Bunk Moreland

Living… in suburban Baltimore, with his wife Nadine and their three kids. Bunk’s job with the Baltimore Police Department demands that he spends many nights in the city, sometimes working at the station, sometimes polishing off flasks down by the train tracks with his friend and colleague Jimmy McNulty. Bunk is careful to compartmentalize his drinking habit. As he puts it, “At all hazards, a man must keep up appearances. Dignity, I say. Dignity above all, Governor. Hear, hear!”

Profession… police officer. Bunk is one of the best homicide detectives around, and as a result he often gets stuck with the more difficult murder cases. On the crime scene, he can communicate with McNulty with nary a word. “You know what you need at a crime scene?” he says. “Soft eyes. If you got soft eyes, you can see the whole thing. If you got hard eyes, you staring at the same tree, [but] missing the forest.” 

Interests… drinking and smoking his fat stogies. Bunk once played lacrosse during his high school days in West Baltimore, though he has since traded the stick for the cigar.

Relationship Status… happily married to Nadine, though not entirely faithful. Bunk is liable to get drunk at the bar with McNulty to the point where he refers to himself as “The Bunk” and hits on pretty young ladies.

Challenge… covering his rear. Bunk is careful to stay on his superiors’ good side, though his association with the rebellious McNulty often gets him in trouble. “You played with fire, didn’t you,” Bunk once berated McNulty. “And now we’re all getting burned.”

Personality… sarcastic and playful, but serious about work. Bunk can be a bit of a jokester, such as when he snips off his co-worker’s tie with scissors as retribution for sleeping at his desk. Though such incidents are but small detours on the otherwise no-nonsense approach Bunk takes to his job. In his words, “I'm a murder police. I work murders. I don't [screw] with no make-believe. I don't jerk [stuff] around. I catch a murder, and I work it.”