The Real Reason Cops Love Donuts

Almost everyone loves donuts, but why is there such a strong association between cops and donuts? For decades it’s just been sort of a given in the ether of tropes and idle stereotypes. Cops just love donuts. It’s fact, right?

Of course we all know there’s nothing different about the biology of a police officer that makes them any more susceptible to the deep fried charms and sugary allure of everyone’s favorite circular baked good. No one really thinks that a gun and a badge come with a secret lifetime curse of donutophillia. So where exactly did this association come from, and why does every cop in recent media from Macgyver, to The Simpsons, to Wreck-It Ralph seem to have a massive donut tooth?

Well you might be surprised to learn that, in a way, this association actually has its foundations in fact. Now, we’re not saying that cops really do love donuts more than the rest of us — that part of the joke came later — only that, as ridiculous as the association is, it didn’t come purely out of thin air.

It all starts way back in a time, almost beyond memory, before the late night diner or the 24 hour gas station. A time when, while the rest of the world rose and set with the sun, and graveyard shift workers didn’t have a lot of options to get their grub on. Enter the humble bakery. For them it wasn’t a late-night operation, but an early morning one. Bakers had to get cracking early to get started on their doughs, many of which needed long stretches of time to rise and be ready for baking. Throughout history, the profession of the baker has always been one of early risers. If they want their breads and baked goods to be ready for breakfast, they have to be in their bakeries kneading away well before the crack of dawn. Luckily for cops such an early morning lined up perfectly with such a late night in a venn diagram almost as circular as the glazed treat in question. And so it was easy for bakers to open their doors to early bird customers, or rather late bird customers, since they were already in so early.

That’s not all either. Donuts were also inexpensive. On a relatively modest salary, and not being able to legally accept gifts in uniform, the open-early bakery became a haven for not just police officers, but late night workers in general. So why then is the joke tied so closely to cops in particular? Well much of it could have to do with the fact that although other late night workers might be in the bakery too, the cop with the uniform is going to stand out. There are also stories that support the idea that while other workers came and went after they refueled on fried dough, cops stayed around more often to do paper work, since their office was basically the area they patrolled. And once you heap on the easy and timeless joke of poking fun and those in authority, not to mention stakeout snacks, sight gags like spilling your donut-dunked coffee while chasing a perp, and that fact that everyone who has had so much as a parking ticket wouldn’t might a hearty laugh at a cops expense, and you have yourself a joke that, like donuts to a stomach, sticks.