4400: One of the guards is quite violent to the returnees, striking Claudette and then Noah for simply disobeying him or mild protest at their confinement.
Adam-12: Several episodes have addressed the subject, usually using one-shot characters.
While Malloy was almost always able to keep his cool even with the most smug of villains, he blows it in the 1974 episode "X-Force" and is suspended without pay for four days after a suspect he had arrested complains that he was injured. Malloy had arrested a suspected child molester (the crook had raped a 6-year-old girl who lived in the neighborhood), and when the pedophile made a snide remark about how the little girl "got what she wanted," Malloy shoves him against a wall, twists his arm, and puts the handcuffs on too tight. (Reed — who ironically was taught by Malloy about keeping his cool in the early seasons — shows up to calm his veteran partner down, and eventually has to make a statement backing the complainant.)
Malloy and Reed have also been victimized by claims of police brutality, particularly in the episode "Good Cop: Handle With Care." There, two rogue freelance journalists harass our protagonist officers as they go about their daily work, eventually catching their prey as Reed and Malloy were in the midst of handling a hallucinogenic subject who had gone into a violent seizure. As the officers take the drugged-out man to the emergency room for detoxification, the photographer snaps a picture; the man had a bloody nose, the result of his head hitting the seat frame as he was shaking violently and uncontrollably. However, the journalists' story makes it out to be classic police brutality. Sgt. Mac McDonald (the officers' superior) questions Reed and Malloy, who are of course cleared (although this is not ever explicitly stated in the episode). In the end, the journalists' harassment of Reed and Malloy and insistence that they were rogue cops out to brutalize people leads to them interfering with an arrest and getting an innocent bystander shot.
The Pre-Mor guard slams Bix into a wall giving her an open wound and concussion because she's hurrying through the city while they're hunting Cassian. While they're handcuffing her limp form to a nearby wall they shoot and kill her unarmed boyfriend Timm for nonviolently confronting them.
The Imperial enforcers are no better, with Cassian getting grabbed by the neck and slammed into a nearby wall when he's arrested for being sort of near a place where supposed anti-Imperial activities had occurred.
"The Thin Red Line" features zombie cops whose brutality is so extreme that it would have been unbelievable for regular human cops to behave in such a way. They shoot Wesley just for approaching them while they're harassing Gunn and a few of his friends. While certainly not condoning police brutality, the episode briefly explores another side of this trope, when Gunn tells a drug-dealing acquaintance of his that it's people like him who can make police think they have to cross the line. It also notes that before the zombie cops were brought in, the neighborhood had one of the worst crime rates in the city... but it had plummeted since.
Another example in "A New World" when Connor confronts Angel while Tyke and his gang have them at gunpoint. The LAPD storm in and show no interest in trying to make the arrest, instead choosing to execute everyone, shooting Angel and trying to kill a fleeing Connor. Compare and contrast the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Two to Go", in which the Sunnydale police are unsure of what to do with a vengeful Willow but keep her at gunpoint as she rips open the prison.
There's a Running Gag in Arrested Development wherein George Sr. or his twin brother (or one of them disguised as/mistaken for the other) gets tackled by the police and then one officer clubs them on the head. There was also an instance in which George Sr. was captured by Mexican police who were in a vengeful mood on account of a defective product George had knowingly marketed in the country. He fakes his death and has it reported that the police beat him to death — this actually is what probably would have happened had he not satisfied the officers with a legal argument (read: paid them a large bribe).
Michael Garibaldi tries to put a random Jerkass's head through a tabletop when he refuses to stop talking trash about Marsies during a period of violence on Mars. It no doubt doesn't help that Garibaldi's ex-lover lives on Mars, and he has been unable to find out if she'd been harmed in the fighting.
Usually, however, Garibaldi (and those reporting to him) avert the trope, particularly when Sheridan has Morden detained indefinitely on unspecified charges:
Garibaldi: Look, out there, I may play it fast and loose, but in here I play it by the book. Now, charge him or cut him loose!
Implied to be imminent but averted when the treacherous assistant security chief who shot Garibaldi in the back is caught. The security men taking him into custody ask Captain Sheridan to "take a walk" while they deal with him; Sheridan declines.
On Banshee, the townspeople are astounded by how brutal Lucas Hood, the new sheriff, can be toward criminals, but since the local criminals have been running roughshod over the town for years, everyone just figures Pay Evil unto Evil and shrugs it off. Furthermore, most of his beatdowns occur during fights where he has a distinct disadvantage (3-1 odds against him, facing a champion MMA fighter, etc.) One deputy objects to Lucas hitting a handcuffed prisoner, but since the criminal has been selling poisoned ecstasy to kids, the issue is not raised again. What the townspeople do not know is that Lucas is not really a cop. He is an ex-con who saw the real Lucas Hood get murdered and assumed the dead man's identity.
In Barney Miller, of all places, it happened, and Inspector Luger, of all people, was the culprit when Barney let him handle a routine job "for old time's sake". Given Harris' description of how he handled the suspect — who was a simple purse snatcher — Luger threatened to use physical violence on the man and even threatened him with his weapon. When Barney later confronted Luger about it (which he had to delay doing because of an emergency) and Luger protested that cops "don't always do things by the book", Barney agreed with him, angrily scolding him and saying that he was doing it by the book by reporting the case to Internal Affairs.
Barry is beaten after mouthing off to a guard who's a "fan" of his in prison.
Later on Fuchs gets beaten by guards at the warden's order after Barry escapes to get information from him.
Batwoman (2019): Just as Batwoman's gotten through to Troy (and as he's lowered his weapons) the Crows shoot him to death. This could be considered murder, as Troy wasn't presenting an active threat. After that, they also try to shoot Batwoman dead, who's only saved by her body armor, which definitely is attempted murder as she had made no aggressive move toward them at all.
The Bill started off as a realistic low-level police procedure series, but as time went on, got more and more soap-opera-like and unrealistic. By the end, the easiest way to cut crime in Sun Hill would have been to close down the station and ask the local drug gangs to keep order instead.
Blue Bloods has a mixed record on this. On the one hand, some episodes have bit characters get brought down on account of this.note Two detectives are placed on modified assignment for "tuning up" the mentally ill kid who was tricked into shooting the mayor, and another officer is fired but not charged for accidentally killing a combative detainee with an illegal chokehold, and Grandpa Henry's tale of how he once sent the entire force out to crack heads until somebody coughed up the name of a man who was threatening an officer ends up on YouTube. On the other hand, one of the show's recurrers is the Rev. Darnell Potter, a fairly blatant Malcolm Xerox strawman of (most recently) Black Lives Matter who loves to create police brutality controversies for his own aggrandizement, and who somehow has never caught plot armored main cast member Danny Reagan at his many excessive force incidents.note Which include beating a confession out of a child predator (which is then thrown out, but Danny suffers no real consequences), holding a gun to the head of a handcuffed Cop Killer's associate and threatening to execute him, and using a drug dealer as a human shield.
The Atlantic City police are less "police" than they are glorified muscle for Nucky Thompson's criminal empire, what with his brother being Sheriff and everything.
Two New York cops beat information out of Lucky Luciano, telling him they can do whatever they want because they're the law. It turns out that they're shaking Lucky down on behalf of Arnold Rothstein.
Bottom played this for laughs in an episode where they were exploiting identity parades for cash. At the end of the episode, the character staging the crimes is found out and looks at the camera. Cue the usual random, mindless violence — by Chief Inspector Grobbelaar and his goons.
Late in season seven of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with the Hellmouth working overtime, it corrupts the police to target the forces of good, in this case holding off the potentials while they attempt to kill Faith.
Chicago Justice: "Uncertainty Principle" involves Kevin Atwater being accused of murdering a suspect due to this. It turns out he was innocent, however.
Chicago P.D.: A cop pulls over a car driven by a Black guy going 7 mph over the speed limit. Not only does he treat the driver and his friend as suspects in something more sinister, but he makes them get out of the car and gets more and more belligerent, until he outright shoots the driver. In his report, the cop claims the driver went for his gun, except his friend took a video of the incident and posted it online. The video shows that the driver's hands were raised the entire time, nowhere near his legally-registered gun. The cop keeps claiming he acted in self-defense. When shown the video, he initially claims it was doctored somehow, but then doubt sets in and he starts to realize he murdered an innocent kid thanks to his treatment of the streets as a war zone. The victim's brother ends up cornering him and the two detectives sent to arrest the cop. The cop runs out to distract the brother and gets killed as a way to redeem himself.
City on a Hill: A case which starts in the second season and goes into the third involves Tony Suferin, an officer of the Boston Police Department, as he's charged and tried for wrongly shooting suspect Anton Campbell against orders by his superior. He's convicted, surprising everyone as that quite rarely happens, with Decourcy taking note of how many black men have been killed by white police and civilians with impunity.
In the original series there was a variation on the trope. One of the CSIs slugged a perp, but everyone was ticked off at the guy in general, and Brass calmly said something about not seeing it that way, that the perp attacked the CSI first.
But then subverted in a crossover with Without a Trace. Brass stops Agent Malone from roughing up a suspect, telling him that in their house they do things by the book.
CSI: NY: Stella has gotten called for this a couple of times. Danny got sent home for it after getting overly rough with a Neo-Nazi suspect (who turned out to be innocent).
Dark Desire: DarÃo is beaten and tortured by police working with Leonardo.
Dear White People: What sets up the second plot in the climax of Episode 5 of Season 1 - when Reggie eventually quarrels with a white student over N-Word Privileges at a party, campus police show up with an immediate assumption that Reggie was the instigator and demand identification while virulently dismissing Joelle when she comes to his defense. Reggie's quip "Fuck these pigs" provokes one of the officers to draw his gun on him, conjuring a scene that where people of color have either experienced and/or unfortunately not survived to tell the aftermath while the surrounding students are horrified and pleading with the officer to withdraw his firearm. Fortunately, though Reggie shakingly complies with fear for his life and does leave with it, he's understandably broken by the confrontation.
Deputy: Hollister prevents a couple of deputies from committing this as they get rough with suspects while looking for a fellow deputy's shooter, noting any evidence they find would be thrown out from this but also clearly disagrees with how they acted, despite having a Cowboy Cop reputation himself. He also reins in his people while on a Copkiller Manhunt, arresting the shooter harmlessly himself.
The Doctor Blake Mysteries: In "The Call of the Void", Sergeant Bill Hobart delivers a severe beating to a man accused of being a homosexual. He later becomes a suspect when the man turns up dead.
The show got in on it at least once as well, in an episode showing the police application process of the time. Friday and Gannon were suspicious of one applicant with a 6-month gap in his background history, and it was discovered he'd been kicked off another town's sheriff force for police brutality.
In another episode, Friday and Gannon deal with an officer who got angry at being called a pig and having his uniform shirt torn by a drunk man. It's a crossover, with Reed and Malloy as the backups.
A first season episode of Due South had Ray beating a Mafia don senseless (after the Mafia don agreed to talk to him in private, in a locked room) and threatening to tell the entire neighborhood about it unless he agreed to stop harassing a local shoemaker that the Mafia don had ordered a hit on for stealing a hundred bucks from a church's poor box.note The shoemaker had resorted to stealing from the poor box because the Mafia don had bled him dry in a protection racket, causing the Shoemaker to lose his business and be abandoned by his family. Ray made a point of leaving his gun and badge in the car before he went inside to confront the Don, so he wasn't beating the crap out of him as a cop, but as a member of the community (that said, still a cop, still an unlawful beatdown, still counts). This had some serious unintended consequences later in the show, eventually resulting in Louis's death.
Equal: The police were highly prone to beating up LGBT+ people when raiding their bars and other hangouts, even threatening them with death when asked for identification. Abuse by the police inspired some to riot and protest however, for instance with the famous Stonewall Uprising. The most extreme examples were cops who murdered gays with impunity.
Equal Justice: One entire episode revolves around police officers that are on trial for beating a suspect, while in another Barry gets an officer to ease off while arresting one of the disabled activists by threatening to prosecute him over this.
When the DC Police raid gay clubs or hookup spots, they beat people up with their batons for no reason, obviously just due to homophobia.
During the White Night riots in San Francisco in 1979, the police remove their badges so they can't be identified when savagely beating both the protestors and bar patrons who weren't involved in the riot.
The First Lady: The highly publicized cases of these against black men in the 2010s are shown in the Obama segments, with the Obamas being affected deeply by the videos.
For Life: Season 2 is largely about Aaron prosecuting NYPD officer Edgar Lindsley, who's White, over shooting unarmed Black motorist Andy Josiah in the back after a "routine" traffic stop for reaching inside of his car (to get his son's toy). Lindsley gets convicted of criminally negligent homicide.
In Fortitude, when Frank Sutter is suspected of Charlie Stoddard's murder, DCI Anderson goes to arrest him and, upon finding him naked in Elena's shower, he goes berserk and punches him repeatedly in the head.
On an episode of Frasier, Marty won't stop haranguing Frasier's lawyer girlfriend with evil lawyer jokes. Finally, after he asks her, "How many lawyers does it take to screw in a light bulb?" she retorts, "How many cops planted it there?"
A French Village: Both the French and German police beat people or torture them routinely.
The Gifted (2017): We see mutants often suffering from this. Before he hated them due to mutants inadvertently killing his daughter, Jace actually opposed it as a cop (his partner tased a mutant for simply not providing ID).
The Goodies:Played for Laughs when Tim takes on the role of policing football holiganism, and arrests Bill, who thanks to Tim's policies is the only person allowed at football matches. He calmly escorts Bill home... and then kicks him in the crotch out of nowhere.
Guerrilla: The police are shown to beat people just for talking back. Later, they deliberately beat a black leader to death after he was identified for them by an informant. This is one of the grievances the activists have against them.
Bayliss is prone to outbursts of violence and occasionally lays his hands on suspects, though he's always stopped before he can actually harm them. In the series finale, he goes over the line and executes a Serial Killer about to pull a Karma Houdini.
One story arc had Pembleton investigate the shooting of an unarmed black suspect by a white rookie officer during a raid. Though the officer claims that the shooting was an accident, it's a transparent lie and Pembleton quickly realizes that he and his fellow officers are covering the truth up. He eventually discovers that the officer was covering for his commanding officer, who had shot the suspect in the back when he tried to run.
House of the Dragon: The City Watch is the equivalent of police in King's Landing, and Daemon Targaryen doesn't hesitate to lead them in The Purge of many criminals (or alleged as such) in the city, with much mutilations and summary executions.
The I-Land: The warden had Chase beaten up while tied to a pole by the guards, as his punishment for her escape attempt. As her legs were free, she still kicked a number of them black and blue in return.
Innocent: When Detective Yusuf follows his ex-wife's new boyfriend and accosts him on the street, the latter films the encounter while proclaiming police brutality, and uploads the footage to the internet. The viral video not only causes trouble for the police department but also lands Yusuf in hot water with his ex.
Inspector George Gently is set in the 1960s, when such practices were widespread. However, Gently himself is fiercely opposed to it and will come down hard on any officer he finds indulging in police brutality. This becomes especially relevant in "Gently Between the Lines", when Gently and Bacchus are asked to investigate when a suspect dies in police custody, seemingly after being assaulted by three officers during a riot. Gently's superiors expect him to just sweep the whole incident under the rug, but they underestimate Gently's devotion to justice.
Jessica Jones (2015): Will Simpson. He is first introduced being commanded by Kilgrave to attack Trish Walker. After Jessica breaks Kilgrave's control, Simpson proceeds to help Jessica and Trish in their plans to take down Kilgrave. Notably, he tries to use torture to interrogate one of Kilgrave's bodyguards who clearly doesn't know anything, and he has a hermetically sealed room all set up to contain and torture Kilgrave.
In the series The Last Detective, while the protagonist is a By-the-Book Cop, his DCI is an Old-Fashioned Copper — think a washed-up Gene Hunt. In one episode, the latter talks nostalgically about no longer being able to have suspects "fall down the stairs".
Stabler's the worst example, but he's not the only one: all the main detectives (and the persecution lawyers, occasionally, and the various ADAs) run this trope with a T.
DCI Hunt has a tendency to let his anger be his guide in investigation/interrogation rather than a sense of due process. Yeah, forget things like "facts" or "due process" or "the truth": Let's just go out and reenact scenes from Death Wish.
Note that the traditional explanation for suffering injuries while in British police custody is "falling down the stairs"; bonus points if this is in a police station where the cells are on the ground floor.
It should also be noted that the conflict between the old-style policing of Gene Hunt and the modern/futuristic policing of Sam Tyler is the central dramatic conflict in the show, but even then, there are external forces in the 1970s for the police to rein in such brutality, as evidenced in the series finale.
Sheriff Hunt and his deputies. They march Atticus, Leti and George off into the woods with clear intent to kill them even after they followed their orders to leave Devon County.
Later, Leti is the victim of a "rough ride" by the Chicago cops in the prison wagon after she's arrested.
"Jiga-a-Bobo" has a bunch of cops opening fire on Leti's house, which literally gets riddled with bullets.
Frank is arrested and detained by the Kempeitai (Japanese Military Police) for his Jewish ancestry. Whilst in custody, he is stripped naked, brutally beaten, and threatened with execution by firing squad or extradition to Nazi-controlled America.
It shouldn't be a surprise that the SS in the German-occupied portion of the United States also resort to torture tactics to force information out of their suspects. Obergruppenfuehrer John Smith actually orders one of his men to beat a captured member of the resistance to death, even though he's unconscious and can't answer any questions. This is a ruse to make people believe he died without talking, as ordinarily they would have stopped if he did.
Midnight Caller: Lieutenant Zymak is accused of beating up a black teenager in "The Reverend Soundbite." He was actually beaten during a gang initiation, and made up the lie to avoid getting in trouble with his parents.
Murder in the First: Terry is accused of this in one episode, but the audience knows he's innocent and he gets exonerated. However, the black community is quick to believe it, and Terry calls out protesters, saying the only concern they have lies with the criminal who he justifiably shot, not a black cop like himself.
Slightly subverted in an episode of Murder, She Wrote. The prime suspect in Tainted Lady has been harassed by an older sheriff since she was in high school. This got so out-of-hand that he forced himself on her twice. He was even about to rape her while she was in a prison cell.
Next (2020): Next edits footage to make it look like the FBI shot a right-wing militant, causing many more to loudly protest at their office as a distraction.
In Episode 1, a Cross police officer hits a Nought youth with his cudgel for no real reason aside from racist animus, putting him into a coma. He later dies. This serves as the spark of the plot.
Callum is later struck while being arrested despite not being resistant at all, then beaten in custody by the police.
Nicola, a Liberation Militia member, is beaten to death by the police.
The Outer Limits (1995): In "Corner Of The Eye" the police at the beginning attack a homeless camp without even giving them an opportunity to disperse, striking people with their batons for no reason.
In Oz, Alvin Yood (Prisoner 01Y218) is a former small-town Sheriff jailed for beating a minor who spat on him during an interrogation.
In Person of Interest, Reese ends up joining the NYPD as Detective John Riley in season 4 under a false identity the Machine created to hide him from Samaritan. In one episode, he's sent for mandatory counseling after an excessive force incident where he shot a fleeing suspect in the knee from the upper deck of a tour bus. It's in large part Truth in Television: Reese is used to dealing with opponents that way from his days as an operative for the Machine, but he can't do that kind of thing as an actual cop.
The Power (2023): Saudi police open fire on local women protesting a woman's beating when they didn't pose an immediate threat. In this case, the women lethally fight back with their electrical powers, killing them. Later, they start beating protestors and threaten opening fire against them, but are shamed to stand down by one's mother.
The Practice: In "Police State" when a cop is shot other officers first shoot the suspect while unarmed, then blatantly torture him later.
Queen Sugar: This is a recurring element of the series. Nova is an activist who works tirelessly to expose how violent, racist, and corrupt the New Orleans Police Department is, which creates tension in her relationship with her boyfriend Calvin, who works as an officer in that very department. In season 5 it's revealed that Calvin broke a Black kid's back while working as a cop, leaving him paralyzed for life. Nova is horrified by this revelation and Calvin turns himself in to Internal Affairs to finally take responsibility for his actions.
In Renegadepress.com's "The Ride", finding himself in trouble with the law, Jack decides to write a story about police brutality for the titular website.
Vic Mackey and others from The Shield. The show was inspired by the horrific scandal at the LAPD's Rampart Division, which included some rather eye-popping allegations: A bank robbery planned by a police officer, multiple suspects killed with weapons planted on them for justification, actually joining the "Bloods" street gang, stealing drugs from the evidence locker for hip-hop producer Suge Knight, and murdering Notorious B.I.G.
In the first episode, the titular officer holds a purse-snatcher at gunpoint and orders him to beat himself up. This is typical of how he treats suspects.
In another episode, Sledge pitches the benefits of being a cop on the basis that he gets paid to legally beat up and kill people.
A plot point in an episode of Starsky & Hutch, where a corrupt lawyer hires two thugs to impersonate the titular duo and tail them in a replica of the Torino, beating up everyone the real Starsky and Hutch met with and allowing witnesses to see them, in order to frame them for brutality and get them fired.
True Detective: In "Part 5" a protest against the mining operation gets violent and the state troopers are sent in. One of them strikes the teenaged Leah and knocks her down. Navarro screams at him that Leah is just a kid, but he continues until Navarro punches him, to the crowd's cheers.
Utopia Falls: The Authority very roughly arrest people who sell memorabilia showcasing unapproved performances for the Exemplar, which triggers a riot when people nearby protest.
We Own This City: while the series opens with Wayne Jenkins (hypocritically) giving a speech to new officers about how brutality is bad police work, the Gun Trace Task Force he runs are openly Cowboy Cops, and Officer Daniel Hersl is even transferred to the task force precisely because he has had so many complaints about excessive force ("only one sustained"). The series is set in the wake of the 2015 Freddie Grey uprising, with Department of Justice sending agents to investigate the Baltimore Police. The investigators even find that poice brutality is so common it taints the jury pool, as almost everyone called for jury duty has either personal or second hand bad experiences with the police, including one potential juror who tells of being beat up by police at the 2015 protest.
When We Rise: Many feminist and gay rights protesters are beaten up by police without reason. This is especially angering to them since the police fail to protect many women and gays against violent crimes.
Officers regularly assault hoodlums, including minors, in their custody, though few officers are portrayed as actual corrupt cops. It's simply considered part of "the game". Assaulting regular citizens, however, isn't allowed. For example, when Herc mistakes a deacon for a drug-runner, he gets fired for roughing him up.
During a raid on the Pit where the Barksdale stash houses are located, Bodie punches the elderly "hump" known as Pat Mahon. This prompts Herc, Carver, and Kima to engage in a three-man beatdown.
More notable is when Bird is arrested and brought in for interrogation. Before they even start the interrogation, Jay Landsman takes a Polaroid of Bird's injuries so that Bird can't claim they were inflicted in custody. Except, Bird continues to use vulgar language and lewd remarks at his interrogators (especially against the lesbian Kima Greggs), prompting Daniels to ceremoniously tear up the Polaroid, before he, Landsman, and Kima deliver a three-man beatdown to Bird.
Another is when Roland Pryzbylewski pistol-whips a fourteen-year-old boy in the face, blinding the kid in one eye. This goes so far beyond the pale that even Herc and Carver (who are responsible for a lot of police brutality themselves) stare at Prez and Carver verbally asks, "What the fuck's the matter with you?" Despite his partners and Daniels covering for him and coaching him about what to say to IID, Prez gets taken off patrolling entirely and his gun taken away after the incident. An uncomfortable moment happens a few episodes later when the detail nabs one of the Barksdale gang's runners, and Prez immediately recognizes him as the guy he attacked.
Anthony Colicchio, one of the Western District cops in Carver's Drug Enforcement Unit squad beginning in season 3. He enforces drug rules by brute force, eschewing any subtlety or understanding of the streets, and sports the soldier's mentality that Major Colvin decries as detrimental to good law enforcement. He increasingly goes off the rails in seasons 4 and 5, becoming more brutal and aggressive. The final straw is when he attacks a school teacher who is just politely asking him to move his patrol car out of the way so the teacher can get to work. Carver (by then a Sergeant) is disturbed by Colicchio's complete lack of remorse and refuses to cover for him, writing him up for excessive force and conduct unbecoming a police officer.
Eddie Walker is a notoriously corrupt patrol officer in the Western District, feared on the streets because of his willingness to inflict police brutality on anyone from Omar to little kids and to engage in acts such as robbing suspects before they are arrested. For instance, he breaks a sixth grader's fingers because the kid stole a car and went on a joyride simply for that fact it meant that Walker would have to fill out extra paperwork. Some cops see his brutal, no-holds-barred methods of policing as the only way to keep street kids in line, while others (most prominently McNulty) see Walker as an asshole who shouldn't be on the force.
McNulty, of all people, is the only main character in the show's fictional version of the Baltimore Police Department who is never shown to physically harm a citizen. It's possible he picked this up from working under Bunny Colvin, who was also disdainful of excessive force and the "soldier mentality," and found himself frequently frustrated with the younger, more militant and aggressive cops under his command. McNulty is also never alleged or implied to have participated in any offscreen police brutality. His aforementioned attitudes toward cops Walker and Colicchio, and his preference for other modes of peacekeeping and investigation, are consistent with this portrayal. It's implied throughout the series that other cops don't much like or trust him, and it might be that way because they are afraid that he would not cover for them.
That said, Colvin himself isn't enitrely clean, as in season 3, he orders his men to force the drug dealers into the Free Zones by any means necessary, promising to cover up anything if the perps can still walk afterwards. This leads to the police beating on the corner boys, throwing theirs shoes down the storm drain, spraing pepper spray into the back of an arrest van, and dumping a van full of kids who have never left their neighborhood in the middle of a forest at night, and giving vague directions to walk back.
In a game of "Hollywood Director," Brad, playing a cop responding to a car accident between Ryan and Wayne, immediately after arriving on the scene, beat up Wayne for no other reason than because he's black.
Another game had Ryan and Colin playing a Good Cop/Bad Cop pair of dishwasher repairmen; the game ended with Wayne stuffed into his dishwasher.
In one episode, after Rick has been eulogizing Felicity Kendal, a policeman breaks into the house, hits him with a chair, and says: "Let me assure you that I would not have done that if you had been Felicity Kendal."
In another episode, a man rings the doorbell to the student's flat. He is accosted by a policeman:
Cop: Ho ho ho. Hahahahaha. Well, Mr. Sambo Darkie Coon, I've got your number. You're nicked. [We see the man's face. He's clearly white.] Man: Is there anything the matter, officer? Cop: Ho ho ho, oh dear me. Don't we talk lovely, Mr. Rastus Chocolate Drop. Now listen here, son. I've done a weekend's training with the S.A.S. I could pull both your arms off and leave no trace of violence. Lord Scarman need never know. Man: What seems to be the trouble, officer? Cop: That's white man's electricity you're burnin', ringin' that bell. That's theft. I've got your number, so hold out your hands. Man: Officer, I represent Kellogg's Corn Flakes car competition. I— [The cop removes his sunglasses and sees the man for the first time.] Cop: Oh. Sorry, John. I thought you was a nigger. Now, sir, carry on.
The X-Files: Mulder and Scully are usually extremely polite and understanding when interrogating suspects, but downplayed Police Brutality happens in the episode "Paper Hearts". Mulder gets frustrated while he interrogates Roche, a convicted child molester and Serial Killer, and he hits him very hard in the jaw. A guard walks in, surprised, but when Roche complains, he says he didn't see it. The fair-minded and just Agent Scully is visibly upset and mad at Mulder but doesn't report him. They have to account for this action, though, because it was videotaped, and their supervisor AD Skinner pulls out a What the Hell, Hero? speech.
, which included some rather eye-popping allegations: A bank robbery planned by a police officer, multiple suspects killed with weapons planted on them for justification, actually joining the "Bloods" street gang, stealing drugs from the evidence locker for hip-hop producer Suge Knight, and murdering Notorious B.I.G.