A number of shows have put forth a kind of factory system where you have a bunch of detectives working under a lieutenant, who's the highest ranking police personnel that most of them have regular contact with. That's the setup you see on NYPD Blue, Homicide: Life on the Street, and most of the Law & Order shows. Inevitably there's friction with people who are still higher up, but in the main the lieutenants are the unquestioned bosses.
On the other hand Columbo was a lieutenant and while he was ultimately brilliant, most of the murderers he nabbed started out with the impression that he was just a schlub that the department had sent to do busywork. Did the man even have an office? In a perhaps similar vein Lt. Randy Disher on Monk was mostly just a goofy sidekick to his captain, both of whom relied on their basket case consultant.
There are other variations. Barney Miller has basically the same job as the TV-average lieutenant, but he's a captain. Nash Bridges is an inspector―one down from commissioner―and he spends all his time doing regular action-cop stuff with Cheech Marin. Speaking of commissioners, in anything Bat-related Jim Gordon runs the whole Gotham PD but puts in personal appearances at crime scenes.
These examples are all from American media because that's where I've noticed these discrepancies. British police forces have bureaucratic-sounding titles like DC and DI. It sounds more orderly but whether it solves all the ambiguity I don't know. Am interested in finding out.
2 comments:
It's very good to hear you're getting on with writing your mystery novel. I imagine it's impossible to leave the police department out of the action completely but now I'm wondering if it's to be what's called a police procedural or a mystery involving a private detective. As a longtime fan of mystery novels I know there are many ways to go with an idea such as this.
As far as the pecking order in fictionalized stories I'm sure you're right that it's a matter of the author choosing to portray the departments in different ways. It likely wouldn't take much of a google search as even wikipedia would be able to explain who's resposible for what in reality - including the local Sheriff's departments.
Your examples of how the chain of command operates in the different tv shows is pretty entertaining. The setup in The Wire was very much like the one in NYPD Blue along with the inevitable frictions with the brass.
We also noticed the discrepancy with Columbo as a lieutenant who never appreared to have any boss or to be anyone's boss - other than the fact everbody at the crime scene deferred to him. He did have a private office in one episode, a brief scene in a very nondescript building.
I'd never even heard of Nash Bridges but it's good to know Cheech was still getting work. Gotham is definitely a totally unique territory and anything that goes on there is of a piece.
The ranks of the British police are pretty familiar to me since I've read so many procedurals - Inspector Frost is definitely very entertaining in that most villainous town in the UK, Denton. Things get equally interesting when you start reading mystery stories set in countries further afield.
Good luck with your research as well as the writing.
(Just had to remind Blogger that I was already signed into Google. Weird.)
It's coming along. You're right that it would be hard to keep the police department out of it entirely. Unless the culprit was going to be punished on an unofficial basis of one kind or another. Anyway, it's not a police procedural, but there are two or three prominent police characters. There's a private detective, but the twist is in who he works with. I'll leave it there for now.
Sheriffs and deputies is a pretty straightforward system. That's part of county government. As far as municipal police go I think in practice there's a lot of variation. Writers probably do just pick whatever is most convenient for their story.
The Wire is an interesting case because it relies on representatives from several different divisions working together. Lots of chance for conflict there.
Police officers knew to defer to Columbo's experience. In one of the best episodes the commissioner kills his wife(!) and in an act that can only be seen as hubris requests that Columbo lead the case. I think I remember the scene you're talking about and yes, the HQ was quite nondescript.
Cheech turned out to be pretty adaptable as an actor. I think Tommy Chong eventually made kind of a comeback as well. Gotham is pretty much an expressionist exaggeration of New York.
In both the books and the television series Jack Frost is a very decorated officer, despite his being the kind to clash with his superiors. It's interesting territory.
I feel like I've gotten enough research to at least fake it till I make it. That's the goal.
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