Since the beginning of television, various program genres have fallen in and out of favor with the general public. But none have been as consistently popular as shows depicting law enforcement (crime and punishment), whether they be police/detective series, procedural dramas, or shows featuring the FBI or CIA (or some other government agency initials).
The look and feel of these shows have evolved over time, sometimes following societal changes and sometimes influencing them, but certain elements have remained persistently unshakeable – law enforcement agents are the good guys, most suspects are guilty of something, and the few bad cops will eventually be weeded out and punished.
Post-George Floyd, there was supposedly going to be a reckoning resulting in changes to how law enforcement and policing in minority communities are portrayed on television (and who gets to tell these stories). Later in this report, we’ll discuss how that is going.
In the early days of television, crime and justice mostly took the form of westerns, which had clearly defined lines of good and evil. In the 1950s and ‘60s, there were more than 100 westerns airing on just three television networks (and syndication). In shows like The Lone Ranger (1949-57), The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955-61), Cheyenne (1955-63), Have Gun, Will Travel (1957-63), Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958-61), The Rifleman (1958-63), Rawhide (1959-66), and The Wild Wild West (1965-69), the good guys always won and the bad guys were always captured, killed, or reformed.
At the same time, police, detective, and FBI dramas were gaining in popularity with shows like Dragnet, Highway Patrol, 77 Sunset Strip, Naked City, The Untouchables, The F.B.I., and The Fugitive. But it wasn’t until the 1970s that they would start to supplant westerns as the main vehicles for stories about law enforcement.
Over the past 60 years, the genre has produced a number of groundbreaking television series that not only affected how law enforcement is portrayed, but also how scripted stories on TV are told – and how the public generally feels about crime and punishment. While there have been hundreds of cop shows on television over the years, many of the basic rules of the road have remained essentially the same.
Here are the six basic tenets of law-enforcement shows on television (note that broadcast network and syndicated series are in blue, ad-supported and premium cable in red, and original streaming shows in green).
- Most cops are honest, heroic, and good
More than 70 years of police portrayals on popular scripted dramas have contributed to public perception of police as the heroic good guys putting their lives on the line every day to keep us all safe. Doing whatever it takes to catch the bad guys, even if it means roughing up suspects and violating their rights, is forgivable, and often necessary, to achieve the greater good of protecting the public and bringing criminals to justice. From the earliest days of television this has been a basic tenet of virtually all cop series. During the 1950s and 1960s, several of these shows (most notably, Dragnet, Highway Patrol, Adam--12, and The F.B.I.) had the cooperation of local law enforcement agencies, which often included script approval. So they exclusively provided the law-enforcement perspective, virtually never showing cops in a negative light.
Societal upheavals in the late 1960s to mid-1970s resulted in some TV police dramas shifting their focus to generational differences and other social issues. We started seeing younger cops who looked different from their older colleagues (and had different perspectives) in shows like The Mod Squad and The Rookies.
Several of these series included women and people of color in central roles. But even if different generations of cops didn’t understand one another, they were still all good guys, and seldom broke the rules.
We also saw irreverent TV shows, such as Car 54 Where Are You? and Get Smart, satirizing law enforcement for the first time.
In the 1980s (Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice) and 1990s (NYPD Blue, Homicide: Life on the Street), cop shows started to become grittier and more graphic. We saw that some cops could be corrupt. But those were (and still are) usually presented as a few bad apples who eventually get their comeuppance. The main characters, whose exploits we follow week after week, were more heroic than ever.
When cable began airing original scripted series, we started to see more police misconduct and significantly more violent content. This began more or less in 2002 with FX’s The Shield (2002-08) and HBO’s The Wire (2002-08), which debuted just a few months apart. These types of shows are relatively rare, even today, particularly on ad-supported linear television.
- Violent crime is on the rise, but most crimes are solved
Despite the fact that violent crime declined by 71% between 1993 and 2018 (according to the U.S. Department of Justice), a 2016 Vox-Morning Consult survey showed that roughly two-thirds of Americans thought violent crime was getting worse. While newscasts certainly contributed to this, so did the increasing number of police series that showed violent crimes in virtually every episode. This led many to believe that rampant crime is on the rise in big cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago (the most common locales for police dramas).
During the 2022-23 television season, there were more than 30 crime-based scripted dramas just on the broadcast networks, with several others on cable, and streaming services. Police procedurals, which usually have crimes solved by the end of the hour, provide an unrealistic view of not only the crime rate, but on the effectiveness and relative quickness of solving each case. FBI statistics for 2019 show that police nationwide cleared 45.5% of reported violent crimes and only 17.2% of property crimes. On TV shows, it’s more like 95%.
- Crossing the line is OK – as long as you catch the bad guys
The city (or country, or world) is only safe because of righteous avengers who are willing to do things no one else is willing or able to do to protect an unsuspecting public. These are typified by Andy Sipowicz (NYPD Blue), Elliot Stabler (Law & Order: SVU and Organized Crime), Jack Bauer (24), Vic Mackey (The Shield), Danny Reagan (Blue Bloods), Matt Wozniak (Shades of Blue), and Hank Voight (Chicago P.D.).
Roughing up suspects is acceptable if it helps bring the bad guys to justice. Other cops stand by and do nothing – even those who are opposed to what is happening, because they know the world is safer due to the few who are willing to take morally ambiguous action. You can’t worry about constitutional or civil rights when time is running out to prevent innocent civilians from being hurt. Actions that might ordinarily be seen as deplorable are forgiven and justified when committed by popular characters who on television almost always mistreat suspects who are eventually shown to be guilty anyway (or at least guilty of something, if not this particular crime). They seldom abusively interrogate the innocent.
Most law-enforcement series still employ “no-knock warrants,” which writer’s probably see as the best way to heighten the dramatic effect (and speed things up) – I cringe every time I see a dozen or so cops on Chicago P.D., FBI, or S.W.A.T. knock down doors with guns drawn, yelling at everyone inside to not move or get down. Before Breonna Taylor, this didn’t stand out to me at all. Somehow, cops on TV shows never break down the wrong doors or shoot anyone in these situations by “accident.”
Since the murder of George Floyd by cops (on video for all to see), there have been some recent attempts to make it seem as if police departments on TV are instituting policies against doing anything that crosses the line. But these are generally presented as being misguided efforts by bureaucrats that invariably interfere with or prevent catching the bad guys.
Writers seem to have settled on the common refrain, “We don’t do that anymore.” In one recent episode of Chicago, P.D., for example, as Hank Voight is about to hit a suspect, one of his subordinates stops him and says, “We don’t do that anymore.” Hank glares at her for a few seconds before backing off. If only that would happen in real life. Likewise, in Law & Order: Organized Crime, when Elliot Stabler is about to beat up a suspect, Olivia Benson says, “We don’t do it this way anymore” – not because they think it’s actually wrong, but because “everything is being looked at through a different prism now.”
In Blue Bloods, when Danny Reagan is about to rough up a suspect, his female partner says, “We don’t do that anymore” (it’s usually a female cop who stops a male cop from crossing the line). In the same series, a cop who is about to assault a suspect is told by his partner to calm down because there are cameras everywhere and everyone has a smartphone – in other words, don’t cross the line, not because it’s wrong, but because people might record you and you could lose your job.
Chicago P.D. had an episode where the new police chief, who is determined to do things by the book and stop violating suspects’ rights, does not allow detectives to enter a property to catch a dangerous psychopath who had kidnapped her son. Even though Hank Voight’s team knew where he was hiding, she insists on continuing to investigate until they have enough probable cause for a search warrant. As a result of the delay, her son is tortured and killed. After they discover her son’s body, she tells Voight to do whatever it takes to catch the killer (she realizes he was right all along, and progressive policies that look good on paper can be ineffective and dangerous in practice). The clear message of the show is that it’s fine to institute new policies to prevent cops from breaking the rules, but those who make these policies are naïve, and endangering the public by no longer permitting cops to do whatever it takes to catch the bad guys.
- Racism exists but is not systemic
There might be some individual racist cops, but they are rare and easily recognizable – and usually have links to white supremacist groups. Shows like Chicago P.D., The Rookie, FBI, and S.W.A.T. (the only police series on network TV with a Black showrunner and Black lead star), have aired multi-episode storylines that deal with racism on the police force in ways never before seen on broadcast television. Most of these plots, however, focus on racism as seen through the eyes of Black police officers, who are generally torn between their communities who see cops as the bad guys, and their own desire to help people and change things from the inside. This does provide for interesting perspectives but hardly addresses the impact of police brutality and racial profiling on the daily life of regular citizens. In most cases, the surrounding white cops seem oblivious to the issue until a Black colleague in their unit is harassed and loses his or her cool.
Of course, it is still typically presented as just a few bad apples. Police brass is usually shown as being unaware that racism is a widespread problem in the department. They invariably don’t know how to deal with it. It’s up to the Black cops to educate their colleagues and superiors, often at great personal and professional risk. The white members of their unit, ordinarily presented as clever and observant, are generally naïve on the subject of racial bias, but are virtually never actually racist themselves.
A few cop shows have recently tried to deal with the subject. ABC’s The Rookie, for example, has incorporated multi-episode plotlines dealing with racism on the police force, the profiling of minorities, and over-policing of Black communities. It should also be noted that aside from its star (Nathan Fillion) the main cast members are largely people of color. And the writers’ room is one of the more diverse, with almost half being non-white.
CBS shows, S.W.A.T. and The Equalizer, both with Black leads (Shemar Moore and Queen Latifah, respectively), have examined issues surrounding racism and policing in minority neighborhoods. S.W.A.T. has also had several episodes dealing with corrupt cops, racist cops, LGBTQ+ rights, and the relationship between police and the Black community. It also dealt with a group of white supremacist cops, and how other white cops find some of their opinions “reasonable” sounding (even though they themselves aren’t perceived as racist). The Equalizer has had a number of episodes focusing on race and racial profiling, including Asian hate crimes (one of the main cast members is Asian, and she had input into the storyline).
CBS’s FBI, and NBC’s Chicago P.D. have also had several episodes dealing with racial profiling – although showing the impact on minority members of the main unit, rather than on the general public. Law & Order: SVU had an episode where our hero, Olivia Benson, questions whether she unconsciously racially profiled a suspect (critics had a field day with this one). The main cops on TV shows never seem to consciously racially profile anyone – and, if they do, by the end of the episode tend to learn their lesson.
Post George Floyd’s murder, networks and producers for the first time seemed willing (and financially motivated) to make changes in how they portray police procedure, racism, and other systemic inequities. But it’s been more lip service and the occasional one-off episode than anything else, with few real changes. The one show that seemed to be making a consistent statement about the need to change the way police operate, CBS’s East New York, one of the best new shows of 2022 (and one of only two with a Black female lead), was unceremoniously canceled after a single season.
- Cops are mentored and well trained
Cops and FBI agents are taught the right way to do their jobs by veterans, mentors, or instructors. The whole theme of The Rookie, for example, is that every rookie cop is assigned a training officer who teaches them proper procedure and how to deal with suspects (without violating their rights). They also learn how to de-escalate potentially violent situations. Until they pass muster, they can’t be promoted. Quantico had a full season devoted to showing how well trained FBI agents are. Other cop shows have periodically focused on the importance and rigors of training, and how even one mistake can cost lives (or your job).
In the world of television, good cops, (i.e., most cops), even rookies, can stand up to the few crooked or racist cops and eventually succeed in getting them disciplined or removed from the force.
- The evidence is color blind
FBI series or those featuring other law enforcement agencies (such as NCIS or CSI) seldom address racial inequities. They simply follow the evidence. The evidence never lies and virtually always leads to capturing the bad guys or getting them to confess. Race has nothing to do with it, and there is no racial bias in the way evidence is collected or processed. Social context is irrelevant. They seldom jump to conclusions as to where the evidence might lead based on the color of someone’s skin. Most of the time, law enforcement is shown rising above, and fighting against, the racism and bias demonstrated by the general public.
In recent times, virtually all of these types of series, Criminal Minds, the various NCISs and FBIs, The Blacklist, Blindspot, Quantico, etc., feature diverse casts who are relentless in tracking down suspects, and have seemingly unlimited resources at their disposal. The bulk of the criminals in these shows range from serial killers (who are almost always white men), to white supremacists, to crazy white women, to foreign bad actors. If any minorities are wrongly accused of a crime, the evidence quickly exonerates them and implicates the real culprits. If any of the main characters shows racial insensitivity, they are quickly set straight by the appropriate minority member of their team.
Here’s a look at how cop and crime shows have evolved (and not evolved) over time.
1950s / Early 1960s
It’s a Black and White World: Cops are Noble and True (and white)
In the 1950s, good vs. bad was straightforward and clearly defined. It was a decade plagued by the red scare and the blacklist. Non-white representation on television was limited to I Love Lucy’s Ricky Ricardo, Amos ‘n’ Andy, and little more. Any inclusion of Black characters were in stereotypical, comic-relief, or secondary roles – certainly not in characters relevant to the main storyline. Cops, detectives, and FBI agents were generally older white men and clean-cut younger white men (who often looked up to their older white male mentors).
The names of these shows were simple and descriptive – Man Against Crime (1949-54), Martin Kane, Private Eye (1949-54), Rocky King Detective (1950-54), Treasury Men in Action (1950-55), Racket Squad (1951-53), Dragnet (1951-59), The Lineup (1954-60), Highway Patrol (1955-59), The Sheriff of Cochise (1956-57), State Trooper (1956-59), M Squad (1957-60), Richard Diamond, Private Detective (1957-60), U.S. Marshal (1958-60), Peter Gunn (1958-61), 77 Sunset Strip (1958-64), The Lawless Years (1959-61), Manhunt (1959-61), The Detectives (1959-62), and Naked City (1958-63) – known for the iconic line at the end of each episode, “There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them.”
Shows that aired in the early 1960s, such as The Untouchables (1959-63), The Saint (1962-69), and The Fugitive (1963-67), were more violent, but largely followed the 1950s model. Even the comedy, The Andy Griffith Show (1960-68) fit into this general mold – imagine a TV show today depicting life in a North Carolina town without showing any Black residents.
Early on, many crime shows built relationships with local police departments. Dragnet’s Jack Webb, who played upright “just the facts, ma’am” detective Joe Friday, submitted the show’s scripts to the LAPD’s Public Information Division and omitted anything they didn’t approve. The F.B.I. vetted every detail of the original TV series, The F.B.I., which included background checks to make sure no “criminals, subversives, or Communists” were associated with the show. The closing credits for Adam-12, stated, “Technical advice for the filming of Adam-12 was approved by the board of Police Commissioners and came from the office of … Los Angeles Police Department.” At the time, these were all considered positive, and was seen as providing an air of authenticity to the programming.
Cops were honest, brave, and good, and almost never broke the rules. Both the cops and the criminals were typically white men. If the show continued to air into the early 1960s, you’d occasionally see a Black officer, detective, or secretary, and more minority criminals. If FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s name was mentioned, it was virtually always with reverence.
Late 1960s / Early 1970s
The Times They Are a Changin’ (but cops are still noble and true)
As the country experienced the turmoil of the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, and the resulting generational rifts, the networks seemed uncertain as to how they should present crime and punishment. Cops, F.B.I. agents, and detectives were still mostly clean-cut white men, but you would occasionally see clean-cut Black officers or assistants/secretaries pop up. The F.B.I. (1965-74) was one of the more popular shows in the late ‘60s-early ‘70s, and J. Edgar Hoover was still seen as the epitome of righteous law enforcement.
The differing, mostly generational, public perceptions during this time is epitomized by the fact that NBC’s Adam 12 (1968-75), which was as clean-cut and by-the-book as you can get, premiered the same year as ABC’s counter-culture series, The Mod Squad (1968-73), which is about young undercover cops – revolutionary for casting a woman (Peggy Lipton) and a Black man (Clarence Williams III) in leading roles (it was the first network police drama to have either). The series was actually promoted as “One black, one white, one blonde.” It was also notable for trying to address the generation gap and various social issues.
Anne Francis, starring in Honey West (1965-66), as a female private eye, actually predated Mod Squad by a few years (the half-hour drama ran for one season).
A few other cop/detective shows debuting in the late 1960s / early 1970s, most notably Ironside (1967-75), Mannix (1967-75), and The Rookies (1972-76), also had central (although not leading) Black cast members. And, of course, Hawaii Five-0 (1968-80) had people of color in its cast. Mannix’s loyal secretary Peggy (Gail Fischer) was one of the first regular series roles for a Black woman.
For the first time there were shows that satirized law enforcement – Car 54, Where Are You? (1961-63), Get Smart (1965-70), and Batman (1966-68). There were also several action spy series clearly influenced by the success of 1960s James Bond films, Dr. No, From Russia With Love, and Goldfinger. These included, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (1964-68), I Spy (1965-68), which was the first American TV drama to feature a Black actor (Bill Cosby) in a lead role, and Mission Impossible (1966-73), which also had a regular Black cast member (Greg Morris).
The half-hour drama, The Felony Squad (1966-69) was the lone series that harkened back to the 1950s model, from the casting (Howard Duff), to the look and feel of the show.. Originally titled Men Against Evil, the show’s main sponsor didn’t want their products associated with the word “evil.”
The 1960s also had more than a dozen police dramas that lasted just one or two seasons, several of which had well-known or future stars, including, 87th Precinct (Robert Lansing, Gena Rowlands, Norman Fell), Arrest and Trial, a precursor to Law & Order (Ben Gazzara, Chuck Connors), The Bold Ones: The Protectors (Leslie Nielsen), Checkmate (Sebastian Cabot, Doug McClure), The Everglades, Hawk (Burt Reynolds), Honey West (Anne Francis), Johnny Midnight (Edmund O’Brien), Johnny Staccato (John Cassavetes), Markham (Ray Milland), Miami Undercover (Rocky Graziano), N.Y.P.D. (Frank Converse, Jack Warden), and The New Breed (Leslie Nielsen).
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the only thing that changed about how the police treated suspects, was that they now had to inform them of their Miranda rights (due to the 1966 Supreme Court decision). They would often read suspects their rights from a pre-printed card. You would sometimes see suspects having to be released because they weren’t informed of their right to remain silent and that anything they say can be used against them in a court of law.
1970s
The Maverick “Outsider” Cop (approach but don’t cross the line)
Clint Eastwood’s iconic 1971 theatrical film role as Dirty Harry – and the public perception among many at the time that criminals had more “rights” than their victims, influenced a slew of maverick cops on television. These were tough white men who might play outside the rules but were still firmly part of the establishment – they walked up to the line, but never quite crossed it. That was fine because it almost always resulted in getting the bad guys. As long as you “read them their rights,” everything else was O.K. These include, Dennis Weaver in McCloud (1970-77), Peter Falk in Columbo (1971-78), William Conrad in Cannon (1971-76), George Peppard in Banacek (1972-73), Tony Musante in Toma (1973-74), Telly Savalas in Kojak (1973-78), James Garner as Jim Rockford in The Rockford Files (1974-80), Robert Blake in Baretta (1975-78), and David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser in Starsky & Hutch (1975-79).
The 1970s were big on titles based on character names. In addition to the ones mentioned above, the networks also aired, Dan August (1970-71), Monty Nash (1971), Longstreet (1971-72), McMillan & Wife (1971-77), with Rock Hudson and Susan St. James, O’Hara, U.S. Treasury (1971-72), Banyon (1972-73), Chase (1973-740, Griff (1973-74), Nakia (1974), Harry O (1974-76), Bronk (1975-76), Ellery Queen (1975-76), Delvecchio (1976-77), and Eisheid (1979-80).
Social Issues, Some Racial Diversity, and Women (for the male gaze)
The Mod Squad (1968-73) and The Rookies (1972-76), both on ABC, had more diverse casts than previous police shows. Both had women and Black men in central roles. Both featured younger cops as the networks tried to appeal to younger viewers. They also took on the establishment and addressed social ills and the generation gap in ways not seen before on TV. The Streets of San Francisco (1972-77) also dealt with social issues and generational differences, and paired the more traditional younger, college-educated, inexperienced go-getter (Michael Douglas) with an older, street-smart mentor (Karl Malden).
There were four series in the 1970s with Black characters in titular roles, but none lasted longer than a single season. The first were Shaft (1973-74), with Richard Roundtree reprising his role from the popular 1971 movie, and Tenafly (1973-74). Both were spokes in rotating movie wheels that were popular on the broadcast networks at the time. Get Christie Love! (1974-75) had its roots in Black exploitation films, inspired by Pam Grier movies – Christie’s trademark line was “You’re under arrest, sugar.” Its single season is historically significant because Teresa Graves was the first Black woman to star in an hour-long drama. Paris (1979-80), starring James Earl Jones, rounded out the 1970s quartet of one-season shows with Black leads.
CHiPs (1977-83) was the first cop show on television to feature a Latino police officer in a leading role, as the trouble-prone Ponch (Erik Estrada), who, along with his more straight-laced partner, Jon (Larry Wilcox), cruised the L.A. freeways on their motorcycles as part of the California Highway Patrol.
Barney Miller (1975-82), one of the first comedies about cops, features a diverse cast that includes Black, Puerto Rican, Polish-American, and Japanese-American detectives in a New York police precinct. There were a couple of recurring female cops and detectives (female detectives were not yet a regular thing on television), and a gay cop joined the squad during its fourth season – the show was one of the first to incorporate stories featuring gay characters (which makes sense since the precinct was located in Greenwich Village.
Police Woman (1974-78) a spin-off from the successful anthology drama, Police Story (1973-77), centers on a female cop (who mostly goes undercover as a prostitute, dancer, prison inmate, nurse, or flight attendant). Its lead, Angie Dickenson, was the first woman to be the lead star in an hour-long drama. The series reportedly influenced many women across the country to apply for police positions. Peggy Lipton preceded her on The Mod Squad, but she wasn’t the singular lead. Jessica Walter had starred in Amy Prentiss, playing a female detective, as part of NBC’s Mystery Movie, but it was canceled after just three two-hour episodes.
Charlie’s Angels (1976-81), featuring three young female cops, became a hit and helped coin the phrase “jiggle TV” (basically scantily clad women jumping around – also known as “T & A TV”). They took their assignments from Charlie, a heard but unseen mysterious male boss. A man named Bosley acted as liaison between Charlie and his “Angels,” and supervised their assignments. Even though Farah Fawcett was only in the first season (she was replaced by Cheryl Ladd in season two), she became pop-culture icon. Jaclyn Smith and Kate Jackson were the other two original Angels. According to its executive producer, Aaron Spelling, TV critics at the time did not understand that Charlie’s Angels was not meant to be a serious crime drama. Viewers did.
These shows, starring women but written by men as a sort of male-fantasy TV, obviously don’t hold up well today. But their success did pave the way for women being given more substantial and authentic leading roles. And just as with the men, female cops were portrayed as universally good and often heroic. But in the 1970s (and much of the 1980s) female diversity, for the most part, meant simply casting both blondes and brunettes.
The 1970s also had a number of the short-lived police dramas, with more than 25 shows lasting anywhere from just a few episodes up to two seasons. Several featured well-known and future stars. These include, Adams of Eagle Lake (Andy Griffith), Archer (Brian Keith), The Blue Knight (George Kennedy), Bronk (Jack Palance), Caribe (Stacy Keach), Chopper One (Dirk Benedict), Dan August (Burt Reynolds), Delvecchio (Judd Hirsch), Eisheid (Joe Don Baker), Griff (Lorne Greene), Jigsaw John (Jack Warden), Kodiak (Clint Walker), Lanigan’s Rabbi (Art Carney), Longstreet (James Franciscus), Madigan (Richard Widmark), The Manhunter (Ken Howard), Monty Nash (Harry Guardino), Nakia (Robert Forster), Nashville 99 (Claud Akins), O’Hara: U.S. Treasury (David Janssen), Paris (James Earl Jones), Sam (Mark Harmon), Serpico (David Birney), The Silent Force (Ed Nelson, Lynda Day George), S.W.A.T. (Steve Forest, Robert Urich), and Toma (Tony Musante, Susan Strasberg).
1980s
White Women Take Center Stage Alongside White Men
Women were given more prominent roles in crime dramas during the 1980s, highlighted by CBS’s Cagney & Lacey (1982-88), the first cop show to feature two female partners as the main characters – although as a sign of the times, the original casting was changed following the pilot episode, with Sharon Gless replacing Meg Foster. Network executives were afraid that Foster and Tyne Daly, two aggressive women, might be perceived as lesbians. This was among the first series of its kind to deal with topics ranging from rape, to abortion, and alcoholism (of a lead character).
NBC tried teaming up two women, this time Lynda Carter and Loni Anderson, in Partners in Crime (1984), but it was no Cagney & Lacey, and only lasted one season. CBS’s long-running hit, Murder, She Wrote (1984-96), also had a female lead (Angela Lansbury), and appealed to a significantly older audience – which led to other series featuring older actors.
Several other shows featured male/female partners gave birth to the romantic comedy cop show. These series often featured humorous banter (romantic and otherwise) among partners. These include, Hart to Hart (1979-84), Remington Steele (1982-87), Scarecrow & Mrs. King (1983-87), Hunter (1984-91), and Moonlighting (1985-89). These types of shows typically featured white men and women – mixed-race romances, or even flirtations, were not yet acceptable on network television. Having a Black man and woman as partners was never under consideration.
Female cops were generally portrayed as being just as heroic as their male counterparts, but tended to be more likely to follow the rules and not mistreat suspects. One rare exception was Lady Blue (1985-86), whose lead female detective was even more violent than most of her male counterparts. Way ahead of its time, neither viewers nor critics in the 1980s were ready to see a woman in this type of role. It lasted two seasons.
But there were still several successful police dramas with white male leads, some working alone, some with a partner. These include, Magnum, P.I. (1980-88), with Tom Selleck, and The Equalizer (1985-89), with Edward Woodward, which spawned a movie franchise with a Black male lead (Denzel Washington), as well as a recent popular reboot with a Black female lead (Queen Latifah), Simon & Simon (1981-89), Hardcastle & McCormick (1983-86), Matt Houston (1983-85), Riptide (1984-86), Crazy Like a Fox (1984-86), Spenser: For Hire (1985-88), and Jake and the Fatman (1987-92). TJ Hooker (1982-85) had a female cop (Heather Locklear) in a mostly male police squad led by William Shatner.
Crimes and Cops Get More Integrated, Stylish, and Violent
Police and detective shows in the 1980s were punctuated by two of the best and grittiest – Hill Street Blues (1981-87), and Miami Vice (1984-90). Both groundbreaking series included women and people of color in major roles as police officers and detectives. Both shows featured criminals who were far more brutal than those on television in previous decades. So, of course, the cops were justified in being just as brutal to bring them to justice. Hill Street Blues’ cops often faced off with street gangs (typically Black and Hispanic), while Miami Vice took on drug cartels (most often Hispanic or Asian). Miami Vice was also known for its pulsating, MTV-style soundtrack and hyper-stylized visuals, and use of quick cuts in ways we had never before seen.
Hill Street Blues demonstrated that people can follow large ensemble casts with multiple story arcs. It’s hard to imagine today, but critics, and advertisers at the time thought the show would be too confusing to viewers who were used to simpler storylines. Before this, virtually all cop shows featured one or two main characters, in self-contained episodes, and one or two stories at a time. While it started out with low ratings, it won multiple Emmy awards (at a time when that mattered), which turned it into a hit, influencing virtually every ensemble drama that followed. The main cast members seemed like they could actually be real people, with real-people problems, who just happened to be cops. They struggled with real-life issues, such as alcoholism and drug abuse, and how to maintain their sense of right and wrong while still doing what it takes to catch the bad guys. Their work lives often conflicted with their personal lives. Hill Street was also one of the last police dramas to take place in an unnamed big city.
21 Jump Street (1987-91), Fox’s first hit drama, in addition to making Johnny Depp a star, featured a Black woman (Holly Robinson) and other people of color in leading roles. In the Heat of the Night (1988-95), starring Carroll O’Connor and Howard Rollins, based on the 1967 hit movie, features a Black man as one of the lead characters. There were also several shows with Black leads that only lasted one season: Tenspeed and Brown Shoe (1980), with Jeff Goldblum and Ben Vereen; Sonny Spoon (1988) with Mario Van Peebles; A Man Called Hawk (1989), a spin-off from Spenser: For Hire (1985-88) with Avery Brooks; Gideon Oliver (1989), with Louis Gossett Jr; and Snoops (1989-90), with Tim Reid and Daphne Maxwell Reid.
The epic (and too short-lived) Crime Story (1986-88), whose style and look were similar to Miami Vice (both were produced by Michael Mann), had a clear impact on Wiseguy (1987-90), which also featured unusually brutal (for the time) bad guys.
All four of these series – Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice, Crime Story, and Wiseguy – were notable for their use of serialized storylines (rather than the more common close-ended episodes) and were prototypes for many of the edgier cop shows to follow.
As was the case in previous decades, the 1980’s had many police shows that lasted two seasons or less (most of them one season), and featured current and future stars. These included B.A.D. Cats (Michelle Pfeifer), Booker (Richard Grieco), Chicago Story (Maud Adams, Craig T. Nelson, Dennis Franz), Crime Story (Dennis Farina, Anthony Dennison), The Devlin Connection (Rock Hudson), Downtown (Michael Nouri, Robert Englund, Blair Underwood, Mariska Hargitay), Eye to Eye (Charles Durning), Hardball (John Ashton), Hawaiian Heat (Robert Ginty), Heart of the City (Christina Applegate), Hollywood Beat (Jack Scalia, John Matuszak), Hooperman (John Ritter), Houston Knights, J.J. Starbuck (Dale Robertson, Ben Vereen), The Law & Harry McGraw (Jerry Ohrbach), Leg Work (Margaret Colin, Frances McDormand), MacGruder and Loud, McClain’s Law (James Arness), The Oldest Rookie (Paul Sorvino), Paris (James Earl Jones), Partners in Crime (Lynda Carter, Loni Anderson), Private Eye (Josh Brolin), The Renegades (Patrick Swayze), Riker, Sonny Spoon (Tim Reid), True Blue, Unsub (David Soul, Kent McCord), and Wolf (Jack Scalia).
1980s/90s
Ensemble Police Dramas Require Integrating Casts
The 1980s and ‘90s ushered in ensemble cast dramas focusing on police precincts and squads of cops, rather than the individuals or partnerships that were more prevalent in the 1960s and ‘70s. It would have been ridiculous to have TV shows about detective units or police precincts in major urban areas without having key roles for Black and Hispanic characters. Pioneered by Hill Street Blues (1981-87), these shows covered multiple story arcs devoted to various characters. Other successful ensemble cop shows in this era include, Miami Vice (1984-90), 21 Jump Street (1987-91), Law & Order (1990-2010), NYPD Blue (1993-2005), Homicide: Life on the Street (1993-99), and New York Undercover (1994-99).
1990s
Black and Latino Characters Move into Central (but not yet Lead) Roles
In the 1990s, Black and Latino cops and detectives became more commonplace on television. These shows included, In the Heat of the Night (1988-95), Law & Order (1990-2010), Gabriel’s Fire (1990-91), one of the first police series with a singular Black lead character, Street Justice (1991-93), Renegade (1992-97), NYPD Blue (1993-2005), Homicide: Life on the Street (1993-99), Walker, Texas Ranger (1993-2001), New York Undercover (1994-99), the first police drama on American television to feature two people of color in starring roles, The Sentinel (1996-99), Pacific Blue (1996-2000), Nash Bridges (1996-2001), and L.A. Heat (1999). There was also Martial Law (1998-2000), which was the only network primetime show in the U.S. headlined by an East Asian (Sammo Hung). It’s interesting to note that most of the Black and Latino cops portrayed in the 1990s were less likely to brutalize suspects than were their white counterparts.
There were only a few successful series with white male leads – The Commish (1991-96), Dark Justice (1991-93), Diagnosis Murder (1993-2001), and The Sentinel (1996-99), which each appealed to a substantially different audience.
Women continued to star in police series during the 1990s. Of the shows listed above, NYPD Blue, Homicide, New York Undercover, and Pacific Blue each have women in key roles. In addition, Profiler (1996-2000) features a female FBI agent, and Sirens (1993-95) tells the story of three female rookie cops, each of whom works with an experienced veteran who, of course, provides them with excellent training. One West Waikiki has a female lead (Cheryl Ladd). One-season series, Angel Street (1992), teamed two female detectives, one Black and one white.
Network Cop Shows Start to Push Some Boundaries
Law & Order (which debuted on NBC in 1990) featured stories “ripped from the headlines,” and showed not only the cops capturing the suspects, but what happens next when they go to trial. And breaking with years of TV precedent, sometimes the guilty go free. It led to more than 20 years of franchise extensions, including the most popular and longest-running of all, Law & Order: SVU (1999-present).
In 1993, ABC introduced us what its producer, Steven Bochco called “network TV’s first R-rated series,” NYPD Blue. It was revolutionary at the time. ABC was so secretive, they would not send us the pilot. They came in with a copy, which we had to watch with them, after which they left and took the pilot with them. They didn’t want any copies leaking out before the show premiered on television. The nudity (mostly butt shots) was unprecedented for network television, as was some of the language and adult-oriented storylines. It became an instant hit, which helped overcome any potential advertiser reticence.
The same year, another classic cop show (although not nearly as popular), NBC’s Homicide: Life on the Street, premiered, raising the depiction of everyday violence and its impact on police and detectives to a new level. Filmed almost entirely on location in Baltimore, it used music montages, hand-held cameras, and jump-cut editing, giving the show a unique look and feel. The show was notable for stories that tended to be darker than we’d typically seen on cop shows, and for its complex, non-stereotypical Black characters. It also integrated multiple storylines per episode, which was still uncommon for the time.
The 1993 triumvirate was completed with Fox’s The X-Files (1993-2002), starring David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. It paired up male and female FBI agents who investigate unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena. Millennium (1996-99) also involved supernatural elements as an ex-FBI agent (Lance Henriksen) hunts down serial killers and other criminals.
More than 35 police dramas debuted during the 1990s that only ran for a season or two, some with major TV stars attached. They include, The Big Easy, Brooklyn South, C-16: FBI (Eric Roberts, Angie Harmon), Charlie Grace (Mark Harmon), Cop Rock, Cracker, Crime & Punishment, Dellaventura (Danny Aiello), EZ Streets (Ken Olin), FBI: The Untold Stories, Gabriel’s Fire (James Earl Jones), The Hat Squad, High Incident, L.A. Heat, Land’s End (Fred Dryer), Likely Suspects, The Marshal, Mike Hammer (Stacy Keach), Missing Persons (Daniel J. Travanti, Jorja Fox), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (Scott Bakula, Maria Bello), One West Waikiki (Cheryl Ladd), Over My Dead Body (Edward Woodward), P.S. I Luv U (Greg Evigan, Connie Selecca), Players, Pros & Cons (James Earl Jones), Reasonable Doubts (Marlee Matlin, Mark Harmon), Secret Service, Shades of L.A., Sins of the City, Sirens, Snoops, Swift Justice, Turks (William Devane), Under Suspicion, The Untouchables, Vengeance Unlimited (Michael Madsen), and Veronica Claire.
2000s
Rise of Procedural Dramas, Ad-Supported Cable; The Aftermath of 9/11
As the new decade got underway, NYPD Blue and the original Law & Order were still going strong. Since both series are set in New York City, both were severely affected by the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. They, along with other police, detective, CIA, and FBI series had to start balancing the presumed continuing threat of Middle-Eastern based terrorism, with the ensuing prejudice against Muslims by both regular citizens and law-enforcement agencies. The threat of terror attacks, both from abroad and through sleeper cells within the U.S., was an ongoing theme in law-enforcement series throughout the decade.
In the aftermath of 9/11, with the U.S. government’s stance toward “enhanced interrogation,” and the new law known as The Patriot Act, the path was set for counter-terrorism and CIA shows such as 24 (2001-10), Alias (2001-06), the first hour-long spy series with a female lead, and The Agency (2001-03). All were in production before 9/11, but the events that day changed the direction these shows would take. The bottom line was that terrorism is such a threat that anything our heroes do to the bad guys is justified as long as it helps prevent the next attack or protect innocent civilians. 24, one of the most popular series on television, repeatedly sent out this message for the entire decade.
In 1999, an extension to the popular Law & Order franchise, Law & Order: SVU premiered, eventually becoming television’s longest running drama (now entering its 25th season). More intense than most cop shows on broadcast TV, it focused primarily on often grisly sex-related crimes. The show has received praise for bringing some of these crimes and issues (such as “no means no”) into mainstream programming, and for its star, Mariska Hargitay, who plays Olivia Benson, becoming a real-life champion for sex assault survivors’ rights. It has also received criticism for presenting an unrealistic portrayal and raising unrealistic expectations of what a real-life sex-crimes unit actually does. The show has also been criticized for clumsily handling issues of race (It has had a mostly white writers’ room) – but that’s true of a lot of series.
In 2000, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation became a surprise hit, ushering in a new era of procedural dramas. While hardly the first of its kind (that distinction goes to Dragnet), it created a new type of hero – behavioral analysts, forensic experts, tech wizards, and nerds. Unlike many other cop dramas that show heroic officers capturing the bad guys often through car chases, gun battles, hand-to-hand combat, and breaking down doors, these shows focus on the intellectual aspects of collecting evidence, predicting criminal behavior, and then searching for the suspects. The main characters from whatever law-enforcement agency the show features, typically solve the crime in a lab or conference room and by questioning potential witnesses. Procedural dramas on broadcast television are typically self-contained episodes – the story unfolds and is resolved within the same hour-long episode.
CSI spawned several spin-offs (CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, CSI: Vegas, and the short-lived CSI: Cyber). Subsequent successful shows in the 2000s that fit this mold include, Without a Trace (2002-09), NCIS (2003-present), Cold Case (2003-10), Criminal Minds (2005-20), Bones (2005-17), Numb3rs (2005-10), The Closer (2005-12), and Lie to Me (2009-11). The Closer was one of the first original scripted series on ad-supported cable to become a major hit.
In 2002, when ad-supported cable was just starting to air original scripted series to compete with the broadcast networks, FX debuted The Shield (2002-08). It was controversial not only for its portrayal of corrupt cops and its morally ambiguous characters, but also for a degree of sexual and violent content never before seen on ad-supported television. Buoyed by strong ratings, it forever changed what was acceptable to air on ad-supported TV. It broke many long-standing conventions and led to a gradual increase in edgier dramas on television. The LAPD was reportedly not happy with the show’s portrayal of police, and threatened to withdraw standard security support for the production (according to the show’s executive producer Glen Mazzara). Characters in the series therefore never refer to “LAPD” by name. They also wear fake badges on the wrong side of their uniforms.
A few months after The Shield debuted, HBO premiered the epic drama, The Wire (2002-08), considered by many to be among the best television series ever. It was perhaps the first show to criticize the “war on drugs,” and deal with issues of race in a way no other cop show was doing at the time. With its focus on corruption and decay in a major urban city (Baltimore), and the intersection of cops, gangsters, and politicians, it took storytelling to a new level. The Wire remains one of the few television series that depicts systemic police brutality against regular citizens (mostly people of color) in addition to showing honest individual cops. In other words, there can be honest cops in a corrupt system, as opposed to the standard TV narrative that there can be some corrupt cops in a generally honest system.
White Women Headline More Series
The 2000s gave us several police/detective dramas with women either in leading roles – Alias (2001-06), Crossing Jordan (2001-07), The Division (2001-04), Sue Thomas: F.B. Eye (2002-05), Karen Sisco (2003), Cold Case (2003-10), Veronica Mars (2004-07), Medium (2005-11), The Closer (2005-12), – or in equal partnerships with men – Law & Order: SVU (1999-), Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001-11), Bones (2005-17), In Plain Sight (2008-12), and Castle (2009-16).
There were also several series with racially diverse departments, teams, or partners, often with women in prominent roles, including, Third Watch (1999-2005), CSI (2000-15), The District (2000-04), CSI: Miami (2002-12), Without a Trace (2002-09), NCIS (2003-present), CSI: NY (2004-13), Criminal Minds (2005-2020), Sleeper Cell (2005-06), Psych (2006-14), Flashpoint (2008-12), and Leverage (2008-12). All of these shows were successful, and all lasted for at least four seasons. Monk (2002-09), Numb3rs (2005-10), Dexter (2006-13), Burn Notice (2007-13), and The Mentalist (2008-15) were the only ones with solely white male leads.
With several ad-supported cable networks now firmly in the business of producing original scripted content, there were more police and detective series on the air than in any previous decade. There were also more than 30 shows that did not last more than a season or two. These include, 10-8: Officers on Duty, 18 Wheels of Justice (G. Gordon Liddy, Billy Dee Williams), The Beast (Patrick Swayze), Big Apple (Ed O’Neil, Kim Dickens), Blind Justice, Boomtown (Donnie Wahlberg, Neal McDonough), Cover Me, Dark Blue (Dylan McDermott), Day Break (Taye Diggs), The Evidence, Eyes (Tim Daly), Fastlane, The Forgotten, The Fugitive (Tim Daly), Hack (David Morse, Andre Baugher), Hawaii, Heist, The Huntress (Annette O’Toole), The Inside, Jonny Zero, K-Ville (Anthony Anderson), Kidnapped (Jeremy Sisto, Delroy Lindo, Timothy Hutton, Dana Delany), Killer Instinct, Kingpin, Level 9, Life (Damian Lewis, Sarah Shahi), Life on Mars, Line of Fire, Robbery Homicide Division (Tom Sizemore), Standoff (Ron Livingston, Gina Torres), Touching Evil, UC: Undercover, The Unusuals (Amber Tamblyn, Jeremy Renner, Harold Perrineau), Wanted (Gary Cole, Rashida Jones), and Women’s Murder Club (Angie Harmon).
2010s
A Mixed Bag of Sub-Genres, The Rise of Streaming
Crime shows in the 2010s had protagonists who fit into several different categories. The rise of streaming platforms led to several new entries, often more gritty and violent than those airing on ad-supported TV. While many of these shows could be placed in different sub-genres of police/detective series, they all had one thing in common – the ends justifies the means. Protecting suspects rights is important only until innocent people are at risk. Then, anything goes. And if your suspect turns out to be innocent, you just apologize and move on with no regrets. You were just doing your job and trying to protect the public. The greater good outweighs individual rights.
Female leads – Covert Affairs (2010-14), Nikita (2010-13), Rizzoli & Isles (2010-16), Body of Proof (2011-13), Homeland (2011-20), Unforgettable (2011-16), Absentia (2017-20), Good Girls (2018-21), Jett (2019), L.A.’s Finest (2019-20) – unlike shows in previous decades, most of these women are just as likely as men in similar shows to cross the line to bring the criminals to justice.
Male/female or multi-racial partners/teams – Castle (2009-16), Hawaii Five-0 (2010-20), The Chicago Code (2011), The Killing (2011-14), Person of Interest (2011-16), Elementary (2012-19), Longmire (2012-17), Banshee (2013-16), Scorpion (2014-18), True Detective (2014-19), Murder in the First (2014-16), Lethal Weapon (2016-19), C.B. Strike (2018-present ), Magnum PI (2018-present ), Rellik (2018), City on a Hill (2019-22). Banshee was the first American scripted television series with a gender-fluid character as a main cast member.
Diverse group of federal agents – NCIS: Los Angeles (2009-2023), Strike Back (2010-20), The Blacklist (2013-2023), Graceland (2013-15), NCIS: New Orleans (2014-21), CSI: Cyber (2015-16), Blindspot (2015-20), Quantico (2015-18), Narcos (2015-17), Mindhunter (2017-19), Jack Ryan (2018-23), Narcos: Mexico (2018-21), FBI (2018-present) – most shows focusing on the FBI or other federal agencies have diverse casts, but seldom deal with racism (unless it’s in the context of going after violent white supremacist groups), and almost never deal with police brutality. FBI, which has a Muslim lead character, is one of the few exceptions.
Diverse group of detectives – Southland (2009-13) – one of the first police/detective series to have a regular gay (although closeted) police officer. Major Crimes (2012-18) – one of the best procedural crime dramas, with a team of detectives led by a woman, successfully balances horrific crimes and light office banter. It’s the first series of its kind to highlight a gay teen character and same-sex relationships. While it does have a diverse cast, both racially and age-wise, its sole Latino detective is the one to have a temper and anger management issues, often losing his cool and needing to be reeled in by his teammates. Bosch (2014-21) – multiple episodes have dealt with sexism (Bosch’s lieutenant is a woman), as well as police and political corruption, and there are a number of central Black characters. Chicago P.D. (2014-present) – racism and political corruption have become central themes, as the detectives continue to do whatever it takes to eliminate threats to their own and to the general public. Shades of Blue (2016-18) – Jennifer Lopez and Ray Liotta lead a crew that takes bribes and protection money, and thinks nothing of crossing lines to catch the bad guys (but they’re really decent people, who only break the rules to give their families a better life).
Diverse group of rookies – Rookie Blue (2010-15), The Rookie (2018-present ) – rookie cops on TV shows are always well trained and taught right from wrong. These two shows demonstrate the difference in diversity from the beginning to the end of the decade, as many series started providing more substantial representation of women, as well as Blacks and other minorities.
Diverse S.W.A.T. team – S.W.A.T. (2017-present) – this series has dealt with racism, sexism, and homophobia better than most police dramas. Its diversity both in front and behind the camera makes it noticeably different in how it deals with these issues. When it debuted, its star, Shemar Moore, was CBS’s only lead actor of color.
Diverse group of detectives in a comedy – Brooklyn Nine Nine (2013-2021) – the first series about detectives, where the captain (who is Black) happens to be gay – and Angie Tribeca (2016-18), starring Rashida Jones, in what has been referred to as a Naked Gun for the small screen.
Supernatural, Fantasy, Sci-Fi – Haven (2010-15), Grimm (2011-17), iZombie (2015-19), Stitchers (2015-17),
White male leads – White Collar (2009-14), Justified (2010-15), The Glades (2010-14), Perception (2012-15), Crossing Lines (2013-15), The Following (2013-15), MacGyver (2016-21), The Sinner (2017-21), Prodigal Son (2019-21). Instinct (2018-19) featured the first openly gay lead character who is married to another man in an American network television series. Justified, being on FX, which has a reputation for edgier and grittier programming, is one of the more violent cop shows, with Timothy Olyphant portraying a deputy U.S. Marshal who dispenses “his own brand of justice.” What once was the standard for police dramas – the rugged lone white male lead – is now something of a rarity.
This decade also brought us the noble police family in Blue Bloods (2010-present) – even when they occasionally cross the line, their intentions are good and they constantly question themselves – when a cop outside the family breaks the rules, the Commissioner (Tom Selleck) usually manages to boot them off the force by the end of the episode (as though police unions don’t exist), often getting them to resign (to avoid bad PR). Blue Bloods has also had a number of episodes where Black activists try to frame innocent white cops for police brutality – until the righteous Commissioner Reagan persuades them or Black civilian witnesses to come clean. In this world, the main problem is unfair public misperception of cops and Black activists who cause trouble.
And then there’s Fargo (2014-present), which defies genre labels but is certainly diverse, and features numerous women in leading roles. Each season has a different cast of quirky and often violent characters. It is one of the few (if not only) shows to present good, honest cops, corrupt cops, and incompetent cops in relatively equal number.
Ironically, the continued popularity of the genre is emphasized by the record number of unsuccessful series during the 2010s (46), lasting only one or two seasons. These include, Against the Wall, Alcatraz, Almost Human (Karl Urban), APB, Awake, Backstrom, Battle Creek (Josh Duhamel), The Black List: Redemption (Famke Janssen, Ryan Eggold), Breakout Kings, The Bridge, Chance (Hugh Laurie), Charlie’s Angels, Chase, The Chicago Code, Cleaners, Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders (Gary Senise), Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior (Forest Whitaker, Janeane Garofolo), CSI: Cyber (Patricia Arquette, James Van Der Beek), Gang Related, The Gates, Golden Boy (Theo James, Chi McBride), Gone (Chris Noth), Good Behavior (Michelle Dockery), The Good Cop (Tony Danza), Gracepoint (David Tennant, Anna Gunn), Ironside (Blair Underwood), King and Maxwell (Jon Tenney, Rebecca Romijn), Law & Order: L.A., Legends (Sean Bean, Ali Larter), Low Winter Sun, Memphis Beat, Minority Report, Mob City (Jon Bernthal, Milo Ventimiglia), The Mysteries of Laura (Debra Messing), NYC 22, Past Life, Prime Suspect (Maria Bello), Prodigal Son (Tom Payne), The Protector (Ally Walker), Public Morals, Rosewood, Rush Hour, Seven Seconds (Regina King), Stalker (Maggie Q, Dylan McDermott), Take Two, Taken, Taxi Brooklyn, Terriers, Those Who Kill, Training Day (Bill Paxton, Katrina Law), True Justice (Steven Seagal), Wicked City (Jeremy Sisto, Gabriel Luna), Emergence.
2020s
Streaming Wars, Franchise Extensions, and the Reckoning That Wasn’t
In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder by a police officer, with other officers just standing by, captured on video for all the world to see, there was a backlash against how law enforcement is portrayed on TV series as universally heroic and righteous. Networks and showrunners pledged to reassess how policing in minority communities, and the brutalizing of suspects, is portrayed in law-enforcement related series.
The popular reality show Cops, which debuted on Fox in 1989 and shifted to Spike TV (now the Paramount Network), in 2013, was canceled in 2020. Its “real-life” portrayal of harsh police tactics, particularly toward minorities, was no longer acceptable. But then the conservative Fox Nation (a subscription video on demand service companion to Fox News) picked it up in 2021. A&E Network’s Live PD, another highly rated reality show focusing on various police forces across the country, which had debuted in 2016, was also canceled in 2020. In 2022, cable network Reelz, launched On Patrol: Live (from the same producers as Live PD) with surprisingly little backlash. Both were signs that public (and media) outrage at police portrayals on television might be subsiding.
More than 20 police dramas have premiered since 2020. As linear television faces challenges from all sides, particularly the streaming wars, franchise extensions and reboots are easy to promote and one of the surest ways to retain viewers. Recent examples include, FBI: Most Wanted (2020-present), The Equalizer (2021-present), Law & Order: Organized Crime (2021-present), Walker (2021-present), CSI: Vegas (2021-present), FBI: International (2021-present), NCIS: Hawaii (2021-present), Leverage: Redemption (2021-present), Kung Fu (2021-23), Dexter: New Blood (2021-present), Bosch: Legacy (2022-present), The Rookie: Feds (2022-present), Criminal Minds (2022-present), and Justified: City Primeval (2023-present).
Other cop shows debuting since 2020 include, Big Sky (2020-2023), Briarpatch (2020), Deputy (2020), Hightown (2020-present), Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector (2020), Tommy (2020), Clarice (2021), Lupin (2021-present), Mare of Easttown (2021), Mayor of Kingstown (2021-present), Seal Team (2021-present), which shifted from CBS to Paramount+, The Calling (2022-present), Dark Winds (2022-present), East New York (2022), Reacher (2022-present), Tokyo Vice (2022), We Own This City (2022), Alert: Missing Persons Unit (2023), True Lies (2023), and Will Trent (2023-present).
Of the series listed above, five have Black leads (Briar Patch, Lincoln Rhyme, The Equalizer, East New York, and The Rookie: Feds, while five others have central Black characters (Big Sky, FBI: Most Wanted, Law & Order: Organized Crime, Clarice, We Own This City). The lead character in Hightown is Latina. Nine of these shows – Big Sky, Briarpatch, Hightown, Tommy, Clarice, The Equalizer, Mare of Easttown, East New York, and The Rookie: Feds – have women in lead roles (Briarpatch, The Equalizer, East New York, and The Rookie: Feds star Black women). Tommy features a lesbian police chief, and has a strong focus on sexism and homophobia. Clarice, which takes place in the 1990s, has dealt extensively with sexism and racism.
Unfortunately, Tommy, Clarice, Briarpatch, Lincoln Rhyme, and East New York were canceled after just one season. Of the remaining shows, only The Equalizer seems interested in addressing racial inequities in any ongoing way. Will Trent, through flashbacks, seems to be saying that sexism and racism on the police force is largely a thing of the past.
Since 2020, as the streaming wars started to heat up, several spy series have premiered, with most of them quite successful – The Recruit (2022) and The Night Agent (2023) on Netflix, Alex Rider (2020) and Citadel (2023) on Prime Video, Tehran (2020) and Slow Horses (2022) on Apple TV+, Rabbit Hole (2023) and Special Ops: Lioness (2023) on Paramount+.
As for the reckoning that was promised? It still remains to be seen. Will established police dramas continue to evolve in dealing with these issues, or will the lessening press focus on these issues enable business-as-usual inertia? Just as important will be what new police dramas look like? Will there even be many new series in this genre that aren’t extensions of popular brands?
While there did seem to be some initial movement in this area, and there seems to be continuing progress made in diversifying writers’ rooms, there really haven’t yet been substantial changes to what makes it on air.
I watched the Law & Orders, FBI shows, and Chicago P.D. last season to see if I could notice any significant changes in how the police operated. Not so much.
During this season’s first episode of Law & Order: Organized Crime, a detective is trying to get information from someone who says he won’t cooperate without a warrant. After the detective threatens him, he provides the information. A fairly typical scene for cop shows. But this time, the detective’s partner says, “It’s easy enough to get a subpoena, you didn’t need to do that.” Is this what the writers think of as progress, or is it just a first step toward a real change in attitude?
On Chicago P.D., they seem to have settled on a certain theme. Rather than anyone actually standing up to Hank Voight when he breaks the rules, some detectives will privately talk among themselves that they don’t like what he’s doing, while some will stare at him with somber looks or tears in their eyes when he gives an order they don’t agree with. One or two of his detectives will even argue with him briefly. But when he dismisses their concerns they invariably wind up following him and publicly supporting him. Because they know their city is safer with him on the job, doing what needs to be done.
On FBI, there were a couple of instances where they several agents busted down doors (no-knock warrants), guns drawn. Of course, no innocent people were hurt. Fairly typical. There was nothing in any of the FBI shows significantly different from previous seasons. So, while there are some signs of incremental change, the networks and showrunners should not be patting themselves on the back just yet for the baby steps they are now taking after 70 years of what many refer to as “copaganda.” There’s still a long way to go. More diverse representation and perspectives in front of and behind the camera (and in the writers’ rooms) are the keys to real change.
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