Police TV shows are full of wild high-speed pursuits, tense hostage situations and dramatic last-minute courtroom twists. While these exciting made-for-TV moments might have you reaching for the popcorn, they’re often at odds with the day-to-day work of police officers.

Though it’s understandable that liberties are taken to keep things compelling on-screen, it’s good to separate fact from fiction. We asked criminal justice pros to weigh in and help identify the things that police TV shows regularly get wrong. Join us as we set the record straight.

8 Myths about the job you’ll find in police TV shows

Television is chock-full of fantastically entertaining but wildly inaccurate portrayals of police work. Here are a few of our favorite police show inaccuracies and what makes them stand out as wrong.

1.警察工作都是行动，一直都是行动

在观看序列化电视节目时，很容易得到警察的生命是一股稳定的紧张立场，急于犯罪场景并进行调查突破。但现实是，绝大多数警察工作会导致一些漂亮的评分。

“他们似乎是警察经常用坏人进入枪战，但在我33年的警察工作中从未发生过，”布莱恩麦娜，退休的中尉和战术教练。

显然，警察工作有其令人兴奋的时刻，但是那些通常很少，距离。虽然事情可能因官员的工作原因而有所不同，但大多数人在执法部门花费更多的时间完成文书工作，使日常交通停止并协助公众。

2.它有争议的争论

你一直在警方电视节目中看到它 - 侦探在嫌疑人的踪迹中炙手可有于纠结的“竞争对手”执法机构。火花飞行和紧张局势升起，双方骑师有机会破坏坏人。

实际上，这种情况几乎从未发生过。根据McKenna的说法，执法机构一般融合在一起，官员对被激烈的争端进行了嘲笑。任何主要事件或逮捕都不仅具有危险的潜力，而且具有大量的文件和后续工作。

“我总是拿出一个 - 这就像看着人们争取谁想过夜做文书工作，”McKenna说。

3. “Commando cops” exist

大多数观众很少蝙蝠眼睛，但电视警察经常被描绘成令人难以置信的行动英雄。他们经常爆发成全速冲刺，在那里他们很容易赶上嫌疑人，毫不费力地跳跃五个围栏并射出超速车辆的轮胎。

“我认为即使是海军印章或其他特种部队成员也可以做所有这些东西，他们花了更多的时间训练，”McKenna说。“公众往往会忘记我们的人。”

看似超人能力的名单继续进行电视警察，但显然这并不是真的与现实中的正方形。官员显然拥有比大多数人处理这些情况的更多培训和专业知识，但他们仍然是经常限制的人民。

“我们不能在人们的手中射击枪或击中腿部的人来阻止他们 - 我们的设备和培训不是为此而设计的，”McKenna解释道。

“实验室”将永远搞清楚

在电视上，您通常会看到我们的内在侦探英雄围绕着一系列证据即将被送到“实验室”。在这些场景中，他们（轻松）找到一些杂散的毛发，一种颤抖的血液和花费的弹药套管，全部分析 - 很多看不见的科学 - 并迅速返回到侦探，以便立即返回侦探。

Much like the aforementioned commando cops, the people collecting evidence and working in forensics labs tend to suffer from superhero expectations. But these labs often don’t have a Bruce Wayne budget, and departments with strained resources have to prioritize their work.

“They make it look like these labs can take on every case,” McKenna says. “But the truth is that unless you have a pretty serious crime, a lot of departments aren’t going to be able to do much processing.”

对法医实验室工作的流行描绘的另一个问题是实际完成所做的事情所需的时间。McKenna说，直到最近，加工DNA证据将需要几周甚至几个月 - 从电视转机时代似乎似乎是几个小时的问题。

5.激烈的行动可以快速刷掉

You’ve already heard how TV shows wildly embellish how often law enforcement officers get into shootouts or other dangerous situations. But it’s not just that—these shows also often do a poor job of showing how those experiences affect officers. After a shootout or fight, often these shows make it seem like officers are just hopping back into their patrol cars and going back to their regular work—and that’s definitely not the case. Life and death situations are as serious as it gets and can take a toll on officers, no matter the outcome.

“They never really show how these situations affect officers,” McKenna says. “Most officers involved in a shooting experience severe mental trauma from the event and they don’t often show them being scared or rattled.”

根据场景，部门可能要求一名军官休假或接受咨询以帮助处理发生的事情。

6.犯罪现场处理是不受管制的

描绘crime scenes in police TV showstend to have substantial issues. One common issue is the sheer number of people shown in and around a crime scene.

“Often on TV they’ve got detectives and uniformed officers wandering all over,” McKenna says. “The truth of the matter is that once a crime scene is secured nobody should be out walking through it—even a detective shouldn’t be in there if they’re not there to process the scene.”

McKenna说，虽然可能有多个侦探处理犯罪现场的侦探，但他们尽一切努力避免彼此的工作空间以避免污染问题。

7.侦探可以lead the SWAT team

这种电视警察工作的奇怪已经发挥了100次。在案例的踪迹上很热，侦探学习他们的主要嫌疑人在旧仓库中挖掘出来。他们赶到了现场，在防弹背心上肩带，直接撞上了击败了一门门的斯瓦特队。毕竟，侦探角色是英雄 - 为什么他们始终不是正面和中心？

McKenna说，这个描述只是假的假。SWAT队伍经历了很多专业培训，并且在进入建筑物时，他们的动作实际上是合作的。将未经训练的侦探扔进这个错综复杂的排练操作只会使已经更危险的情况。

8.决议很整洁

“犯罪更多的罪行不如清理，”McKenna承认。“即使你能被逮捕，也不一定意味着你会得到信念。”

在一个展示中，观众倾向于看到刑事调查运行他们的课程并找到相对干净的决议 - 目击者看到了这个事件，发现了决定性的DNA证据或者更好，被告人突破并承认戏剧性法庭场景。虽然这些节目有时会显示被告在审判中获胜，但他们甚至可以单独审判的事实是一个很大的一步。现实是，犯罪的大部分犯罪基本上是无法解决的，因为导致枯萎。

你是为了真实的东西而脱颖而出吗？

We all know movies and TV are meant to entertain, and police TV shows are no different. While many of these inaccuracies come from the understandable place of keeping a story moving along and focused on central characters, they can also lead to some strange expectations of what police work is really like. Though the work might not live up to the expectations some might have from watching TV, McKenna says that shouldn’t deter people from a job he’s found to be extremely rewarding.

“If there’s one thing I miss about being a cop, it’s that feeling of being needed—and the ability to be someone’s hero in those moments,” McKenna shares.

如果这种情绪吸引你，你可能会考虑自己在执法方面的职业生涯。为了更好地了解您是否拥有所需的服务，请查看我们的文章，“The No-Nonsense Guide to What Makes a Good Police Officer。“