Ex-Southland lawman Michael Cudlitz is back on the beat via a series-regular role in ABC’s female buddy cop comedy pilot The Trustee, TVLine has learned.

The potential series centers on the driven-but-stubborn detective Eliza Radley (Meaghan Rath), who finds unlikely help from her precinct’s “trustee,” a larger-than-life ex-con finishing out her prison sentence doing menial tasks for the police department. Though these two have completely opposing views on crime and punishment, a highly entertaining and successful partnership is born.

Cudlitz, who was last seen getting his head smashed in on The Walking Dead, will play Timothy Waits, the precinct’s wry and sardonic police captain who has learned to appreciate Radley’s unorthodox policing methods

Spin City vets Jay Scherick and David Ronn penned the pilot script and will serve as executive producers alongside Elizabeth Banks and Max Handelman.