good cop, bad cop

A form of good cop bad cop — A psychological tactic used for interrogation, involving one police officer playing the role of intimidating adversary, and another that of friend with whom the subject is encouraged to bond.

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Meanings

good cop, bad cop1

noungood cop, bad cop (uncountable)
  1. alternativeuncountableAlternative form of good cop bad cop.

    Are Macron and Merkel playing good cop, bad cop with Trump?

    2018 April 27, William Cook, The Spectator, archived from the original on 01 May 2023
    3 more examples

    There was an understanding between the two that they would play good cop, bad cop on occasion as Canada moved closer to war.

    1995, Robert Bothwell, Canada and Quebec: One Country, Two Histories, UBC Press, →ISBN, page 72

    If you see the other side playing good cop, bad cop on you, ask them directly, “Are you playing good cop, bad cop with me?” Call out the bad behavior.

    2010, Stuart Diamond, Getting More: How to Negotiate to Achieve Your Goals in the Real World, New York, N.Y.: Crown Business, →ISBN, page 147

    It is the rules that force them to play good cop, bad cop to get a confession (see also interrogation).

    2018, David Correia, Tyler Wall, Police: A Field Guide, Verso, published 2022, →ISBN

Good Cop, Bad Cop2

proper noun
  1. alternativeAlternative form of good cop bad cop.

    We’d take turns playing “Good Cop, Bad Cop.”

    2002, Anthony Asadullah Samad, Souls for Sale: The Diary of an Ex-Colored Man: Conflict and Compromise of Second-Generation Advocacy in the Post-Civil Rights Era, Kabili Press, →ISBN
    5 more examples

    Or the two of you are playing ‘Good Cop, Bad Cop’ and you’re the Good Cop.

    1988, Careers and the MBA.

    "Were they having an affair?" Bad Cop Pall asked. I'd played Good Cop, Bad Cop myself. "He's a good-looking guy. Wife was pregnant, we hear. Maybe she went off sex. Pretty colleague, isolated spot, working together all the time: Who'd blame them?"

    2008, Colin Harvey, Killers, Swimming Kangaroo Books, →ISBN, page 105

    Once again atop the high bank and by the prison perimeter, we soon were surrounded by four correction officers. Two began playing “Good Cop, Bad Cop.” Bad Cop wanted my camera.

    2014, Riley McLincha, The Runyaker’s Journey, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 179

    The two officers played “Good Cop, Bad Cop” just like on television. The nice one asked if I had any other activities to confess.

    2018, Wesley Allan Dueck, The Storyteller's Son: A Memoir of Loss and Hope in the Storm, FriesenPress, →ISBN, page 63

    “The Time-space Man was trying to make you stay away from the other world, but these middle-aged women came here on their own. Isn’t that contradictory? Are they playing Good Cop, Bad Cop to shake us up?”

    2019, Iori Miyazawa, Otherside Picnic: Volume 1, J-Novel Club, →ISBN
Cite this entry
APA

good cop, bad cop. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/good%20cop%2C%20bad%20cop

MLA

“good cop, bad cop.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/good%20cop%2C%20bad%20cop. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “good cop, bad cop,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/good%20cop%2C%20bad%20cop.

Source: good cop, bad cop on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.