- In the justice system,
people are criminalized by two flawed,
yet equally idealized groups:
the police and the district attorneys.
What you see on TV is
not realistic at all.
In the first episode of our series on policing,
we looked at how images
of police standing in solidarity with protestors
have been used in an effort to sway public opinion
in favor of law enforcement,
even when those images were immediately contradicted
by violent actions taken by police minutes or hours later.
These biased images in our media
are often referred to as police propaganda or copaganda,
a word that encompasses things like memes,
news stories that might use police as their only source,
and perhaps in its most powerful form,
movies and television.
These scripted films and shows are a mainstay on TV.
For broadcast networks,
cop shows make up roughly half of their programming.
They include
'Law & Order: Criminal Intent,' 'Law & Order: SVU,'
'NCIS,' 'NCIS: Los Angeles,' 'NCIS: New Orleans,'
'CSI,' 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine,' 'Bosch,' 'The Rookie,'
'Fargo,' 'Lucifer,' 'The Shield,' 'Hawaii Five-O,'
'Chicago P.D.,' 'Southland,' 'The Wire,' 'True Detective,'
and 'Blue Bloods.'
Am I paranoid, or are there cops shows everywhere?
You might be thinking to yourself,
can a fictionalized TV cop show
actually sway my thoughts on the real police?
Well, according to a 'Hollywood Reporter' poll,
45 percent of adults in the U.S.
say they believe police shows
accurately reflect what cops do.
And a 2019 survey of nearly 1,700 police officers
showed that 27 percent of them said that media portrayals of cops
were a major reason why they were drawn to law enforcement.
Whether they're centered on a family of cops,
funny woke-ish cops, gritty cops,
or cops with sexual tension,
these shows all give their audience
the same fundamental message:
Cops spend their time fighting crime,
preventing drug deals,
or capturing serial
killers and terrorists.
But, it's not true.
Here are three out of the many myths
that Hollywood reinforces about policing.
Myth one: Cops spend most of their time
in dangerous situations capturing the bad guys.
While it makes for good entertainment,
catching dangerous criminals is just not what most cops
spend the majority of their time doing.
As we mentioned in our first episode,
a 'New York Times' survey of 10 major cities
showed incidents involving violent crime
made up less than 1 percent of 911 calls
in cities like Seattle, New Orleans, and Baltimore.
Yes, Baltimore,
a place HBO's disproportionately white subscribers
probably only know from 'The Wire.'
'The New York Times' data also showed
that police only spend about 4 percent of their time
responding to violent crime.
That means the vast majority of their job
is dealing with non-criminal calls and handling traffic.
So if 'CHiPs' were accurate,
only five out of the series's 139 episodes
would show Erik Estrada investigating
and likely not solving a crime.
The other 134 episodes would feature him
filling out paperwork,
or responding to fender benders around LA.
I don't know if it would have been enough
to make boomers come around on defunding the police,
but a girl can dream.
This misrepresentation also leads people to believe
police work is a lot more dangerous than it is.
In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
police officers see fewer job-related fatalities
than landscapers, truck drivers, steel workers,
farmers, and even loggers.
More often than not,
police are escalating the level of violence in a situation,
not preventing it.
Myth two: The police exist to protect us.
If you're like my dad and you've watched every police show
since NBC's musical cop drama, 'Cop Rock,'
you might get the impression
that officers are constantly risking their lives
to protect average citizens.
But legally speaking, that's a big ol' nope.
In fact, after the 2018 shooting in Parkland, Florida,
a federal judge determined
that police have no constitutional obligation to intervene
if they see a citizen in imminent danger,
a decision backed up by the Supreme Court.
So, let me reiterate.
The cops have no legal obligation to protect you,
even if you are in danger.
Myth three: The police frequently catch criminals.
One of the most prevalent Hollywood tropes
is the cop who bends the rules
'cause they'll do anything to get their man.
Beyond legitimizing dangerous behavior,
this isn't even remotely accurate
because the majority of reported crimes are never solved.
In 2018, only about 45 percent of crimes
reported to police in this country were considered resolved.
And 'The Washington Post' found that, in the last 10 years,
there were 26,000 unsolved murders in cities across the U.S.
Broken down by category,
38 percent of reported murders go unsolved,
66 percent of reported rapes go unsolved,
and 70 percent of reported robberies go unsolved.
The reason I say reported is because it's estimated
that only about 42 percent of people who've been victims of
or witnessed violent crimes
have even reported them in the first place.
And many cop shows actively consult with police departments
in the creation of their own propaganda.
Since the '50s, TV producers of scripted dramas
have partnered with departments
seeking to improve their public image
and nonfiction shows, like 'Cops' and 'Live PD,'
where police are also given final say on what goes on air,
have even been responsible
for covering up police wrongdoings.
So when these shows
depict law enforcement doing something wrong,
it's almost always framed
as a necessity to keep communities safe.
According to a Color of Change study
that looked at 350 episodes
of 26 different police shows,
methods like excessive force, violent interrogation,
or illegal searches are overwhelmingly depicted
as heroic moves.
What's even more upsetting, is that the propaganda works.
A 2015 study from St. John Fisher College
found that viewers of crime dramas
are more likely to believe that police are
successful at lowering crime
and use force only when necessary.
Oh man, is there a laughing, crying,
confused, horrified emoji?
'Cause that's how I feel right now.
But when we pull back the curtain
on what cops actually do on a day-to-day basis,
the realities behind policing wouldn't make for good TV.
It's often a boring job
and the police are frequently sent into situations
that they have little to no training or capacity to handle.
Former Dallas Police Chief, David Brown,
admitted as much in 2016, saying,
"Every societal failure, we put it on the cops to solve.
Not enough mental health funding, let the cop handle it.
Not enough drug addiction funding,
let's give it to the cops.
Here in Dallas, we have a loose dog problem.
Let's have the cops chase loose dogs.
Schools fail, give it to the cops.
Policing was never meant to solve all those problems."
This is one point where police
and activists looking to defund or abolish the police
actually agree.
Policing will never be able
to solve these societal problems.
That's why the move to defund the police
doesn't just mean getting rid of policing as we know it.
It means reinvesting
in solutions that prioritize de-escalation,
mental health needs,
and building safer communities through long-term investment,
none of which will ever make for great TV,
unless it's like a 'Parks and [Recreation]' reboot.
Expecting police in our cities
to be like the ones we see on TV simply isn't realistic,
and turning to them as our only solution for any grievance,
criminal or otherwise, is undoubtedly leading to harm.
Coming up with solutions that keep all of us safe
and acknowledging these disparities
can start with ending our cultural obsession with copaganda
and romanticizing police on TV.
Thanks for tuning in, I'm Franchesca Ramsey.
We'll see you next time right here on Decoded.