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Dragnet marked a turn in the depiction of the police on screen. Instead of being corrupt laughingstocks, this was the first time police officers represented bravery and heroism. In their quest for authenticity, Dragnet’s producers used real police cars and officers in their scenes. However, this also meant that in exchange, the LAPD could vet scripts for authenticity. The LAPD vetted every scene, which would allow them to remove elements they did not agree with or did not wish to draw attention to.

Over the next few years, the number of novelists who picked up on the procedural trend following Dragnet’s example grew to include writers like Ben Benson, who wrote carefully researched novels about the Massachusetts State Police, retired police officer Maurice Procter, who wrote a series about North England cop Harry Martineau, and Jonathan Craig, who wrote short stories and novels about New York City police officers. Police novels by writers who would come to virtually define the form, like Hillary Waugh, Ed McBain, and John Creasey started to appear regularly.

In 1956, in his regular New York Times Book Review column, mystery critic Anthony Boucher, noting the growing popularity of crime fiction in which the main emphasis was the realistic depiction of police work, suggested that such stories constituted a distinct subgenre of the mystery, and, crediting the success of Dragnet for the rise of this new form, coined the phrase "police procedural" to describe it.”

As police procedurals became increasingly popular, they maintained this image of heroic police officers who are willing to bend the rules to save the day, as well as the use of police consultants. This would allow Hollywood to form a friendly relationship with law enforcement who are also responsible for granting shooting permits. This, however, has garnered criticisms.

Masculinity and racism

The police procedural is considered to be a male-dominant genre which very often portrays the masculine hero dedicated to the professional realm. The introduction of women as protagonists is commonly attributed to either adding sexual appeal, introducing gendered issues like investigating sex crimes, or delving into the personal relationships of the characters.

It also often portrays rape myths, such as that rape is more often committed by strangers rather than a known acquaintance of the victim, that the majority of rape claims are false, and that rapes only happen to “bad girls.”

The portrayal of the criminal justice system also under-represents issues of race and institutional racism. A report by Color of Change Hollywood and the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center identified that in these shows there was a severe lack of portrayal of racial bias in the criminal procedure, discussion about criminal justice reform, and victims who are women of color. There is also little representation of people of color in the creation of these shows.

Biased narratives

The police procedural genre is becoming increasingly popular and has accounted for about 22% of all scripted shows on US broadcast network in the last 10 years. This prevalence implies that viewers are often facing TV series that place police officers at the center of the story, showing exclusively their vision of the world. This approach has been denounced as enforcing the idea that the life and views of policemen are more important than the ones of the communities being policed.

In police procedural the policemen are presented as the “good guys” or close to superhuman, leading to a potentially biased narrative. Even when they use illegal practices it is presented as a necessary decision made in the general interest. A report by Color of Change Hollywood and the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center revealed that police procedural shows were normalizing unjust practices such as illegal search, surveillance, coercion, intimidation, violence, abuse and racism.

Misrepresentations of reality

Additionally, criticisms have been raised against the genre for its unrealistic depiction of crime. Particularly, police procedurals have been accused of possessing an unrealistic preoccupation with incidents such as homicide and terrorism. In the United States, plot points involving murder investigations appear at more frequent rates than those involving theft, substance abuse, or domestic violence—all of which citizens are more likely to personally experience. Following the 2001 attack on the World Trade Centre in New York, police procedurals have additionally portrayed attempted terrorism incidents at unrealistically high rates, prompting accusations of racial profiling and fear-mongering.

The manner in which crime has been portrayed in the media has subsequently been linked with discrepancies both in popular perception of crime rates, as well as sentencing. In a 2005 study conducted on the German public, it was found that despite a decline in total offences between 1992 and 2003, “the German public believes or assumes, on balance, that crime has increased”. It has been further posited that the distorted public perception arising from the prevalence of police procedurals has been a factor in influencing sentencing rates. Countries such as the USA, UK and Germany—while experiencing declines in crime rates—reported increases in the volume and severity of incarceration.