Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 4014 AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: MARCH 2016 Police take cop shows very seriously. As a matter of fact it’s not uncommon to hear an offi- cer or deputy or trooper say they wanted to come on the job because they watched the show Adam-12 as a kid. Or consider the fact that the auditorium at the LAPD Academy is not named for a cop, but for a guy that played one on TV named Jack Webb. Webb was the star and producer of the police pro- cedural drama Dragnet. That program set the bar for cop shows, and not much changed between the 50’s and the 80’s. Then Hill St. Blues changed everything. Some of us can still picture Sergeant Phil Esterhaus at the end of the shift briefing saying, “And let’s be careful out there.” Depicting life inside and out of a down and dirty Midwest police precinct, the show was slow to catch on – partially due to the fact that people didn’t know what to make of it. Shortly thereafter it was the jewel in the crown of NBC. Dragnet was known for its famous “Just the facts Ma’am,” catch phrase. Hill Street was the show that hu- manized police officers by creating believable, imper- fect and three-dimensional characters. If you’re old enough to remember watching the show before cable and cell phones, you can probably even recall your favorite character. For many it was Bruce Weitz playing the fear- less undercover detective The TV show that made cops human “Before I get to the last item, I’d like to interject a personal observation. Seems we’ve reached a new low, graffiti-wise, in the men’s and women’s lavatories. Now, as an organization of mature men and women, I suggest that we clean up our act, our vocabulary, at the very least, our spelling. To the anonymous bathroom poet, breast is generally spelled: b r e A s t.” – Sgt. Phil Esterhaus, pictured above. Below, Bruce Peter Weitz as Sgt. Michael “Mick” Belke and Dennis Franz of “NYPD Blue” fame. Sit down, dog breath! Bruce Peter Weitz as Sgt. Michael “Mick” Belke was one of the most entertaining characters in the history of television Sgt. Mick Belker. For others it was James Sikking, playing an out- of-his element SWAT Lt. named Howard Hunter. So how did the creators of Hill St. Blues manage to change the cop show top to bottom? There’s no question that books by cops-turned-au- thors like Joseph Wam- baugh, had a major impact. Wambaugh’s books are populated not by flawless heroes in blue, but rather by flawed and funny human beings painted in shades of gray. Pretty much every re- alistic cop show ever since, like Homicide, Life on the Street, The Wire, and NYPD Blue, owe their very exis- tence to writers like Joseph Wambaugh as well as Steven Bochco and the creators of Hill Street Blues. Hill St. Blues changed the game entirely After a recent sting opera- tion focusing on discrimina- tion involving taxi drivers at the Los Angeles Airport, the Los Angeles City Council moved to increase penalties for taxi drivers who face complaints of discrimina- tion for refusing to pick up an airport passenger on the basis of race. The committee’s decision was the result of a recent undercover operation by two black police officers. Those officers found that airport taxi drivers rejected 20 percent of their requests for rides. Blumenfield pro- posed the policy change. He also pushed to continue the undercover stings for a year to gather better data on racial discrimination. ESPN analyst Doug Glan- ville wrote an essay last fall for the Atlantic magazine’s website, saying a taxi driver refused to give him a ride because he is black. LAPD sting targets airport discrimination