| |
| Harold Lutz | |
| Portrayed by | Allen Garfield |
| Biographical information | |
| Profession | (formerly) Chief of Police |
| Affiliation | Beverly Hills Police Department Biddle (assistant) |
| [Source] | |
- "SHUT UP!!"
- ―Harold Lutz, to Billy Rosewood[src]
Harold Lutz was the incompetent and verbally abusive chief of police in Beverly Hills in Beverly Hills Cop II.
Biography
Edit
Lutz's earlier life before his assuming the post of Chief of the Beverly Hills Police Department - and as to exactly how he attained this post - is unknown, but he may have had a bad childhood, which would possibly explain his abusive behavior. However, it soon became evident that Lutz chose a new "political" approach of appeasement to remain on the good side of Ted Egan, the mayor of Beverly Hills who had hired him for this position, and prevent any "trouble-stirring" in Beverly Hills. For that purpose, in his two months of office Lutz repeatedly clashed with Andrew Bogomil, Billy Rosewood and John Taggart and fired every other cop served under Chief Hubbard, some of whom had served for decades and were close to retirement.
Lutz was also highly egotistical, refusing to take criticism and good advice, and never acknowledging good police work if it left him out of the spotlight. He reacted angrily to when Rosewood contacted the local FBI office about the Alphabet Bandit, suspending Bogomil and putting Rosewood and Taggart on traffic duty. After Bogomil was shot by Karla Fry, Rosewood contacted their friend Axel Foley, who immediately rushed over to look after Bogomil and to take up the case. Because of the lingering threat of Lutz demoting (or firing) Rosewood and Taggert, Axel agreed to conduct the investigation undercover. In order to avoid any unnecessary interference from Lutz, he posed as a member of a fictional "multi-jurisdictional federal task force against organized crime", with some assistance from Jeffrey Friedman posing as Inspector Todd on the phone.
After Chip Cain, the Alphabet Crimes' executive hand (and secretly Maxwell Dent's patsy) was later found dead at the scene of one of the Alphabet Heists and the code in the letters left at the crime scenes finally appeared to be cracked, Lutz promptly took credit for this "accomplishment" and announced the end of the Alphabet Crimes to the public. However, these letters were decoys to fool Lutz. Soon Foley, Rosewood and Taggert finally uncovered the real motive behind those crimes - a major arms deal between Maxwell Dent and Nikos Thomopolis. After the gun fight and deaths of Dent and Fry, Lutz, arriving on the scene with Mayor Egan, was furious at Rosewood and Taggert for their insubordination and tried to have Foley arrested. However, this time Rosewood and Taggert finally stood up to Lutz, with Rosewood returning Lutz's continued insults with an angry outburst and leaving Lutz baffled in front of Mayor Egan, who gained firsthand evidence of his incompetence by studying Thomopolis' notebook in which the deal was noted down.
Instead of apologizing to Rosewood and Taggert and commending them for their work, Lutz fired them out of pure spite, but this only proved to be the final straw for Mayor Egan, who had it with Lutz's abusive attitude and fired him and his assistant Biddle. Egan rehired Rosewood and Taggert and promoted the recovered Bogomil to Chief of the Beverly Hills Police Department.
