Meanings
plural Keystone Cops · alternative Keystone Kop
- informalA bungling, incompetent policeman.
Every blunder added weight to defense depictions of the CID as a bunch of Keystone Kops bunglers, a disgrace to serious criminal investigation.
2003, Colin Evans, A Question of Evidence, page 1621 more example
“I'm gone three days and look what happens? You two get sent out to do some spying and end up with front-row seats at a Keystone Kop shoot-out.”
2011, T. L. Carpenter, The Amerikan Dream, page 174
Origin
From the Keystone Cops, a group of fictional, humorously incompetent policemen featured in silent slapstick comedies produced by the Keystone Film Company (itself named for the "Keystone State": Pennsylvania) between 1912 and 1917.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
Keystone Cop. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Keystone%20Cop
“Keystone Cop.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Keystone%20Cop. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Keystone Cop,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Keystone%20Cop.
Source: Keystone Cop on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.