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For other uses, see Park County (Disambiguation).

This article is about Harrison Yates's police force. For the South Park Police force, see Officer Barbrady.

The Park County Police Force is the law enforcement agency and are a heavily featured group within the series, lead by Sergeant Yates, although many other officers appear throughout the series. Introduced in Season Seven, the police force supplanted the role filled by Officer Barbrady for the first six seasons. The group has since remained the core police force in the series, appearing in some form in nearly all plotlines involving the police, with Barbrady occasionally seen working with them.

The police are portrayed as being incompetent, naive and 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 (including Eric Cartman) and will use them to sometimes assist and solve cases. He is also forced to conduct a series of tests before he realizes the truth.

The Park County 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. Realizing 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", he hires Eric Cartman for his supposed psychic powers but ends up solving the case of the left-handed serial killer Michael Deets by himself.

In "Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy", the cops can be seen eating lunch and commenting with joy how they shot someone, despite the person doing nothing. They are also shown to be jealous of Kyle's brother Ike Broflovski after having a sexual relationship with his teacher, Ms. Stevenson, 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 only act on the case when Principal Victoria persuades them to as they don't seem to take much very seriously.

In "Naughty Ninjas", they become a Hula School and refuse to deal with the suspected ISIS soldiers and the homeless problem due to being horribly rejected by the townspeople after Officer Barbrady accidentally shoots a student.

In "The Damned", they visit the Broflovski Residence looking for information regarding Eric Cartman's sudden disappearance from social media in "Skank Hunt".

Trivia[]

  • In the early episodes, the cars used by the police force resemble 1979-1987 Ford LTD Crown Victorias. In "About Last Night...", the police cruisers were remodeled to fit with the new graphical looks. The cruisers now resemble the second generation Ford Crown Victoria, one of the most common vehicles used by American police forces, and have appeared repeatedly in the show since then.
  • The towns of South Park and Fort Collins fall into police force jurisdiction. In "The Losing Edge" Randy was seen arrested by South Park Police and in "Fort Collins" the police cruisers are scene in the aerial view.
  • The South Park Police and Park County Police are only seen working together in "Medicinal Fried Chicken", "200", "201", "Naughty Ninjas", and arguably "The Coon".
  • Following the debut of the force in Season 7, Barbrady was reduced to cameos until Season 19 with only occasional dialogue. Sergeant Yates was seen to know Barbrady personally during Season 19, having lunch with him in SoDoSoPa in "The City Part of Town". Perhaps not by coincidence, that same season would see Barbrady's first major role in "Naughty Ninjas" in over a decade.
  • Their motto mentioned on their squad cars is, "To Patronize and Annoy".
  • In "The Return of Chef" there is a detective named Jarvis, although it is not certain if he is with the South Park Police.
  • In "The Pandemic Special" The tanks that the PCPF Use is a T-80U Russian main battle tank.
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