Stereotypes of Police in Media

The Lazy and Incompetent

There is a common stereotype in media that the police are lazy and incompetent for example in The Simpsons the police chief "Wiggum" is most commonly seen eating donuts and slacking off. He is a large man who often gets his subordinates to do everything for him, who are slightly more hardworking, but they still spend most of their time trying to please Wiggum by giving him donuts and taking him on joyrides in a ____ connected to a bike. Due to the fact that this is a satirical cartoon, he is heavily exaggerated, and his tone of voice is done so as if to mock police officers.

This use of the stereotype in The Simpsons is done to create a humorous affect and to poke fun at the common stereotype of the lazy and incompetent police officer.

The incorruptible

Another example of a cop that is wildly different from chief Wiggum is the incorruptible, who is seen in Commissioner Gordon from the Batman Arkham game series he is seen as a proud officer who always does his best to stick firmly to his morals he is "tough on crime, and in the pursuit of making Gotham City Safe for all it's citizens" the symbolic code of the police badge in the image above tells the audience that Gordon is here to help and will put his life on the line to save the citizen's lives. Also the other symbolic code that he looks quite roughened up telling the audience that he has probably been through a lot to get to the point that he's in now fighting crime in a "by the book" manner rather than opting for vigilantism like Batman does showing that he has a will to stick by the law as much as he can.

This stereotype could be used as a shortcut to meaning as everything about the character and his affiliation with the police can be seen from a simple picture of him.

The Corrupt

Finally, the third example of a stereotypical police officer can be through McCluskey in Godfather. McCluskey is a corrupt police officer who sides with the Tattaglia family mafia. He is easily susceptible to bribes as his main source of income doesn't net him enough to provide for his family, he hears Michael and Sollozzo openly talking about an attempted murder and does nothing to intervene as Sollozzo is paying him to be his bodyguard.

This stereotype is possibly used to talk about the issues in our society about corrupt officers in New York and around the world.