Carl Stoddard

Sergeant Carl Stoddard is a character in Battlefield Hardline. He is a Miami Vice cop, and serves as Captain Dawes' trusted right-hand man, and was formerly partner of Detective Nicholas Mendoza.

Background
Stoddard was a former college football star, who later joined the force as an alternative to joining the US Army. Not without his looks and charm, he quickly coasted his way to detective in the Vice squad, but also became severely corrupt, which attracted the attention of Captain Julian Dawes, who was secretly the leader of a network that consisted of corrupt policemen, military contractors and mercenaries, and it's main goal was to push for a privatised law enforcement and wipe out entire gangs. Having established himself in the criminal world, Stoddard would become Dawes' trusted number two and would go on his behalf for various deals with criminal individuals.

Battlefield Hardline
In 2012, Stoddard was partnered with young detective Nicholas Mendoza and on their first field day, they participated in a drug bust which turned out to be a disaster as the two detectives were forced to shoot armed drug dealers and managed to catch the only member left of the gang, who had left earlier to buy food. After the incident, Captain Dawes partnered Mendoza with Detective Khai Minh Dao and warned Stoddard that he would be on special detail.

Later, while trying to arrest drug dealer Remy Neltz and interrogate him about a deal he mentioned to have made with Stoddard, Stoddard moves in and shot Neltz dead, shocking Mendoza. Stoddard offered to bribe Dao and Mendoza, but a disgusted Mendoza angrily left the scene. They would later inform Dawes about this and Dawes encouraged them to find any evidence that links Stoddard to Neltz. Mendoza managed to find some conclusive evidence and later on encountered Stoddard. The three managed to escape after a shootout with some drug dealers and present the evidence to Dawes, who then destroys it and reveals that Stoddard works for him. The two would then frame Mendoza for stealing the last funds which Neltz was trying to transfer and he is arrested.

Three years later, while being transported to prison, Mendoza is saved by TAP, Tyson and Khai who ask him to help them stop Stoddard and Dawes.

While investigating the house of Neil Roark, Khai and Nick see Stoddard talking with Roark at a urgent meeting (due to the death of Korean mafia boss Kang at the hands of Mendoza, Marcus Boone and Tyson Latchford) before he leaves in a hurry. Khai wishes to kill Stoddard but fails to catch him and leaves him.

The four people intend to break into Dawes' corporate HQ safe, but need a special machine to break the code. Remembering that Tony Alpert, a California desert-based separatist quasi-cult leader and the father of his girlfriend Dune Alpert, has a similar machine, Boomer and Nick go there to meet him, but are double-crossed by Alpert, who reveals that he intends to give them alive to Stoddard because of the 250,000$ dollar reward he offered for them and has them locked in a silo, decomissioned in the early 1990s. Nick and Boomer manage to escape, lay siege on Alpert's compound and airfield, kill Alpert and escape with the machine.

Death
Stoddard manages to trace them to their hideout and ambushes them, while taking Tyson hostage. Nick kills Stoddard's men but his gun suffers a jam and Stoddard is about to shoot Mendoza when Khai hits Stoddard in the head with a plank, distracting him and giving Boomer enough time to throw an extra mag to Mendoza. Mendoza then reloads his gun in time and shoots Stoddard to death.

Aftermath
Mendoza snaps a photo of Stoddard's corpse and sends it ti Dawes to let him know that now they're going after him. When confronting Dawes in his mansion, Dawes mentions Stoddard's death as an example of how ruthless Mendoza is and offers him to be his new right-hand man in his organisation, but Mendoza kills Dawes, finally exacting his revenge at him and Stoddard.

Personality
Despite appearing as a humorous, honest and effective detective, it is revealed that this is all a facade and that Stoddard is a arrogant, cunning, intelligent, ruthless, murderous and greedy corrupt cop who works for Dawes. He is shown to be a cold-blooded killer as shown when he killed an unarmed and surrendering Remy Neltz and is ready to kill anyone, who stands in his way. He appears to have no remorse or guilt for his actions, suggesting that he is a emotionless sociopath.

Trivia

 * Stoddard is the employer of Tony Alpert.
 * He was initially believed to be the main antagonist, until it is revealed later that Captain Dawes is the main antagonist, while Stoddard is the secondary antagonist.