Cop shows R Us - TPTB

[1984hasarrived]

Ok, I am going out on a limb here.  This is something I have often sought about and decided to do some research on it to see if what I thought was true - ok, I just went to Wikipedia, but hey the facts are undeniable.

In my formative years I was always aware of there being cop shows on tv, a lot!  I enjoyed watching some of them at the time, and thought they were well made, but now I wonder was there an ulterior motive for them?  Were they being used to either scare people watching, so that they would allow police to do what they needed to keep everyone safe?  

So I had a look to see what shows were made (now remember these do not list all the Cops, BadBoys etc stuff that was made much later), these are fictional series, and there are a lot of them - I have just left the name of the show and the years aired, there is a short description of each series n the wikipedia article if people want to look.

What surprises me is that for the last 70 years there has been at least one cop show running nearly every single year, and in some cases, as soon as one series ended, another one started the same year.  Looking at the dates is very illuminating.  This is the same for both US and UK - I will let you peruse the dates yourself.  Now maybe I am reading too much into this, but then again, maybe I am not reading enough into it.

Thoughts?

United States

    Dragnet (1951–59, 1967–70, 1989–91 and 2003–04)
    The Untouchables (1959–63)
    Police Story (1973–78)
    Kojak (1973–78, 1989–90)
    Hill Street Blues (1981–87)
    Cagney and Lacey (1982–88)
    Miami Vice (1984–90) and 21 Jump Street (1987–91)
    The Law & Order franchise, which started with the long-running series Law & Order (1990–2010)
     Homicide: Life on the Street (1993–99; TV movie in 2000),
    NYPD Blue (1993–2005)
A fourth spin-off, CSI: Cyber (2015-2016), focused on cyber crime and its impact on modern society.
        The CSI franchise inspired other forensic shows such as Body of Proof (2011–2013), Bones (2005-) and Crossing Jordan (2001–2007).
        The CSI franchise also inspired other crime dramas involving teams solving crimes but not relying on forensics; these include victim and witness memory for cold cases and missing people in Cold Case (2003–2010) and Without a Trace (2002-2009) respectively, physiological profiling in Criminal Minds (2005-), using mathematics in Numbers (2005-2010) and using deception in The Mentalist (2008–2015).
    NCIS franchise which was spun off from JAG and features NCIS (2003-), NCIS: Los Angeles (2009-) and NCIS: New Orleans (2014-). The focus of the franchise is the Naval Criminal Investigative Service as they investigate crimes related to the US Navy and Marine Corps. NCIS deals with the caseload of the Major Case Response Team, while NCIS: Los Angeles deals with special undercover assignments and NCIS New Orleans focuses on a small group of agents who handle cases from the Mississippi River to the Texas Panhandle.
    Castle (2009-2016), Monk (2002–2009) and Psych (2006-2014)
    The Shield (2002–08)
    The Wire (2002–08)


United Kingdom

    Fabian of the Yard, (1954–55)
    Dixon of Dock Green, (1955–76)
    No Hiding Place, (1957–67)
    Z-Cars, (1962–78)
    with spin-offs like Softly, Softly (1966–76), Barlow at Large (1971–75), and Second Verdict (1976).
    Gideon's Way, (1965–66)
    New Scotland Yard, (1972–74)
    The Sweeney, (1975–78)
    The Gentle Touch, (1980–84)
    Juliet Bravo, (1980–85)
    Taggart (1983–2010)
    The Bill, (1984–2010)
    The Prime Suspect series, (1991–2006)
    McCallum (1995–98)
    The Cops (1998–2000)
    Heartbeat (1992–2010)
    Rebus (2000–07)
    Law & Order: UK (2009–present)
    Suspects (2014–present)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_pro...ted_States

[Mystic Wanderer]

I don't know if there is an agenda behind all the cop shows, but more than likely there is.  The media (mind) controls everyone with what the elite allow on air.   But, if I take my tin foil hat off...

I think all the people out there need a hero to look up to, and we all love to see the bad guys taken down, at least I do. Some of these shows offer a hero, while others offer the action-packed adventure people who live a dull life crave.
Some who have no association to real cops are just interested in seeing what a their daily life is like, or close to it.

I don't live in a big city, so I found The Shield fascinating, and probably the most true to how things are really done.
There are several shows in your list that I've watched, but I don't really think they air to "keep us in line".  If we don't like the show, we can always turn the channel.