Top 10 Things Movies Get Wrong About Cops

Hollywood has the right to remain wrong. Welcome to WatchMojo.com and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the top 10 things movies and TV get wrong about cops.

For this list, we’ll be going over the misconceptions and myths that Hollywood created and continues to perpetuate about police and law enforcement.

The idea of “good cop, bad cop,” where one interrogator plays the “good” cop and another the “bad” cop in a ploy to make someone talk is largely an invention of Hollywood. While detectives may slip into similar behavior on the fly, they don’t decide the parts beforehand, instead switching things up depending on how the person being questioned behaves. After all, they may be cooperative enough that harsh words aren’t needed. Plus, switching on a dime often leads to people revealing more than they intended or being caught in a lie.

Speaking of interrogations, movies and TV would have you believe that everyone talks when questioned, revealing themselves as the criminal or giving the cops a clue. However, most people don’t talk, as it’s usually not in their interest to. The reason people fess up in media is simply for the sake of expediency – it’s easier to tell the story and wrap things up if people are honest. Real life isn’t a story that has to be wrapped up in an hour or two and anyone suspected of a crime is better off staying silent, as the burden of proof is then on the police or prosecution.

Whenever someone is arrested in TV or movies, the arresting officer or detective seen reciting them their Miranda rights – that they have a right to an attorney, anything they say can be used in a court of law, blah blah blah. When this isn’t done by the police, it’s treated as the criminal’s get out of jail free card. However, not only is this not the case, the whole Miranda rights trope is portrayed incorrectly! The rights are legally bound to be read from a card – and only in the case of interrogation, not upon arrest. If the rights aren’t read, the interrogation can’t be used in court, that’s all.

You’d think something as simple as the uniform and the gear would be easy to get right, but Hollywood screws that up too – and sometimes it’s intentional. Cops are often depicted without standard issue safety equipment, such as helmets or bulky vests, when correct procedure and common sense would demand they wear them in a dangerous situation. However, Hollywood often omits these items due to them obscuring the actors’ faces or bodies, making the scenes less photogenic. Sure they might catch a bullet, but at least they look pretty, right?

Shows and movies usually feature cops drawing their guns a lot, usually as a way of showing that things are serious, or that they’re ready for action. In real life, a cop needs to justify drawing their guns with valid reasons and they even need to fill out paperwork every time they do it. Guns are usually treated as the first response most of the time, when they’re usually the last. Attempting to deescalate a situation or using less lethal weapons are by far the more common tools for cops in the field.

Everyone knows that when you go to jail, you get one phone call and that’s it, so you have to make it count. Except that’s complete fiction: this is yet another “rule” that Hollywood has created for the sake of consistency or because it’s become a trope. Many jails have pay phones that let prisoners call whoever they want, as much as they want as long as whoever they’re calling can or will pay. However, police are not obligated to let you call anyone – it’s a privilege that they can take away, depending on your behavior, or theirs.

Cop shows and other procedurals involving law enforcement often depict forensics as the main means of identifying a suspect or proving someone’s guilt, especially if the letters CSI are in the title. However, while forensics is an important part of the process, the reality is that the analysis usually takes too long to be used to catch or find a criminal. For the most part, evidence is used as a means to build a case against someone charged with a crime; the frosting on top of the cake, so to speak – hardly something to make the whole thing from.

Cop shows and movies are almost all action, patrolling, or investigation. Yet, these aspects of the job are a tiny portion of what police spend most of their day doing. The majority, like many other professions, is spent on paperwork, with one UK study suggesting that officers spent 85% of their time on it. Granted, we get why it’s not often shown, as paperwork is hardly the most riveting thing to watch onscreen. Even so, it might be nice to have a little more truth in media.

Media depicts police officers turning in their badge and pursuing justice or revenge outside the law as vigilantes all the time. But you’d be hard pressed to find a story about a real life cop becoming a rogue crime fighter. That isn’t to say police don’t break the law sometimes in their pursuit of their motives. In that case, they’re criminal cops who are protected by the very laws they’re breaking, whereas vigilantes have no such protection. In other words, we would expect it to be uncommon for a cop to be forced to hand in their badge and still play hero...

Before we get to our top picks, here are a few honorable mentions:

Undercover Cops Don't Have To Identify Themselves If Asked

Kicking in Doors Is a Lot Harder Than It Looks

They Don't Constantly Eat Donuts

Movies and TV shows would have us believe that being cops can accomplish everything from investigation to fighting through waves of criminals and bad guys by themselves, or at most with a partner or small team. While it’s conceivable that people like this exist, they’re exceptionally rare. Cops need backup when they’re in a gun battle, and even then, the likelihood of death or injury is still very high. They’re not going to make it through everything and then have a snappy one-liner ready either.