Partners

Partners are a subset of characters in L.A. Noire, and many act as deuteragonists for major parts of the game as they assist Cole Phelps in investigating the crime of Los Angeles. Once Phelps becomes a detective and starts moving up the ranks of the LAPD, he will be assigned to work cases within different departments, and will have a different partner in each one of them, a veteran of the relevant field.

Main Partners

The partners that accompany Phelps during the game's four main desks are as follows:

Stefan Bekowsky (Traffic)

Rusty Galloway (Homicide)

Roy Earle (Vice)

Herschel Biggs (Arson)

Other Partners

Ralph Dunn (Patrol), during the game's tutorial desk

Harold Caldwell (Burglary), though their time working together goes unseen

Team Bondi originally planned to include two more playable desks in the game, Burglary and Bunco (aka Theft and Fraud), and while speculation was that they would be released as DLC, the developers clarified that they had been cut in early stages of development, so relatively little time was likely spent implementing them. This may indicate that they kept in Cole's implied six months with Burglary merely for the sake of realism (in regard to pacing out his meteoric rise in the LAPD), as it serves no real purpose to the overall narrative, and his brief interactions with Caldwell later on are merely meant to lend some credence to it.

Notes

• When you need to drive to a location, you can ask your partner to drive, which will transport you to the location instantly. If you decide to drive yourself, your partner will provide you with directions to the location, but only if you prompt them upon each turn with the X button (Xbox 360), or the Square button (PS3), though their responses may come in too late for a smooth turn.
• When you're stuck during a case, you can speak to your partner, who will offer a suggestion to what the next step should be.
• All partners have their own unique cars. However, if you get into another vehicle, they will get out of the default vehicle and join you. If you get into another vehicle to pursue a criminal and leave before they enter the vehicle, they will follow in their own car.
• When visiting crime scenes, partners will help Phelps look for clues and evidence. When a partner finds something, he will call Phelps over to take a look.
• If you leave your partner behind at a location, a patrol car will pick him up and drive him to your current whereabouts. Once catching up to you, he will rant at you for abandoning him.
• Partners appear to be invincible in most gameplay situations, as they will not die after taking damage that is usually deadly to the player.
• While chasing a suspect in a vehicle, your partner will attempt to shoot out their tires. However, partners will only shoot do so if they have committed or attempted murder (whether it be against you or someone else), and can only do so from the right side of the vehicle.
• If you commandeer a service vehicle, like an ambulance or trash truck, all partners (except Bekowsky) will complain about your choice of transport.
• Sometimes, if/when your partner loses their hat, they will not pick it up, and will only have it again in the next cutscene or at the end of the case. Sometimes, your partner will only have his hat back at the start of the next case.
• If you hurt your partner, their response will be intense, and if they are killed, the case will fail.
• Partners are capable of opening doors, even normally unusable ones; for example, if Phelps is on the other side of the glass doors in the main room of Harlan Fontaine's Clinic, which are otherwise "inactive" during gameplay, his partner may open one of them to get through. There are four known types of doors:
  • Unlocked: Gold-handled and can be opened freely.
  • Locked: Gold-handled, but if Phelps attempts to open one, it will be locked. If the player keeps Phelps moving into them during an intermission, he will "moonwalk" as his animation continues despite being right up against the surface, until he can attempt to open them again.
  • Non-functional: Lacking gold handles and Phelps cannot moonwalk against them, implying they are functionally identical to walls.
  • Semi-functional: Lacking gold handles, but Phelps can moonwalk against them, implying they may have had some use in the game that was later scrapped.