Policing on prime-time: A comparison of television and real-world policing

Soulliere, Danielle M.

doi:10.1007/bf02885873

Cited by 11 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…There had been a number of important studies that examined the content of police related dramas (see Dominick, 1973;Eschholz, Mallard, & Flynn, 2004;Inciardi & Dee, 1987;Lichter & Lichter, 1983;Soulliere, 2004) and police reality shows (see Doyle, 2003;Oliver, 1994). There is, however, a need for more research within this area, especially given the proliferation of crime shows on television (Eschholz et al, 2004).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Public perceptions of police misconduct and discrimination: Examining the impact of media consumption

Dowler

Zawilski

2007

Journal of Criminal Justice

151

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Public perceptions of police misconduct and discrimination: Examining the impact of media consumption

Dowler

Zawilski

2007

Journal of Criminal Justice

151

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“…The belief that men and women bring different talents and skills to policing has been voiced in academic literature and popular culture (Bell, 1982;Horne, 1980;MacKinnon, 1989;Menkel-Meadow, 1989;Milton, 1972;Seagrave, 1995;Sherman, 1975;Soulliere, 2004) and is based on the premise that women police differently than men because of biological and socialization differences (Brizendine, 2006;Garcia, 2003;Grant, 2000;Martin & Jurik, 1996;Paoline & Terrill, 2004). Despite the significant amount of discussion about gender differences in policing, little empirical research exists which explores the ways in which gender impacts how police officers do their job, while also exploring the context of everyday police work.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Female officers and the ethic of care: Does officer gender impact police behaviors?

Rabe-Hemp

2008

Journal of Criminal Justice

169

137

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“…The Police are primarily a reactive organisation and are not often involved in self-initiated policing (Home Office, 2001). The depiction of policing in Police Ten 7 presents a more proactive version of policing than Soulliere's (2004) research which found that that 76% of criminal incidents depicted on…”

Section: Proactive and Reactive Policingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another important feature of reality-based policing programmes is that policing is presented as decidedly exciting, dangerous and action-packed (Prosise & Johnson, 2004, Soulliere, 2004. The promotion of police as traditional crime fighters (Mason, 2002), as opposed to being involved in the "softer" side of policing, conforms to crime fiction where car chases and danger are more frequently portrayed than the service oriented aspects of policing or paperwork.…”

Section: Research So Far: the Constructed Copmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This was based in part on Diary of a Police Officer (2001) research and utilised some of the roles or tasks which were discussed in that research as being common policing activities. The definitions for differentiating between reactive and proactive policing were modelled on Soulliere (2004) and research by Mastro and Robinson (2000) was utilised as a modelling tool for the general creation of some variables, for example the presence of foot or car pursuits. Other variables investigated were interactions between police and offenders including the presence of verbal and physical aggression.…”

Section: Coding Policingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reel Cops: Exploring the Representation of Policing on Police Ten 7

Podvoiskis¹

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<p>Cop shows have been a perennial on prime time television for the past fifty years. Over the past two decades, however, the increasing popularity of reality television means that it is now competing for ascendency with traditional police-centered “soap operas”. For example, at the time of writing a search of the television scheduling by genre on TVNZ on demand reveals 92 reality television programmes compared to 65 dramas, 36 comedies and 22 news programmes. New Zealand, despite its limited production capacity has also cashed in on reality television with recent New Zealand offerings including Motorway Patrol, Illegal NZ, Drug Bust and Emergency 111. The most popular, award winning reality crime programme currently screening on New Zealand television, now in its 20th season, is Police Ten 7. The principle research question driving this thesis is: “To what extent does Police Ten 7 reflect the actual reality of contemporary policing in New Zealand?” This research question was explored through a content analysis of the entire 2010 season of Police Ten 7, consisting of 15 episodes. To assess the extent to which Police Ten 7 reflects the known realities of policing, the content analysis was broken into three main components. The first examined the demographic makeup of police. The second explored types of offences and offenders featured and the third explored the types of police activities depicted on Police Ten 7. These were then contrasted against the known realities of police, offenders and offending patterns in New Zealand. In short, the focus was on who was featured on Police Ten 7, what were they portrayed as doing and how this compares to what we actually know about crime and policing in New Zealand. The main findings were that while some aspects of policing and offending were depicted reasonably accurately, for example gender and ethnicity of police, other aspects were significantly skewed. Police Ten 7 consistently misrepresents the types of offences most commonly committed in New Zealand, over-representing traditional “street” crime such as drug and antisocial offending and violence and under-representing and even ignoring completely other common offences such as dishonesty crimes. Similarly, white individuals depicted in Police Ten 7 are much more likely to be police than offenders, while the opposite is true for non-white individuals who are also depicted more commonly as being involved in violent offending than their white counterparts. As a vehicle for the presentation of the reality of policing Police Ten 7 was found to significantly misrepresent the work undertaken by the typical police officer, over-emphasising the exciting and action-packed aspects of the job and under-emphasising the service and administrative functions of police. The conclusion reached as a result of this research is that Police Ten 7 does not in fact show audiences “a glimpse into the real working lives of New Zealand police” (TVNZ, 2011b). Instead it creates a specific, pro-police vision of policing and crime in New Zealand which features real police and offenders but as a result of the symbiotic relationship between the producers and the police combines to misrepresent the reality of both policing and offending for the majority of police and offenders.</p>

show abstract

Policing on prime-time: A comparison of television and real-world policing

Cited by 11 publications

References 12 publications

Public perceptions of police misconduct and discrimination: Examining the impact of media consumption

Public perceptions of police misconduct and discrimination: Examining the impact of media consumption

Female officers and the ethic of care: Does officer gender impact police behaviors?

Reel Cops: Exploring the Representation of Policing on Police Ten 7

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