A novel partnership — with Ron Davis, the former executive director of President Barack Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing who runs the reform-minded criminal justice organization 21CP Solutions with former D.C. police chief Charles Ramsey — sends police reform advocates into the writers room. Can it work?
All four major networks — ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox — bring multiple versions of crime or police-focused dramas to American audiences. They’re hard to miss. Shows specifically about police officers accounted for 19.6% of all scripted network television programming during the September 2019-May 2020 season. In 2020, it could be that it’s finally time for a change in the narrative. In this moment, America finds itself publicly and earnestly reckoning with its racist history and present, after weeks of protests following the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, among many others.
