Edmund J. Exley is a 30 year old detective that only wants to live up to his father.  He stands for absolute justice and is resented by his peers for turning in some cops for brutality.  The Nite Owl is his first case as detective and turned his life upside-down.  He will also do almost anything to get ahead.  Edmund hates Bud White, a mindless thug in his opinion.

Wendall "Bud" White, 32, is a forceful cop.  He has a soft spot towards abused women for his mother was abused and killed by his father.  Bud would like to work real cases but is usually called on for muscle.  He did participate in the Bloody Christmas police brutality but was given his badge back by Captain Dudley Smith.  While trying to solve the Nite Owl, Bud meets a prostitute Lynn Bracken and immediately falls in love with her.

Jack Vincennes, 38, is originally a Narco cop but is transferred to Ad Vice after Bloody Christmas.  He is the technical advisor on the cop show "Badge of Honor".  Jack is considered a "Hollywood cop".  He does pay-offs with the editor of Hush Hush magazine and will do anything to get his face in the paper.

Dudley Smith is a captain in the Los Angeles Police Department.  During the course of the movie we learn that he is Irish and married.  He gives Bud his badge back but not to work cases out of Homicide but to be the muscle.  Dudley has his own thing going down at the Victory Motel.  He is also a great politician.

Lynn Bracken is a prostitute working for Pierce Patchett.  She was made up to look like Veronica Lake but unlike the other prostitutes the only thing different about her is her hair color.  She is from Bisbee, Arizona and would like to go back there someday and open a dress shop.  As a prostitute working for Pierce she is photographed sleeping with prominent figures.

Pierce Patchett is a prominent business man that runs Fleur-di-Lis, a service that has prostitutes that look like movie stars.  Lynn Bracken is just one of his many prostitutes.