good-cop, bad-cop

He was acting mean and ugly, but I had seen enough movies to figure he was playing good-cop, bad-cop.

1988, Soledad Santiago, Undercover, Bantam, →ISBN

The State Department appears to be playing “good-cop, bad-cop,” casting Helms as the heavy and limiting its own public criticism of Chamorro, while privately using the aid as a stick to beat concessions out of her.

1992 09, ISLA

I am not interested in being one side or other’s hero or villain. I am not playing ‘good-cop, bad-cop’.

2003, Tina Kempin, Andreas Wenger, Ready for Peace?: The Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland 1998-2002, →ISBN

In the “good-cop, bad-cop” scenario, the good cop puts himself on the side of the suspect, supposedly working against his own bad-cop partner, and forges a bond that eventually works against the suspect’s interests.

2006, Dona Vitale, Consumer Insights 2.0: How Smart Companies Apply Customer Knowledge to the Bottom Line, Paramount Market Publishing, →ISBN, page 73

Senior sources say this could be a play of some good old-fashioned good-cop, bad-cop routine between India and the US, particularly on Pakistan.

2006, Selections from Regional Press