They'd collared criminal without pity (4-9)
I believe the answer is:
cold-heartedly
'without pity' is the definition.
'they'd collared criminal' is the wordplay.
'criminal' indicates anagramming the letters.
'theyd'+'collared'='theydcollared'
'theydcollared' anagrammed gives 'COLD-HEARTEDLY'.
(Other definitions for cold-heartedly that I've seen before include "In a callous manner" , "Callously" .)