Lights, camera, action: LE in movies and TV

June 17, 2015
Police are ready for their close-ups

Police stories are a staple of movies and TV shows. Just look at the networks’ weekly lineup or the latest hit movies, and they are full of police procedurals, crime and courtroom dramas.

Even in other kinds of movies police, crime scenes, accidents, etc. are featured prominently. In fact, it’s hard to watch anything that doesn’t have one or more scenes involving law enforcement in some way.

Why police?

Imagine a new movie set in and around a laundromat. Not very exciting, right?

Storytelling is all about conflict—even for comedies—so when producers are deciding on a new movie or TV show they want to set it in an environment that is filled with conflict.

What better place to set a story than in and around a police department? Some of television’s best shows have been set in PDs (“NYPD Blue,” “Law and Order”), and some of the greatest movies have had crime and law enforcement as a backdrop (“The Godfather,” “Lethal Weapon,” “Beverly Hills Cop” and the list goes on and on).

Face it: crime shows are here to stay, and will continue to be immensely popular.

Cinematic license

But very few police shows are 100 percent realistic. Look at the way “CSI” made the grunt work of forensic analysis interesting and even sexy. Because movies and TV shows are first and foremost entertainment, correct police procedure often take a backseat to something that is more interesting in the scene.

Many officers complain that these shows get so much wrong, but the reality is that they are meant to be entertaining, not documentaries. Even so-called reality programs take some artistic license; so you can bet that scripted entertainment makes changes to make things more entertaining ... even if realism suffers.

The experts who work with producers acknowledge that most producers, directors, and actors want to get it as right as possible. “If you watch movies or TV shows before the mid 90’s, the tactics and police procedures were pretty bad and not very realistic,” says Jamie McBride, Detective II, Los Angeles Police Department, who has worked on a number of shoots. “But now you have movies and police shows that look great. Everything from the uniforms and police jargon to tactics. You can tell that the producers and directors want to get it right and make it feel real.”

One of the reasons Jaime FitzSimons, a commander with the Summit County Sheriff’s Office (Colo.) got involved with movie and TV show production was to help get things right. “Cops are extremely critical of cop stuff and when I had the opportunity to chime in on how cop stuff should be done, I jumped at it,” he says. “There is now a real interest in portraying law enforcement the way it really is, as opposed to the “Charlie’s Angels” style. I think they got it so wrong because no one ever asked.

“There are certain things that have been established in Hollywood and they are accepted by the public as the norm,” he continues. “Cops in movies, when they show up at a crime scene, you will see them with their lights and radios on. Realistically, you wouldn’t see that at a crime scene, but it looks great in the scene. The movies are a whole different world. You need to establish a relationship with the director, the actors and the producers because they are the people you are working for. As for sacrificing things for the big screen, there are always compromises. You have to choose your battles, understand the director’s vision, and understand why some things have to be compromised.”

Police involvement

Any and all real movies and TV shows have some kind of police involvement, whether it is a requirement for permits, security, facility use, vehicle use, technical advice or cops as extras. In many cases police departments will allow production companies to shoot in their facilities or use their officers, vehicles and even uniforms on shoots.

“When we get asked to participate, I think it’s important that we do and we work to ensure accuracy,” says FitzSimons. “People are enthralled with the movie business, and if you get sucked down the rabbit hole and become a fan, not a consultant, you do a disservice to the project and to law enforcement. You can’t lose perspective.”

Wilmington, NC is a major spot for movie and TV show production because EUE Screengems studio is there (formerly Carolco), and the Wilmington Police Department does quite a bit of work with production companies.

“We have had everything from the TV series “Matlock” with Andy Griffith, “Dawson’s Creek,” “One Tree Hill,” right now “Under the Dome” is filming, and “Sleepy Hollow” was here for the first two seasons,” says Sgt. Warren Kennedy, Professional Development Unit, Wilmington Police Department. “We love the TV and movie industry being here. We’ve found that the industry is so professional. You might have to detour traffic a little bit, but they also contribute to the economy. I have 30 years in law enforcement and I never heard police officers view production as a disruption. The production companies hire off-duty officers to work security or barricades; sometimes officers are tapped to be extras or technical consultants. In “One Tree Hill,” they brought in specialists for an active shooter scenario and they ended up using all real officers to play the SWAT team.

“The City of Wilmington rents their cars, uniforms and even their facilities for productions all the time, and productions use our police officers all the time,” he continues. “It’s also a lot of fun to work on a movie set. Most movies have crime scenes in them and production companies need officers. Every movie I go see, they make mistakes in police procedure. What we do is not glamorous, so they have to Hollywood it. We give them our best advice, and then they can either take it or decide to do it another way.”

Getting involved, getting it right

Working on film projects is lucrative for police departments and the officers who work on the projects, and it’s an opportunity to help the production team get it right.

The most important thing is to evaluate the people working on the project, because a movie or TV is a bit like the circus coming to town. “You don’t really know what element is going to show up, as it all depends on the topic of the movie, who is producing it, who is starring in it,” says Kennedy. “It’s worthwhile to open the door and if you need us, we are there for them. We need to forge the relationship.”

“Most police departments embrace working with production companies,” says LAPD’s McBride. “They have an opportunity to project a positive image for police. As an example, when ‘Adam 12’ came out in the late 1960’s, it was great for the LAPD’s image. The Department really backed the show and it was probably the most realistic cop show on during that time.”

It takes a special kind of person to liaise between law enforcement and entertainment. “It’s all about relationships and compromise, it’s people skills and the ability to network,” says Summit County Sheriff’s FitzSimons. “I don’t think just anyone can do this. It’s a completely different world. You have to have the skill to go between those two worlds.”

The CSI effect

In the court system, lawyers and judges have long complained about the “CSI Effect,” where jurors are so used to seeing DNA evidence presented in TV shows and believe they understand the ins and outs of forensics, DNA, fingerprints and other types of evidence, they now expect every case to have at least some forensic component. If the case doesn’t, these “CSI” jurors think either something is wrong or the defendant is not guilty.“

Jurors are so sophisticated now that they assume that if there are no forensics, it’s a weak case,” says Paul Dowling, executive producer and creator of “Forensic Files.” “Since they know you can do DNA on cigarettes, they wonder why the prosecutor didn’t test that cigarette. One of the by-products of these shows is that they have created the expectation that any decent investigation should have forensics, but not all of them do. Some are circumstantial.”

Television programs and movies, by their very nature, have to condense complex cases into manageable shows, and information is presented in logical, easy to follow ways so viewers don’t get confused. Most cases don’t fit into neat blocks of time and are not logical or easy to follow, which can be frustrating for normal people.“

At the end of the day the CSI programs are TV shows that are there to entertain,” explains Jonathan Littman, an executive producer of “CSI.” “Our primary job is to entertain an audience.”

FitzSimons has seen this first-hand. “People have always been interested in cops; they are interested in what we do,” he says.

”We have a front row seat for the best and worst of people’s lives. There are so many interesting vignettes that can unfold in a TV show or movie. It works against us because there are so many shows out there that are so unrealistic. In a court room, the jury expects things to unfold the way they do on TV, and it can be problematic in the court room to educate them about the realities.”

The future

Stories about crime and the police have always been popular, since “Dragnet” and “The Maltese Falcon,” and are likely to remain so. Packed with drama and conflict, they will always be popular and produced. We in law enforcement need to help make these stories as realistic as possible, realizing that these are fictional stories and cinematic license will always be taken.

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