Police procedural
Encyclopedia
The police procedural is a subgenre of detective fiction
which attempts to convincingly depict the activities of a police force as they investigate crime
s. While traditional detective novels usually concentrate on a single crime, police procedurals
frequently depict investigations into several unrelated crimes in a single story. While traditional mysteries usually adhere to the convention of having the criminal's identity concealed until the climax
(the so-called whodunit
), in police procedurals, the perpetrator's identity is often known to the audience from the outset. Police procedurals depict a number of police-related topics such as forensics
, autopsies
, the gathering of evidence
, the use of search warrant
s and interrogation
.
's 1945 novel V as in Victim is often cited as perhaps the first "true" police procedural. Another early example is Hillary Waugh's
Last Seen Wearing ...
, 1952. Even earlier examples, predating Treat, include the novels Harness Bull, 1937, and Homicide, 1937, by former Southern California police officer Leslie T. White, P.C. Richardson's First Case, 1933, by Sir Basil Thomson
, former Assistant Commissioner
of Scotland Yard
, and the short story collection Policeman's Lot, 1933, by former Buckinghamshire High Sheriff and Justice of the Peace Henry Wade.
The procedural became more prominent after World War II
, and, while the contributions of novelists like Treat were significant, a large part of the impetus for the post-war development of the procedural as a distinct sub-genre of the mystery was due, not to prose fiction, but to the popularity of a number of American films which dramatized and fictionalized actual crimes. Dubbed "semidocumentary
films" by movie critics, these motion pictures, often filmed on location, with the cooperation of the law enforcement agencies involved in the actual case, made a point of authentically depicting police work. Examples include The Naked City
(1948), The Street with No Name
(1948), T-Men
(1947), and Border Incident
(1949).
Films from other countries soon began following the semidocumentary trend. In the UK there was The Blue Lamp
(1950). In France
, there was Quai des Orfevres
(1947), released in the US as Jenny Lamour. Possibly the first Japan
ese police procedural film is Akira Kurosawa
's Stray Dog
in 1949.
One semidocumentary, He Walked By Night
(1948), released by Eagle-Lion Films
, featured a young radio actor named Jack Webb
in a supporting role. The success of the film, along with a suggestion from LAPD
Detective Sergeant
Marty Wynn, the film's technical advisor
, gave Webb an idea for a radio drama
that depicted police work in a similarly semidocumentary manner. The resulting series, Dragnet, which debuted on radio in 1949 and made the transition to television in 1951, has been called "the most famous procedural of all time" by, among others, mystery novelist and mystery historian William L. DeAndrea
, mystery novelist and gay literary activist Katherine V. Forrest
, speech technology specialist Judith A. Markowitz, and mystery novelist Max Allan Collins
.
The same year that Dragnet debuted on radio, Pulitzer Prize
-winning playwright Sidney Kingsley's
stage play Detective Story
opened on Broadway
. This frank, carefully researched dramatization of a typical day in an NYPD precinct
detective squad became another benchmark in the development of the police procedural.
Over the next few years, the number of novelists who picked up on the procedural trend grew to include writers like Ben Benson, who wrote carefully researched novels about the Massachusetts State Police
, retired police officer Maurice Procter
, who wrote a series about North England cop Harry Martineau, and Jonathan Craig, who wrote short stories and novels about New York City
police officers. Police novels by writers who would come to virtually define the form, like Waugh, Ed McBain
, and John Creasey
started to appear regularly.
In 1956, in his regular New York Times Book Review column, mystery critic Anthony Boucher
, noting the growing popularity of crime fiction in which the main emphasis was the realistic depiction of police work, suggested that such stories constituted a distinct sub-genre of the mystery, and, crediting the success of Dragnet for the rise of this new form, coined the phrase "police procedural" to describe it.
of Evan Hunter
, wrote dozens of novels in the 87th Precinct
series beginning with Cop Hater
, published in 1956. Hunter continued to write 87th Precinct novels almost until his death in 2005. Although these novels focus primarily on Detective Steve Carella, they encompass the work of many officers working alone and in teams, and Carella is not always present in any individual book. Hunter has used many different narrative approaches over the years, and the 87th Precinct novels are often works of great power, depth, and emotional richness, and often contain moments of terrific (if sometimes gruesome) humour.
As if to illustrate the universality of the police procedural, many of McBain's 87th Precinct novels, despite their being set in a slightly fictionalized New York City, have been filmed in settings outside New York, even outside the US. Akira Kurosawa
's 1963 film, High and Low, based on McBain's King's Ransom (1959), is set in Tokyo
. Without Apparent Motive (1972), set on the French Riviera
, is based on McBain's Ten Plus One (1963). Claude Chabrol
's Les Liens de Sang (1978), based on Blood Relatives (1974), is set in Montreal
. Even Fuzz (1972), based on the 1968 novel, though set in the US, moves the action to Boston
.
, a prolific writer of many different kinds of crime fiction, from espionage to criminal protagonist. He was inspired to write a more realistic crime novel when his neighbor, a retired Scotland Yard
detective, challenged Creasey to "write about us as we are." The result was Inspector West Takes Charge, 1940, the first of more than forty novels to feature Roger West of the London Metropolitan Police. The West novels were, for the era, an unusually realistic look at Scotland Yard operations, but the plots were often wildly melodramatic, and, to get around thorny legal problems, Creasey gave West an "amateur detective" friend who was able to perform the extra-procedural acts that West, as a policeman, could not.
In the mid-1950s, inspired by the success of television's Dragnet and a similar British TV series, Fabian of the Yard, Creasey decided to try a more down-to-earth series of cop stories. Adopting the pseudonym "J.J. Marric", he wrote Gideon's Day
, 1955, in which George Gideon, a high-ranking detective at Scotland Yard, spends a busy day supervising his subordinates' investigations into several unrelated crimes. This novel was the first in a series of more than twenty books which brought Creasey his best critical notices. One entry, Gideon's Fire, 1961, won an Edgar Award
from the Mystery Writers of America
for Best Mystery Novel. The Gideon series, more than any other source, helped establish the common procedural plot structure of threading several autonomous story lines through a single novel.
writing under her own name, as well as "Dell Shannon" and "Lesley Egan." Linington reserved her Dell Shannon pseudonym primarily for procedurals featuring LAPD Central Homicide
Lieutenant
Luis Mendoza (1960–1986). Under her own name she wrote about Sergeant Ivor Maddox of LAPD's North Hollywood Station, and as Lesley Egan she wrote about suburban cop Vic Varallo. These novels are often considered severely flawed, partly due to the author's far-right political viewpoint (she was a proud member of the John Birch Society
), but primarily because Miss Linington's books, notwithstanding the frequent comments she made about the depth of her research, were all seriously deficient in the single element most identified with the police procedural, technical accuracy. However, they have a certain charm in their depiction of a kinder, gentler California, where the police were always "good guys" who solved all the crimes and respected the citizenry.
aren't really procedurals because of their strong focus on the lead character, but the novels have always included subordinate members of his staff as supporting characters. More importantly, Simenon, who had been a journalist covering police investigations prior to creating Maigret, was giving an accurate depiction, or at least the appearance of an accurate depiction, of law enforcement in Paris. Further, Simenon's influence on later European procedural writers, like Sweden's
Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, or the aforementioned Baantjer
, is obvious.
's success has caused him to become the exemplar of cops who turn their professional experiences into fiction. The son of a Pittsburgh
, Pennsylvania
, policeman, Wambaugh joined the Los Angeles Police Department after a stint of military duty. In 1970, his first novel, The New Centurions
, was published. This followed three police officers through their training in the Academy, their first few years on the street, culminating in the Watts riots of 1965. It was followed by such novels as The Blue Knight, 1971, The Choirboys
, 1975, Hollywood Station, 2006, and acclaimed non-fiction books like The Onion Field
, 1973, Lines and Shadows, 1984, and Fire Lover, 2002. Wambaugh has said that his main purpose is less to show how cops work on the job, than how the job works on cops.
produced work that falls more squarely into the province of the traditional or "cozy" detective novel. Nevertheless, some of the work of authors less well known today, like Freeman Wills Crofts
's novels about Inspector French or some of the work of the prolific team of G.D.H.
and Margaret Cole
, might be considered as the antecedents of today's police procedural. British mystery novelist and critic Julian Symons
, in his 1972 history of crime fiction, Bloody Murder, labeled these proto-procedurals "humdrums," because of their emphasis on the plodding nature of the investigators.
Dick Tracy
is often pointed to as an early procedural. Indeed, in his introduction to a 1970 collection of Tracy strips entitled The Celebrated Cases of Dick Tracy, no less an authority than Ellery Queen
suggested that Tracy, predating Webb, Treat, Creasey, and McBain, was the first "truly" procedural policeman in any fictional medium.
Certainly Tracy creator Chester Gould seemed to be trying reflect the real world. Tracy himself, conceived by Gould as a "modern-day Sherlock Holmes
", was partly modeled on real-life law enforcer Eliot Ness, and his first, and most frequently recurring, antagonist, the Big Boy, was based on Ness's real-life nemesis Al Capone. Other members of Tracy's Rogues Gallery, like Boris Arson, Flattop Jones, and Maw Famon, were inspired, respectively, by John Dillinger
, Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd, and Kate "Ma" Barker
.
More to the point, Gould was making a genuine attempt to portray police work realistically. Once Tracy was sold to the Chicago Tribune
syndicate, Gould enrolled in a criminology class at Northwestern University
, met with members of the Chicago Police Department
, and did research at the Department's crime lab, to make his depiction of law enforcement more authentic. Ultimately, he hired retired Chicago
policeman Al Valanis, a pioneering forensic sketch artist, as both an artistic assistant and police technical advisor.
Later stories, in which Gould veered into space opera
and extraterrestrial contacts, mitigated somewhat against the strip's being recognized for its early use of realistic police procedure, but any examination of the Tracy strip from its beginnings in 1931 through the 1950s makes Gould's status as a pioneer in the police procedural sub-genre clear.
The success of Tracy led to many more police strips. While some, like Norman Marsh's Dan Dunn
were unabashedly slavish imitations of Tracy, others, like Dashiell Hammett
's and Alex Raymond
's Secret Agent X-9
, took a more original approach. Still others, like Eddie Sullivan's and Charlie Schmidt's Radio Patrol
and Will Gould's Red Barry, steered a middle course. One of the best post-Tracy procedural comics was Kerry Drake
, written and created by Allen Saunders and illustrated by Alfred Andriola
. It diverged from the metropolitan settings used in Tracy to tell the story of the titular Chief Investigator for the District Attorney of a small-town jurisdiction. Later, following a personal tragedy, he leaves the DA's Office and joins his small city's police force in order to fight crime closer to the grass roots level. As both a DA's man and a city cop, he fights a string of flamboyant, Gould-ian criminals like "Stitches", "Bottleneck", and "Bulldozer."
Other syndicated police strips include Zane Grey
's King of the Royal Mounted
, depicting police work in the contemporary Canadian Northwest, Lank Leonard's Mickey Finn
, which emphasized the home life of a hard-working cop, and Dragnet, which adapted stories from the pioneering radio-TV series into comics. Early comic books with police themes tended to be reprints of syndicated newspaper strips like Tracy and Drake. Others adapted police stories from other mediums, like the radio-inspired anthology comic Gang Busters
, Dell's 87th Precinct issues, which adapted McBain's novels, or The Untouchables, which adapted the fictionalized TV adventures of real-life policeman Eliot Ness.
More recently, there have been attempts to depict police work with the kind of hard-edged realism seen in the novels of writers like Wambaugh, such as Marvel's
four-issue mini-series Cops: The Job, in which a rookie police officer learns to cope with the physical, emotional, and mental stresses of law enforcement during her first patrol assignment. With superhero
es having long dominated the comic book market, there have been some recent attempts to integrate elements of the police procedural into the universe of costumed crime-fighters. Gotham Central
, for example, depicts a group of police detectives operating in Batman
's Gotham City
, and suggested that the caped crimefighter is disliked by many Gotham detectives for treading on their toes. Meanwhile Metropolis SCU tells the story of the Special Crimes Unit, an elite squad of cops in the police force serving Superman
's Metropolis
.
The use of police procedural elements in superhero comics can partly be attributed to the success of Kurt Busiek
's groundbreaking 1994 series Marvels
, and his subsequent Astro City
work, both of which examine the typical superhero universe from the viewpoint of the common man who witnesses the great dramas from afar, participating in them tangentially at best.
In the wake of Busiek's success, many other writers mimicked his approach, with mixed results – the narrative possibilities of someone who does not get involved in drama are limited. In 2000, however, Image Comics
published the first issue of Brian Michael Bendis
's comic Powers
, which followed the lives of homicide detectives as they investigated superhero-related cases. Bendis's success has led both Marvel Comics and DC Comics
to begin their own superhero-themed police procedurals (District X
and the aforementioned Gotham Central), which focus on how the job of a police officer is affected by such tropes as secret identities, superhuman abilities, costumes, and the near-constant presence of vigilantes.
While the detectives in Powers were "normal" (unpowered) humans dealing with super-powered crime, Alan Moore
and Gene Ha
's Top 10 mini-series, published by America's Best Comics in 2000-2001, centered around the super-powered police force in a setting where powers are omnipresent. The comic detailed the lives and work of the police force of Neopolis, a city in which everyone, from the police and criminals to civilians, children and even pets, has super-powers, colourful costumes and secret identities.
However, just as Gould's introduction of science fiction
elements into Tracy made that strip less believable for many readers, the notion of realistic cops working in a world where costumed, super-powered crime-fighters and criminals actually exist is a problematic concept, seemingly at odds with the rigorous, naturalistic realism that is the procedural's hallmark.
Detective fiction
Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...
which attempts to convincingly depict the activities of a police force as they investigate crime
Crime
Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...
s. While traditional detective novels usually concentrate on a single crime, police procedurals
Procedural drama
Procedural dramas are television programming series which rely on an episodic format that does not require the viewer to have seen previous episodes. Episodes typically have a self-contained, also referred to as stand-alone, plot that is introduced and resolved within the same episode...
frequently depict investigations into several unrelated crimes in a single story. While traditional mysteries usually adhere to the convention of having the criminal's identity concealed until the climax
Climax (narrative)
The Climax is the point in the story where the main character's point of view changes, or the most exciting/action filled part of the story. It also known has the main turning point in the story...
(the so-called whodunit
Whodunit
A whodunit or whodunnit is a complex, plot-driven variety of the detective story in which the puzzle is the main feature of interest. The reader or viewer is provided with clues from which the identity of the perpetrator of the crime may be deduced before the solution is revealed in the final...
), in police procedurals, the perpetrator's identity is often known to the audience from the outset. Police procedurals depict a number of police-related topics such as forensics
Forensics
Forensic science is the application of a broad spectrum of sciences to answer questions of interest to a legal system. This may be in relation to a crime or a civil action...
, autopsies
Autopsy
An autopsy—also known as a post-mortem examination, necropsy , autopsia cadaverum, or obduction—is a highly specialized surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse to determine the cause and manner of death and to evaluate any disease or injury that may be present...
, the gathering of evidence
Evidence (law)
The law of evidence encompasses the rules and legal principles that govern the proof of facts in a legal proceeding. These rules determine what evidence can be considered by the trier of fact in reaching its decision and, sometimes, the weight that may be given to that evidence...
, the use of search warrant
Search warrant
A search warrant is a court order issued by a Magistrate, judge or Supreme Court Official that authorizes law enforcement officers to conduct a search of a person or location for evidence of a crime and to confiscate evidence if it is found....
s and interrogation
Interrogation
Interrogation is interviewing as commonly employed by officers of the police, military, and Intelligence agencies with the goal of extracting a confession or obtaining information. Subjects of interrogation are often the suspects, victims, or witnesses of a crime...
.
Early history
There were earlier precedents, but Lawrence TreatLawrence Treat
Lawrence Arthur Goldstone , better known by his pseudonym, Lawrence Treat, was an American mystery writer, a pioneer of the genre of novels that became known as police procedurals. A practicing lawyer before turning to writing, he was a founding member of the Mystery Writers of America and a...
's 1945 novel V as in Victim is often cited as perhaps the first "true" police procedural. Another early example is Hillary Waugh's
Hillary Waugh
Hillary Baldwin Waugh was a pioneering American mystery novelist. In 1989, Waugh was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America.-Career:...
Last Seen Wearing ...
Last Seen Wearing ... (Hillary Waugh novel)
Last Seen Wearing ... is a U.S. detective novel by Hillary Waugh frequently referred to as the police procedural par excellence...
, 1952. Even earlier examples, predating Treat, include the novels Harness Bull, 1937, and Homicide, 1937, by former Southern California police officer Leslie T. White, P.C. Richardson's First Case, 1933, by Sir Basil Thomson
Basil Thomson
Sir Basil Home Thomson, KCB was a British intelligence officer, police officer, prison governor, colonial administrator, and writer.-Early life:...
, former Assistant Commissioner
Assistant Commissioner
Assistant commissioner is a rank used in many police forces across the globe. It is also a rank used in revenue administrations in many countries.-Australia:...
of Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
, and the short story collection Policeman's Lot, 1933, by former Buckinghamshire High Sheriff and Justice of the Peace Henry Wade.
The procedural became more prominent after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and, while the contributions of novelists like Treat were significant, a large part of the impetus for the post-war development of the procedural as a distinct sub-genre of the mystery was due, not to prose fiction, but to the popularity of a number of American films which dramatized and fictionalized actual crimes. Dubbed "semidocumentary
Semidocumentary
Semidocumentary is a form of book, film, or television program presenting a fictional story that incorporates many factual details or actual events, or which is presented in a manner similar to a documentary...
films" by movie critics, these motion pictures, often filmed on location, with the cooperation of the law enforcement agencies involved in the actual case, made a point of authentically depicting police work. Examples include The Naked City
The Naked City
The Naked City is a 1948 black-and-white film noir directed by Jules Dassin. The movie, shot partially in documentary style, was filmed on location on the streets of New York City, featuring landmarks such as the Williamsburg Bridge the Whitehall Building and an apartment building on West 83rd...
(1948), The Street with No Name
The Street with No Name
The Street with No Name is a black-and-white film noir. The movie, a follow up to The House on 92nd Street , tells the story of an undercover FBI agent, Gene Cordell , who infiltrates a deadly crime gang. Cordell's superior, FBI Inspector George A. Briggs also appears in The House on 92nd Street...
(1948), T-Men
T-Men
T-Men is a semidocumentary style 1947 film noir shot in black-and-white. The film was directed by Anthony Mann with cinematography by noted noir cameraman John Alton....
(1947), and Border Incident
Border Incident
Border Incident is a film noir directed by Anthony Mann. The MGM film was written by John C. Higgins and George Zuckerman. The film was shot by cinematographer John Alton who used shadows and lighting effects to involve an audience despite the fact that the film was shot on a low budget...
(1949).
Films from other countries soon began following the semidocumentary trend. In the UK there was The Blue Lamp
The Blue Lamp
The Blue Lamp is a British crime film released in early 1950 by Ealing Studios, directed by Basil Dearden and produced by Michael Balcon. It stars Jack Warner as police constable George Dixon, Jimmy Hanley and Dirk Bogarde in an early role...
(1950). In France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, there was Quai des Orfevres
Quai des Orfèvres
Quai des Orfèvres is a 1947 French police procedural drama based on the book Légitime défense by Stanislas-Andre Steeman. Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot the film stars Suzy Delair as Jenny Lamour, Bernard Blier as Maurice Martineau, Louis Jouvet as Inspector Antoine and Simone Renant as...
(1947), released in the US as Jenny Lamour. Possibly the first Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese police procedural film is Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...
's Stray Dog
Stray Dog (film)
is a 1949 film noir police procedural directed by Akira Kurosawa and starring frequent collaborators Toshirō Mifune and Takashi Shimura.-Plot:Action takes place during a heatwave in a bombed-out, post-war Tokyo...
in 1949.
One semidocumentary, He Walked By Night
He Walked by Night
He Walked by Night is a black-and-white police procedural film noir, crediting Alfred L. Werker as director. The film, shot in semidocumentary tone, was loosely based on newspaper accounts of the real-life actions of Erwin "Machine-Gun" Walker, a former Glendale police department employee and...
(1948), released by Eagle-Lion Films
Eagle-Lion Films
Eagle-Lion Films was a British film production company owned by J. Arthur Rank intended to release British productions in the United States. In 1947 it acquired PRC Pictures, a small American production company, to produce B Pictures to accompany the British releases...
, featured a young radio actor named Jack Webb
Jack Webb
John Randolph "Jack" Webb , also known by the pseudonym John Randolph, was an American actor, television producer, director and screenwriter, who is most famous for his role as Sergeant Joe Friday in the radio and television series Dragnet...
in a supporting role. The success of the film, along with a suggestion from LAPD
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...
Detective Sergeant
Sergeant
Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....
Marty Wynn, the film's technical advisor
Technical advisor
A technical advisor is an individual who is expert in a particular field of knowledge, hired to provide detailed information and advice to people working in that field...
, gave Webb an idea for a radio drama
Radio drama
Radio drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story...
that depicted police work in a similarly semidocumentary manner. The resulting series, Dragnet, which debuted on radio in 1949 and made the transition to television in 1951, has been called "the most famous procedural of all time" by, among others, mystery novelist and mystery historian William L. DeAndrea
William L. DeAndrea
William L. DeAndrea was an American mystery writer and columnist. He won three Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America, the first for his first novel, Killed in the Ratings. The majority of his novels made up several series. The Matt Cobb mysteries drew on DeAndrea's experience working...
, mystery novelist and gay literary activist Katherine V. Forrest
Katherine V. Forrest
Katherine V. Forrest is an American writer.Forrest is best known for her eight novels about lesbian police detective Kate Delafield. The character was the very first lesbian police detective in the American lesbian mystery genre and is described as "Miss Marple with k.d...
, speech technology specialist Judith A. Markowitz, and mystery novelist Max Allan Collins
Max Allan Collins
Max Allan Collins is an American mystery writer. He has written novels, screenplays, comic books, comic strips, trading cards, short stories, movie novelizations and historical fiction. He wrote the graphic novel Road to Perdition , created the comic book private eye Ms...
.
The same year that Dragnet debuted on radio, Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning playwright Sidney Kingsley's
Sidney Kingsley
Sidney Kingsley was an American dramatist. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Men in White in 1934.- Biography :...
stage play Detective Story
Detective Story (play)
Detective Story is a 1949 play in three acts by American playwright Sidney Kingsley. The play opened on Broadway at the Hudson Theatre on March 23, 1949 where it played until the production moved to the Broadhurst Theatre on July 3, 1950. The production closed on August 12, 1950 after 581 ...
opened on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
. This frank, carefully researched dramatization of a typical day in an NYPD precinct
Police station
A police station or station house is a building which serves to accommodate police officers and other members of staff. These buildings often contain offices and accommodation for personnel and vehicles, along with locker rooms, temporary holding cells and interview/interrogation rooms.- Facilities...
detective squad became another benchmark in the development of the police procedural.
Over the next few years, the number of novelists who picked up on the procedural trend grew to include writers like Ben Benson, who wrote carefully researched novels about the Massachusetts State Police
Massachusetts State Police
The Massachusetts State Police is an agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' Executive Office of Public Safety and Security responsible for criminal law enforcement and traffic vehicle regulation across the state...
, retired police officer Maurice Procter
Maurice Procter
Maurice Procter was an English novelist. He was born in Nelson, Lancashire, England.- Early life :Maurice Procter was born in Nelson, Lancashire, on 4 February 1906. His parents were Rose Hannah and William Procter who also had two other sons named Emmot and Ned...
, who wrote a series about North England cop Harry Martineau, and Jonathan Craig, who wrote short stories and novels about New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
police officers. Police novels by writers who would come to virtually define the form, like Waugh, Ed McBain
Evan Hunter
Evan Hunter was an American author and screenwriter. Born Salvatore Albert Lombino, he legally adopted the name Evan Hunter in 1952...
, and John Creasey
John Creasey
John Creasey MBE was an English crime and science fiction writer. The author of more than 600 novels, he published them using 28 different pseudonyms, including Anthony Morton, Michael Halliday, Kyle Hunt, J.J. Marric, Jeremy York, Richard Martin, Peter Manton, Norman Deane, Gordon Ashe, Henry St...
started to appear regularly.
In 1956, in his regular New York Times Book Review column, mystery critic Anthony Boucher
Anthony Boucher
Anthony Boucher was an American science fiction editor and author of mystery novels and short stories. He was particularly influential as an editor. Between 1942 and 1947 he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle...
, noting the growing popularity of crime fiction in which the main emphasis was the realistic depiction of police work, suggested that such stories constituted a distinct sub-genre of the mystery, and, crediting the success of Dragnet for the rise of this new form, coined the phrase "police procedural" to describe it.
Ed McBain
Ed McBain, the pseudonymPseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
of Evan Hunter
Evan Hunter
Evan Hunter was an American author and screenwriter. Born Salvatore Albert Lombino, he legally adopted the name Evan Hunter in 1952...
, wrote dozens of novels in the 87th Precinct
87th Precinct
The 87th Precinct is a series of police procedural novels and stories written by Ed McBain. McBain's 87th Precinct works have been adapted, sometimes loosely, into movies and television on several occasions.-Setting:...
series beginning with Cop Hater
Cop Hater
Cop Hater is the first 87th Precinct police procedural novel by Ed McBain. The murder of three detectives in quick succession in the 87th Precinct leads Detective Steve Carella on a search that takes him into the city's underworld and ultimately to a .45 automatic aimed straight at his...
, published in 1956. Hunter continued to write 87th Precinct novels almost until his death in 2005. Although these novels focus primarily on Detective Steve Carella, they encompass the work of many officers working alone and in teams, and Carella is not always present in any individual book. Hunter has used many different narrative approaches over the years, and the 87th Precinct novels are often works of great power, depth, and emotional richness, and often contain moments of terrific (if sometimes gruesome) humour.
As if to illustrate the universality of the police procedural, many of McBain's 87th Precinct novels, despite their being set in a slightly fictionalized New York City, have been filmed in settings outside New York, even outside the US. Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...
's 1963 film, High and Low, based on McBain's King's Ransom (1959), is set in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
. Without Apparent Motive (1972), set on the French Riviera
French Riviera
The Côte d'Azur, pronounced , often known in English as the French Riviera , is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France, also including the sovereign state of Monaco...
, is based on McBain's Ten Plus One (1963). Claude Chabrol
Claude Chabrol
Claude Chabrol was a French film director, a member of the French New Wave group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s...
's Les Liens de Sang (1978), based on Blood Relatives (1974), is set in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
. Even Fuzz (1972), based on the 1968 novel, though set in the US, moves the action to Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
.
John Creasey/J. J. Marric
Perhaps ranking just behind McBain in importance to the development of the procedural as a distinct mystery sub-genre is John CreaseyJohn Creasey
John Creasey MBE was an English crime and science fiction writer. The author of more than 600 novels, he published them using 28 different pseudonyms, including Anthony Morton, Michael Halliday, Kyle Hunt, J.J. Marric, Jeremy York, Richard Martin, Peter Manton, Norman Deane, Gordon Ashe, Henry St...
, a prolific writer of many different kinds of crime fiction, from espionage to criminal protagonist. He was inspired to write a more realistic crime novel when his neighbor, a retired Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
detective, challenged Creasey to "write about us as we are." The result was Inspector West Takes Charge, 1940, the first of more than forty novels to feature Roger West of the London Metropolitan Police. The West novels were, for the era, an unusually realistic look at Scotland Yard operations, but the plots were often wildly melodramatic, and, to get around thorny legal problems, Creasey gave West an "amateur detective" friend who was able to perform the extra-procedural acts that West, as a policeman, could not.
In the mid-1950s, inspired by the success of television's Dragnet and a similar British TV series, Fabian of the Yard, Creasey decided to try a more down-to-earth series of cop stories. Adopting the pseudonym "J.J. Marric", he wrote Gideon's Day
Gideon's Day
Gideon's Day is the first in a series of police procedural novels by John Creasey writing as J.J. Marric. Published in 1955, it features a day in the professional life of Detective Superintendent George Gideon of the C.I.D., Scotland Yard. In later books in the series, Gideon has been promoted to...
, 1955, in which George Gideon, a high-ranking detective at Scotland Yard, spends a busy day supervising his subordinates' investigations into several unrelated crimes. This novel was the first in a series of more than twenty books which brought Creasey his best critical notices. One entry, Gideon's Fire, 1961, won an Edgar Award
Edgar Award
The Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America...
from the Mystery Writers of America
Mystery Writers of America
Mystery Writers of America is an organization for mystery writers, based in New York.The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday....
for Best Mystery Novel. The Gideon series, more than any other source, helped establish the common procedural plot structure of threading several autonomous story lines through a single novel.
Elizabeth Linington/Dell Shannon/Lesley Egan
A prolific author of police procedurals, whose work has fallen out of fashion in the years since her death, is Elizabeth LiningtonElizabeth Linington
Barbara "Elizabeth" Linington was a prolific American novelist. She was awarded runner-up scrolls for best first mystery novel from the Mystery Writers of America for her 1960 novel, Case Pending, which introduced her most popular series character, LAPD Homicide Lieutenant Luis Mendoza...
writing under her own name, as well as "Dell Shannon" and "Lesley Egan." Linington reserved her Dell Shannon pseudonym primarily for procedurals featuring LAPD Central Homicide
Homicide
Homicide refers to the act of a human killing another human. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...
Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
Luis Mendoza (1960–1986). Under her own name she wrote about Sergeant Ivor Maddox of LAPD's North Hollywood Station, and as Lesley Egan she wrote about suburban cop Vic Varallo. These novels are often considered severely flawed, partly due to the author's far-right political viewpoint (she was a proud member of the John Birch Society
John Birch Society
The John Birch Society is an American political advocacy group that supports anti-communism, limited government, a Constitutional Republic and personal freedom. It has been described as radical right-wing....
), but primarily because Miss Linington's books, notwithstanding the frequent comments she made about the depth of her research, were all seriously deficient in the single element most identified with the police procedural, technical accuracy. However, they have a certain charm in their depiction of a kinder, gentler California, where the police were always "good guys" who solved all the crimes and respected the citizenry.
Georges Simenon
It has been suggested that the Inspector Maigret novels of Georges SimenonGeorges Simenon
Georges Joseph Christian Simenon was a Belgian writer. A prolific author who published nearly 200 novels and numerous short works, Simenon is best known for the creation of the fictional detective Maigret.-Early life and education:...
aren't really procedurals because of their strong focus on the lead character, but the novels have always included subordinate members of his staff as supporting characters. More importantly, Simenon, who had been a journalist covering police investigations prior to creating Maigret, was giving an accurate depiction, or at least the appearance of an accurate depiction, of law enforcement in Paris. Further, Simenon's influence on later European procedural writers, like Sweden's
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, or the aforementioned Baantjer
A. C. Baantjer
Albert Cornelis "Appie" Baantjer , often simply known as Baantjer, was a Dutch novelist of detective fiction and a former police officer....
, is obvious.
Joseph Wambaugh
Though not the first police officer to write procedurals, Joseph WambaughJoseph Wambaugh
Joseph Aloysius Wambaugh, Jr. is a bestselling American writer known for his fictional and non-fictional accounts of police work in the United States...
's success has caused him to become the exemplar of cops who turn their professional experiences into fiction. The son of a Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, policeman, Wambaugh joined the Los Angeles Police Department after a stint of military duty. In 1970, his first novel, The New Centurions
The New Centurions
The New Centurions is a 1972 crime drama film based on the novel by policeman turned author Joseph Wambaugh.It stars George C. Scott, Stacy Keach, Scott Wilson, Jane Alexander, Erik Estrada and James Sikking and was directed by Richard Fleischer....
, was published. This followed three police officers through their training in the Academy, their first few years on the street, culminating in the Watts riots of 1965. It was followed by such novels as The Blue Knight, 1971, The Choirboys
The Choirboys (book)
The Choirboys , a novel is a controversial 1975 work of fiction written by Los Angeles Police Department officer-turned-novelist Joseph Wambaugh...
, 1975, Hollywood Station, 2006, and acclaimed non-fiction books like The Onion Field
The Onion Field
The Onion Field is a 1973 nonfiction book by Joseph Wambaugh, a sergeant for the Los Angeles Police Department, chronicling the kidnapping of two plainclothes LAPD officers by a pair of criminals during an evening traffic stop and the subsequent murder of Officer Ian James Campbell.- Crime :On the...
, 1973, Lines and Shadows, 1984, and Fire Lover, 2002. Wambaugh has said that his main purpose is less to show how cops work on the job, than how the job works on cops.
Detective novel writers
It is difficult to disentangle the early roots of the procedural from its forebear, the traditional detective novel, which often featured a police officer as protagonist. By and large, the better known novelists such as Ngaio MarshNgaio Marsh
Dame Ngaio Marsh DBE , born Edith Ngaio Marsh, was a New Zealand crime writer and theatre director. There is some uncertainty over her birth date as her father neglected to register her birth until 1900...
produced work that falls more squarely into the province of the traditional or "cozy" detective novel. Nevertheless, some of the work of authors less well known today, like Freeman Wills Crofts
Freeman Wills Crofts
Freeman Wills Crofts was an Irish mystery author, one of the 'Big Four' of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.-Birth and education:Crofts was born at 26 Waterloo Road, Dublin, Ireland...
's novels about Inspector French or some of the work of the prolific team of G.D.H.
G. D. H. Cole
George Douglas Howard Cole was an English political theorist, economist, writer and historian. As a libertarian socialist he was a long-time member of the Fabian Society and an advocate for the cooperative movement...
and Margaret Cole
Margaret Cole
Dame Margaret Isabel Cole, DBE was an English socialist politician.Daughter of John Percival Postgate and Edith Allen, Margaret was educated at Roedean School and Girton College, Cambridge. While at Girton, through her reading of H. G...
, might be considered as the antecedents of today's police procedural. British mystery novelist and critic Julian Symons
Julian Symons
Julian Gustave Symons 1912 - 1994) was a British crime writer and poet. He also wrote social and military history, biography and studies of literature.-Life and work:...
, in his 1972 history of crime fiction, Bloody Murder, labeled these proto-procedurals "humdrums," because of their emphasis on the plodding nature of the investigators.
TV creators
- Donald BellisarioDonald BellisarioDonald Paul Bellisario is an American television producer and screenwriter who created and sometimes wrote episodes for the TV series Magnum, P.I., Airwolf, Quantum Leap, JAG, and NCIS...
: creator of NCISNCIS (TV series)NCIS, formerly known as NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service, is an American police procedural drama television series revolving around a fictional team of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which conducts criminal investigations involving the U.S...
and JAGJAG (TV series)JAG is an American adventure/legal drama television show that was produced by Belisarius Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television and, for the first season only, NBC Productions... - Steven BochcoSteven BochcoSteven Ronald Bochco is a US television producer and writer. He has developed a number of popular television hits including Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, and NYPD Blue, as well as some notable flops such as Cop Rock....
: creator of NYPD BlueNYPD BlueNYPD Blue is an American television police drama set in New York City, exploring the internal and external struggles of the fictional 15th precinct of Manhattan...
, Hill Street BluesHill Street BluesHill Street Blues is an American serial police drama that was first aired on NBC in 1981 and ran for 146 episodes on primetime into 1987. Chronicling the lives of the staff of a single police precinct in an unnamed American city, the show received critical acclaim and its production innovations ...
and the experimental musical police procedural Cop RockCop RockCop Rock is an American musical police drama series that aired on ABC in 1990. The show, a police drama presented as a musical, was co-created by Steven Bochco, who also served as executive producer... - Tom FontanaTom FontanaTom Fontana is an American writer and producer.-TV career:Fontana has been a writer/producer for such series as Oz , The Jury, The Beat, The Bedford Diaries, Homicide: Life on the Street, St...
: creator of Homicide: Life on the StreetHomicide: Life on the StreetHomicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale...
and The Beat - Barbara Machin: creator of Waking the DeadWaking the Dead (TV series)Waking the Dead is a British television police procedural crime drama series produced by the BBC featuring a fictional Cold Case Unit comprising CID police officers, a psychological profiler and a forensic scientist. A pilot episode aired in September 2000 and there have been a total of nine series...
- Quinn MartinQuinn MartinQuinn Martin was one of the most successful American television producers. He had at least one television series running in prime time for 21 straight years , an industry record.-Early life:...
: producer of such shows as The UntouchablesThe Untouchables (1959 TV series)The Untouchables is an American crime drama that ran from 1959 to 1963 on ABC. Based on the memoir of the same name by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley, it fictionalized the experiences of Eliot Ness, a real-life Prohibition agent, as he fought crime in Chicago during the 1930s with the help of a...
, The F.B.I. and The Streets of San FranciscoThe Streets of San FranciscoThe Streets of San Francisco is a 1970s television police drama filmed on location in San Francisco, California, and produced by Quinn Martin Productions, with the first season produced in association with Warner Bros...
. - David Simon: co-creator of Homicide: Life on the StreetHomicide: Life on the StreetHomicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale...
and creator of The WireThe Wire (TV series)The Wire is an American television drama series set and produced in and around Baltimore, Maryland. Created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon, the series was broadcast by the premium cable network HBO in the United States...
. - Jack WebbJack WebbJohn Randolph "Jack" Webb , also known by the pseudonym John Randolph, was an American actor, television producer, director and screenwriter, who is most famous for his role as Sergeant Joe Friday in the radio and television series Dragnet...
: creator, producer, and principal actor in Dragnet. - Dick WolfDick WolfRichard Anthony "Dick" Wolf is an American producer, specializing in crime dramas such as Miami Vice and the Law & Order franchise. Throughout his career he has won several awards including an Emmy Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.-Early life:Wolf was born in New York City, the son...
: creator of the Law & Order franchiseLaw & Order (franchise)The Law & Order franchise is a number of related American television series created by Dick Wolf and originally broadcast on NBC, all of which deal with some aspect of the criminal justice system...
. - Anthony E. ZuikerAnthony E. ZuikerAnthony E. Zuiker is the creator and executive producer of the American television show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. He produces all three editions of the CSI franchise: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami and CSI: NY...
: creator of the CSI franchise. - Geoff McQueenGeoff McQueenGeoffrey "Geoff" McQueen was a television screenwriter. A carpenter and joiner by trade he worked abroad for many years before he began writing in 1978. His first success came in 1982 when an episode of The Gentle Touch he'd written was aired.-Career:He is probably best remembered for creating...
: creator of The BillThe BillThe Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...
. - Meredith StiehmMeredith StiehmMeredith Stiehm is a television producer and writer. She is a member of the Writers Guild of America and the Producers Guild of America.-Career:...
: creator of Cold Case.
Australia
- BellamyBellamyBellamy may refer to:*Bellamy , people with the surname Bellamy*The Bellamy Brothers, an American country group most popular in the 1970s and 1980s*Bellamy *Bellamy , a character from Eiichirō Oda's manga One Piece...
(Network Ten 1981) - BlueyBlueyBluey is an Australian television series made by Crawford Productions for the Seven Network in 1976.The series was another crime TV series from Crawford Productions, but was different from previous series - Homicide, Division 4, Matlock Police - in that it focused on a single detective rather than...
(Seven Network 1976-1977) - Blue HeelersBlue HeelersBlue Heelers is an Australian police drama series which depicted the lives of police officers stationed at the fictional Mount Thomas police station in a small town in Victoria.- Overview :...
(Seven Network 1994-2006) 510 episodes set in the fictional rural town of Mount Thomas, Victoria, was produced by Southern Star Entertainment for the Seven NetworkSeven NetworkThe Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...
. - City HomicideCity HomicideCity Homicide was an Australian television drama series that aired on the Seven Network between 27 August 2007 – 30 March 2011. The series was set on the Homicide floor of a metropolitan police headquarters in Melbourne...
(Seven Network 2007–2011) Set in MelbourneMelbourneMelbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, VictoriaVictoria (Australia)Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
. Follows the investigations of six detectives and their two superior officers in the homicide squad of the Victoria PoliceVictoria PoliceVictoria Police is the primary law enforcement agency of Victoria, Australia. , the Victoria Police has over 12,190 sworn members, along with over 400 recruits, reservists and Protective Service Officers, and over 2,900 civilian staff across 393 police stations.-Early history:The Victoria Police...
. - Cop ShopCop ShopCop Shop was an Australian police drama television series produced by Crawford Productions that revolved around the everyday operations of both the uniformed police officers and the plain-clothes detectives of the fictional Riverside Police Station....
(Seven Network, 1977–1984) - Division 4Division 4Division 4 was an Australian television police drama series made by Crawford Productions for the Nine Network between 1969 and 1975 for 300 episodes....
(Nine Network 1969-1975) made by Crawford Productions, ran on the Nine Network for 301 episodes. - The Feds (Nine Network 1993-1996)
- HomicideHomicideHomicide refers to the act of a human killing another human. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...
(Seven Network 1964-1976) was an Australian police procedural television series made by Crawford Productions for the Seven Network. - JonahJonahJonah is the name given in the Hebrew Bible to a prophet of the northern kingdom of Israel in about the 8th century BC, the eponymous central character in the Book of Jonah, famous for being swallowed by a fish or a whale, depending on translation...
(Seven Network 1962) - The Link MenThe Link MenThe Link Men was an Australian television series shown in 1970.The series was the first drama series made in-house by the Nine Network as part of an attempt to rival the cop shows produced by Crawford Productions such as Homicide and Division 4. The Link Men starred Kevin Miles, Bruce Montague and...
(Nine Network 1970) - The Long Arm (Network Ten 1970)
- Matlock PoliceMatlock PoliceMatlock Police was an Australian television police drama series made by Crawford Productions for the 0-10 Network between 1971 and 1975....
(Network Ten 1971-1975) was set in the rural town of Matlock, VictoriaMatlock, VictoriaMatlock is a town in Victoria, Australia, located on the Warburton - Woods Point Road, in the Shire of Mansfield.The town began after gold was discovered in 1863...
and lasted 229 episodes. - Murder CallMurder CallMurder Call was an Australian television series, created by Hal McElroy for the Southern Star Entertainment and seen on the Nine Network between 1997 and 2000. The idea to the series was born by the books of Tessa Vance by Jennifer Rowe: Suspect/Deadline and Something Wicked...
(Nine Network 1997-1999) - PhoenixThe Phoenix (1982 TV series)The Phoenix is a 1982 television series starring Judson Scott which was on ABC for about one month. The plot revolved around an ancient extraterrestrial named Bennu of the Golden Light, who is discovered in a sarcophagus in Peru and awakened in the 20th Century...
(ABC 1992-1993) - Police RescuePolice RescuePolice Rescue was an Australian television series which originally aired on ABC TV between 1989 and 1996. It was produced by ABC and Southern Star Xanadu in association with the BBC....
(ABC 1991-1996) - RushRush (2008 TV series)-DVD releases:-Achievements:-International distribution:-External links:...
(Network Ten 2008–Present) follows the stories of a tactical police unit in Melbourne, Victoria. The series fourth season is currently in production. - Skirts (Seven Network 1990)
- Small Claims (Network Ten 2005-2006)
- Solo OneSolo OneSolo One is an Australian television series made by Crawford Productions for the Seven Network and screened in 1976. There were 13 half hour episodes....
(Seven Network 1976) a short-lived spin-off from Matlock Police - Special SquadSpecial SquadSpecial Squad was an Australian television series made by Crawford Productions for the Ten Network in 1984.The series focused on an elite division of the Victoria Police, which handled crimes either too sensitive or specialist for regular squads. The Special Squad was headed by Det. Insp. Don...
(Network Ten 1984) - StingersStingersStingers was an Australian police drama television series. It ran for eight seasons on the Nine Network before it was canceled in late 2004 due to declining ratings and the late timeslot Channel Nine gave the program...
(Nine Network 1998-2004) - Water RatsWater Rats (TV series)Water Rats is an Australian TV police procedural broadcast on the Nine Network from 1996 to 2001. The series was based around the men and women of the Sydney Water Police who fight crime across Sydney Harbour and surrounding locales. The show was set on and around Goat Island in Sydney...
(Nine Network 1996-2001) 177 episodes set in Sydney Harbour, New South Wales, focusing on the Sydney Water Police. - White Collar BlueWhite Collar BlueWhite Collar Blue was an Australian television series made by Knapman Wyld Television for Network Ten from 2002 to 2003.Starring Peter O'Brien as Joe Hill and Freya Stafford as Harriet Walker, the series dealt with a division of the police force working in the city of Sydney and the personal and...
(Network Ten 2002-2003) - Wildside (ABC 1997-1999)
- Young LionsYoung LionsYoung Lions may refer to:* Young Lions , an album by Adrian Belew* Young Lions , an under-23 football team* Young Lions , an Australian police drama* "Young Lions", a song by Constantines...
(Nine Network 2002)
United Kingdom
- Fabian of the YardFabian of the YardFabian of the Yard was a British police procedural television series based on the real-life memoirs of Scotland Yard detective Robert Fabian, made by the BBC and broadcast between November 1954 and February 1956. It is considered the earliest police procedural to be made for British TV, sharing...
, (1954–1955) - possibly the first police drama to be made for British TV, this series, based on the memoirs of real-life Scotland Yard detective Robert Fabian, had a lot in common with DragnetDragnetDragnet may refer to:* A type of fishing net*Dragnet , a coordinated search, named for the fishing net-Dragnet media series:...
. Just as Dragnet had been the first network drama series with continuing characters to be shot on film, so Fabian of the Yard was one of the first British series to be filmed. Both shows featured voice-over narration by the main character; both fictionalized stories derived from real-life cases; and both ended with an epilog that revealed the ultimate fate of the criminals. On Fabian, this took the form of a medium-shot of Bruce Seton, who played Fabian in the series, seated at a desk. The shot slowly dissolved into one of the real-life Fabian in the same pose at the same desk. At that point, the actual Fabian stood up and told the audience what happened to the criminal he'd caught in the real-life case that had just been dramatized.
- Dixon of Dock GreenDixon of Dock GreenDixon of Dock Green was a popular BBC television series that ran from 1955 to 1976, and later a radio series. Despite being a drama series, it was initially produced by the BBC's light entertainment department.-Overview:...
, (1955–1976) - Jack WarnerJack Warner (actor)Jack Warner OBE was an English film and television actor. He is closely associated with the role of PC George Dixon, which he played until the age of eighty....
reprised the role of ConstableConstableA constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions.-Etymology:...
George Dixon, the uniformed beat cop he had played in The Blue LampThe Blue LampThe Blue Lamp is a British crime film released in early 1950 by Ealing Studios, directed by Basil Dearden and produced by Michael Balcon. It stars Jack Warner as police constable George Dixon, Jimmy Hanley and Dirk Bogarde in an early role...
, despite the fact that the Dixon character had been tragically murdered in that film. During the course of this somewhat gentle series, Warner's character became, for many, the living embodiment of what every British "bobby" was supposed to be. As the series progressed, Dixon went through several promotions, eventually winding up as the Station SergeantStation sergeantStation sergeant was a rank in the London Metropolitan Police and continues as a rank in the Hong Kong Police Force, and Royal Barbados Police Force...
at his local division. By the final season, with Warner now over 80, Dixon retired and the focus shifted to the younger officers he'd trained up over the years.
- No Hiding PlaceNo Hiding PlaceNo Hiding Place is a British television series that was produced at Wembley Studios by Associated-Rediffusion for the ITV network between 16 September 1959 and 22 June 1967....
, (1957–1967) - Produced with the cooperation of Scotland Yard, this long-running series featured Raymond Francis as high-ranking Met detective Tom Lockhart. During its run, the series went through several title changes. When it began in 1957, it was known as Murder Bag, referring to the bag of investigative toolsMurder bagA Murder bag is a forensics kit used by police officers at crime scenes. It was developed by Sir Bernard Spilsbury, a British forensic pathologist known for his work on the Hawley Harvey Crippen case in conjunction with Scotland Yard in 1924....
that SuperintendentSuperintendent (police)Superintendent , often shortened to "super", is a rank in British police services and in most English-speaking Commonwealth nations. In many Commonwealth countries the full version is superintendent of police...
Lockhart carried with him whenever he was called to a case. In 1959, with Lockhart promoted to Chief SuperintendentChief SuperintendentChief superintendent is a senior rank in police forces organised on the British model.- United Kingdom :In the British police, a chief superintendent is senior to a superintendent and junior to an assistant chief constable .The highest rank below Chief Officer level, chief...
, it became Crime Sheet. Later in 1959, the series was given its final and best-remembered title, No Hiding Place, which lasted until the series ended in 1967.
- Z-CarsZ-CarsZ-Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby in the outskirts of Liverpool in Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.-Origins:The series was developed by...
, (1962–1978) - a police drama about two teams of uniformed constables (Brian BlessedBrian BlessedBrian Blessed is an English actor, known for his sonorous voice and "hearty, king-sized portrayals".-Early life:The son of William Blessed, a socialist miner, and Hilda Wall, Blessed was born in the town of Goldthorpe, West Riding of Yorkshire, England...
, Joseph BradyJoseph BradyJoseph Brady was a Scottish actor.Brady was trained at the Glasgow College of Dramatic Art. He starred in a number of television shows, notably as PC Jock Weir in Z-Cars , as Kenny McBlane in the third series of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin and as Gramps in the 1993 Rab C...
, James EllisJames Ellis (actor)James Ellis is an actor from Northern Ireland with a television career of more than 45 years. He went to school at Methodist College Belfast and later studied at both Queen's University Belfast and the Bristol Old Vic....
, and Jeremy KempJeremy KempJeremy Kemp is an English actor. He is known for his roles in the miniseries The Winds of War, The Blue Max and Z-Cars....
) assigned to "Crime Patrol" duties in a pair of powerful Ford ZephyrFord ZephyrThe Ford Zephyr was a car manufactured by the Ford Motor Company in the United Kingdom. Between 1950 and 1972, it was sold as a more powerful six-cylinder saloon to complement the four-cylinder Ford Consul: from 1962 the Zephyr itself was offered in both four- and six-cylinder versions.The Zephyr...
s (hence "Z-Cars"), under the supervision of Detective Sergeant John Watt (Frank WindsorFrank WindsorFrank Windsor is an English actor, mainly on television.He attended Queen Mary's Grammar School, Walsall. He began his career on radio and made an appearance in a 1953 film of Henry V...
) and Detective Chief InspectorChief inspectorChief inspector is a rank used in police forces which follow the British model. In countries outside Britain, it is sometimes referred to as chief inspector of police .-Australia:...
Charlie Barlow (Stratford JohnsStratford JohnsStratford Johns, born Alan Edgar Stratford-Johns, was a popular British stage, film and television actor who is best remembered for his starring role as Detective Inspector Charlie Barlow in the innovative and long-running BBC police series Z-Cars, created by Troy Kennedy-Martin.-Early life:Johns...
). A franker, and often less flattering portrait of police work than audience were used to seeing on Dixon of Dock Green, the show was an immediate hit, its popularity generating spin-offs like Softly, SoftlySoftly, Softly (TV series)Softly, Softly is a British television drama series, produced by the BBC and screened on BBC 1 from January 1966. It centred around the work of regional crime squads, plain-clothes CID officers based in the fictional region of Wyvern - supposedly in the Bristol and Chepstow area of the UK...
(1966–1976), Barlow at LargeBarlow at LargeBarlow at Large is a British television programme broadcast in the 1970s, starring Stratford Johns in the title role.Johns had previously played Barlow in the Z-Cars, Softly, Softly and Softly, Softly: Taskforce series on BBC television during the 1960s and early 1970s...
(1971–1975), and Second VerdictSecond VerdictSecond Verdict was a six-part BBC television series from 1976, of dramatised documentaries in which classic criminal cases and unsolved crimes from history were re-appraised by fictional police officers...
(1976).
- The SweeneyThe SweeneyThe Sweeney is a 1970s British television police drama focusing on two members of the Flying Squad, a branch of the Metropolitan Police specialising in tackling armed robbery and violent crime in London...
, (1975–1978) - a drama series focusing on the Flying SquadFlying SquadThe Flying Squad is a branch of the Specialist Crime Directorate, within London's Metropolitan Police Service. The Squad's purpose is to investigate commercial armed robberies, along with the prevention and investigation of other serious armed crime...
of the Metropolitan PoliceMetropolitan policeMetropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...
and their twenty-four hour a day seven day a week job of catching some of the most dangerous and violent criminals in London. The television programTelevision programA television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
featured Detective Inspector Jack Regan (John ThawJohn ThawJohn Edward Thaw, CBE was an English actor, who appeared in a range of television, stage and cinema roles, his most popular being police and legal dramas such as Redcap, The Sweeney, Inspector Morse and Kavanagh QC.-Early life:Thaw came from a working class background, having been born in Gorton,...
) and other tough-talking hard-drinking members of his elite unit, both on and off duty. With its high level of violence, location filming, bold frankness, and well written scripts, The Sweeney revolutionized the genre. The series was so phenomenally popular that two feature-length movies, Sweeney! (1976) and Sweeney 2 (1978) were released to theatres during the show's original broadcast run.
- The Gentle TouchThe Gentle TouchThe Gentle Touch is a British police drama television series made by London Weekend Television for ITV which ran from 1980-1984. Commencing transmission on 11 April 1980, the series is notable for being the first British series to feature a female police detective as its leading character, ahead of...
, (1980–1984) - a British police drama television series made by London Weekend Television for ITV. Commencing transmission on 11 April 1980, the series is notable for being the first British series to feature a female police detective as its leading character, ahead of the similarly themed BBC series Juliet Bravo by four months.
- Juliet BravoJuliet BravoJuliet Bravo is a British television series, which ran on BBC1 between 1980 and 1985. The theme of the series concerned a female police inspector who took over control of a police station in the fictional town of Hartley in Lancashire.-Programme name:...
, (1980–1985) - a British television series, which ran on BBC1. The theme of the series concerned a female police inspector who took over control of a police station in a fictional town of Hartley in Lancashire.
- The BillThe BillThe Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...
, (1984–2010) - a drama series focusing on both the uniformed and plain-clothes police officers working out of an inner-city London police station. The original conception of this series was as purely procedural, with an almost fly-on-the-wall approach that survived to an extent throughout.
- The Prime Suspect series, (1991–2006) - featuring Helen MirrenHelen MirrenDame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
as Detective Chief Inspector (later Chief Superintendent) Jane Tennison, which focused on the police investigations and on Tennison's conflicts with her fellow officers as a prominent female detective in a heavily male-dominated work environment, as well as her personal problems concerning her family and after-work life.
- The CopsThe Cops (TV series)The Cops is a British television series made by World Productions for the BBC.The production, set in the fictional town of Stanton in Northern England, was noted for its documentary-style camerawork and uncompromising portrayal of the police force...
, (1998–2000) - perhaps the most realistic police drama series yet seen on British TV, noted for its documentary-style camerawork and uncompromising portrayal of the police force.
- Heartbeat (1992–2010) is made by Yorkshire TelevisionYorkshire TelevisionYorkshire Television, now officially known as ITV Yorkshire and sometimes unofficially abbreviated to YTV, is a British television broadcaster and the contractor for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV network...
at The Leeds StudiosThe Leeds StudiosThe Leeds Studios also known as the Yorkshire Television Studios or YTV Studios is a television production complex on Kirkstall Road in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
for broadcast on ITVITVITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
, it is now in its 17th series. Set in 1960s YorkshireYorkshireYorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
, in the fictional town of Ashfordly and the nearby village of Aidensfield in the North Riding of YorkshireNorth Riding of YorkshireThe North Riding of Yorkshire was one of the three historic subdivisions of the English county of Yorkshire, alongside the East and West Ridings. From the Restoration it was used as a Lieutenancy area. The three ridings were treated as three counties for many purposes, such as having separate...
, the motorcycle-riding Aidensfield village bobby was originally played by Nick BerryNick BerryNicholas "Nick" Berry is a British television actor and musician. He is best known for his roles as Simon Wicks in the British soap opera EastEnders from 1985 to 1990 and as PC Nick Rowan in the British drama television series Heartbeat from 1992 to 1998.-Career:Berry started acting at the age of...
.
- Law & Order: UK (2009–present) is an adaptation of the Law & Order franchiseLaw & Order (franchise)The Law & Order franchise is a number of related American television series created by Dick Wolf and originally broadcast on NBC, all of which deal with some aspect of the criminal justice system...
for the British market. The programme is financed by Kudos Film and Television, Wolf Films (a company owned by Dick WolfDick WolfRichard Anthony "Dick" Wolf is an American producer, specializing in crime dramas such as Miami Vice and the Law & Order franchise. Throughout his career he has won several awards including an Emmy Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.-Early life:Wolf was born in New York City, the son...
, the creator of the franchise) and NBC UniversalNBC UniversalNBCUniversal Media, LLC is a media and entertainment company engaged in the production and marketing of entertainment, news, and information products and services to a global customer base...
and airs on ITV1ITV1ITV1 is a generic brand that is used by twelve franchises of the British ITV Network in the English regions, Wales, southern Scotland , the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. The ITV1 brand was introduced by Carlton and Granada in 2001, alongside the regional identities of their...
. The first series was adapted from scripts and episodes of the original U.S. Law & OrderLaw & OrderLaw & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
.
United States
- Dragnet (1951–1959, 1967–1970, 1989-1991 & 2003-2004) Dragnet was the pioneering police procedural that began on radio in 1949 and then on television in 1951. Dragnet established the tone of many police dramas in subsequent decades, and the rigorously authentic depictions of such elements as organizational structure, professional jargon, legal issues, etc., set the standard for technical accuracy that became the most identifiable element of the police procedural in all media. The show was occasionally accused of presenting an overly idealized portrait of law enforcement in which the police (represented by Sgt. Joe Friday) were invariably presented as "good guys" and the criminals as "bad guys", with little moral flexibility or complexity between the two. However, many episodes depicted sympathetic perpetrators while others depicted unsympathetic or corrupt cops. Further, though Jack Webb may have seemed to go to extremes to depict the Los Angeles Police DepartmentLos Angeles Police DepartmentThe Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...
in a favorable light, most depictions of cops at the time of Dragnets debut were both unsympathetic and unrealistic. Webb's depiction was meant to offer balance. Also, the show benefited from the unprecedented technical advice, involvement, and support of the LAPD, a first in TV, which may also have been an incentive to depict the Department favorably. After the success of Dragnet, Webb would go on to produce other procedural shows like The DA's Man, about an undercover investigator for the Manhattan District AttorneyNew York County District AttorneyThe New York County District Attorney is the elected district attorney for New York County , New York. The office is responsible for the prosecution of violations of New York state laws....
's Office, Adam-12Adam-12Adam-12 was a television police drama which followed two police officers of the Los Angeles Police Department, Pete Malloy and Jim Reed, as they patrolled the streets of Los Angeles in their patrol unit, 1-Adam-12. Created by Jack Webb who is known for creating Dragnet, the series captured a...
, about a pair of uniformed LAPDLos Angeles Police DepartmentThe Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...
officers patrolling their beat in a radio car, and O'Hara, U.S. TreasuryO'Hara, U.S. TreasuryO'Hara, U.S. Treasury is an American television crime drama broadcast by CBS during the 1971-72 television season. Jack Webb's Mark VII Limited packaged the program for Universal Television. Webb and longtime colleague James E. Moser created the show; Leonard B. Kaufman was the...
, with David JanssenDavid JanssenDavid Janssen was an American film and television actor who is best known for his starring role as Dr. Richard Kimble in the television series The Fugitive , the starring role in the 1950s hit detective series Richard Diamond, Private Detective , and as Harry Orwell on Harry O.In 1996 TV Guide...
as a trouble-shooting federal officer.
- The UntouchablesThe Untouchables (1959 TV series)The Untouchables is an American crime drama that ran from 1959 to 1963 on ABC. Based on the memoir of the same name by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley, it fictionalized the experiences of Eliot Ness, a real-life Prohibition agent, as he fought crime in Chicago during the 1930s with the help of a...
(1959–1963) fictionalized real-life Federal Agent Eliot NessEliot NessEliot Ness was an American Prohibition agent, famous for his efforts to enforce Prohibition in Chicago, Illinois, and the leader of a legendary team of law enforcement agents nicknamed The Untouchables.- Early life :...
's ongoing fight with Prohibition-era gangdom in ChicagoChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and elsewhere. Originally a two-part presentation on the anthology series Desilu Playhouse, it made such a splash that a series was launched the following fall. That two-part pilot, later released to theaters under the title The Scarface Mob, stuck comparatively close to the actual events, with Ness, as played by Robert StackRobert StackRobert Stack was an American actor. In addition to acting in more than 40 films, he was the star of the 1959-1963 ABC television series The Untouchables and later served as the host of Unsolved Mysteries.-Early life:...
, recruiting a team of incorruptible investigators to help bring down Al CaponeAl CaponeAlphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone was an American gangster who led a Prohibition-era crime syndicate. The Chicago Outfit, which subsequently became known as the "Capones", was dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging liquor, and other illegal activities such as prostitution, in Chicago from the early...
. Later episodes showed Ness and his squad, post-Capone, going after just about every big name gangster of the era, and when the writers ran out of real-life figures to pit against Ness, they created new ones. Quinn MartinQuinn MartinQuinn Martin was one of the most successful American television producers. He had at least one television series running in prime time for 21 straight years , an industry record.-Early life:...
, who would become closely associated with police and crime shows like this, produced the series during its first season, leaving to found his own company, QM Productions, which would go one to produce police procedural shows like The New BreedThe New Breed (TV series)The New Breed is an American crime drama series that aired on ABC from October 3, 1961 to June 5, 1962, with thirty-six episodes.-Synopsis:...
, The F.B.I., Dan AugustDan AugustDan August is a short-lived 1970-1971 crime drama television series, which starred Burt Reynolds as the title character: a police lieutenant who investigated homicide cases in his hometown of Santa Luisa, California...
, and The Streets of San FranciscoThe Streets of San FranciscoThe Streets of San Francisco is a 1970s television police drama filmed on location in San Francisco, California, and produced by Quinn Martin Productions, with the first season produced in association with Warner Bros...
over the next twenty years. The success of the series led to an Academy Award-winning motion pictureThe Untouchables (1987 film)The Untouchables is a 1987 American crime-drama film directed by Brian De Palma and written by David Mamet. Based on the book The Untouchables, the film stars Kevin Costner as government agent Eliot Ness. It also stars Robert De Niro as gang leader Al Capone and Sean Connery as Irish-American...
in 1987, and a new TV seriesThe Untouchables (1993 TV series)The Untouchables is an American crime drama series that aired for two seasons in syndication, from January 1993 to May 1994. The series portrayed work of the real life Untouchables federal investigative squad in Prohibition-era Chicago and its efforts against Al Capone's attempts to profit from the...
that was syndicated to local stations in 1993.
- Columbo (TV Series and Made for TV-Movies, 1968–2003) Columbo popularized the inverted detective story format. With the exception of a couple of special episodes with added twists, almost every episode began by showing the commission of the crime and its perpetrator. As such, there is no "whodunit" element. The plot mainly revolves around how the perpetrator, whose identity is known, would finally be exposed and arrested. The show's creator once referred to it as a "howcatchem". Lt. Columbo is a shambling, disheveled-looking, seemingly naive Italian American police detective who is consistently underestimated by his fellow officers and by the murderer du jour. The subjects of his investigations are initially both reassured and distracted by his circumstantial speech and increasingly irritating asides. Despite his unprepossessing appearance and apparent absentmindedness, he shrewdly solves all of his cases and secures all evidence needed for indictment. His formidable eye for detail and meticulous and dedicated approach become apparent only late in the storyline. Other "howcatchem" style Police procedurals include CastleCastle (TV series)Castle is an American comedy-drama television series, which premiered on ABC on March 9, 2009. The series is produced by Beacon Pictures and ABC Studios. On January 10, 2011, Castle was renewed for a fourth season...
, Criminal MindsCriminal MindsCriminal Minds is an American police procedural drama that premiered September 22, 2005, on CBS. The series follows a team of profilers from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit based in Quantico, Virginia. The BAU is part of the FBI National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime...
, Law & Order: Criminal IntentLaw & Order: Criminal IntentLaw & Order: Criminal Intent is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it was also primarily produced. Created and produced by Dick Wolf and René Balcer, the series premiered on September 30, 2001, as the second spin-off of Wolf's successful crime drama...
, MonkMonk (TV series)Monk is an American comedy-drama detective mystery television series created by Andy Breckman and starring Tony Shalhoub as the titular character, Adrian Monk. It originally ran from 2002 to 2009 and is primarily a mystery series, although it has dark and comic touches.The series debuted on July...
, The MentalistThe MentalistThe Mentalist is an American police procedural television series which debuted on September 23, 2008, on CBS. The show was created by Bruno Heller, who is also the show's executive producer...
and PsychPsychPsych is an American detective comedy-drama television series created by Steve Franks and broadcast on USA Network. It stars James Roday as Shawn Spencer, a young crime consultant for the Santa Barbara Police Department whose "heightened observational skills" and impressive detective instincts...
.
- Police Story (1973–1978) was an anthology series set in Los Angeles created by LAPD Detective Sergeant Joseph Wambaugh. Hard-hitting and unflinchingly realistic, its anthology format made it possible to look at police work from many different perspectives, what it was like to be a woman in a male-dominated profession, what it was like to be an honest cop suspected of corruption, what it was like to be a rookie cop, an undercover narc, a veteran facing retirement, or a cop who had to adjust to crippling injuries incurred in the line of duty. Despite its anthology format, there were a number of characters who appeared in more than one episode, including Robbery/Homicide partners Tony Calabrese (Tony Lo BiancoTony Lo BiancoTony Lo Bianco is an American actor in films and television.Lo Bianco was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of a taxi driver. He is known for his roles in the cult films The Honeymoon Killers, God Told Me To, and The French Connection...
) and Bert Jameson (Don MeredithDon MeredithJoseph Don "Dandy Don" Meredith was an American football quarterback, sports commentator and actor. He spent all nine seasons of his professional playing career with the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League . He was named to the Pro Bowl in each of his last three years as a player...
), vice cop turned homicide detective Charlie Czonka (James FarentinoJames FarentinoJames Farentino is an American actor. He has appeared in almost one hundred roles, among them in The Final Countdown, Jesus of Nazareth, and Dynasty.-Career:...
), and stakeout/surveillance specialist Joe LaFrieda (Vic MorrowVic MorrowVictor "Vic" Morrow was an American actor whose credits include a starring role in the 1960s TV series Combat!, prominent roles in a handful of other television and cinema dramas, and numerous guest roles on television...
). Several series were spun off from the show, including Police WomanPolice Woman (TV series)Police Woman is an American television police drama starring Angie Dickinson that ran on NBC for four seasons, from September 13, 1974, to March 29, 1978.-Synopsis:...
, Joe Forrester, and Man UndercoverDavid Cassidy: Man Under CoverDavid Cassidy: Man Under Cover is an American police drama starring David Cassidy, four years after his run starring in the The Partridge Family. The series pilot first aired as a two-hour episode of another show, Police Story, which featured Cassidy playing an undercover police officer...
. During its last two seasons, the show appeared as an irregular series of two-hour TV movies rather than a weekly one-hour program. The show was revived for a season in 1988, using old scripts reshot with new casts when a writers' strike made new material inaccessible.
- KojakKojakKojak is an American television series starring Telly Savalas as the title character, bald New York City Police Department Detective Lieutenant Theo Kojak. It aired from October 24, 1973, to March 18, 1978, on CBS. It took the time slot of the popular Cannon series, which was moved one hour earlier...
(1973–1978, 1989–1990) created by Abby MannAbby MannAbby Mann was an American film writer and producer.-Life and career:Born as Abraham Goodman in Philadelphia, he grew up in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was best known for his work on controversial subjects and social drama...
, focused on a veteran New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
detective-lieutenant played by Telly SavalasTelly SavalasAristotelis "Telly" Savalas was an American film and television actor and singer, whose career spanned four decades. Best known for playing the title role in the 1970s crime drama Kojak, Savalas was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Birdman of Alcatraz...
. Its exteriors were filmed at New York's Ninth Precinct, the same place where NYPD BlueNYPD BlueNYPD Blue is an American television police drama set in New York City, exploring the internal and external struggles of the fictional 15th precinct of Manhattan...
s exteriors would be filmed. In 1989 Savalas returned to the role briefly for five two-hour episodes, in which Kojak had been promoted to inspectorInspectorInspector is both a police rank and an administrative position, both used in a number of contexts. However, it is not an equivalent rank in each police force.- Australia :...
and placed in charge of the Major Crimes Squad. It rotated with three other detective shows on ABCAmerican Broadcasting CompanyThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
. A 2005 remake for the USA NetworkUSA NetworkUSA Network is an American cable television channel launched in 1971. Once a minor player in basic cable, the network has steadily gained popularity because of breakout hits like Monk, Psych, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, Covert Affairs, White Collar, Monday Night RAW, Suits, and reruns of the various...
starred Ving RhamesVing RhamesIrving Rameses "Ving" Rhames is an American actor best known for his work in Bringing Out the Dead, Pulp Fiction, Baby Boy, Don King: Only in America, and the Mission: Impossible film series.-Early life and education:...
. Kojak's most memorable character trait was his signature lollipop.
- Hill Street BluesHill Street BluesHill Street Blues is an American serial police drama that was first aired on NBC in 1981 and ran for 146 episodes on primetime into 1987. Chronicling the lives of the staff of a single police precinct in an unnamed American city, the show received critical acclaim and its production innovations ...
(1981–1987) featured a number of intertwined storylines in each episode, and pioneered depiction of the conflicts between the work and private lives of officers and detectives on which the police procedural was centered. The show had a deliberate "documentary" style, depicting officers who were flawed and human, and dealt openly with the gray areas of morality between right and wrong. It was set in an unidentified east coast or midwestern metropolitan area. The show was written by Steven BochcoSteven BochcoSteven Ronald Bochco is a US television producer and writer. He has developed a number of popular television hits including Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, and NYPD Blue, as well as some notable flops such as Cop Rock....
and Michael Kozoll.
- Cagney and Lacey (1982–1988) Cagney and Lacey, revolved around two female NYPD detectives who led very different lives. Christine Cagney, played by Sharon GlessSharon GlessSharon Marguerite Gless is an American character actress of stage, film and television, who is best known for her roles as Maggie Philbin on Switch , as Sgt. Christine Cagney in the police procedural drama series Cagney & Lacey and as Debbie Novotny in the Showtime cable television series Queer...
, was a single-minded, witty, brash career woman. Mary Beth Lacey was a resourceful, sensitive working mom. Loretta SwitLoretta SwitLoretta Swit is an American stage and television actress known for her character roles. Swit is best-known for her portrayal of Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan on M*A*S*H.-Early life:...
was the original choice for Cagney [she played the role in a TV movie] however she couldn't get out of her contract on M*A*S*H. During the first season, Meg FosterMeg FosterMegan "Meg" Foster is an American actress best known for her roles in the TV miniseries version of The Scarlet Letter, Ticket to Heaven, The Osterman Weekend, and They Live .-Life and career:...
played the part of Cagney, while Tyne DalyTyne DalyTyne Daly is an American stage and screen actress, widely known for her work as Detective Mary Beth Lacey in the television series Cagney & Lacey and as Maxine Gray in the television series Judging Amy. She is also known for her role as Alice Henderson in television series Christy...
played Lacey, the role she'd originated in the pilot. CBSCBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
canceled the series claiming low ratings. It was brought back on due both to a letter-writing campaign which drew millions of letters nationwide and to the fact that ratings actually went up during summer reruns. A TV GuideTV GuideTV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
magazine read Welcome Back. Daly continued as Lacey, but Foster was replaced with Gless, who would become the actress most identified with the part. It would go on to win 36 nominations and 14 wins during its run. Four TV movies were broadcast after the series ended.
- Miami ViceMiami ViceMiami Vice is an American television series produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series starred Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as two Metro-Dade Police Department detectives working undercover in Miami. It ran for five seasons on NBC from 1984–1989...
(1984–1990)
- Law & OrderLaw & OrderLaw & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
, a long-running series (1990–2010) focusing on the two 'halves' of a criminal proceeding in the New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
criminal justice system: the investigation of the crime by the New York City Police DepartmentNew York City Police DepartmentThe New York City Police Department , established in 1845, is currently the largest municipal police force in the United States, with primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within the five boroughs of New York City...
homicide detectives and the subsequent prosecution of the criminals by the New York County District AttorneyNew York County District AttorneyThe New York County District Attorney is the elected district attorney for New York County , New York. The office is responsible for the prosecution of violations of New York state laws....
's office. The success of the original Law & Order inspired nine other spin-offSpin-off (media)In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
series in four different countries:- Five in the U.S.: Law & Order: Special Victims UnitLaw & Order: Special Victims UnitLaw & Order: Special Victims Unit is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it is also primarily produced...
(1999), Law & Order: Criminal IntentLaw & Order: Criminal IntentLaw & Order: Criminal Intent is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it was also primarily produced. Created and produced by Dick Wolf and René Balcer, the series premiered on September 30, 2001, as the second spin-off of Wolf's successful crime drama...
(2001–2011), Law & Order: Trial by JuryLaw & Order: Trial by JuryLaw & Order: Trial by Jury is an American television drama about criminal trials set in New York City. It was the third spin-off from the long-running Law & Order. The show's almost exclusive focus was on the criminal trial of the accused, showing both the prosecution's and defense's preparation...
(2005–2006), Conviction (2006-debuted and concluded) and Law & Order: LA (2010–2011). Special Victims Unit, Criminal Intent, and LA series focued more on the police procedurals than Trial by Jury and Conviction. As of August 2011, Special Victims Unit is the only currently running American series in the Law & Order franchise. - Two in RussiaRussiaRussia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
: Adaptations of Special Victims Unit (2007) and Criminal Intent (2007), both set in MoscowMoscowMoscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. - Paris enquêtes criminellesParis enquêtes criminellesParis enquêtes criminelles is a French television series broadcast since May 3, 2007 on TF1.-Synopsis:Adapted from Law & Order: Criminal Intent , it follows the investigations of two police detectives with very different methods of investigation. Vincent Revel is very intuitive, while his partner...
(2007), a FrenchFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
adaptation of Criminal Intent set in ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. - Law & Order: UK (2009), a BritishUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
adaptation of the original Law & Order set in LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
- Five in the U.S.: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
- Aside from being its depiction of police investigation, this program also relates to the Legal dramaLegal dramaA legal drama is a work of dramatic fiction about crime and civil litigation. Subtypes of legal dramas include courtroom dramas and legal thrillers, and come in all forms, including novels, television shows, and films. Legal drama sometimes overlap with crime drama, most notably in the case of Law...
and "forensic pathology" subgenres, and has inspired such other programs as the CSICSI: Crime Scene InvestigationCSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000. The show was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...
series.
- Homicide: Life on the StreetHomicide: Life on the StreetHomicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale...
(1993–1999; TV movie in 2000), a police procedural focusing on the homicide unit of the BaltimoreBaltimoreBaltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
city police department. Critically praised (although frequently struggling in the ratings), the show was more of an ensemble piece, focusing on the activities of the unit as a whole (although significant characters such as Detective Frank PembletonFrank PembletonFrancis Xavier "Frank" Pembleton is a fictional homicide detective on the television drama series Homicide: Life on the Street portrayed by Emmy Award winning actor Andre Braugher. He is a primary character of the show through the first six seasons...
and Detective John MunchJohn MunchSergeant John Munch is a fictional character played by actor Richard Belzer. Munch first appeared on Homicide: Life on the Street. Upon that series' cancellation, the character was transplanted to Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, the first spin-off of the Law & Order franchise...
, who has also appeared on the various Law & Order shows, among others, became popular with viewers). The show (particularly in its first three seasons) used long-form arcs to depict ongoing criminal investigations, such as the investigation of a murdered child in the first season, which ran through 13 episodes but ended without an arrest or conviction, or even conclusive proof of who committed the crime. The show also heavily featured the complex internal politics of the police department, suggesting that rising through the ranks has more to do with personal connections, favors and opportunism than genuine ability.
- NYPD BlueNYPD BlueNYPD Blue is an American television police drama set in New York City, exploring the internal and external struggles of the fictional 15th precinct of Manhattan...
(1993–2005) explored the internal and external struggles of the assorted investigators of the fictional 15th Precinct of Manhattan. The show gained notoriety for profanity and nudity never previously broadcast on American network television. NYPD Blue was created by genre veteran Steven BochcoSteven BochcoSteven Ronald Bochco is a US television producer and writer. He has developed a number of popular television hits including Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, and NYPD Blue, as well as some notable flops such as Cop Rock....
and David MilchDavid MilchDavid S. Milch is an American writer and producer of television series. He has created several television shows, including NYPD Blue and Deadwood.-Biography:...
. The cast of NYPD Blue included actor Dennis Franz, who previously played Detective Buntz on Hill Street Blues, as well as on a spin-off series, "Beverly Hills Buntz." Another cast member, David Caruso would later play Lt. Horatio Caine on CSI: Miami.
- CSI: Crime Scene InvestigationCSI: Crime Scene InvestigationCSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000. The show was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...
(2000–present) is a show about forensic scientists in Las Vegas, NevadaLas Vegas, NevadaLas Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
who investigate how and why a person has died and if it is a murder or not by investigating not only whodunitWhodunitA whodunit or whodunnit is a complex, plot-driven variety of the detective story in which the puzzle is the main feature of interest. The reader or viewer is provided with clues from which the identity of the perpetrator of the crime may be deduced before the solution is revealed in the final...
but also howdunit. It spawned two spin-offs, CSI: MiamiCSI: MiamiCSI: Miami is an American police procedural television series, which premiered on September 23, 2002 on CBS. The series is a spin-off of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation....
and CSI: NYCSI: NYCSI: NY is an American police procedural television series that premiered on September 22, 2004, on CBS. The show follows the investigations of a team of NYPD forensic scientists and police officers as they unveil the circumstances behind mysterious and unusual deaths as well as other crimes...
, and inspired shows such as BonesBones (TV series)Bones is an American crime drama television series that premiered on the Fox Network on September 13, 2005. The show is based on forensic anthropology and forensic archaeology, with each episode focusing on an FBI case file concerning the mystery behind human remains brought by FBI Special Agent...
, Cold Case, Criminal MindsCriminal MindsCriminal Minds is an American police procedural drama that premiered September 22, 2005, on CBS. The series follows a team of profilers from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit based in Quantico, Virginia. The BAU is part of the FBI National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime...
, NCISNCIS (TV series)NCIS, formerly known as NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service, is an American police procedural drama television series revolving around a fictional team of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which conducts criminal investigations involving the U.S...
, The MentalistThe MentalistThe Mentalist is an American police procedural television series which debuted on September 23, 2008, on CBS. The show was created by Bruno Heller, who is also the show's executive producer...
and Without A TraceWithout a TraceWithout a Trace is an American television drama which originally ran on CBS from September 26, 2002 to May 19, 2009. The series was set in New York City and concerned a fictitious FBI Missing Persons Unit.-Premise:...
.
- The ShieldThe ShieldThe Shield is an American television drama series starring Michael Chiklis which premiered on March 12, 2002 on FX in the United States and concluded on November 25, 2008 after seven seasons...
(2002–2008), The Shield is about an experimental division of the Los Angeles Police Department set up in the fictional Farmington district ("the Farm") of Los Angeles, using a converted church ("the Barn") as their police station, and featuring a group of detectives called "The Strike Team", who will do anything to bring justice to the streets. Michael Chiklis (Chiklis previously played the title character in the TV series, "The Commish.") has top billing with his portrayal of Strike Team leader Vic Mackey. The show has an ensemble cast that will normally run a number of separate story lines through each episode. It was on the FX network and was known for its portrayal of police brutality and its realism. The show inspired other shows similar to The Shield such as Dark BlueDark Blue (TV series)Dark Blue was an action/drama television series which premiered on TNT on July 15, 2009, at 10 pm . It ended its run on September 15, 2010. The series is set in Los Angeles, California. It revolves around Carter Shaw , the leader of an undercover unit...
and SouthlandSouthland (TV series)Southland is an American drama series created by writer Ann Biderman and produced by Warner Bros. Television. It premiered on NBC on April 9, 2009...
. The Shield was created by writer/producer Shawn RyanShawn RyanShawn Ryan is a writer, and the creator of the FX Networks series The Shield and the Fox TV series The Chicago Code.-Education/Personal life:...
.
Ireland
- The Burke Enginma - RTÉ 1975.
- DDU: District Detective UnitDDU: District Detective UnitDDU is a serial police drama that was first aired on RTÉ in 1997 as "Making the Cut" and ran for 8 episodes. It starred Sean McGinley.- External links :***...
, (1998–1999) is made by RTÉRTERTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...
set in Waterford City and starring Sean McGinleySeán McGinleySeán McGinley is an Irish film and television actor.-Early life:McGinley was born in Pettigo, County Donegal, Ireland where his father was a customs officer, and raised in nearby Ballyshannon...
. - Single-HandedSingle-Handed (2007 drama)Single-Handed is an Irish television drama series broadcast on RTÉ Television. Set and filmed in the west of Ireland, it focuses on the life of a member of the , Sergeant Jack Driscoll . Three two-episode, single-story series aired, one each on consecutive nights in 2007, 2008 and 2009...
(2007 - Date) is set in the west of Ireland. - ProofProof (TV series)Proof is an Irish television mini-serial co-produced by Subotica for RTÉ in Ireland and TV2 in Denmark. Proof had two season the second season entitled Proof 2.-Production:...
(2003–2004) set in Dublin and starring Orla BradyOrla Brady-Early life and career:The second of four children born to Dublin publican Patrick Brady and his wife Catherine who had appeared in amateur productions at the Gate Theatre, Brady first became interested in an acting career after reading works by Germaine Greer and Simone de Beauvoir.Brady drifted...
.
- Na Cloigne (The Heads) a 2010 three-part supernatural police procedural produced for TG4TG4TG4 is a public service broadcaster for Irish language speakers. The channel has been on-air since 31 October 1996 in the Republic of Ireland and since April 2005 in Northern Ireland....
.
New Zealand
- Shark in the ParkShark in the ParkShark in the Park wasa New Zealand television drama series. A police procedural, it revolved around the professional and private lives of a group of officers at a Wellington police station under the command of Inspector Brian "Sharky" Finn...
, (1989–1992), set in Wellington and starring Jeffrey ThomasJeffrey ThomasJeffrey or Jeff Thomas is the name of:* Jeffrey Thomas , British Labour Member of Parliament* Jeffrey C. Thomas, seven-time candidate for U.S... - Plainclothes, (1995), set in Auckland and starring Alan DaleAlan DaleAlan Hugh Dale is a New Zealand actor. As a child, Dale developed a love of theatre and also became a rugby player. After retiring from the sport he took on a number of professions to support his family, before deciding to become a professional actor at the age of 27. With work limited in New...
Comic strips and books
The comic stripComic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
Dick Tracy
Dick Tracy
Dick Tracy is a comic strip featuring Dick Tracy, a hard-hitting, fast-shooting and intelligent police detective. Created by Chester Gould, the strip made its debut on October 4, 1931, in the Detroit Mirror. It was distributed by the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate...
is often pointed to as an early procedural. Indeed, in his introduction to a 1970 collection of Tracy strips entitled The Celebrated Cases of Dick Tracy, no less an authority than Ellery Queen
Ellery Queen
Ellery Queen is both a fictional character and a pseudonym used by two American cousins from Brooklyn, New York: Daniel Nathan, alias Frederic Dannay and Manford Lepofsky, alias Manfred Bennington Lee , to write, edit, and anthologize detective fiction.The fictional Ellery Queen created by...
suggested that Tracy, predating Webb, Treat, Creasey, and McBain, was the first "truly" procedural policeman in any fictional medium.
Certainly Tracy creator Chester Gould seemed to be trying reflect the real world. Tracy himself, conceived by Gould as a "modern-day Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
", was partly modeled on real-life law enforcer Eliot Ness, and his first, and most frequently recurring, antagonist, the Big Boy, was based on Ness's real-life nemesis Al Capone. Other members of Tracy's Rogues Gallery, like Boris Arson, Flattop Jones, and Maw Famon, were inspired, respectively, by John Dillinger
John Dillinger
John Herbert Dillinger, Jr. was an American bank robber in Depression-era United States. He was charged with, but never convicted of, the murder of an East Chicago, Indiana police officer during a shoot-out. This was his only alleged homicide. His gang robbed two dozen banks and four police stations...
, Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd, and Kate "Ma" Barker
Ma Barker
Kate "Ma" Barker was the mother of several criminals who ran the Barker gang from the "public enemy era", when the exploits of gangs of criminals in the U.S. Midwest gripped the American people and press...
.
More to the point, Gould was making a genuine attempt to portray police work realistically. Once Tracy was sold to the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
syndicate, Gould enrolled in a criminology class at Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
, met with members of the Chicago Police Department
Chicago Police Department
The Chicago Police Department, also known as the CPD, is the principal law enforcement agency of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States, under the jurisdiction of the Mayor of Chicago. It is the largest police department in the Midwest and the second largest local law enforcement agency in the...
, and did research at the Department's crime lab, to make his depiction of law enforcement more authentic. Ultimately, he hired retired Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
policeman Al Valanis, a pioneering forensic sketch artist, as both an artistic assistant and police technical advisor.
Later stories, in which Gould veered into space opera
Space opera
Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often melodramatic adventure, set mainly or entirely in outer space, generally involving conflict between opponents possessing advanced technologies and abilities. The term has no relation to music and it is analogous to "soap...
and extraterrestrial contacts, mitigated somewhat against the strip's being recognized for its early use of realistic police procedure, but any examination of the Tracy strip from its beginnings in 1931 through the 1950s makes Gould's status as a pioneer in the police procedural sub-genre clear.
The success of Tracy led to many more police strips. While some, like Norman Marsh's Dan Dunn
Dan Dunn
Dan Dunn was the first fictional character to make his debut in an American comic magazine, making him the forerunner of many comic book heroes. Created by Norman Marsh, he first appeared in Detective Dan, Secret Operative No...
were unabashedly slavish imitations of Tracy, others, like Dashiell Hammett
Dashiell Hammett
Samuel Dashiell Hammett was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories, and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade , Nick and Nora Charles , and the Continental Op .In addition to the significant influence his novels and stories had on...
's and Alex Raymond
Alex Raymond
Alexander Gillespie "Alex" Raymond was an American cartoonist, best known for creating Flash Gordon for King Features in 1934...
's Secret Agent X-9
Secret Agent X-9
Secret Agent X-9 was a comic strip begun by writer Dashiell Hammett and artist Alex Raymond . Syndicated by King Features, it ran from January 22, 1934 until February 10, 1996....
, took a more original approach. Still others, like Eddie Sullivan's and Charlie Schmidt's Radio Patrol
Radio Patrol
Radio Patrol was a police comic strip carried in newspapers from 1933 to 1950 in the dailies, with a Sunday strip that ran from 1934 to 1946. It was created by artist Charles Schmidt and writer Eddie Sullivan, who both worked for the Boston American...
and Will Gould's Red Barry, steered a middle course. One of the best post-Tracy procedural comics was Kerry Drake
Kerry Drake
Kerry Drake is the title of a comic strip created for Publishers Syndicate by Alfred Andriola as artist and Allen Saunders as uncredited writer...
, written and created by Allen Saunders and illustrated by Alfred Andriola
Alfred Andriola
Alfred James Andriola was an American cartoonist best known for the comic strip Kerry Drake, for which he won a Reuben Award in 1970. His work sometimes appeared under the pseudonym Alfred James....
. It diverged from the metropolitan settings used in Tracy to tell the story of the titular Chief Investigator for the District Attorney of a small-town jurisdiction. Later, following a personal tragedy, he leaves the DA's Office and joins his small city's police force in order to fight crime closer to the grass roots level. As both a DA's man and a city cop, he fights a string of flamboyant, Gould-ian criminals like "Stitches", "Bottleneck", and "Bulldozer."
Other syndicated police strips include Zane Grey
Zane Grey
Zane Grey was an American author best known for his popular adventure novels and stories that presented an idealized image of the Old West. Riders of the Purple Sage was his bestselling book. In addition to the success of his printed works, they later had second lives and continuing influence...
's King of the Royal Mounted
King of the Royal Mounted
King of the Royal Mounted is a fictional series featuring the character Dave King, created by Stephen Slesinger in 1936. Slesinger licensed popular Western writer Zane Grey's byline and marketed the character as Zane Grey's King of the Royal Mounted....
, depicting police work in the contemporary Canadian Northwest, Lank Leonard's Mickey Finn
Mickey Finn (comics)
Mickey Finn was an American comic strip created by cartoonist Lank Leonard, which was syndicated to newspapers from 1936 to 1976. The successful lighthearted strip struck a balance between comedy and drama...
, which emphasized the home life of a hard-working cop, and Dragnet, which adapted stories from the pioneering radio-TV series into comics. Early comic books with police themes tended to be reprints of syndicated newspaper strips like Tracy and Drake. Others adapted police stories from other mediums, like the radio-inspired anthology comic Gang Busters
Gang Busters
Gang Busters was an American dramatic radio program heralded as "the only national program that brings you authentic police case histories." It premiered as G-Men, sponsored by Chevrolet, on July 20, 1935.-History:...
, Dell's 87th Precinct issues, which adapted McBain's novels, or The Untouchables, which adapted the fictionalized TV adventures of real-life policeman Eliot Ness.
More recently, there have been attempts to depict police work with the kind of hard-edged realism seen in the novels of writers like Wambaugh, such as Marvel's
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
four-issue mini-series Cops: The Job, in which a rookie police officer learns to cope with the physical, emotional, and mental stresses of law enforcement during her first patrol assignment. With superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
es having long dominated the comic book market, there have been some recent attempts to integrate elements of the police procedural into the universe of costumed crime-fighters. Gotham Central
Gotham Central
Gotham Central is a police procedural comic book series that was published by DC Comics. It was written by Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka, with pencils initially by Michael Lark....
, for example, depicts a group of police detectives operating in Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
's Gotham City
Gotham City
Gotham City is a fictional U.S. city appearing in DC Comics, best known as the home of Batman. Batman's place of residence was first identified as Gotham City in Batman #4 . Gotham City is strongly inspired by Trenton, Ontario's history, location, atmosphere, and various architectural styles...
, and suggested that the caped crimefighter is disliked by many Gotham detectives for treading on their toes. Meanwhile Metropolis SCU tells the story of the Special Crimes Unit, an elite squad of cops in the police force serving Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
's Metropolis
Metropolis (comics)
Metropolis is a fictional city that appears in comic books published by DC Comics, and is the home of Superman. Metropolis first appeared by name in Action Comics #16 ....
.
The use of police procedural elements in superhero comics can partly be attributed to the success of Kurt Busiek
Kurt Busiek
Kurt Busiek is an American comic book writer notable for his work on the Marvels limited series, his own title Astro City, and his four-year run on Avengers.-Early life:...
's groundbreaking 1994 series Marvels
Marvels
Marvels is a four-issue comic book limited series written by Kurt Busiek, painted by Alex Ross and edited by Marcus McLaurin, and published by Marvel Comics in 1994....
, and his subsequent Astro City
Astro City
Kurt Busiek's Astro City is a comic book series centered on a fictional American city of that name. Written by Kurt Busiek, the series is co-created and illustrated by Brent Anderson with character designs and painted covers by Alex Ross...
work, both of which examine the typical superhero universe from the viewpoint of the common man who witnesses the great dramas from afar, participating in them tangentially at best.
In the wake of Busiek's success, many other writers mimicked his approach, with mixed results – the narrative possibilities of someone who does not get involved in drama are limited. In 2000, however, Image Comics
Image Comics
Image Comics is a United States comic book publisher. It was founded in 1992 by high-profile illustrators as a venue where creators could publish their material without giving up the copyrights to the characters they created, as creator-owned properties. It was immediately successful, and remains...
published the first issue of Brian Michael Bendis
Brian Michael Bendis
Brian Michael Bendis is an American comic book writer and erstwhile artist. He has won critical acclaim for his self-published, Image Comics and Marvel Comics work, and is one of the most successful writers working in mainstream comics, with his books selling consistently highly for over a...
's comic Powers
Powers (comics)
Powers is an American creator-owned police procedural comic book series by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Michael Avon Oeming. The series' first volume was published by Image Comics from 2000 to 2004...
, which followed the lives of homicide detectives as they investigated superhero-related cases. Bendis's success has led both Marvel Comics and DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
to begin their own superhero-themed police procedurals (District X
District X
District X, also known as Mutant Town or the Middle East Side, is a fictional location in Marvel Comics. It is a neighborhood in New York City, first seen during Grant Morrison's run on the series New X-Men in New X-Men #127, which was primarily populated by mutants...
and the aforementioned Gotham Central), which focus on how the job of a police officer is affected by such tropes as secret identities, superhuman abilities, costumes, and the near-constant presence of vigilantes.
While the detectives in Powers were "normal" (unpowered) humans dealing with super-powered crime, Alan Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
and Gene Ha
Gene Ha
Gene Ha is an American comics artist and writer best known for his work on books such as Top 10 and Top 10: The Forty-Niners, with Alan Moore and Zander Cannon, for America's Best Comics, the Batman graphic novel Fortunate Son, with Gerard Jones, and The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix, among...
's Top 10 mini-series, published by America's Best Comics in 2000-2001, centered around the super-powered police force in a setting where powers are omnipresent. The comic detailed the lives and work of the police force of Neopolis, a city in which everyone, from the police and criminals to civilians, children and even pets, has super-powers, colourful costumes and secret identities.
However, just as Gould's introduction of science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
elements into Tracy made that strip less believable for many readers, the notion of realistic cops working in a world where costumed, super-powered crime-fighters and criminals actually exist is a problematic concept, seemingly at odds with the rigorous, naturalistic realism that is the procedural's hallmark.
According to the (UK) Crime Writers' Association (1990)
- Hillary WaughHillary WaughHillary Baldwin Waugh was a pioneering American mystery novelist. In 1989, Waugh was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America.-Career:...
: Last Seen Wearing ...Last Seen Wearing ... (Hillary Waugh novel)Last Seen Wearing ... is a U.S. detective novel by Hillary Waugh frequently referred to as the police procedural par excellence...
(1952) - Ed McBainEvan HunterEvan Hunter was an American author and screenwriter. Born Salvatore Albert Lombino, he legally adopted the name Evan Hunter in 1952...
: Cop HaterCop HaterCop Hater is the first 87th Precinct police procedural novel by Ed McBain. The murder of three detectives in quick succession in the 87th Precinct leads Detective Steve Carella on a search that takes him into the city's underworld and ultimately to a .45 automatic aimed straight at his...
(1956) - Colin DexterColin DexterNorman Colin Dexter, OBE, is an English crime writer, known for his Inspector Morse novels which were written between 1975 and 1999 and adapted as a television series from 1987 to 2000.-Early life and career:...
: The Dead of JerichoThe Dead of JerichoThe Dead of Jericho is a work of English detective fiction by Colin Dexter, as part of the Inspector Morse series.-Plot summary:Detective Chief Inspector E. Morse of the Thames Valley Police meets Anne Scott at a party hosted by Mrs Murdoch in North Oxford. Six months later Anne Scott is found...
(1981) - Reginald HillReginald HillReginald Charles Hill is an English crime writer, and the winner in 1995 of the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement.- Biography :...
: Underworld (1988) - Reginald Hill: Dead Heads (1983)
- Martin Cruz SmithMartin Cruz SmithMartin Cruz Smith is an American mystery novelist.-Early life and education:Born Martin William Smith in Reading, Pennsylvania, he was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in creative writing in 1964...
: Gorky ParkGorky Park (novel)Gorky Park is a 1981 crime novel written by Martin Cruz Smith set in the Soviet Union. It follows Arkady Renko, a chief investigator for the Militsiya, who is assigned to a case involving three corpses found in Gorky Park, an amusement park in Moscow, who have had their faces and fingertips cut off...
(1981) - J. J. Marric: Gideon's DayGideon's DayGideon's Day is the first in a series of police procedural novels by John Creasey writing as J.J. Marric. Published in 1955, it features a day in the professional life of Detective Superintendent George Gideon of the C.I.D., Scotland Yard. In later books in the series, Gideon has been promoted to...
(1955) - Ed McBain: Sadie When She Died (1972)
- H. R. F. KeatingH. R. F. KeatingHenry Reymond Fitzwalter "Harry" Keating was an English crime fiction writer most notable for his series of novels featuring Inspector Ghote of the Bombay CID.-Life:...
: The Murder of the Maharajah (1980) - Joseph WambaughJoseph WambaughJoseph Aloysius Wambaugh, Jr. is a bestselling American writer known for his fictional and non-fictional accounts of police work in the United States...
: The Onion Field (1975)
According to the Mystery Writers of America (1995)
- Tony HillermanTony HillermanTony Hillerman was an award-winning American author of detective novels and non-fiction works best known for his Navajo Tribal Police mystery novels...
: Dance Hall of the DeadDance Hall of the DeadDance Hall Of The Dead is the second of the Navajo Tribal Police series of crime fiction novels by Tony Hillerman. Centered around the character of police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, Dance Hall of the Dead is, like many of Hillerman's books, set on the Navajo Reservation in the Four Corners region of...
(1973) - Maj Sjöwall & Per WahlööSjöwall and WahlööMaj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, a common-law wife and husband team of detective writers from Sweden. Together they conceived and wrote a series of ten novels about the exploits of detectives from the special homicide commission of the national police in which the character of Martin Beck was the...
: The Laughing PolicemanThe Laughing Policeman (novel)The Laughing Policeman , by Sjöwall and Wahlöö, is the fourth police detective novel, in the ten-part 'Martin Beck' series. Originally published in Sweden in 1968 as Den skrattande polisen, it is the first novel in the series to criticize the shortcomings of the Swedish welfare state...
(1968) - Martin Cruz SmithMartin Cruz SmithMartin Cruz Smith is an American mystery novelist.-Early life and education:Born Martin William Smith in Reading, Pennsylvania, he was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in creative writing in 1964...
: Gorky ParkGorky Park (novel)Gorky Park is a 1981 crime novel written by Martin Cruz Smith set in the Soviet Union. It follows Arkady Renko, a chief investigator for the Militsiya, who is assigned to a case involving three corpses found in Gorky Park, an amusement park in Moscow, who have had their faces and fingertips cut off...
(1981) - Tony Hillerman: A Thief of TimeA Thief of TimeA Thief of Time is the eighth novel by author Tony Hillerman.The plot involves the Anasazi, a missing archeologist, a stolen backhoe, and people who are termed "pot hunters".Characters include Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee....
(1988) - Lawrence SandersLawrence SandersLawrence Sanders was an American novelist and short story writer.Lawrence Sanders was born in Brooklyn in New York City. After public school he attended Wabash College, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree. He then returned to New York and worked at Macy's Department Store...
: The First Deadly SinThe First Deadly SinThe First Deadly Sin is a 1980 American film produced by and starring Frank Sinatra, along with Faye Dunaway, David Dukes, Brenda Vaccaro, James Whitmore, Martin Gabel in his final acting role, and Bruce Willis in his film debut...
(1973) - Hillary WaughHillary WaughHillary Baldwin Waugh was a pioneering American mystery novelist. In 1989, Waugh was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America.-Career:...
: Last Seen Wearing ...Last Seen Wearing ... (Hillary Waugh novel)Last Seen Wearing ... is a U.S. detective novel by Hillary Waugh frequently referred to as the police procedural par excellence...
(1952) - James McClureJames H. McClureJames Howe McClure was a British author and journalist best known for his Kramer and Zondi mysteries set in South Africa....
: The Steam Pig (1971) - Joseph WambaughJoseph WambaughJoseph Aloysius Wambaugh, Jr. is a bestselling American writer known for his fictional and non-fictional accounts of police work in the United States...
: The Choirboys (1975) - P. D. JamesP. D. JamesPhyllis Dorothy James, Baroness James of Holland Park, OBE, FRSA, FRSL , commonly known as P. D. James, is an English crime writer and Conservative life peer in the House of Lords, most famous for a series of detective novels starring policeman and poet Adam Dalgliesh.-Life and career:James...
: Shroud for a NightingaleShroud for a NightingaleShroud for a Nightingale is a 1971 detective novel written by PD James in her Adam Dalgliesh series. Chief Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard is called in to investigate the death of two student nurses at the hospital nursing school of Nightingale House...
(1971) - Ed McBainEvan HunterEvan Hunter was an American author and screenwriter. Born Salvatore Albert Lombino, he legally adopted the name Evan Hunter in 1952...
: IceIce (novel)Ice is a Christian science fiction novel by author Shane Johnson.-Plot introduction:A fictional Apollo 19 mission suffers a major system failure, forcing its crew to strike out on their own.-Explanation of the novel's title:...
(1983) and John BallJohn Ball (American author)John Dudley Ball , writing as John Ball, was an American writer best known for mystery novels involving the African-American police detective Virgil Tibbs. He was introduced in the 1965 In the Heat of the Night where he solves a murder in a racist Southern small town...
: In the Heat of the NightIn the Heat of the Night (novel)In the Heat of the Night is a 1965 novel by John Ball set in the fictional community of Wells, North Carolina. The main character is a black police detective named Virgil Tibbs passing through the small town during a time of bigotry and the civil rights movement.The novel is the basis of the 1967...
(1965) (tie)
Source
- The HatchardsHatchardsHatchards is the oldest bookshop in London, and the second oldest bookshop in the United Kingdom. It was founded by John Hatchard in 1797 on Piccadilly in London, from where it still trades today...
Crime Companion. 100 Top Crime NovelsThe Top 100 Crime Novels of All TimeThe Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time is a list published in book form in 1990 by the British-based Crime Writers' Association. Five years later, the Mystery Writers of America published a similar list entitled The Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time...
Selected by the Crime Writers' Association, ed. Susan MoodySusan MoodySusan Moody is the principal nom de plume of Susan Elizabeth Donaldson, née Horwood, a British novelist best known for her suspense novels...
(London, 1990). - The Crown Crime Companion. The Top 100 Mystery Novels of All TimeThe Top 100 Crime Novels of All TimeThe Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time is a list published in book form in 1990 by the British-based Crime Writers' Association. Five years later, the Mystery Writers of America published a similar list entitled The Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time...
Selected by the Mystery Writers of America, annotated by Otto PenzlerOtto PenzlerOtto Penzler is an editor of mystery fiction in the United States, and proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City, where he lives.-Biography:...
and compiled by Mickey Friedman (New York, 1995).
See also
- Procedural dramaProcedural dramaProcedural dramas are television programming series which rely on an episodic format that does not require the viewer to have seen previous episodes. Episodes typically have a self-contained, also referred to as stand-alone, plot that is introduced and resolved within the same episode...
- List of police television dramas
- Legal dramaLegal dramaA legal drama is a work of dramatic fiction about crime and civil litigation. Subtypes of legal dramas include courtroom dramas and legal thrillers, and come in all forms, including novels, television shows, and films. Legal drama sometimes overlap with crime drama, most notably in the case of Law...
- Legal fictionLegal fictionA legal fiction is a fact assumed or created by courts which is then used in order to apply a legal rule which was not necessarily designed to be used in that way...
- Crime fictionCrime fictionCrime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...
- Detective fictionDetective fictionDetective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...
- Crime comicsCrime comicsCrime comics is a genre of American comic books and format of crime fiction. The genre was originally popular in the 1940s and 1950s and is marked by a moralistic editorial tone and graphic depictions of violence and criminal activity. Crime comics began in 1942 with the publication of Crime Does...
- WhodunitWhodunitA whodunit or whodunnit is a complex, plot-driven variety of the detective story in which the puzzle is the main feature of interest. The reader or viewer is provided with clues from which the identity of the perpetrator of the crime may be deduced before the solution is revealed in the final...
- PolicePoliceThe police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...