Of course, and by and large a handy database or the lab produces results almost 100% of the time in minutes or in story hours in one convenient step on most police shows.
Among the many procedural and other inaccuracies shows tend to make either in the interest of story telling or because they are trying to support the image of police as capable and moral professionals. The episodic format came from a pre streaming pre “on demand” era when a show usually ran on a given night and time and if you missed it, you had to luck in to reruns or some shows would reair their Tuesday (or whatever) broadcast on a Thursday or Sunday or something. That meant that keeping up with an ongoing narrative was a commitment and most viewers were casual viewers- you were likely to not attract new viewers or lose existing ones if they came in to an ongoing plot and had missed episodes so didn’t understand the story or feel invested. When programs went to “syndication”- like when old seasons of a show…
… were shown to fill airtime because a network owned rights to air that show and thus it was cheaper to show old episodes than get new content, or it was a time a lot where people usually don’t watch so new content would be a “waste,” episodic shows could be shown out of order. If you watch an episode from season 2 of the fresh prince this week and an episode from season 4 next week- you can “drop right in” and won’t really feel you’re missing anything or can catch up quickly to what is different. A character has a new job or there is a new “friend” or whatever. You don’t need much context at all. A show like game of thrones or the Expanse or The Wire becomes almost unwatchable if shown in random order because it is a cohesive narrative that builds on each episode and each episode is made to go in to the next. So police shows on TV tended to follow that “episodic format” where you can watch any given week and not feel “lost”, and from there they..
.. remove elements of police work and procedure that don’t keep the action moving. They might include a false lead etc. here or there to provide dramatic pacing- it can’t be a “straight line” to the solution or else viewers lose interest, so they’ll toss in a set back here and there and maybe a subplot here or there which tend to be the places where some semblance of “reality” pokes in- but most people won’t want to watch police do paperwork and show up to court dates and work other cases while waiting etc. for a whole season to get to the end and have it all lead nowhere and there is no solution or the work doesn’t pan out but some random traffic cop pulls over the suspect and finds the weapon and the solution falls in their lap etc.
In reality police departments and officers are of course all different and combining shows like “the shield” with “the wire” and then adding in some “Reno 911” and “super troopers” with some “SVU” and such is probably the closest to a general realistic representation of police forces you’d get.
FOI requests have produced the transcripts for two LAPD officers fired from the force for ignoring and literally running from a call for assistance in a robbery- mere yards away from them- because they were playing Pokémon go and didn’t want to miss on catching Snorlax and Togepi. It’s a fun read if you Google it.
The world of policing is full of those sorts of stories but it’s also full of stories of officers going above and beyond or making profound differences in peoples lives. A “realistic” police show would probably be extremely boring for most people, hard to follow, and likely confusing since one moment or one episode could be slapstick comedy and the next disturbing and the next…
… true blue hero stuff. The best/worst part is that all three episodes could be about the same officer. That’s another story telling one- we tend to like our tv characters maybe one or two dimensional. “The funny one” the “guy with the temper,” etc. real people and real police are more complicated. The number of things that come down to luck or timing is also pretty crazy. For the most part it doesn’t make a satisfying story and most people would have trouble believing it. That’s sort of a thing in fiction- the more “realistic” a story is perceived the less realistic it tends to actually be- this is because reality is a strange place. Things that happen everyday for us can seem unbelievable or lazy and convenient in writing. Most people don’t want to watch a 30-60 minute show where after all the build up and work, the criminal walks in and turns themselves in because they felt guilty. So… it’s always going to be a bit unrealistic.
Among the many procedural and other inaccuracies shows tend to make either in the interest of story telling or because they are trying to support the image of police as capable and moral professionals. The episodic format came from a pre streaming pre “on demand” era when a show usually ran on a given night and time and if you missed it, you had to luck in to reruns or some shows would reair their Tuesday (or whatever) broadcast on a Thursday or Sunday or something. That meant that keeping up with an ongoing narrative was a commitment and most viewers were casual viewers- you were likely to not attract new viewers or lose existing ones if they came in to an ongoing plot and had missed episodes so didn’t understand the story or feel invested. When programs went to “syndication”- like when old seasons of a show…
FOI requests have produced the transcripts for two LAPD officers fired from the force for ignoring and literally running from a call for assistance in a robbery- mere yards away from them- because they were playing Pokémon go and didn’t want to miss on catching Snorlax and Togepi. It’s a fun read if you Google it.
The world of policing is full of those sorts of stories but it’s also full of stories of officers going above and beyond or making profound differences in peoples lives. A “realistic” police show would probably be extremely boring for most people, hard to follow, and likely confusing since one moment or one episode could be slapstick comedy and the next disturbing and the next…