15 Lies About Police Work Movies Like to Tell You

Just like police exist to protect us from evildoers (well, at least in theory), so do movies exist to protect us -- from reality. In movies, a bad cop like Dirty Harry or Lethal Mel Weapon Gibson aren't “dangerous killers," they're “guys that get the job done.” Or Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill aren't “weirdly abusing the powers of the badge to provide drugs and alcohol to teenagers,” they're “taking down a dangerous drug ring from inside a high school.” And no matter what Law and Order: SVU says, there's just no way cops can hear conversations from two rooms away, enter another room, and seamlessly contribute previously unknown information. At least, no way we've heard of. 

These are obvious examples. Easy-to-suspend-your-disbelief examples. But when crime movies and reality come together, frictions are bound to arise. Just like when the FBI arrives and steals a case from the local pol… Wait, what? What do you mean, that only happens in movies? What else only happens in movies? Well, as it turns out, we have a pictofact set right here which is exactly about that. Funny that, huh?