Keystone Cop
nounEtymology From the Keystone Cops, a group of fictional, humorously incompetent policemen featured in silent slapstick comedies produced by the Keystone Film Company (itself named for the "Keystone State": Pennsylvania) between 1912 and 1917.
1
Informal A bungling, incompetent policeman.
- Every blunder added weight to defense depictions of the CID as a bunch of Keystone Kops bunglers, a disgrace to serious criminal investigation.2003, Colin Evans, A Question of Evidence, page 162:
- “I'm gone three days and look what happens? You two get sent out to do some spying and end up with front-row seats at a Keystone Kop shoot-out.”2011, T. L. Carpenter, The Amerikan Dream, page 174: