Avoiding Police Stereotypes in Novels

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Avoiding Police Stereotypes in Novels

by J.J. Hensley, @JJHensleyauthor

As most of you, I’ve read hundreds of mysteries and thrillers. And as most of you, I’ve recognized that many of them can be formulaic and use characters that are really cookie cutter stereotypes. I think one of the most overused characters in the mystery/thriller/suspense genre is the police officer who is incompetent, apathetic, or outright corrupt.

Now in the interest of full disclosure, I spent a decade in local and Federal law enforcement, so I have no illusions at objectivity. However, the fact of the matter is that 99% of the law enforcement community is hard-working, intelligent, and caring. The problem is that many storylines benefit from having a detective who isn’t doing her job, or a patrol officer planting evidence, or an FBI agent taking a bribe. It adds drama and there is a bit of shock value when someone in a position of authority fails to do his job. But, perhaps our writing can improve and be more unpredictable if we avoid using these stereotypes.

Here are some benefits to keeping the cops competent and clean:

The story is more realistic:

Yes, there are often headlines about law enforcement officials getting into trouble. However, the media understandably latches on to these stories as police are (and should be) held to a higher standard. Additionally, the law enforcement community is much like the intelligence community as successes are rarely advertised but failures are magnified.

It’s a “cop out” (pun intended)

Honestly, it’s kind of easy to toss in an apathetic city detective, or a Fed who insists on focusing on the wrong suspect. If you protagonist isn’t in law enforcement, it gives the character a reason to pursue the truth. But if you have the cops do their job well, you have to be more creative as to why your protagonist needs to be involved in a case. As a bonus – if your cops are better, you have to make your criminals smarter!

You’ll Be Different

Last year I wrote a blog post about some ways police are inaccurately portrayed in the world of entertainment .

Unrealistic portrayals have become the norm. Be different. Be refreshing. Be accurate. Just as juries have become subject the “CSI Effect” (where they think a DNA analysis can be done in an hour and every thread leads to a conviction) readers can start believing other inaccuracies we perpetuate. Maybe the best way to improve our fiction is to get more real.

J.J. Hensley is the author of RESOLVE and other works of fiction.