bent copper

English

Etymology

From bent (“not straight, corrupt, dishonest”) + copper (“policeman”), a variant of cop. It could also be a pun taken from a bent copper coin.

Noun

bent copper (plural bent coppers)

1. (UK, informal, law enforcement) A corrupt police officer.
   • 2007, Graham Johnson, Druglord‎, Mainstream Publishing, →ISBN:

     Onay remembered that he had placed 40 kilos at the bottom of his wardrobe. That meant approximately three and a half kilos had disappeared during the police raid. Bulent kept quiet but the officers eventually found out and a bent copper was later blamed for the alleged theft.

   • 2016 April 28, “Getting to the Truth”, in Line of Duty‎, season 3, episode 6, spoken by Gill Biggeloe (Polly Walker), archived from the original on 17 May 2021:

     Anticorruption is a double-edged sword. We need to find just enough bent coppers to avoid accusations of a cover-up, but not so many that the public starts to wonder if the police can be trusted.

   • 2019, Alan Jacobs, Me? I Kill People, Troubador Publishing, →ISBN, page 298:

     He had always been a bent copper. He had joined the police force with the intention of being a bent copper. In that, he had been eminently successful.

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