Park County Police Force

South Park Police
The South Park Police are a heavily featured group within the series. There are two notable members of the group; Officer Barbrady and Sergeant Yates. Barbrady appeared to be (and was referred to as) the only policeman in town. As the seasons progressed, it became apparent that this was not the case. In Season Seven, Sergeant Yates was introduced into the series who appeared to be replacing Barbrady. This is not the case however, as it has been seen in episodes such as "The Snuke" that Barbrady is still serving the town.

The police are portrayed as being incompetent and naive as well as plain stupid at times. In "Cartman's Incredible Gift" it takes Yates a long time to realize that the killer's trophies of hands are in fact the missing ones from murder victims, just they were hung the other way round on the wall. It is also in this episode that reveals the police are persuaded by supposed psychics and will use them to solve cases. He is also forced to conduct a series of tests before he realizes. In "Toilet Paper" Barbrady arrests Butters after suspecting him of toilet papering the house of art teacher Mrs. Driebel, despite having no evidence and causes Butters to believe he did it.

The South Park Police also appear to be intolerant towards wealthy black people, who Yates speaks of framing throughout his career. When they nearly arrest Mr. Jefferson in "The Jeffersons" (who is actually Michael Jackson) he appears to be a white man. Realising he nearly arrested a white man, it causes Yates to vomit. They also handle things using a lot of violence as seen in "Chickenlover" where Barbrady knocks out the Chickenlover after catching him (despite him being absolutely harmless to other people) and shoots the killer a number of times in "Cartman's Incredible Gift".

In "Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy" they are shown to be jealous of Ike Broflovski after having a sexual relationship with his teacher Ms. Stephenson whom they all find attractive. Yates even goes as far to exclaim "Dammit! Where were all these sex-crazed teachers when I was a kid?".

The actions and behavior of the police is summed up in their motto:

"To Patronize and Annoy"

This motto can be seen on the police cars during most episodes they appear in.