Police Fiction – Ten Clichés to Avoid

June 17, 2022 0 Comments

Crime fiction is big business right now, but there are certain situations that have been overplayed so much that they’ve become genre clichés and everyone knows what to expect next. Here are ten cliches to try to avoid and thoughts on how to subvert cliches if you decide to use them.

policemen and doctors

You can find this perennial favorite in both crime and historical fiction. You’ll see it on ER, NYPD Blue, and cross-genre shows like the X Files. The doctor says “Okay, but just for a minute” or “It’s one touch and you’re done. The next few hours will be crucial” or “It could be minutes, it could be days… you never know with coma cases.” The police usually don’t say anything. They just stand and chew the scenery in frustration.

Mulder and Scully actually spend a lot of their time hanging around hospitals, but it doesn’t show much because the patients aren’t their common criminals or witnesses.

And that’s the way to get around this. Get a new twist and add some tension. Perhaps the patient is related to the police or the doctor. Or maybe the doctor is an amateur detective and knows more than the policeman? But beware of “Dick Van Dyke” syndrome… it takes you into a whole new area of ​​cliché.

the new partner

In this scenario, a veteran cop has to find a new partner after the death of the old one. The novice is either eager as mustard and eager to please, or exhausted by personal problems. He is probably best known in modern times for the Lethal Weapon movies. The writers tried to add some tension early in the series by having Mel Gibson as a borderline case of suicide, and that gave the first film an edge; but was lost on later installations. By the time the fourth movie came around, they had fallen so deeply into a buddy-movie relationship that all of the drama was lost in favor of light comedy.

You need to do some serious subversion if you want to use this situation. People have tried having a dog as a partner in K9, having their mom as a partner in Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, and having foreigners as friends in the great Arnie’s Red Heat.

Outside of strictly police procedural, we’ve also had the robot friend in Robocop, the ghost friend in Randall and Hopkirk (deceased), the alien friend in Alien Nation, the wizard friend in Jonathan Creek, the ex-military friend in Sherlock Holmes and Poirot. The list goes on and on.

Regardless of how you do it, filling in the blanks is easy in this scenario. What you need is something new. What if they assign the policeman a politician who does a season to meet people? Or, on a completely bland but potentially fun level, how about the schizophrenic cop who happens to be his own friend?

The rookie in the morgue

Once just the province of young students in Quincy, this one now appears on television in the CSI or Crossing Jordan franchise and in print in Kay Scarpetta’s books. There are generally two ways one can proceed. Either the young cop runs off, hands to his mouth, or he stands still, ice cold and distant, while the autopsy proceeds.

Inspector Morse tried to subvert this situation by having the veteran be the squeamish one, but how about having the rookie as the pathologist?

Whatever you do, try not to give the pathologist a chance to be smug and condescending while explaining large portions of the plot. In the UK, this is overdone in Silent Witness and Waking the Dead, and is just a lazy way of moving the story forward.

The curmudgeonly lieutenant chews up the cop

In movies and TV shows, this happens to all leading men, and Clint Eastwood must be tired of it. In the Dirty Harry series, he was rarely outside of his boss’s office.

It usually ends with the lieutenant and cop growling at each other, so what if one of them is completely cool and relaxed? Or what if one of them is deaf?

And if you must write this scene, please don’t use lines like “I’ll have your badge for that” or “I’m not covering for you this time.”

The muddy defense attorney

This was a favorite in NYPD Blue and was guaranteed to go up Sipowitz’s nose. Once you’ve presented the snazzy suit, snazzy hairdo, and briefcase, this guy will inevitably say, “My client has no further comment” or “You had no right to talk to him without me.” Everybody knows the rest.

Again, seriousness is needed to put a new spin on this situation. Could your lawyer be an ex-cop who knows all the moves, or a relative or lover of one of the cops? How about a lawyer defending himself? Or a counterculture advocate covered in tattoos and piercings?

Whatever you do, try to come up with some creative invective. Slimeball, sleazeball, reptile, and shyster have all been overused.

The car chase

Bullitt and The French Connection set the standard, and Gone in 60 Seconds brought it into the 21st century, but this situation has grown tired. There are so many old ladies to avoid, so many road signs to hit, and so many police cars to smash before your audience gets tired.

Over the years, the Bond movies have used just about every possible permutation, so you’ll be hard-pressed to come up with something new. It would be better to add tension in another way.

In an attempt to appear fresh, the chase element has sometimes been dropped entirely in favor of racing against time such as in Speed ​​or Die Hard With a Vengeance. To be successful, you’ll need a good reason for the trip to take place, a disastrous outcome if you don’t succeed, and a few good mistakes along the way.

But beware. Too much carnage and your readers will start thinking of The Blues Brothers. And please don’t make your protagonist drive the wrong way down a one-way street…it’s been done too often.

the shooting

Raymond Chandler’s advice to crime writers still stands. “If your plot is failing, have a man come in with a gun.” However, you must be careful. Too many people still transfer scenes from old cowboy movies almost verbatim to modern cop scenes.

Probably the best recent shooting was on Michael Mann’s Heat. You cared who lived or died, and there was excitement and tension. Therein lies the trick. Make your readers have an opinion, not only about your hero, but also about the other characters. By the end of LA Confidential, we knew everyone involved in the climax, and it was more satisfying to see who lived or died. Lining up one-dimensional people as cannon fodder might work in a Saturday night popcorn movie, but we should aim higher than that.

Gunfights work well on film, but can be a drag in print. Some writers tend to slow things down, especially to take a close look at wounds. Unless you’re careful, it can be read like a medical textbook.

And please, no heads “exploding like overripe watermelons.”

The policeman in the cafe

This was used on Chips in every episode, giving them an excuse to show a motorcycle speeding from a parking lot with loose gravel flying around.

He’s also a favorite in most of the aforementioned buddy movies, and especially Starsky and Hutch. They’ll be in a cafe, reflecting on the reprimand they’ve received from their boss, when a call comes in. The radio plays, giving them the opportunity to attach a flashing light to the roof of their car and go on a car chase, closely followed by a gunfight. Do you see how it is possible to execute one cliché on another? Pretty soon you’d have a whole plot, but would someone buy it?

One way to change this scene could be to have an alternate means for the cops to get the message. Could you have them listen to something on television? Or how about on a cell phone or laptop…there are multiple opportunities for mistakes, misunderstandings or criminal action there, and they haven’t been overstated…yet.

Good Cop / Bad Cop

The interview between the good cop and the bad cop became a cliché almost as soon as the crime novel began. A good example, almost seventy years old, can be seen in The Maltese Falcon. By now, everyone knows the moves and your readers will be bored long before the interview is over. Unless you’re being self-referential and tongue-in-cheek, like in LA Confidential, you’ll never make it.

Cracker tried to completely subvert the interview situation by having it conducted by a psychiatrist who played both cops in one. At The Rock, Sean Connery, as a prisoner, told Nicholas Cage what questions he should ask him. He will have to find something equally innovative if he wants it to work.

How about having two good cops? Or two bad cops? Or maybe there’s a new computer system designed by psychologists to ask the right questions in the right order? How would your cops and your prisoner handle that?

the strange wife

Why do all the fictional cops have relationship problems? This scene always goes the same way. The wife says, “You never see the kids anymore.” The policeman doesn’t say anything, because his mobile phone interrupts. You know the rest.

Cracker is again a good example, as he went through this scene in almost every episode. Pacino performed a variation with his girlfriend on Heat.

Cracker not only has a failed marriage, but is also a gambler and drinker. In recent years, people have been giving cops more and more problems to overcome, culminating in Denzel Washington’s paraplegic investigator in The Bone Collector. He wouldn’t even try to top that.

Why not original? Turn your police into a healthy, stable and happily married man. Now there is a challenge.

conclusion

The next time you read or watch a police drama, take a look at how many of the above are still in use. All of these can and often do happen in any story…just shuffle the paragraphs, throw in a murder or two and you have an instant plot.

But unless you can subvert some of the cliches, don’t expect anyone to buy it.

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