
* FakeGuestStar: He's practically part of the main cast during the first half of Season 1, yet is only credited as a guest star.
* GoodIsNotNice: When he's re-introduced in season 13.
* ImAManICantHelpIt: Averted when he's presented with a [[IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten test]] while undercover, ordered to "break in" a prostitute. He takes her into a room but makes an excuse and does not actually have sex with her. Later, after the prostitute accuses him of rape, the prosecutor tries to use this trope against him in court anyway.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: When he returns in season 13, he's not the friendliest guy, but he is ultimately on the side of good.
* NewMeat: Like Liv in the first season, but he ultimately can't handle SVU and leaves.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero : When Cassidy is on trial for rape, his lawyer's attempt to discredit Amaro's testimony unwittingly causes it to come to light that Amaro [[spoiler:has a son he never knew about... which comes as a complete shock to Amaro himself, who only learns the news when he gets suddenly sued for child support. On top of that, Amaro ''then'' discovers his son is being groomed as a drug runner by his [[WickedStepmother stepfather]], and goes full PapaWolf about getting the kid out of there. Cassidy, who had meant to make Amaro look bad on the witness stand but not to throw his life into total chaos, ends up helping Amaro take down the drug dealer stepfather.]]. In truth, this trope was only invoked, as none of the aforementioned problems were actually caused by Cassidy. Amaro just acted like they were.
* PutOnABus:
** Sex Crimes became too much for him so Cragen recommends his transfer to Narcotics. He won't show up again until the Season 13 finale.
** Back on the bus after [[spoiler: amicably breaking up with Benson the second time.]]
* RealLifeWritesThePlot: [[spoiler:Cassidy's breakup with Benson coincides with Dean Winters' other television show getting picked up.]]
* TokenEvilTeammate: While not necessarily evil, he is stuck at IAB for the foreseeable future.
* TwoFirstNames: Cassidy is a common female name.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Det. Chester Lake]]
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chesterlake.jpg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/AdamBeach
Detective Chester Lake transferred to the Manhattan SVU from Brooklyn SVU at the end of the eighth season and was partnered with Detective Fin Tutuola. He is of Native American ancestry, specifically Mohawk, and speaks proudly of his ancestors, noting that many of them helped to build the city's skyscrapers and subway tunnels. He also used to compete as an amateur mixed martial artist under the name "Naptime", but had to quit after tearing his ACL. Lake suffers from insomnia and often takes walks at night when he cannot sleep.
----
* AmbiguousDisorder: Besides being an insomniac, Lake states on occasion that the city speaks to him. Whether or not he's speaking figuratively or literally is unclear, but thankfully, it hasn't had any effect on his job.
* AntiVillain: In his initial appearance, due to JurisdictionFriction with Fin. [[spoiler: Also in his last appearance, where he ends up on trial for murdering a crooked cop.]]
* BadassNative: Inverted. He is somewhat of a badass, and definitely Native American. But he is the farthest thing from the trope.
* BrooklynRage: Was transferred in from the SVU in Brooklyn. Fits the "Rage" part of the trope's equation in "Cold".
* ByTheBookCop: Especially in contrast to Fin.
* ChekhovsHobby: His habit of walking the city, familiarizing himself with it, later helps him identify a suspect's location based on background noises in a phone call.
* FireForgedFriends: With Fin. The two men do ''not'' get along when they're first paired together, but warm up to each other in the process of solving a series of rape-homicides that affect both their boroughs.
* FosterKid: He's been raised by multiple families.
* GayBravado: Plays along with the assumption that a mother makes that he and Fin are a gay couple with a giant smile on his face.
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Typical for ''Law & Order'', but doubly unfortunate in that he spends most of his central season encountering cases like this [[spoiler:and ultimately takes a turn for the worse himself]].
* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler:Yes, he is a cop. Yes, he is mentally unstable. Yes, he is sent to prison, with a lot of people he sent to prison.]]
* MistakenNationality: From "Fight":
-->"Her pimp called me a Mexican."
* MrFanservice
* PromotionToOpeningTitles: Was a two-episode guest star in Season 8 before being upgraded to a series regular in Season 9.
* PutOnABus: [[spoiler: To prison.]]
* RabidCop: In ''Cold''.
* RatedMForManly: He's cop whose a former UsefulNotes/{{Mixed Martial Art|s}}ist.
* RealLifeWritesThePlot: An unfortunate case in that fans didn't warm up to the character because they thought Lake was written in to possibly replace Fin or Munch. Without approval of the fanbase, the writers wrote him out.
* RedBaron: During his MMA career, he's dubbed "Naptime" due to his mean right hook.
* ShipTease: Had a bit with Casey Novak in his first appearance and in the Season 9 finale, though this immediately got [[ShipSinking sunk]] since he's [[spoiler: off to prison at the end of the episode]].
* SixthRangerTraitor: [[spoiler:Not really a traitor, but Lake did commit a murder. Then again, [[AssholeVictim the victim wasn't exactly someone to cry over]]]].
* TallDarkAndHandsome
* TallDarkAndSnarky
* TokenMinority: Only Native American main character on the series.
* WeHardlyKnewYe: Written off the show after one season.
* {{Workaholic}}: Oh, yes. He spends his downtime listening to the police scanner and attending meetings of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidocq_Society Vidocq Society]].
* WorkingClassHero: Comes from a long line of ironworkers, and takes great pride in the fact that his family practically built the city of New York. TruthInTelevision, as there was a sizable and famous population of Native American ironworkers in the city.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Det. Nick Amaro]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/amaro_nick_2239.jpg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''
!!!'''Other Appearances:''' ''Series/ChicagoPD''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/DannyPino
A NYPD detective who has transferred to the Special Victims Unit from Warrants and Narcotics. Initially, Amaro did not see eye to eye with his new partner, Detective Benson, mainly because she was adjusting to having him as a partner instead of Elliot Stabler. After their rocky start, Amaro and Benson begin to have a mutual respect for each other and work well together.
----
* AbusiveParents: Growing up, he was physically abused by his father. Nick himself thankfully averts this.
* ActionDad: To six-year-old Zara and later nine-year-old Gilberto 'Gil'.
* AmazonChaser: When first introduced, his wife is in the Army and serving in Iraq. His affair with [[spoiler:fellow cop Rollins]] could fall under this as well.
* BeardOfSorrow: Any time Amaro's life is going badly, count on the five o'clock shadow showing up.
* BigBrotherInstinct: Has a tendency to "helpfully" get involved in other people's problems, Rollins' in particular.
* BreakTheHaughty: His heart's generally in the right place, but Amaro has a touch of the IneffectualLoner when he joins SVU, and is distinctly unafraid to challenge his squadmates on what he regards as poor police work. The episodes "Undercover Blue" and "Amaro's One-Eighty" sharply humble him on both counts. Combined with the failure of his marriage, by the end of season 15 he's pretty much in HeroicBSOD territory.
* CallingTheOldManOut: Non-stop, and with complete justification, when his dad shows up in season 16.
* TheCharmer: Can be this when dealing with difficult suspects or witnesses, to GuileHero levels. Perhaps most spectacularly when he [[spoiler:out-manipulates Rollins' ManipulativeBastard sister, and manages to talk a ''very'' hostile grand jury into not indicting him.]]
* ChekhovsSkill: Amaro's background in Narcotics, in which he did a lot of undercover work, frequently shows up in his approach at SVU. Namely, he's excellent at [[GuileHero pretending to play along and manipulating suspects and witnesses]], and also has a fondness for the use of HiddenWire.
* ChickMagnet: Many women have found him attractive and actively flirted to him.
* ConsummateLiar: Amaro is really, ''really'' good at LyingToThePerp. Such as the episode where he opens an interrogation with an absolute whopper of a lie, and then uses the lie to shamelessly manipulate the suspect's religious guilt, and then does ''that'' so successfully that the perp regards Amaro as a "brother in Christ" and spills everything.
* ContrastingSequelMainCharacter: Initially, Amaro was this to Stabler, as he was more of a GuileHero compared to Stabler's violent tendencies. Unfortunately, within a few seasons his character had suffered the same {{Flanderization}} as Stabler.
* CrazyJealousGuy: Has an attack of this when he suspects his wife of infidelity.
* CruelToBeKind: In "October Surprise," Amaro gets in Barba's face with taunts of being a sellout who went away to Harvard and forgot where he came from. However, Amaro's purpose is to drive home to Barba exactly how his old friend Muñoz is manipulating him (especially given that Barba had just pulled an [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness uncharacteristically]] [[HonorBeforeReason risky]] stunt to help Muñoz).
* DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou: Amaro [[spoiler:discovered the existence of his son when he was sued for child support ten years after he'd broken it off with the mother.]]
* DisappearedDad: His father walked out when he was a kid. Unlike most examples, Amaro indicates he doesn't miss him at all due to the DomesticAbuse he inflicted on Amaro's mother, and even states they "threw a party" when he left.
** Amaro himself was this to his son Gil, although it's {{justified|Trope}} because he was never told the child existed. As soon as he found out, he made an effort to be in the boy's life.
* DivorceAssetsConflict: Maria takes a [[TookALevelInJerkass level in jerkass]] and pulls this on him [[spoiler:by taking their daughter to California.]]
* DomesticAbuse: Grew up in a household characterized by this. As he tells Benson, his father "liked to bounce [his] mom off the walls."
* DotingParent: Very clearly adores his daughter. [[spoiler: He wastes no time becoming this to his son once he finds out the kid exists.]]
* EntitledBastard: When he beats a suspect into a coma, the day after the suspect was acquitted, he never acknowledges his actions were wrong, he just wallows in self pity as he faces the consequences of his actions. After Rollins gets the criminal charges dropped (with a little police misconduct of her own), he acts indignant about getting demoted to patrol and constantly pesters Benson that it's taking her too long to get him his detective shield back. Then he feels sorry for himself when he learns that his actions mean he would never be eligible for a promotion. (This last part is partially justified by the fact that Benson was still promoted after she had, over the course of the series, technically accumulated an even longer list of questionable actions).
* FairCop: Lampshaded, as more than one character has remarked on his good looks.
* FamilyRelationshipSwitcheroo: He's initially introduced [[spoiler:as an "uncle" to the boy who is really his son,]] and hates it.
* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: The Responsible to his sister Sonya's Foolish.
* {{Foil}}: To Rafael Barba. Both are Cuban-American Latino men who grew up with abusive fathers, but their personalities and the paths in life they took are quite different, which lead them to clash at times. Amaro is impatient with formalities and has a more explosive temper which leads him to try to take things into his own hands. Barba on the other hand has taken to the finer things in life, TranquilFury is more his brand of anger, and as a lawyer his preferred battleground is in Court.
* FriendToAllChildren: As the father to a little girl he's generally good with kids, but Amaro really exemplifies this trope in "Born Psychopath" when he [[spoiler:manages to talk down a [[EnfantTerrible psychopathic child on a killing spree]]. He successfully defuses the situation, but gets shot in the chest as a result of [[HonorBeforeReason his reluctance to use too much force]]. And then even after being shot, he ''shields the kid with his own body'' to prevent the police from shooting him because he can't countenance the killing of a child, even a sociopathic one. Amaro firmly stands by that decision even after Benson points out it's pure luck he wasn't shot in the head or some other part of the body not covered by his bulletproof vest]]. He also plays with [[spoiler: Benson's adopted son Noah and she notes that Noah seems to like Nick]].
* {{Gaslighting}}: His father attempts this in Padre Sandunguero; his mother and sister also express the view that Amaro is overdramatizing or remembering things wrong, albeit they are expressing their own massive denial about Amaro Sr.'s abuse.
* GoThroughMe: When vigilantes shoot at his house, Amaro ''immediately'' rushes to shield his daughter with his own body.
* GoodParents: One of his defining traits is that he's fiercely protective and loving towards Gil and Zara. It's their moving with their mothers to the West Coast (to San Diego and Los Angeles, respectively) that ultimately catalyzes him to follow them out and leave New York.
* GuileHero: Especially compared to his predecessor Stabler, Amaro usually prefers to quietly manipulate suspects into confessing and is excellent at pretending to take their side.
* HeCleansUpNicely: Invoked in his first episode when he arrives from Narcotics scruffy and bearded. Cragen orders him to wear a jacket and tie.
* HeadbuttingHeroes: He and Brian Cassidy despise each other. He and Barba have their moments as well, at least until they find some common ground later, at least partly due to them both being Latino. In a more general sense in most episodes, Nick is often the first to bring up other possibilities that the detectives may have been blind to initially, but won't argue when he knows the other detectives are too emotionally involved to listen.
* HoneyTrap: He's been the target of at least two, but wasn't stupid enough to fall for either. He's also acted as a honeytrap ''himself'', having flirted [[spoiler:Rollins' sister Kim]] into incriminating herself on tape.
* HonoraryUncle: To [[spoiler:Olivia's son, Noah. Even helped take care of him on a few occasions.]]
* HotBlooded: He can get very angry whenever something pisses him off enough. He can give Stabler a run for his money in this department.
* IAmNotMyFather: '''Hoo boy.''' Amaro's father is a gaslighting abuser. Amaro succeeds (mostly) in breaking this cycle where his own intimate relationships are concerned, although he struggles badly with anger issues.
* IconicSequelCharacter: One of the show's notable detectives but didn't make an appearance until the second episode of Season 13.
* JuniorCounterpart: To Finn, despite being Elliot's replacement. Like Finn, Amaro was introduced as a new transfer from the Narcotics Division who happens to be non-Caucasian male and was having a "shabby" appearance during said introduction. Both are also connected to the U.S. Army, though in Nick's case it's through his (eventual ex-) wife.
** Amaro also mentions at one point having worked military intelligence.
* KarmaHoudini: He threatened Cassidy at gunpoint, assaulted Murphy, and beat a man into coma after the man was acquitted. Ultimately, the only long-term consequence was that he found himself ineligible for promotion, and thanks to an on-the-job injury (from which he was expected to make a full recovery), he was able to retire on a three-quarter pension and start over in California.
* KnightTemplar: Crossed the line when he beat a man into a coma the day after the man was acquitted.
* TheLancer: To Olivia.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Gets in in two ways after he's arrested in the season 15 finale. [[spoiler:On the bad karma side, that time Amaro punched the crap out of an undercover Murphy? Comes back to bite him ''hard'', as now-CO Murphy refuses to waste any favors getting Amaro his old job back at SVU. On the good karma side, Rollins gets the charges against Amaro dropped, which is a nice callback to the episode in which Amaro saved Rollins from murder charges.]]
* LatinLover: Played with. Other characters sometimes ''react'' to him as if he's one, but in reality he's a pretty straightlaced family man.
* LongDistanceRelationship: One of the factors for his and Maria's separation is due to the stress of them not being there for each other all the time due to Nick's job and Maria being deployed in Iraq.
* ManipulativeBastard: On the other side of being TheCharmer, both Benson and his own wife have called Amaro out on trying to slip an interrogation into an otherwise innocuous conversation.
* MrFanservice: The show regularly provides scenes of Amaro working out, waking up [[ShirtlessScene shirtless]] in the middle of the night, having a shirtless AfterActionPatchUp, etc.
* MyGreatestFailure: Failing to understand his wife's PTSD after she returned from Iraq, leading to the failure of their marriage, or so he admits to Rollins.
* NeverMyFault: After Cassidy found out about his undercover affair, Amaro blamed Cassidy, not himself, for all the problems that came with it. He also never accepted responsibility for beating Simon Wilkes.
* NewMeat: In season 13, along with Rollins.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: He attempts to help Rollins [[spoiler:by infiltrating her Gamblers Anonymous group and exposing her sponsor-slash-lover as a womanizing sleazebag. However, since it relates to the case of the week, it also more or less forces Barba to expose Rollins' private life in open court. She's badly humiliated, and arguably this is part of what helps push her OffTheWagon.]]
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: His attempt to save a fellow officer's life in "Amaro's One Eighty" causes Amaro to [[spoiler:come under investigation by InternalAffairs, nearly lose his badge, get falsely tarred by the public as a racist, and have his house shot at by vigilantes who only by pure luck miss Amaro's mother and young daughter. Later, this contributes to the complete loss of any semblance of a future with NYPD, forcing him to retire after being injured.]]
* NoodleIncident: While investigating a college football hazing incident, Amaro references his own time on a school football team and tells Fin "I did things I'm not proud of" in the name of team unity. What those things were is never elaborated upon.
* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Much like his predecessor, Amaro is dogged by his "getting furious" incidents.
* PapaWolf:
** Don't even breathe around Zara.
** Also goes into this mode in ''Undercover Blue'' when [[spoiler:he discovers he'd fathered a child while undercover. When he discovers the child's stepfather is involving the kid in drug deals, Amaro is ''pissed.'']]
* PersonAsVerb: In one episode Rollins starts to cast doubt on a seemingly ironclad confession by a suspect, and Cragen tells her not to "go Amaro" on him.
* PoorCommunicationKills: His and his wife's inability to communicate with each other ultimately leads to the end of their marriage.
* ProperlyParanoid: His obsessive checking of bathroom stalls in the season 13 finale/season 14 premiere is a little OTT, but justified by the fact that he was individually targeted for a FrameUp.
* PutOnABus: [[spoiler:To California in the Season 16 finale, to join his two children over there]].
* SecondEpisodeIntroduction: Though his actor is credited in the Season 13 premiere, he only makes his debut in the following episode.
* ShipTease: With Rollins, of whom he's quite protective.
* StarCrossedLovers: With Cynthia, the sister of a drug kingpin in whose organization Amaro went undercover.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: He eventually forged his own identity as a character, but the first several things we learn about Nick are that he's a devout Catholic family man with a rocky marriage and a bit of a temper (up to and including a voiced desire to physically assault perps). Sure reminds one of his predecessor, Elliot Stabler. As Stabler's season 12 departure wasn't pre-planned as such, there's some speculation that early scripts in season 13 all but literally had Amaro inserted to filling Elliot's position in the story.
** {{Deconstruction}}: As of "Surrendering Noah," [[spoiler:all of Amaro's Elliot-like actions have resulted in actual punishments and consequences, the likes of which Elliot himself always seemed to escape. It's explicitly said that Amaro is "damaged goods" and has no hope of career advancement at the NYPD.]] Verges a little bit on CantGetAwayWithNuthin territory considering some of the incidents were Amaro responding to direct violence ([[spoiler:the shooting in "Amaro's One-Eighty", the subsequent attack on his house and family]]) rather than initiating it for the sake of interrogation.
* TallDarkAndHandsome: He is repeatedly told that he's a FairCop, and stands 6 feet to boot.
* TokenMinority: The show's first Latino main character, though Barba is introduced a season later (and joins the main cast the following one).
* TwoFirstNames: Amaro is actually used as a given name in countries with Latino heritage.
* TheUnfavorite: It is said in "Padre Sandunguero" that his father never abused his sister like he did to him.
* TheVillainKnowsWhereYouLive: The BigBad of season 14's opener shows up at Amaro's house while he's playing with his daughter. Amaro is, naturally, [[PapaWolf furious.]]
* WhatTheHellHero: He gets a spectacular one from Rollins after he [[spoiler:infiltrates her Gamblers Anonymous group.]]
* WifeBasherBasher: Played with. While it's established early on that Amaro has issues relating to his father's abuse of his mother, and violence against women and children is certainly a sore spot for him at times, he's also unafraid to express skepticism of victims when necessary (and has correctly identified a WoundedGazelleGambit or two). This makes sense due to his conflicted feelings toward his mother and sister, who are among his father's biggest defenders.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Det./A.D.A. Dominick "Sonny" Carisi, Jr.]]
--> see Sandbox/LawAndOrderSexCrimesBureau
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Det. Katriona "Kat" Tamin]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/katorinatamin.PNG]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/JamieGrayHyder
A fiery young cop of Lebanese descent originally from a rough neighbourhood, transferred from Vice into Special Victims after impressing Benson during a collaboration in catching a famous rapist and acting as Carisi's replacement.
----
* ActionGirl: Her first episode shows her willingness to get physical with perps. Of the three women on the squad, she's probably the best fighter.
* AloofDarkHairedGirl: She has little to no patience dealing with hard-ass suspects.
* BoobsOfSteel: She's well-endowed and willing to get physical with perps and does so skillfully, more than Olivia or Amanda (it helps that she's younger).
* DisneyDeath: [[spoiler: She gets shot during a raid and flatlines in the ambulance, but ultimately survives.]]
* FairCop: She's a good-looking and youthful detective for the NYPD, joining the ranks of Rollins in that regard.
* LeeroyJenkins: She has a tendency to get hostile and confrontational when her colleagues are trying to get the suspect to talk by being friendly. She also talks to suspects off the cuff without preparation or permission.
* NewMeat: As of Season 21. She has a lot of issues getting used to the CrapsackWorld of Special Victims, and the team has to teach her how to correctly get information from victims without being too brazen. She does get better though.
* PutOnABus: [[spoiler:Quits the force after surviving a gunshot wound in season 23.]]
* StatuesqueStunner: A FairCop standing at 5'9" -- she's even taller than Benson, who isn't exactly short.
* TwoferTokenMinority: She's the second Asian main character in the show's history since George Huang's departure in Season 12. Like Huang she is also LGBT+, in her case being bisexual. More specifically, Kat is the first Middle Eastern main character. Of course she's also the first woman who fits into those categories as well.
* VitriolicBestBuds: With Carisi in particular, as she often gets on his case (pun intended) when he won't give the squad what they want, e.g. a warrant. At one point she lampshades this when they wind up on the same side of an argument by saying, "Hey, I'm on your side this time!" That said, though, she doesn't take kindly to it when he gets hurt, and does seem to understand that he's just doing his job. She doesn't ''like'' it, but she gets it.
[[/folder]]
