Question for law enforcement officers: what aspects of your job do movies and tV always get wrong?

Question

Are there any misconceptions you commonly see on the crime dramas, that you wish we laymen knew about?

Thanks.

Answer 1

As far as detective work goes how much they can do like, get the cellphone companies cooperating, run credit information, get bank statements or get cooperation from credit card companies. The fact that technology works for the detectives is wrong, it does not.
I always like the scene were the phone company calls and tells you were the ransom demand is coming from. I remember one time I was just gathering other detectives to search a large project building for a kidnapping victim. I got the call from telephone security from the trap set up for the ransom call. They sent us to a house 2 miles away, we broke down the door to find nothing. While we were away the bad guys took the victim from the project we were about to search and transported him 10 miles away. The victim escaped the moving van and ran naked and burned (they were torturing him) through the street. Only at trial did we learn that the phone company had made a mistake and the call was coming from the location we were about to search.
TV and movies always have things working very fast. The detective has a bad guy in mind or given to him by Huggy Bear and he is always right, never having to abandon his line of investigation and start a new one 20 or 30 times, like in real lifer.
Officers in the movies seem always overly worried about IAD. The huge majority of officers have never been through an IAD investigation.
If you fire your weapon on TV you get to go and relax and maybe tomorrow someone will interview you. In real life even if you are hurt no one will leave you alone and you are stuck answering questions for hours.
The list can go on and on. They are entertainment not real life or training scenarios.

Answer 2

I can't comment too specifically for the very simple reason that I don't watch many or any of those shows because they are just too unrealistic in many aspects . Put it this way , if a series or movie does not hire a police officer as a consultant , then that show is bound to be over-flowing with inconsistencies . And as a former cop , it's just too easy to pick em apart and then lose interest in the story . Arrest , Search and Seizure , How to Approach a Felon , Interrogation , Securing a Crime Scene , etc etc.

The other guy is right about CSI . Looks great to the untrained observer , but completely unrealistic .

Answer 3

I can tell you as the wife of a police officer, watching TV or movies with him when police drama is involved can be very trying. One, because they almost always show a conclusion in 30 minutes to an hour long show, so now people expect the real police to work faster than the evidence allows. Also sometimes people compare what the police do to what they see on TV. If they don't think that's what CSI would do they start criticizing and asking why the police don't run this test or that test etc. Not all police officers have access to state of the art equipment. In reality my husbands equipment is very old and outdated most of the time. It is expensive to equip officers with technology, and that isn't always the highest priority for departments.

Answer 4

Not every pursuit ends in a crash or a shootout.
Criminals do not confess in the end.
We do not walk away from fights and shootouts without injuries.
SWAT does not respond on every call.
The air unit does not respond on every call.
Criminals do not always run down clean swept streets. They crawl into sewer holes, and under houses that have rats, bugs and leaking sewer pipes. The Police still have to go after them.
Not every crime is solved right away.
The good guy sometimes get killed, and the bad guy sometimes gets away.
That the Officer is instantly able to tell who the good guy and the bad guy are in a dispute or a fight.
That all drunks are silly and friendly.
I can think of at least a dozen more.

Answer 5

Thank YOU for asking this question....The biggest problem with TV is that they usually only show the conclusion of a "made for TV" Police/criminal/citizen interaction. The problem with this, is the criminal/citizen is usually getting taken down to the ground, tased, shot, pepper sprayed ect. Because of this, everyone starts screaming Police brutality or excessive use of force because they didn't get to see WHAT LEAD UP TO THAT POINT. I understand everyone is entitled to their opinion, and some folks just don't support law enforcement, but before judging me, KNOW the facts. Good question!

Answer 6

We don't get into shootouts every week. Pretty much ignore CSI as anything other than entertainment. The original Law and Order is the closest I've seen so far.

Answer 7

Interesting question! My ex-boyfriend was a criminal justice major in college, and while I love watching shows like "CSI" and "Law & Order", he used to hate watching them and he would often complain about how unrealistic they were. I guess he didn't think there should be any room for artistic license!:)

Answer 8

they act like all weed dealers are hippies that just sit around listening to sh1tty music all day. in reality, there's a lot more to it than that- there's lots of weighing, and dealing with annoying 10 year olds from the school across the street, making sure you don't get robbed, keeping the foot traffic to a minimum, etc. and there's no benefits package...

Answer 9

Dragnet was pretty close!! LOL