Jurisdiction Friction: Difference between revisions

{{examples}}

== Comic Books ==

* Walker and Pilgrim in the comic book ''[[Powers]]'' often find their investigations turned over to the Feds. Naturally, this never stops them investigating anyway.

* A police ally of the [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] once used this to save them when crooks-turned-feds Freedom Force attempt to arrest the mutant heroes. She insisted Freedom Force produce the documentation necessary to take the X-Men into custody (which they didn't have on them). This gave the X-Men time to flee the city.

 

== Film ==

* ''[[Bon Cop, Bad Cop]]'' has the Quebec and Ontario police arguing over a dead body found lying on top of a highway sign indicating the precise location of the Quebec/Ontario border.

{{quote|'''Martin:''' His heart is in Québec.

 

== Literature ==

* Happens in the [[Dresden Files]] book ''Fool Moon'', where three FBI agents are investigating a string of murders caused by a werewolf. The Jurisdiction Friction is so bad, they almost come to violence against Murphy while investigating a crime scene. {{spoiler|This is because they are the werewolves themselves, in particular demonic-influenced ones, and gradually losing their human minds to the Beast. The fact that they're the guilty parties, having set up [[Our Werewolves Are Different|another type of werewolf]] to lose control of his curse and attack a Mob head who's escaped justice, doesn't help.}}

* This is addressed in several [[Vince Flynn]] books, most notably Transfer of Power. Of course, the different Agencies have it a bit easier than most examples, because their heads know each other personally, but there is still an acknowledged interagency rivalry and pride.

* In ''Gorky Park'' the friction between the militia (police) and the KGB was quite apparent. It become a plot point when Renko, chief investigator for the Militsiya, wonders why the KGB hasn't taken the case away from him.

*** It is not really an issue in the latter books when Commander Vimes and the City Watch are respected and feared enough that the guilds will not mess with them.

**** It helps that he's the Assasins Guild's landlord.

* In ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' the People's Navy of Haven is practically at war with StateSec. StateSec invades their privacy, threatens to torture them or kill their families if they don't comply and has no distinction between military initiative and idiocy. They are more the enemy then the Manticoran navy which just wants to [[Nothing Personal|shoot at them]] [[Let's Fight Like Gentlemen|like professionals]] with [[Worthy Opponent|no hard feelings]] about it.

* In the novel ''Pyramid Power'', the Pyramid Security Agency runs roughshod over every other government agency that had anything they wanted due to their charter giving them authority over just about everything that can be associated with the alien pyramid that landed in Chicago. But one agency wasn't on the list of people they could overrule - the Fish and Wildlife Service - which brought charges against them for illegal actions against an endangered species - the sphinx and dragons that came out of the pyramid. Who then requested assistance in dealing with the violators from some of the agencies that the PSA had been pushing around - which included a regiment of paratroopers.

* In ''[[Star Wars/Allegiance|Allegiance]]'', Mara Jade, Darth Vader, and the Imperial Security Bureau all have their own different tasks, but there's one duty they all have in common: finding traitors and killing them. They don't get along. Vader is paranoid that Mara is being trained to replace him, Mara [[Interservice Rivalry|wishes he'd stop]], and ''neither'' of them [[Even Evil Has Standards|like the ISB]]. Both clash with Mara; the ISB tries to have her killed when she nears a truth they don't want her knowing, and Vader outright tries to murder her when he thinks she's after his target.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* ''[[Miami Vice]]'' did this often with the standard local vs. Feds variety. Sometimes averted when the Feds specifically asked for Vice assistance. Notably, sometimes the Vice squad bumped heads with detectives in other Miami police divisions like homicide or theft.

* ''[[Star Trek]]'' is not immune to this; the Maquis freedom fighters were attacking Cardassians and based outside Federation space, but they were still technically Federation citizens, making it very testy—if not an outright race—as to whether Starfleet was going to find them and stop them, or the Cardassians were going to find them and kill them.

* The main concept of ''[[The Bridge (TV series)|The Bridge]]''. A serial murderer dumps human remains exactly on the border between two countries, so that the police of the cities on each side of the border have to co-operate unwillingly.

* The ''[[Murdoch Mysteries]]'' episode "Anything You Can Do" begins with a Mountie taking control of Murdoch's investigation on the grounds that the victim is a suspect he's been pursuing.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* In the ''[[Champions]]'' universe the two U.S. government anti-supervillain agencies PRIMUS and SAT have been known to squabble over who's in charge of investigating or dealing with supercrimes. Likewise, conservative elements in the U.S government resented the way UNTIL charged around the U.S. and created SAT specifically so the U.S. could handle its own super-problems.

* Used to great effect by the [[shadowrun]]ning [[Genre Savvy]]. The very basis of the setting's [[Mega Corp]] system is that corporations of a certain size are granted extraterritoriality over their possessions, with private security to enforce corporate laws which may or may not match up with the local government's version. A sufficiently daring shadowrunner can commit a run in a government area and escape into a corporate zone, or vice versa, where the opposing police force cannot pursue him. Tensions between public and corporate police forces are high enough that extradition is rarely an issue; between opposing corporations, even more so. Just be careful not to get caught: Private security tends not to be overly concerned with such trivialities like the Geneva Convention, and the poor unlucky runner might find himself the recipient of some creative product testing rather than a nice safe prison term.

== Video Games ==

* In ''[[Alan Wake]]'', an FBI agent called Nightingale assumes control of the Sheriff's Office and the Washington State Rangers of Bright Falls, Washington in order to capture the eponymous protagonist. However, it soon turns out that Nightingale is a [[Trigger Happy]] drunkard, who tries to shoot and kill an unarmed Wake and instead nearly injures innocent bystanders on ''two separate occasions''. The local sheriff, Sarah Breaker, calls him out on this, and it turns out that Nightingale is suspended, and is trying to capture Wake on his own accord and without any legal backing in a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]], as he thinks Wake is responsible for the death of his former partner. He is wrong, if only slightly.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

 

== Web Original ==

* [[The Onion]] parodied this, in their article: [https://web.archive.org/web/20100219090416/http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/local_authorities_more_than "Local Authorities More Than Happy To Let FBI Take Over"].

 

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[South Park]]'', in an episode parodying ''[[24]]'': Kyle's attempt to track down a terrorist cell through social networking websites is taken over in sequence by the FBI, Homeland Security, the CIA, the Secret Service, and the NSA, all within less than two minutes. Kyle then takes it back [[Bavarian Fire Drill|by just saying so.]]

{{quote|'''NSA Agent:''' All right, we're in charge now!

== Real Life ==

* Real life example: The Waco Siege in 1993, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) tried to raid a compound, and made a complete mess of things. The FBI steps in, takes over, brings in [[Tank Goodness|a friggin tank]], and makes an even BIGGER mess of things. The two agencies have been at odds ever since.

* Considering the multiple law enforcement agencies and the occasional shift of control (control of the drug unit is shifted from department X to department Y), this is certainly a reality in the [[United States]]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20180731055825/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureau_of_Alcohol,_Tobacco,_Firearms_and_Explosives], [https://web.archive.org/web/20170814071639/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Agencies_of_the_United_States_government], [https://web.archive.org/web/20160722194314/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Law_enforcement_agencies_of_the_United_States], [https://web.archive.org/web/20180903181508/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Security_Service], [https://web.archive.org/web/20180914205759/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_law_enforcement_in_the_United_States], [https://web.archive.org/web/20180914202157/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Homeland_Security], [https://web.archive.org/web/20180804152520/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Justice]

* Margaret Garner, when cornered by slave catchers, killed her children rather than let slavers take them back with her. This produced a legal discussion as to whether the Federal Fugitive Slave Act trumped mere state murder charges. It did, so she had to flee.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Crime and Punishment Tropes]]

[[Category:Sublime Rhyme]]