Police TV Shows and Related Comments

Last night was the end of the seven-year run for the TNT television series “The Closer” starring the Deputy Chief of the LAPD Major Crimes Unit Brenda Leigh Johnson.  Last night was also the first episode of the new TNT series Major Crimes in which Captain Sharon Raydor becomes the person in charge of the same LAPD Unit when Johnson resigns.  (I sure hope she gets a promotion or she is getting screwed.)

The reason I bring this up is that both these women play very competent, knowledgeable, and caring, high-level law enforcement officers but were very different. Deputy Chief Johnson dressed in colorful pastel dresses, talked with a southern drawl, used endearing slang phrases, and acted like a blonde haired ditz. She had blonde hair but she was anything, but a ditz, Johnson  “always got her man.”  Captain Raydor acts more sophisticated in her dress and mannerisms. She usually wears dark colored suits and speaks with little use of slang or endearing words.

Law Enforcement is like that, everybody approaches it with their own style, You cannot teach style. I often found that concept problematic when I was teaching criminal investigation classes or working with individual officers. Sometimes officers would try to imitate exactly how I did things. My style and delivery just didn’t fit some of them and watching them try to emulate me was sometimes quite funny. As in almost everything, you can teach the basics, but everyone must develop their own style.

Yes, sometimes officers plan the “good cop” “bad cop” routine, but often the behaviors come natural. Many times an officer will come across as the nicer cop of the two.  Personally, my demeanor has a tendency to naturally fluctuate. I could play whatever role needed for the situation; however, certain criminal behaviors and suspect attitudes’ incited me more than others.  I always tried to be professional, handle my emotions, be open minded, nonjudgmental, and fair, but we are all human and I am no exception..

Yes, cops do watch cop shows, I can remember back to the days of “Hill Street Blues.” That show was almost sacred to some.  In reality, most cops like to critique shows, they talk to the TV screen as if the cop actors could hear them and tell the actors what they are doing right and wrong.  We used to joke about how TV cop shows were often good training films teaching how things should not be done. The thing I have always found annoying about cop shows is how easy they make it look. They make the work always look fun, exciting and not very complicated with complex and personnel issues. One of those issues would be vicarious liability. What is vicarious liability you ask?  If a cop screws up anyone in his chain of command and were involved in his training are held responsible for that cop’s mistake. They can all be held liable and possibly be sued because the cop should have been trained better and of course supervised better.

It also amazes me on TV, how fast cops get back out on the street after a shooting. I can remember a shooting incident related to a burglary I was involved in, I never took a shot and I was at the station still doing paperwork several hours after my shift was over. (I plan on discussing that incident in a future posting.)  After a shooting there is always so much paperwork and administrative leave etc. On TV, killing is depicted as almost a mainstay of a cop’s day.

I often wonder if audiences would watch police shows that were more realistic?  Granted, I have worked a shift or two in my career that my red lights and adrenalin were running most the shift, but they were rare. I worked many shifts when the biggest life decision was where was I going to stop to get my next can of soda; more serious yet, where should lunch or dinner be eaten.

Should television and movies depict more realism in their police shows? Should there be some way to educate the public regarding what police really do?  How the criminal justice system works?

Until tomorrow,

Sally S