TV directors should cop on
SUPPOSEDLY realistic police dramas on TV have already presented some frankly ludicrous scenarios so far this year, so may I, in the spirit of authenticity, respectfully offer the following observations to writers, directors and actors.
If a female officer is pregnant, she immediately goes on protected duties. She is not sent out to pursue murderers and violent thugs.
‘Blues and twos’ [flashing lights and two-tone siren] are to clear the way in an emergency, not for use on deserted farm tracks or empty country roads, no matter how dramatic this appears. They are also not used when pulling up at a suspect’s front door, as the criminals will simply nip out the back.
If you call a firearms team to search a building for a dangerous suspect, they do it. They are not led by the star detectives, waving handguns and wearing natty designer bulletproof vests.
Similarly, professional standards officers do not go about brandishing pistols and shooting at gangsters.
Detectives on major inquiries dress smartly. It may seem cool for TV if they do otherwise, but it is downright disrespectful to interview victims’ grieving relatives in clothes you might wear to the local dump.
Uniformed officers often play a significant part in a major inquiry. They are not just there to make the tea or stand woodenly at the back of an interview room. They are ‘officers’, not ‘uniforms’.
If your spouse (current or ex), sibling, mum, dad or neighbour is a victim/suspect/ accused in a serious crime inquiry, you will not be investigating it. There is a conflict of interest.
And, finally (for now), the bad guy at the end of a whodunit doesn’t always have to be a cop. In real life, they almost never are. FRED McMANUS, by email.