Conflicted cops protect and serve... themselves

Law-enforcement officers in fiction are equipped with two tools: a badge and a gun. Some bring more to the job: huge ego, addiction, a misplaced sense of duty and other attributes. Here are four cops who speak loudly about law and order and good and evil — and who also show how blurry the boundaries can be.

VIC MACKEY

Leader of the anti-gang Strike Team unit on the FX series “The Shield” (2002-08), Mackey came to life through Michael Chiklis, known until then for being the lead in the bland 1990s ABC-TV series “The Commish.” Chiklis left boring Tony Scali far behind when the bullets started flying and people began disappearing. With at least three murders under his belt (including a member of his own team) it’s hard to see Vic as being anything other than out of control and just plain evil. To him, though, the ends justify the means every time, regardless of the tragic results such consequentialism can bring — for instance, the disintegration of his family — as well as to the evildoers upon whom he seeks to impose his own brand of justice.

HARRY CALLAHAN

To this hard-bitten San Francisco detective, the lines are clearly defined: there are good people and bad people, and the bad people must be dealt with — even if he has to do it himself because the Powers That Be won’t. A total of 43 criminals are killed in the five “Dirty Harry” movies, but even that gruesome tally pales next to Clint Eastwood’s searing, iconic “make my day” portrayal of the lone wolf armed with a .44 Magnum handgun that “would blow your head clean off.”

"Do ya feel lucky, punk?!"

POPEYE DOYLE

Dirty Harry wasn’t the only cop on a mission. “The French Connection” introduced the world to James “Popeye” Doyle, for whom rule-breaking was a way of life. Based on real-life New York City police detective Eddie Egan, Doyle was xenophobic, drug-addled, unorthodox and disrespectful to authority figures while managing to chase — in a memorable scene — and catch a gang of international heroin dealers. Gene Hackman would also win the Best Actor Oscar in 1972 for the role.

BAD LIEUTENANT

This article would not be complete without Harvey Keitel’s nameless corrupt cop from the eponymous 1992 Abel Ferrara film. A gambler and an addict who all but ignores his family, steals money from a crime scene, and acts as much the horrifying perpetrator as the criminals he pursues, Bad Lieutenant is grotesque and disturbing — but it contains a powerful message of forgiveness and the potential of redemption.