corrupt cop
Badge-wearing criminal
A corrupt cop is a police officer who abuses their position for personal gain or engages in criminal activity—taking bribes, stealing from crime scenes, planting evidence, or protecting criminals in exchange for money.
The term appears constantly in crime fiction and news coverage of police misconduct: The corrupt cop had been on the cartel's payroll for years.
- dirtyNot clean
- crookedBent or dishonest
- badgeWorn symbol of membership
- thin blue lineMetaphor for police
- bribeIllicit payment for favor
payoff · dirty money · drug money · shakedown · evidence · planted · evidence locker · witness tampering · precinct · rat · snitch · informant · internal affairs · scandal · kickback · graft · vice · protection
- thriller tropesplot twist, red herring, cliffhanger, whodunit, femme fatale
- criminalsmurderer, thief, burglar, criminal, killer
- noir charactersfemme fatale, private eye, gumshoe, hard-boiled detective, dame
- action clichesexplosion, car chase, one-liner, slow motion, shootout
- stock charactersvillain, sidekick, hero, damsel in distress, fool
- villainsvillain, antagonists, Darth Vader, evil characters, Joker
corrupt, cop, corruption, corrupted, corrupting, corruptible, incorruptible, corruptly, corruptor