What was the name of that cop show where the internal affairs unit were the good guys? You know,

[brewens]

the one where they went after the cops shaking down hookers and drug dealers. Gathered evidence and recommended prosecution for "bad shootings". Really did a great job keeping the force professional and keeping their city safe. I didn't just dream that whole thing did I?

[captain queeg]

1. Fraid so. At least I don't remember anything like that.

I wasn’t sure if you were joking. Maybe there was a show like that but probably didn’t last long if there was.

[msongs]

2. must have been on the fantasy or sci fi channel lol nt

[gay texan]

3. well....

TJ Hooker, no. Ok, DRAGNET, um no. Well, ADAM 12, crap, no. CHIPS, um no.... "Manimal"? not even remotely. "Mann and Machine" well, bloody hell....

OK well, POLICEWOMAN, well shucks, no...

this be a job for THE CHAMPIONS! or the AVENGERS, or something other than any other American cop TV drama....

[MurrayDelph]

12. Definitely not Dragnet

The one or two episodes that involved Internal Affairs, they were rated as lower than the perps.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

4. How long ago?

I thought of the movie, Serpico, and just learned there was a brief-running TV series of the same name in the 70's.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpico_(TV_series)

[Tom Kitten]

5. There was a Serpico TV show

Lasted for 15 episodes in 1976. Never saw it so...
Movie with Al Pacino was pretty good though.

[bluecollar2]

6. There's British TV series that did just that...

I think it's called "Line of Duty"

Definitely worth a watch...

[SharonClark]

8. Line of Duty was excellent.

So many corrupt cops and some of the good cops supposedly trying to stop them are also corrupt.

[OregonBlue]

13. Love that one. Heard they are filming a new season.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

7. I'm not sure, but this is the only cop show...

... that I can watch since it's a comedy.

Love the 70's style intro music too. Lol!

[soothsayer]

9. There was something called Against the Wall, on Lifetime. Now Cop Rock -- that was a show.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Against_the_Wall_(TV_series)

Against the Wall is an American police drama television series created by Annie Brunner. The series starred Rachael Carpani as Abby Kowalski, a police detective who recently joined the Internal Affairs division of the Chicago Police Department.

Adding this for fun:

Cop Rock is an American police procedural musical television series that first aired on ABC in 1990. The show was co-created by Steven Bochco, who also served as executive producer. This mixture of musical performances with serious drama was a critical and commercial failure when it originally aired. TV Guide ranked it #8 on its List of the 50 Worst TV Shows of All Time list in 2002,[1] and dubbed it "the single most bizarre TV musical of all time".[2]

[dweller]

10. Against the Wall ?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Against_the_Wall_(TV_series)



✌🏼

[lastlib]

11. Had to be "Sledge Hammer"....

Trust me--I know what I'm doing....

[akbacchus_BC]

14. Is it Chicago PD?

[dawg day]

15. There's one in the UK

Called, natch, Internal Affairs. It's on Amazon. Very... wild. It's one of those British shows that pretends that the murder rate in the UK is astronomical and there are millions of police and everyone is selling everyone out... it bears no resemblance to any UK outside a dystopic novel.

The IA unit is supposed to be the good guys, but they're also the bad guys. And I kind of recall that the Freemasons ended up being the super bad guys or something. That's not a spoiler because it's all so over the top.
Worth a try if you like nuts British cop shows.

[brewens]

16. I was just thinking what if someone made one loosely based on current events, kind of

like The Newsroom. A crusty but loveable internal affairs bulldog going after bad cops. I can imagine the shitstorm from the right if it was done well.

I'm glad a few came up with examples, I couldn't think of any. The IA are always portrayed as the bad guys. Makes you wonder what effect that has on who's willing to take those jobs. I imagine some talented people, as long as they understand their job is to make the department look good. Cover up everything possible and only take someone out and hang them if it is absolutely unavoidable.

I heard the explanation somewhere, the police policing themselves was the result of the race riots in the 60's. They didn't want that done externally by people dedicated to actually doing the job.

[Liberal In Texas]

17. Not what you're probably looking for, but a British show called "Line of Duty" is

a show about Anti-Corruption Unit 12 (AC-12) "AC-12 realise the pervasive nature of corruption...It’s not about catching criminals, but exposing dodgy police officers.."

It's quite a good series and they are currently attempting to finish filming series 6 (covid disruptions.) It can be streamed at Acorn TV and Hulu (not sure if it's available anyplace else, maybe BBC America) and may be rented on disc from Netflix.