Cop drama for 21st century
Despite its fantastic concept, new US police series is actually based on a true story, finds
In the new police drama APB – short for ‘‘all points bulletin’’, a police general radio call – a billionaire is given control of the failing infrastructure of a Chicago police precinct in the hope that technology can do what government was failing at.
The first reaction that you have to the premise – that it’s plainly absurd – doesn’t hold water. In fact, it is based on a true story, that of New Orleans tech billionaire Sidney Torres, who persuaded that city to let him try and help combat crime.
In New Orleans’ case, what was at stake was the French Quarter: the area of roughly 78 city blocks that is the focal point of the city’s US$6.7 billion tourism industry.
Torres, whose company IV Capital owns SDT Waste and Debris Services, somewhat controversially offered this to The New York Times about the change of strategy: ‘‘I’m handling crime the same way I did trash.’’
The question the series then asks is: With unlimited money to invest in infrastructure, could you fundamentally change how law enforcement works and, more importantly, could you improve its ability to keep crime in check and the streets safe?
That brave new world – of hitech policing and electronic surveillance – is not just coming, says actor Ernie Hudson, who plays APB‘ s chief cop, Sergeant Ed Conrad, it is largely already here.
Hudson says the questions the series asks about surveillance, law enforcement and freedom are almost overwhelming.
‘‘I feel things are already happening, [so] I try to surrender and just go with the flow,’’ Hudson says. ‘‘Because it’s not going to become less, we’re already in it now. We’ll see how it kind of unfolds.’’
The tone of the series, he adds, isn’t so much hopeful, as practical.
‘‘It is what it is,’’ Hudson says. ‘‘I mean, it’s something that’s coming. So, now [it’s a question of] whether we’ll make the proper adjustments to make it work for our benefit, or whether we will allow other people to control it.
‘‘I look at our criminal justice system and things have sort of moved in a way that we sit back and let other people take control,’’ Hudson says. ‘‘And as a result you end up with something you had no idea [you would]. So whether or not people will demand certain safeguards has yet to be seen, but it’s coming.’’
In APB, actor Justin Kirk plays the fictional billionaire Gideon Reeves, Australian actress Caitlin Stasey plays his girlfriend Ada Hamilton and Natalie Martinez plays one of the lead cops, Detective Amelia Murphy.
‘‘The show deals with what one man, with kind of unlimited resources, you know, can do,’’ says Hudson. ‘‘But it’s at least a man with good intentions, you know, [and] even those have consequences.’’
Hudson’s character Ed Conrad is initially sceptical of the idea.
‘‘He’s sceptical in a sense of not sure what... it will lead to,’’ he says. ‘‘He knows what it possibly could lead to. He knows the importance of protocol and procedure, but he also recognises the need for change. I think that’s really what we’re talking about.’’
The series is filmed in Chicago where, Hudson concedes, there is a genuine concern about the inability of the policing infrastructure to tackle what is being presented to them on a daily basis.
‘‘What’s happening in the streets there, it’s just crazy,’’ Hudson says. ‘‘At some point we have to deal with it. We can’t pretend that what’s working is working, when it’s not. On the other hand, [when] you bring in the tanks and all the military stuff, what do we end up with?’’
Hudson’s credits include a raft of police roles, Winston Zeddemore in the Ghostbusters film series and Warden Leo Glynn on HBO’s Oz. The last of those is significant because of the often unacknowledged role Oz played in lifting the bar for American television.
As HBO’s first high-end hourlong drama, Ozshattered the perception of what was achievable. Though the series, which was set in a men’s prison, was often confrontational, its indelible mark is seen in almost everything that has followed.
‘‘I think the rawness of it [was its greatest strength],’’ says Hudson. ‘‘I’m really proud to have been a part of it. There was a certain kind of integrity that’s there that, talking to people who are part of the prison population, a lot of the wardens and officers, was something about the show that they responded to.’’ – Fairfax
begins screening on TVNZ1 at 8.30pm on Monday, February 27.