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60-478: The Gentle Touch is a British police procedural drama series made by London Weekend Television for ITV which began on 11 April 1980 and ran until 24 November 1984. The series is notable for being the first British series to feature a female police officer as its leading character, ahead of the similarly themed BBC series Juliet Bravo by four months. The series starred Jill Gascoine as Detective Inspector Maggie Forbes, who has worked her way up through

120-461: A more original approach. Still others, like Eddie Sullivan's and Charlie Schmidt's Radio Patrol and Will Gould's Red Barry , steered a middle course. One of the best post- Tracy procedural comics was Kerry Drake , written and created by Allen Saunders and illustrated by Alfred Andriola . It diverged from the metropolitan settings used in Tracy to tell the story of the titular Chief Investigator for

180-627: A necessary decision made in the general interest . A report by Color of Change Hollywood and the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center revealed that police procedural shows were normalizing unjust practices such as illegal searches , surveillance , coercion , intimidation , violence , abuse , and racism . Criticisms have been raised against the genre for its unrealistic depiction of crime. Particularly, police procedurals have been accused of possessing an unrealistic preoccupation with incidents such as homicide and terrorism . In

240-673: A new edition of the Mystery Writer's Handbook , the MWA's guide for aspiring mystery writers, first published in 1956. As a member of the League of American Writers , he served on its Keep America Out of War Committee in January 1940 during the period of the Hitler-Stalin pact . He died on January 7, 1998, in his hometown of Martha's Vineyard , Massachusetts at the age of 94. This article about

300-433: A police procedural is the attempt to accurately depict law enforcement and its procedures, including police-related topics such as forensic science , autopsies , gathering evidence , search warrants , interrogation , and adherence to legal restrictions and procedures. While many police procedurals conceal the criminal's identity until the crime is solved in the narrative climax (the so-called whodunit ), others reveal

360-513: A rookie police officer learns to cope with the physical, emotional, and mental stresses of law enforcement during her first patrol assignment. With superheroes having long dominated the comic book market, there have been some recent attempts to integrate elements of the police procedural into the universe of costumed crime-fighters. Gotham Central , for example, depicts a group of police detectives operating in Batman 's Gotham City , and suggested that

420-572: A similar British TV series, Fabian of the Yard , Creasey decided to try a more down-to-earth series of cop stories. Adopting the pseudonym "J.J. Marric", he wrote Gideon's Day , 1955, in which George Gideon , a high-ranking detective at Scotland Yard, spends a busy day supervising his subordinates' investigations into several unrelated crimes. This novel was the first in a series of more than twenty books which brought Creasey his best critical notices. One entry, Gideon's Fire , 1961, won an Edgar Award from

480-561: A slightly fictionalized New York City, have been filmed in settings outside New York, even outside the US. Akira Kurosawa 's 1963 film, High and Low , based on McBain's King's Ransom (1959), is set in Yokohama . Without Apparent Motive (1972), set on the French Riviera , is based on McBain's Ten Plus One (1963). Claude Chabrol 's Les Liens de Sang (1978), based on Blood Relatives (1974),

540-517: A strong focus on the lead character, but the novels have always included subordinate members of his staff as supporting characters. Simenon, who had been a journalist covering police investigations before creating Maigret, gave the appearance of an accurate depiction of law enforcement in Paris. Simenon influenced later European procedural writers, such as Sweden's Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö , and Baantjer . Perhaps ranking just behind McBain in importance to

600-540: Is Hillary Waugh 's Last Seen Wearing... 1952. Even earlier examples from the 20th century, predating Treat, include the novels Vultures in the Dark , 1925, and The Borrowed Shield , 1925, by Richard Enright , retired New York City Police Commissioner , Harness Bull , 1937, and Homicide , 1937, by former Southern California police officer Leslie T. White , P.C. Richardson's First Case , 1933, by Sir Basil Thomson , former Assistant Commissioner of Scotland Yard , and

660-403: Is considered to be a male-dominant genre which very often portrays the masculine hero dedicated to the professional realm. The introduction of women as protagonists is commonly attributed to either adding sexual appeal , introducing gendered issues like investigating sex crimes , or delving into the personal relationships of the characters. It also often portrays rape myths , such as that rape

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720-434: Is less to show how cops work on the job, than how the job works on cops. It is difficult to disentangle the early roots of the procedural from its forebear, the traditional detective novel, which often featured a police officer as protagonist. By and large, the better known novelists such as Ngaio Marsh produced work that falls more squarely into the province of the traditional or "cozy" detective novel. Nevertheless, some of

780-405: Is more often committed by strangers rather than a known acquaintance of the victim, that the majority of rape claims are false, and that rapes only happen to "bad girls". The portrayal of the criminal justice system also under-represents issues of race and institutional racism . A report by Color of Change Hollywood and the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center identified that in these shows there

840-872: Is set in Montreal . Even Fuzz (1972), based on the 1968 novel, though set in the US, moves the action to Boston . Two episodes of ABC's Columbo , set in Los Angeles, were based on McBain novels. A prolific author of police procedurals, whose work has fallen out of fashion in the years since her death, is Elizabeth Linington writing under her own name, as well as "Dell Shannon" and "Lesley Egan". Linington reserved her Dell Shannon pseudonym primarily for procedurals featuring LAPD Central Homicide Lieutenant Luis Mendoza (1960–86). Under her own name she wrote about Sergeant Ivor Maddox of LAPD's North Hollywood Station, and as Lesley Egan she wrote about suburban cop Vic Varallo. These novels are sometimes considered flawed, partly due to

900-480: The 87th Precinct series beginning with Cop Hater , published in 1956. Hunter continued to write 87th Precinct novels almost until his death in 2005. Although these novels focus primarily on Detective Steve Carella, they encompass the work of many officers working alone and in teams, and Carella is not always present in any individual book. As if to illustrate the universality of the police procedural, many of McBain's 87th Precinct novels, despite their being set in

960-515: The Big Boy , was based on Ness's real-life nemesis Al Capone. Other members of Tracy's Rogues Gallery , like Boris Arson, Flattop Jones , and Maw Famon, were inspired, respectively, by John Dillinger , Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd , and Kate "Ma" Barker . Once Tracy was sold to the Chicago Tribune syndicate, Gould enrolled in a criminology class at Northwestern University , met with members of

1020-595: The Chicago Police Department , and did research at the department's crime lab, to make his depiction of law enforcement more authentic. Ultimately, he hired retired Chicago policeman Al Valanis, a pioneering forensic sketch artist, as both an artistic assistant and police technical advisor. The success of Tracy led to many more police strips. While some, like Norman Marsh's Dan Dunn were unabashedly slavish imitations of Tracy , others, like Dashiell Hammett 's and Alex Raymond 's Secret Agent X-9 , took

1080-493: The London Metropolitan Police . The West novels were, for the era, an unusually realistic look at Scotland Yard operations, but the plots were often wildly melodramatic, and, to get around thorny legal problems, Creasey gave West an "amateur detective" friend who was able to perform the extra-procedural acts that West, as a policeman, could not. In the mid-1950s, inspired by the success of television's Dragnet and

1140-500: The Mystery Writers of America for Best Mystery Novel. The Gideon series, more than any other source, helped establish the common procedural plot structure of threading several autonomous story lines through a single novel. Hillary Waugh , in 1952, wrote Last Seen Wearing ... , a commercial and critical success, exploring detailed and relentless police work. Ed McBain, the pseudonym of Evan Hunter , wrote dozens of novels in

1200-518: The District Attorney of a small-town jurisdiction. Later, following a personal tragedy, he leaves the DA's Office and joins his small city's police force in order to fight crime closer to the grass roots level. As both a DA's man and a city cop, he fights a string of flamboyant, Gould-ian criminals like "Stitches", "Bottleneck", and "Bulldozer". Other syndicated police strips include Zane Grey 's King of

1260-547: The Metropolitan Police. One semidocumentary, He Walked By Night (1948), released by Eagle-Lion Films , featured a young radio actor named Jack Webb in a supporting role. The success of the film, along with a suggestion from LAPD Detective Sergeant Marty Wynn, the film's technical advisor , gave Webb an idea for a radio drama that depicted police work in a similarly semi-documentary manner. The resulting series, Dragnet , which debuted on radio in 1949 and made

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1320-457: The Mystery Writers of America in 1971. The books were translated from Swedish into 35 different languages, and have sold roughly ten million copies. Sjöwall and Wahlöö used black humour extensively in the series, and it is widely recognised as one of the finest police procedural series. Tony Hillerman , the author of 17 novels involving Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, wrote procedurals in which

1380-565: The National Murder Squad, and the realistic depiction, as well as criticism of the Swedish welfare state at the time whilst the tedium of the police procedural continues in the background, is something still widely used today, with authors such as Jo Nesbø and Stieg Larsson . The books gave rise to the Swedish noir scene, and The Laughing Policeman earned a "Best Novel" Edgar Award from

1440-483: The Royal Mounted , depicting police work in the contemporary Canadian Northwest, Lank Leonard's Mickey Finn , which emphasized the home life of a hard-working cop, and Dragnet , which adapted stories from the pioneering radio-TV series into comics. Early comic books with police themes tended to be reprints of syndicated newspaper strips like Tracy and Drake . Others adapted police stories from other mediums, like

1500-520: The United States to write full-time. In a career that would span over seventy years, Treat wrote several hundred short stories for mystery magazines and other publications. He was a founding member of the Mystery Writers of America and a two-time winner of the MWA's Edgar Award . His first award came in 1965, for the short story "H as in Homicide"; his second was a Special Edgar Award in 1978 for editing

1560-570: The United States, plot points involving murder investigations appear at more frequent rates than those involving theft , substance abuse , or domestic violence , which citizens are more likely to personally experience. Police procedurals have additionally portrayed attempted terrorism incidents at unrealistically high rates since the September 11 attacks and the start of the war on terror , prompting accusations of racial profiling and fear-mongering . The manner in which crime has been portrayed in

1620-484: The author's far-right political viewpoint (she was a member of the John Birch Society ), but primarily because Miss Linington's books, notwithstanding the frequent comments she made about the depth of her research, were all seriously deficient in the single element most identified with the police procedural, technical accuracy. However, they have a certain charm in their depiction of a kinder, gentler California, where

1680-524: The caped crime-fighter is disliked by many Gotham detectives for treading on their toes. Meanwhile, Metropolis SCU tells the story of the Special Crimes Unit, an elite squad of cops in the police force serving Superman 's Metropolis . The use of police procedural elements in superhero comics can partly be attributed to the success of Kurt Busiek 's groundbreaking 1994 series Marvels , and his subsequent Astro City work, both of which examine

1740-439: The center of the story, showing exclusively their vision of the world. This approach has been denounced as enforcing the idea that the life and views of policemen are more important than the ones of the communities being policed. In police procedurals, police officers are more often than not presented as the "good guys" or even close to superhuman, leading to a potentially biased narrative. Illegal practices are often presented as

1800-582: The detectives in Powers were "normal" (unpowered) humans dealing with super-powered crime, Alan Moore and Gene Ha 's Top 10 mini-series, published by America's Best Comics in 2000–01, centered around the super-powered police force in a setting where powers are omnipresent. The comic detailed the lives and work of the police force of Neopolis, a city in which everyone, from the police and criminals to civilians, children and even pets, has super-powers, colourful costumes and secret identities. The police procedural

1860-618: The development of the police procedural. Dragnet marked a turn in the depiction of the police on screen. Instead of being corrupt laughingstocks, this was the first time police officers represented bravery and heroism . In their quest for authenticity, Dragnet 's producers used real police cars and officers in their scenes. However, this also meant that in exchange, the LAPD could vet scripts for authenticity. The LAPD vetted every scene, which would allow them to remove elements they did not agree with or did not wish to draw attention to. Over

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1920-456: The development of the procedural as a distinct mystery subgenre is John Creasey , a prolific writer of many different kinds of crime fiction, from espionage to criminal protagonist. He was inspired to write a more realistic crime novel when his neighbor, a retired Scotland Yard detective, challenged Creasey to "write about us as we are". The result was Inspector West Takes Charge , 1940, the first of more than forty novels to feature Roger West of

1980-400: The form, like Hillary Waugh , Ed McBain , and John Creasey started to appear regularly. In 1956, in his regular New York Times Book Review column, mystery critic Anthony Boucher , noting the growing popularity of crime fiction in which the main emphasis was the realistic depiction of police work, suggested that such stories constituted a distinct subgenre of the mystery, and, crediting

2040-402: The genre has been facing increased scrutiny. As a result, some television networks have been making an effort to address and correct the aforementioned criticism. In August 2020, it was announced that CBS writing staff would partner with 21CP Solutions, an advisory group on public safety and law enforcement , on the network's legal dramas and police procedurals. CBS producers stated that

2100-435: The lives of homicide detectives as they investigated superhero-related cases. Bendis's success has led both Marvel Comics and DC Comics to begin their own superhero-themed police procedurals ( District X and the aforementioned Gotham Central ), which focus on how the job of a police officer is affected by such tropes as secret identities, superhuman abilities, costumes, and the near-constant presence of vigilantes . While

2160-510: The media has subsequently been linked with discrepancies both in popular perception of crime rates , as well as sentencing . In a 2005 study conducted on the German public , it was found that despite a decline in total offences between 1992 and 2003, "the German public believes or assumes, on balance, that crime has increased". It has been further posited that the distorted public perception arising from

2220-613: The mid-1880s. Wilkie Collins 's novel The Moonstone (1868), a tale of a Scotland Yard detective investigating the theft of a valuable diamond, has been described as perhaps the earliest clear example of the genre. As detective fiction rose to worldwide popularity in the late 19th century and early 20th century, many of the pioneering and most popular characters, at least in the English-speaking world, were private investigators or amateurs. See C. Auguste Dupin , Sherlock Holmes , Sam Spade , Miss Marple and others. Hercule Poirot

2280-557: The more action-oriented spin-off series C.A.T.S. Eyes (also created by Terence Feely ), concerning a specialised team of female detectives in Kent who covertly work for the Home Office . C.A.T.S. Eyes lasted three series from 1985 to 1987. The complete series is available on DVD in the UK in five series sets from Network. Police procedural As its name implies, the defining element of

2340-554: The next few years, the number of novelists who picked up on the procedural trend following Dragnet 's example grew to include writers like Ben Benson, who wrote carefully researched novels about the Massachusetts State Police , retired police officer Maurice Procter , who wrote a series about North England cop Harry Martineau , and Jonathan Craig, who wrote short stories and novels about New York City police officers. Police novels by writers who would come to virtually define

2400-422: The perpetrator's identity to the audience early in the narrative, making it an inverted detective story . The police procedural genre has faced criticism for its inaccurate depictions of policing and crime, depictions of racism and sexism, and allegations that the genre is " copaganda ", or promotes a one-sided depiction of police as the "good guys". The roots of the police procedural have been traced to at least

2460-507: The plodding nature of the investigators. For details see the PhD dissertation by Antony Stephenson (2019). The comic strip Dick Tracy is often pointed to as an early procedural. Tracy creator Chester Gould seemed to be trying to reflect the real world. Tracy himself, conceived by Gould as a "modern-day Sherlock Holmes ", was partly modeled on real-life law enforcer Eliot Ness. Tracy's first, and most frequently recurring, antagonist,

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2520-566: The police were always "good guys" who solved all the crimes and respected the citizenry. Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö planned and wrote the Martin Beck police procedural series of ten books between the 1960s and 1970s, set in Sweden . The series is particularly renowned for its extensive character development throughout the series. Beck himself is gradually promoted from detective in a newly nationalised Swedish police force to Chief Inspector of

2580-539: The popularity of a number of American films which dramatized and fictionalized actual crimes. Dubbed " semidocumentary films" by film critics, these motion pictures, often filmed on location, with the cooperation of the law enforcement agencies involved in the actual case, made a point of authentically depicting police work. Examples include The Naked City (1948), The Street with No Name (1948), T-Men (1947), He Walked by Night (1948), and Border Incident (1949). Films from other countries soon began following

2640-408: The prevalence of police procedurals has been a factor in influencing sentencing rates. Countries such as the US, UK and Germany—while experiencing declines in crime rates—reported increases in the volume and severity of incarceration . Alongside protests against police brutality in the United States and abroad, and debates on the role of entertainment in the portrayal of law enforcement in society,

2700-565: The procedures were those of the Navajo Tribal Police . Though not the first police officer to write procedurals, Joseph Wambaugh 's success has caused him to become the exemplar of cops who turn their professional experiences into fiction. The son of a Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , policeman, Wambaugh joined the Los Angeles Police Department after a stint of military duty. In 1970, his first novel, The New Centurions ,

2760-431: The radio-inspired anthology comic Gang Busters , Dell's 87th Precinct issues, which adapted McBain's novels, or The Untouchables , which adapted the fictionalized TV adventures of real-life policeman Eliot Ness. More recently, there have been attempts to depict police work with the kind of hard-edged realism seen in the novels of writers like Wambaugh, such as Marvel's four-issue mini-series Cops: The Job , in which

2820-509: The ranks of the police force and is based at the fictional Seven Dials police station in London . Maggie's husband, a police constable , is murdered during the first episode, leaving her to juggle her career with single parenthood, raising her teenage son. The Gentle Touch largely dealt with routine police procedures and offered a frank depiction of relevant social issues (including racism, sexism, homosexuality, mental health and euthanasia ). It

2880-515: The semi-documentary trend. In France , there was Quai des orfevres (1947), released in the United States as Jenny Lamour . In Japanese cinema , there was Akira Kurosawa 's 1949 film Stray Dog , a serious police procedural film noir that was also a precursor to the buddy cop film genre. In the UK , there were films such as The Blue Lamp (1950) and The Long Arm (1956) set in London and depicting

2940-473: The short story collection Policeman's Lot , 1933, by former Buckinghamshire High Sheriff and Justice of the Peace Henry Wade . The procedural became more prominent after World War II , and, while the contributions of novelists like Treat were significant, a large part of the impetus for the post-war development of the procedural as a distinct subgenre of the mystery was due, not to prose fiction, but to

3000-668: The success of Dragnet for the rise of this new form, coined the phrase "police procedural" to describe it. As police procedurals became increasingly popular, they maintained this image of heroic police officers who are willing to bend the rules to save the day, as well as the use of police consultants . This would allow Hollywood to form a friendly relationship with law enforcement who are also responsible for granting shooting permits. This, however, has garnered criticisms. French roman policier (fr) value induction over deduction, synthesis of character over analysis of crime. The Inspector Maigret novels of Georges Simenon feature

3060-457: The team, including civil rights experts, lawyers and police veterans, would fix issues with CBS police procedurals to make them more realistic and accurate. As a result, the main objectives and partnership's attention is supposed to focus on an increase of inclusivity, diversity and authenticity in the production of police procedurals. Lawrence Treat Lawrence Arthur Goldstone (1903–1998), better known by his pen name, Lawrence Treat ,

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3120-476: The transition to television in 1951, has been called "the most famous procedural of all time" by mystery novelists William L. DeAndrea , Katherine V. Forrest and Max Allan Collins . The same year that Dragnet debuted on radio, Pulitzer Prize -winning playwright Sidney Kingsley 's stage play Detective Story opened on Broadway . This frank, carefully researched dramatization of a typical day in an NYPD precinct detective squad became another benchmark in

3180-463: The typical superhero universe from the viewpoint of the common man who witnesses the great dramas from afar, participating in them tangentially at best. In the wake of Busiek's success, many other writers mimicked his approach, with mixed results – the narrative possibilities of someone who does not get involved in drama are limited. In 2000, however, Image Comics published the first issue of Brian Michael Bendis 's comic Powers , which followed

3240-426: The work of authors less well known today, like Freeman Wills Crofts 's novels about Inspector French or some of the work of the prolific team of G.D.H. and Margaret Cole , might be considered as the antecedents of today's police procedural. British mystery novelist and critic Julian Symons , in his 1972 history of crime fiction, Bloody Murder , labeled these proto-procedurals "humdrums", because of their emphasis on

3300-473: Was a ratings success in the UK, where it was screened on Friday nights in a 9.00 p.m. slot (except for the final series which was shown on Saturday nights). One episode shown in January 1982 garnered over 18 million viewers and was the 5th most watched television programme in Britain that year. The Gentle Touch made Gascoine a household name, and ran for five series until 1984. Gascoine returned as Maggie Forbes in

3360-503: Was a severe lack of portrayal of racial bias in the criminal procedure, discussion about criminal justice reform , and victims who are women of color. There is also little representation of people of color in the creation of these shows. The police procedural genre is becoming increasingly popular and has accounted for about 22% of all scripted shows on US broadcast network in the last 10 years. This prevalence implies that viewers are often facing TV series that place police officers at

3420-611: Was an American mystery writer, a pioneer of the genre of novels that became known as police procedurals . Treat began his professional life as a lawyer, having attended Dartmouth College and Columbia Law School . When his law firm broke up in 1928, shortly after he had begun to work there, he traveled to Paris . A friend living in Brittany provided him with free room and board, and Goldstone decided to settle down and teach himself to write. His knowledge of law led him to try his hand at crime writing. He sold his very first novel and returned to

3480-575: Was described as a veteran of the Belgian police, but as a protagonist he worked independently. Only after World War II would police procedural fiction rival the popularity of PIs or amateur sleuths. Lawrence Treat 's 1945 novel V as in Victim is often cited as the first police procedural, by Anthony Boucher (mystery critic for the New York Times Book Review ) among others. Another early example

3540-480: Was published. This followed three police officers through their training in the academy, their first few years on the street, culminating in the Watts riots of 1965. It was followed by such novels as The Blue Knight , 1971, The Choirboys , 1975, Hollywood Station , 2006, and acclaimed non-fiction books like The Onion Field , 1973, Lines and Shadows , 1984, and Fire Lover , 2002. Wambaugh has said that his main purpose

3600-455: Was relatively low on action and violence in comparison to previous classic crime series such as The Sweeney , opting for a more realistic and low key approach. Although the series mostly focused on Maggie's professional life in a male-dominated field, it also showed her home life with her elderly father George and her teenage son Steve. Occasionally, Maggie's romantic involvements were seen which sometimes clashed with her job. The Gentle Touch

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