32 of the Worst Dirty Cops in Entertainment

McCluskey is a corrupt NYC police captain on the payroll of heroin kingpin Virgil Sollozzo, who unsuccessfully attempts to have Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) assassinated. To finish the job, Sollozzo sends McCluskey to the hospital where the Godfather is convalescing, but he’s outmaneuvered by the Godfather’s son Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), who later murders Sollozzo and McClusky in retribution.

In Mario Puzo’s novel, Neri is described as a convicted former violence-prone NYPD cop who becomes an enforcer for the Corleone family. This backstory isn’t mentioned in the film trilogy. Neri appears in all three “Godfather” films, rising to become an underboss. He’s depicted toward the end of the third film assassinating a corrupt archbishop in the Vatican.

There are many bad officers in this film about an honorable NYC detective (played by Al Pacino) dangerously pushing back against a culture of police corruption, but Keough stands out in the film amid this backdrop of crooked cops. The bad detective attempts to recruit Frank Serpico into the police mafia.

Blakelock is a mobbed-up Phoenix police commissioner who wants to kill Gus Mally (Sondra Locke), a Las Vegas prostitute being escorted by down-and-out alcoholic cop Ben Shockley (Clint Eastwood) who is assigned to run the gauntlet to Phoenix where Mally is set to testify in court against the mob. Mally kills Blakelock at the end of the film.

The film is about a New York City Police Department anti-drug task force led by Det. Daniel Ciello (Treat Williams) who becomes disillusioned at the sketchy ways the agency was landing convictions and must choose between justice or fraternalism. Gus Levy plays Ciello’s best friend on the force who became outraged at Ciello’s choice to betray his fellow officers.

Police Chief Dorsett arranges the killings of Oscar Wallace (Charles Martin Smith), a mob bookkeeper who turns state’s witness, and police trainee George Stone (Andy García). Realizing that Dorsett was behind the killings, veteran cop Jim Malone (Sean Connery) forces the crooked chief to disclose the location of mob accountant Walter Payne (Jack Kehoe).

Peck is held up in the film as a charming model LAPD officer until Internal Affairs agent Raymond Avilla (Andy García) pokes around in Peck’s business to discover the good cop image is a ruse and that Peck, who moonlights as a hitman, runs a network of snitches and crooks in order to enrich himself. Realizing that Avila is on to him, Peck begins a violent campaign to protect himself before he’s gunned down by Avilla after taking a hostage.

The tough-guy actor portrays a tortured, nameless crooked NYPD cop with addictions to drugs and gambling. Harvey Keitel’s Bad Lieutenant attempts to redeem himself by pursuing men who had raped a nun. After the nun tells him she’s forgiven her attackers, he captures the men, gives them his gambling money, and tells them to leave town. Shortly after, he’s killed by a drive-by-shooter, presumably over his gambling debts.

Oldman’s performance as DEA agent Stansfield is one of the most sinister portrayals of a law enforcement agent in film history. He doesn’t think twice about murdering a family to recover a stash of confiscated cocaine to sell on the street. Stansfield realizes that one of the family members, 12-year-old Mathilda Lando (Natalie Portman), escaped and is trying to kill him with the reluctant help of Léon, an Italian hitman.

Harvey Keitel plays a member of a group of NYPD officers living in New Jersey who become the focus of an Internal Affairs investigation. Donlan and fellow officers get caught attempting to plant a gun near the bodies of two Black teens that Donlan’s nephew had accidentally shot. As the film progresses, Donlan unsuccessfully attempts to drown his nephew and kills a cop for having an affair with his wife.

Divinci is one of two police officers who attempt to frame homeless man William McCall (Randy Quaid) for the murder of an undercover DEA agent they had killed for drug money. Divinci leans on Cynthia Webb (Lela Rochon), a stripper with whom he’s cheating on his wife, to provide false witness testimony to bolster the case against McCall.

In what became his last movie role before his unresolved murder in September 1996, Shakur plays alongside Jim Belushi in the film about two cops who unwittingly kill a DEA agent in a crooked drug robbery gone wrong, then attempt to frame a homeless man for the crime. Rodriguez is killed over a gambling debt, but not before he records his partner Frank Divinci admitting to the plot.

In yet another example of bad cops involved in the illicit drug trade, Cromwell plays a crooked LAPD detective in the 1950s who is running a criminal enterprise attempting to expand into the heroin business following the arrest of a local gangster. Based on the 1990 critically acclaimed novel of the same name by James Ellroy, the film depicts a nexus between police corruption and Hollywood fame.

Heard’s depiction of a dirty Newark detective drips with pathos. Det. Makazian appears a disheveled, broken man who, like Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), suffers from depression and eventually commits suicide. First, though, Makazian provides Soprano with insider information, including private details about Tony’s therapist, Dr. Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco), and reveals that Tony’ longtime soldier and friend, Salvatore Bonpensiero (Vincent Pastore) was an FBI informant.

Lombardi portrays an FBI handler in charge of Salvatore Bonpensiero (Vincent Pastore), longtime enforcer for Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini). Busted for selling heroin, and trying to avoid jail time, Bonpensiero becomes an informant. Lipari develops an affinity for Bonpensiero and helps cover up the murder of Matthew “Matt” Bevilaqua (Lillo Brancato Jr.), an aspiring but naive mob associate.

Washington was a well-established box office star, often playing honorable and groomed characters when he made this movie. But he won his first Oscar when he diverted into his depiction of a highly decorated but crooked LAPD narcotics officer who drags Officer Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) into his corrupt world of stealing money from drug dealers.

In this action thriller about college student Ryan (Chris Evans) receiving a random call from a kidnapped woman, Emmerich plays a violent LAPD officer and friend to police Sgt. Robert Mooney (William H. Macy), seen in compromising video along with other detectives torturing, killing, and robbing a pair of drug dealers.

In this remake of a 1976 film of the same name, Detroit police are forced to work with violent criminals to defend a police precinct from an armed assault during a winter storm to kill one of the prisoners who has compromising information about corrupt cops. The attackers are working for police Captain Marcus Duvall, who leads a police mafia.

Part of a group of corrupt NYPD cops, Nugent is trying to hunt down key witness Eddie Bunker (Mos Def) while he’s being escorted across town by Detective Jack Mosely (Bruce Willis) – Nugent’s former partner in crime and a worn-out alcoholic police detective. While both detectives are dirty, Mosely redeems himself by rescuing Bunker and serving as a witness in the trials, which costs him two years in prison.

Matt Damon was applauded for his nuanced portrayal of a man who was groomed since he was a young boy by a Boston crime boss (Frank Costello, played by Jack Nicholson) to become a spy within the Massachusetts State Police. Given his background, Sgt. Sullivan is one of the more sympathetic dirty cops depicted onsceen – but he is no antihero: He’s instrumental in getting Captain Oliver “Charlie” Queenan (Martin Sheen) killed.

Denzel Washington plays Frank Lucas, a low-profile Harlem crime lord in the late 1960s who inherits a heroin trade after his boss dies from a heart attack. While amassing legitimate businesses and befriending politicians and celebrities, Lucas comes to odds with a local gangster, the Corsican Mafia, and Brolin’s crooked NYPD detective Nick Trupo – whom he’s forced to bribe.

In this film about a group of related rogue NYPD cops, Sgt. Jimmy Egan is the son-in-law of Det. Ray Tierney (Edward Norton) and grandson of Sgt. Jimmy Egan (Jon Voight). Egan and fellow crooked officers orchestrate a killing of a rival drug dealer that goes wrong, leaving four of the officers, the dealer, and a cab driver dead. Ray eventually arrests Jimmy but Jimmy sacrifices himself to an angry mob to save his brother-in-law.

Forest Whittaker’s Capt. Jack Wander is the lead in a cast of several crooked officers within a police department. The captain steals drugs from the LAPD’s evidence room and is revealed by Det. Tom Ludlow (Keanu Reeves) to have harbored an elaborate plot to use incriminating evidence to blackmail LAPD top brass and politicians in a plot to become mayor.

This Werner Hertzog-directed film angered “Bad Lieutenant” director Abel Ferrara for what he considered to be an appropriation of his concept. Nicolas Cage was reportedly paid more than the original “Bad Lieutenant” cost to produce. He plays a crooked police lieutenant whose drug and gambling addictions nearly drive him insane while he’s investigating a series of murders.

Struggling to afford a home large enough for his growing family, Det. Procida commits murder and steals drug money from raids in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn in this thriller about three NYPD cops struggling with right and wrong over seven tumultuous days. Sal is killed in turn after murdering three drug dealers for a stockpile of cash.

In one of Shannon’s most memorable roles, he plays Van Alden as a grim, strait-laced, puritanical religious fundamentalist with strong convictions against the alcohol trade. Van Alden’s self-loathing and temper causes him to murder his corrupt partner, sparking a series of events that leads him on a path to becoming a bootlegger and mob enforcer.

Aniska plays a corrupt revenue agent for the Bureau of Prohibition who winds up on the payroll of Atlantic City crime boss Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi) and bootlegger Mickey Doyle (Paul Sparks). Sawicki is killed by a shotgun booby trap after he participates in a failed hit against NYC mob boss Joe Masseria (Ivo Nandi).

McConaughey plays a Texas police officer with a side gig as a contract hitman. He’s hired by struggling West Dallas drug dealer Chris Smith (Emile Hersch) to kill his abusive mother to collect insurance money so Smith can divide it between his father, stepmother, and sister, Dottie. Dottie winds up as Cooper’s collateral for the payment, and later falls in love with the crooked cop.

Harrelson plays a veteran corrupt, violence-prone LAPD beat cop who is captured on film attacking a hit-and-run suspect, creating another controversy for the department’s Rampart Division near downtown Los Angeles. As pressure on him mounts, Brown resorts to stealing money from an illicit high-stakes card game while killing one of two men who robbed it.

Michael Shannon plays a bad NYPD officer with a gambling addiction who chases bike courier Wilee (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) down the West Side of Manhattan. Wilee has been hired to deliver a gambling ticket worth $50,000 to anyone who delivers it and Officer Monday sees stealing the envelope as a literal ticket out of his gambling debts.

McAvoy plays a scheming, drug-addicted, sexually abusive Scottish detective who is disturbingly unrepentant and open about his desire to be part of police oppression. Seeing an opportunity to get promoted, he decides to investigate the murder of a Japanese exchange student but gradually loses his grip on reality. The film is very similar in style to “Trainspotting” – which, like “Filth,” is based on a novel by Irvine Welsh.

In this film about police corruption that takes place days before the 1992 Los Angeles riots sparked by the acquittal of four officers in the beating of Rodney King, Sgt. Eldon Perry uses underhanded techniques encouraged by his superior within the department who colluded with robbers to steal money from a liquor store in a robbery that leaves four dead.