To protect and serve, dial 9-1-1.
The police officers in some of our favorite cartoons range from sweet and lovable to wildly
incompetent to downright demented.
The cops in most cartoons are usually present and ready to make you laugh with their commitment
to duty.
From those who uphold the law to those who are downright corrupt, we ask which officer
has the most evil deep down?
And who’s the most likely to go beyond the call of duty?
Well, Let’s Find Out.
Hello I’m Kyle from WickedBinge and this is Cartoon Police Officers: Good Cop to Bad
Cop.
A quick note, we’ll be ranking these officers of the law on their ability to perform their
duties as officers and keep their respective city’s safe.
As usual, we’ll be starting with the good and working our way down.
Beginning with the most pure.
These are the Good Cops.
The Gold Medal for Good Cop goes to Elisa Maza from Gargoyles.
Elisa is a detective second grade in the New York City Police Department 23rd precinct.
With a strong sense of justice and an unmeasurable sense of determination, you can always count
on her.
Quick-witted Elisa is the first to jump into her role to protect and serve.
She is the first detective on the scene when a crisis comes forth on the streets of Manhattan.
In the very first episode of the series, we meet Elisa investigating a series of disturbances
caused by the Gargoyles.
Regardless of the dangers and the unknown her desire to "protect and serve" is her driving
force.
She dubs herself the "the protector of protectors" and her work both on the beat or undercover
reflects that.
She gets the Gold Medal of Good because of her overall effectiveness as a police officer..
It was in part due to Elisa's role as a police detective that the Manhattan Clan realized
what their role was in the world, they wanted to protect and serve people along with her.
It also doesn't hurt that she is kind, especially compared to some of the other characters on
the list.
And that is why she is the best!
Now, the silver medal of good goes to the distinguished...
Lin Beifong from The Legend of Korra.
Though she struggles with family issues, her role as Chief of Police in Republic City is
nothing short of honorable.
Equip with her earth bending abilities and a no-nonsense attitude, she takes her duties
very seriously.
As an officer of the law, she has a simple mentality “ if you break the law, you will
be arrested," regardless of position, intent, or even familial relationship.
This can be seen when she apprehended her sister Suyin when she was the driver of the
getaway car for the robberies committed by the Terra Triad.
A better police officer than her mother Toph, Lin was shocked that her mother put her agenda
above her duties as an office by ripping up the police report on Suyin.
Not even the Avatar is off-limits to her, she has Korra arrested and brought before
her for destroying public and private property in her fight with three Triple Threat Triad
members.
Uptight and standoffish while also being brave, loyal and selfless to the point where she
will willingly sacrifice herself for good of the people, She attempted to rescue Korra
even if it meant she would have to team up with her sister and was key in defending Republic
City from Kuvira.
She takes the job seriously and the citizens of Republic City can sleep at night knowing
she's around to stop the lawbreakers.
Taking the bronze medal for good is none other Gotham’s own Commissioner James Gordon from
Batman: The Animated Series.
A seasoned vet in one of the worst crime havens imaginable, Gordan has faced a caliber of
bad guy that no one else on this list has, and that says a lot…the Joker anyone?
Even with all that he faces he is willing to throw himself into harm's way for the safety
of the citizens of Gotham.
A natural leader, he has the utmost loyalty and respect from his officers and the crusader
himself.
Never one to back down, Gordon may be overshadowed by Batman when it comes to fighting the baddies,
but he is the face of apprehending and seeing that those criminals face prosecution.
Gordon has organized the Gotham City Police Department in several cases to combat criminal
and terrorist activity.
For instance, he investigated the extortion racket which ended with the arrest of Hugo
Strange.
Yes, he shares classified information with Batman, but he does this for the greater good
of Gotham.
It goes without saying that Batman has mutual respect for Gordan.
It is safe today Gotham wouldn't be same without Jim Gordan,
We’re going to throw in Officer Jenny from Pokemon here next.
Yeah, I know that it’s actually Jennys…
Given that all of her cousins are identical, with the same name and occupations…
But we’ll kind of rank them all together for obvious reasons.
Officer Jenny is always a very lawful, kind and helpful person…
And she’s seen on many occasions rescuing civilians from various forms of destruction,
often brought on by Team Rocket.
She takes her role as police officer very seriously and will do everything she can to
stop criminals from escaping.
Rounding out our good list, we have the wheelchair-bound, macho, hot head Joe Swanson from Family Guy.
For all the ridicule that he faces, not many will argue with the fact that Joe Swanson,
for the most part, is a dedicated police officer.
The greatest example of his dedication would be through the stories that describe how he
lost the use of his legs.
Where he was investigating a robbery at an orphanage by The Grinch... or getting shot
by Bobby Briggs while attempting to bring an end to a heroin ring, Joe's efforts are
valiant.
Even without the use of legs, Joe is a force within the police force.
Joe is not above arresting his friends either albeit when the episode development depends
on it.
He has arrested Meg on two occasions, most notably for aiding and hiding her criminal
boyfriend.
Arrested Peter for arson, Lois for shoplifting, and Brian for drunk driving.
Now, he doesn’t always live up to his oath.
He takes justice into his own hands on more than one occasion...
most notably in "Joe's Revenge" when he goes after and ultimately kills Bobby Briggs.
But in the world of Family Guy, he could be a lot worse.
And with that said, we’ve wrapped up the good characters…
Now, we move into the Grey Area.
Next up in the grey area may come as a surprise...
Inspector Gadget from of course the Inspector Gadget Animated Series.
Now we know what you may be thinking, how is the kind and heroic Inspector Gadget in
the grey area?
One word…INCOMPETENCE.
Incompetence will be a common theme in this ranking from now on.
While he may be brave and determined, Inspector Gadget is dim-witted, gullible, and clueless.
His successes in thwarting Dr. Claws' schemes can be attributed to the meddling and grace
of his niece Penny, dog Brian, and sheer luck.
When a little girl and a dog are the only things keeping Metro City from being ruled
by Claw that does does not look good on him as an officer.
He only comes close to catching Dr.Claw twice and Claw escapes both times, something tells
me this just isn't the right calling for him.
The only reason he isn't lower on our list is that he truly wants to protect Metro City
and he tries his best to keep the city safe, it's just not because of him that it is.
Thanks, Penny, and Brian wouldn't know what to do without you.
Coming up are Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland from Gravity Falls.
Lazy and incompetent are two words that might as well be synonymous with their names.
Preferring fishing and pancakes to protect and serve the police officers of Gravity Falls
are the poster children for giving up.
Blubs and Durland deem every case "unsolvable" as was the case in Wax Stan's murder.
Blubs makes fun of Dipper who volunteers to solve the case instead.
They would rather pay attention to each other than actual crimes.
For example, when an elderly lady got her purse stole on Pioneer Day and Sheriff Blubs
was more occupied with Deputy Durland ringing a bell.
Or, in “Dipper vs. Manliness” where Durland uses a police radar gun to record how fast
blubs can eat an entire stack pancakes, instead of you know.
using it to apprehend speeders.
Blubs is obviously the leader of the two with Durland blindly following him and that is
not how officers of the law should hold themselves.
Up next is one of Springfield’s finest Lou.
By far more intelligent than Chief Wiggum...
Don’t worry about the Chief he’s coming...
Lou is also the best officer, which isn’t saying much.
They say that if you do not do something to stop injustice you are contributing and that
is the case with Lou.
He more often than not will point out the wrongs in Chief Wiggum's plans but rarely
ever stops them.
He is aware of the corruption in Springfield but does nothing to stop it.
He doesn’t take joy in hurting people at least and that is why he is higher.
And with that said, this ends the Grey Area.
We’re now firmly in the Bad and Evil category…
Coming right after Inspector Gadget is Sergeant Bosco from Bob’s Burgers.
A recurring character, Bosco isn’t in a lot of episodes of Bob’s Burgers but when
he shows up, he’s pretty memorable.
In his first appearance in “ Bob Day Afternoon," he seizes the burger joint in an attempt to
go negotiate the release of the hostages.
He is rude, condescending, and dismissive to the Belchers.
He proceeds to send Bob over to the bank robber and commands his snipers to shoot as soon
as Mickey door almost killing striking Bob.
In another noteworthy appearance, he demands and forces Linda Belcher to find the Little
Boy Bandit with her "psychic abilities" in an effort to not get demoted due to his lack
of effectiveness and care for his position as an office.
He goes so far to threaten Linda with arrest if she does not do his job for him.
Once the Little Boy Bandit is found by Bob and Linda, he shows how narcissistic and glory
hunger his is by taking all the credit.
He just doesn't care about his job as a police force whether it's his horrible undercover
skills or the fact that he will neglect his beat to do speed dating, Sergeant Bosco isn't
lower simply because he isn't a mainstay on the show and his neglect has shown in major
damage…that we know of.
Lou’s partner is up next…
Eddie... who isn’t as talkative as Lou and Wiggum but is always on the scene.
Eddie is interesting because he has admitted that he enjoys beating up people, but he likes
his job as a police officer because, and I quote he's" making a difference."
Eddie also was the one to suggest getting a DNA sample from Mr. Burns suit to identify
his shooter.
In the Season 3 episode "Separate Vocation" where they take Bart on a ride-along.
On that ride along they neglect to see that Snake is robbing the Kwik-E-Mart and when
they go about catching him, they put Bart in danger.
Eddie acknowledges that giving Bart a loaded police gun is against protocol but does it
anyway.
Now we another set of police officers right out of the mind of Matt Groening…
URL (pronounced Earl) and Smitty from Futurama.
URL and Smitty beat first and ask questions later.
Though not as prominent in the show as some of the other officers on this list, when they
show up, they are remarkably bad cops.
Often without being provoked they resort to violence as displayed in one encounter where
Smitty attacks Fry for picking his nose.
They usually make arrests with what they think is right without any sufficient evidence or
investigating to back them up.
Like when they arrested Flexo instead of Bender at the 3001 Miss Universe Pageant.
Or in “Robot Santa Claus” when they arrested Bender thinking he was Robot Santa or when
they arrested Bender again and Fry for the Big Apple Bank hold-up instead of Roberto.
Couple that with their attack of anyone and everyone they deem suspicious they are no
beacons of justice.
The reasons they aren’t any lower is because they do have their moments of good policing
like arresting the entire Planet Express crew when they couldn’t afford the bill at Elzar’s
and not being useless in times of need.
I still wouldn't want to run into them.
The next bad cop is the Sheriff of the city of Elmore...
Doughnut Sheriff from The Amazing World of Gumball.
No, being a doughnut is not what makes him a bad cop, he is a bad cop because he is grossly
incompetent and his inability to act on the face of danger.
He is oblivious to actual crime and on the off chance he does recognize a threat he cowers.
In the episode “The Friend” he is seen relying entirely on a manual to tell him what
to do, his ineffectiveness to protect and serve leaves his many of his men injured,
just horrible.
He gets even worse in the episode "The Law" where he worries about being viewed as cool
more than being an actual good cop who follows the law.
When he loses his job because of his need to be cool and cause Felicity to lose it and
commit several crimes, mind you, he later gets his job apprehends her and then he lets
her go, Why?
Because he believed it was the cool thing to do.
Also, he is not above breaking the law as seen when he steals and crashes a car in "The
Pizza".
Add in that unnecessary desire to be seen as a cool cop instead of a good cop, Doughnut
Sheriff is right where he belongs on our list.
Up next we have Axe Cop from Axe Cop.
Axe Cop is so strange.
Unlike others on this list, he believes that he is in fact a good cop doing good things,
and it goes without a show that he is not a good cop and arguably not a cop at all.
For the sake of this list, however, he is indeed a cop, just a very bad one.
He abides by rules he deems worthy to follow and one of those rules is that murdering those
he views as villains are completely acceptable.
Which, shocker, does not go always go well.
For example, in the episode "Birthday Month" where he inadvertently kills some good merman
because he mistook their smiles as evil.
In Axe Cop's mind, he is the judge, jury, and executioner a mentality that no one who
has the title of cop should want to do.
Not mention he disposes of the people he kills in the garbage and isn't a fan of the "Normal
Cops" Axe Cop just edges out the worst of the worse cartoon police officers by a fine
hair.
Our bronze medalist for worst cartoon police officer goes to the doughnut loving, ignorant,
corrupt, goofball from Springfield, Chief Clancy Wiggum.
Wreaking havoc, by far, the longest on our list, Wiggum is worse than Axe Cop because
of how seemingly harmless his incompetence is when he is in fact anything but.
No stranger to breaking the law himself, Wiggum accepts bribes on some occasions... even requesting
them in order for him to keep silent... the man has a badge that reads "Cash Bribes Only".
He has the mayor of Springfield under his thumb which may explain why he is still the
chief of police, even though he is clearly inept for the job.
He arrests people as he sees fit with no rhyme or reason.
The level of knowledge he has on actual laws is beyond ignorant at best and he will more
than likely make up some arbitrary reason for why he is arresting people rather than
for an actual crime.
Another notable example of his ignorance towards the law is when he mixes up the acronyms DOA
and DWI, he tells Marge that Homer is Dead on Arrival when he was charged with Driving
While Impaired.
The terrible part follows when a woman comes to his precinct believing that her husband
has had a DWI but he was really DOA.
Always reliant on his slightly more comparable fellow officers, Wiggum would rather eat as
many donuts as he can.
In some cases, he uses his gun to hold and eat his doughnuts.
On the off chance that he decides to persue a criminal, he can barely make it up a flight
a step before he is winded and decides to just let them go.
Clancy Wiggum is a sucky police officer and the day he loses his position will be a day
of victory for the citizens of Springfield.
Our final two horrible cartoon cops reside over the same city...
The silver medal for the worst police officer in cartoon dishonorably goes to Officer Barbary
from South Park.
An officer who is somehow dumber than Chief Wiggum.
The true question should be how did he become a police officer in the first place?
Officer Barbrady’s way of handling crimes and disputes in South park is why he is as
low as he.
The number of laws that he himself has broken is astonishing.
For instance, in "Cartman Get an Anal Probe," he tries to cover up what is happening to
Farmer Denkins cows.
The farmer and others gather for a peaceful protest and when they don't leave, he threatens
to shoot them all in the head execution-style... if that's not going against police code what
is?
He has murdered on more than one occasion, a newsman, and a 6-year-old boy.
He has admitted to pleasuring himself to Game of Thrones on duty.
And acknowledging the walking by Cartman as he hung from a crucifix.
He should have been able to dawn the badge and the uniform, truly a mistake on the academy's
behalf.
Not to be outdone by his fellow officer, Sergeant Harrison Yates is by far the worst police
officer not only in South Park but in all of Cartoons.
Gullible, stupid, lazy, racist, misogynistic, violent, hateful and an extremist would be
the quick description of his personality.
Yates is in a league of evil all his own.
In the episode “ The Jeffersons” he enacts a series of hate crimes by framing innocent
African-Americans because he didn’t like that they were richer than him.
“ In the episode " Naughty Ninjas" he and his fellow officers reveal that one of their
main motives in joining the force was for the purpose of being able to beat up minorities
and that he can't stand that society will now view him as a monster for doing so.
In the episode "Butters'' Bottom B***" he takes his job as an undercover police officer
to the extreme by performing the sexual acts that are asked of him and then arresting the
men, he provided his services to, much to the horror of his fellow officers.
On the occasions where he is not going to an unhealthy extreme to fit his own desires,
he is not doing much at all.
In the episode “ Time to Get Cereal,” he writes off the multiple murders at the
hands of ManBearPig as school shootings and pins everything at the boys even though most
of the murders weren't at a school or gun-related, all so that he can go home and play Red Dead
Redemption.
Harrison Yates doesn't deserve the title of Sargeant.
The city of South Park has never been a utopia and with someone like Yates as the face of
the justice system, it never will.
He is the vilest cartoon officer in cartoons, and in a wicked way, I am sure he'd be proud
of it.
But what do you think?
Who’s the most evil cartoon police officer?
Let us know in the comment section below.
Hit that notification bell and binge our Good-to-Evil playlist, where we break down the morality
of the characters on your favorite shows.
But most importantly, stay wicked.