Gotham City Police Department
The most notable member of the GCPD is Commissioner James Gordon, the police commissioner of Gotham City. Appearing alongside the main character in his first appearance, Gordon was the first Batman supporting character. Batman has a strong (though secret and unofficial) working relationship with him. Gordon, like other characters, has changed considerably over the years. Of particular note, is that in the early days of the characters, Gordon was not allied with Batman, and was more antagonistic towards him. However, he was a friend of Bruce Wayne. In "Batman: Year One", Gordon is portrayed as one of the few honest, non-corrupt Gotham cops. During "No Man's Land", Bruce offered him the knowledge of his secret identity, but Jim (still angry for Batman's early abandonment of Gotham in the days near the beginning of NML) refused to look and find out, hinting he may already know. Jim retired several months after NML, but returned to duty in the One Year Later storyline.
Members of the Gotham City Police Department have played prominent roles in Batman's extended 'family.' The GCPD were featured in their own series: the limited series Batman: GCPD and the ongoing series Gotham Central, in which they investigate the unusual crimes that plague the city, in a personal effort to minimize Batman's involvement. Gotham Central series ended its 40 issue run in 2006.
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Famous quotes containing the words gotham, city, police and/or department:
“Three wise men of Gotham
Went to sea in a bowl;
If the bowl had been stronger,
My story would have been longer.”
—Mother Goose (fl. 17th–18th century. Three wise men of Gotham (l. 1–4)
“There was never a revolution to equal it, and never a city more glorious than Petrograd, and for all that period of my life I lived another and braved the ice of winter and the summer flies in Vyborg while across my adopted country of the past, winds of the revolution blew their flame, and all of us suffered hunger while we drank at the wine of equality.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“We have passed the time of ... the laisser-faire [sic] school which believes that the government ought to do nothing but run a police force.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
““Which is more important to you, your field or your children?” the department head asked. She replied, “That’s like asking me if I could walk better if you amputated my right leg or my left leg.””
—Anonymous Parent. As quoted in Women and the Work Family Dilemma, by Deborah J. Swiss and Judith P. Walker, ch. 2 (1993)