good cop-bad cop

An additional decision in The Judas Goat that sets Spenser apart from Hawk is that he becomes unwilling to continue playing good cop-bad cop with Kathie for information when he sees how terrorized and humiliated this game has made her […]

1980, Clues

I stayed on the telephone for forty-five minutes with a caseworker back there and played good cop-bad cop with him. I’d be very demanding and insistent one minute and very sympathetic and supportive the next.

1980, Hal Aigner, Faint Trails: An Introduction to the Fundamentals of Adult Adoptee/birth Parent Reunification Searches, Paradigm Press, →ISBN

Playing good cop-bad cop, Ricevuto and Petty tried to push words into my mouth, starting sentences with, “Isn’t it true that....”

1994, Celerino Castillo, Dave Harmon, Powderburns: Cocaine, Contras & the Drug War, Oakville, Ont.: Sundial

Their favorite harassment ploy is to covertly play “good cop-bad cop” in joint actions with openly aggressive environmental groups.

1994, Ron Arnold, Alan M. Gottlieb, Trashing the Economy: How Runaway Environmentalism is Wrecking America, Merril Press, →ISBN

Elmo was waiting for us there. In case we had to play good cop-bad cop.

1995, William J. Reynolds, Drive-By: A Nebraska Mystery, Ex Machina Publishing Company, →ISBN