Television Detectives Vs. Real-World Detectives

Television shows such as CBS's Criminal Minds or NBC's Law & Order provide entertainment, excitement, and a successful ending to solving yet another crime. These shows have been a big hit, thanks to the fact that the crimes being portrayed are presented from beginning to end with all the stresses and suspense of the detectives' lives being some how intertwined within the show itself. If all it took was an hour or a few days to solve criminal cases, the real life detectives would not be under all the stresses and pressures that accompany the job. There are vast differences between television's portrayal of the job of a detective and what actually takes place in the detective division. Today, I will provide examples of how television has turned real life detectives into crime-solving, thrill-seeking, superheroes and how television has provided such distorted views of the detective's role within the police department.

One of the biggest misconceptions of detective work that has shown up in television would be the portrayal that uniformed officers are inferior to the detectives (Shafer, 2005). Instead of being inferior to detectives, uniformed cops and detectives have two very distinct roles when it comes to crime fighting. The detectives are in charge of investigating crimes on their own terms. The detectives choose the time, place, and plan of arrest thus limiting the amount of danger they may be in unlike that of television detectives (Shafer, 2005). The duties of a uniformed officer are that of the danger, swift-decision making instead of just a detective's assistant as television would have them be (Shafer, 2005). Along with detectives being placed on a pedestal, in television, they are also these molded individuals who can do everything from basic police work to detective work to crime scene investigations and so on (CNN, 2005). The television producers fail to accept that a detective's work is very monotonous and time construing as opposed to the fast-paced, crime solving machines they have made them out to be on the screen (Jones, 2003).