Four Out of Five Real Cops Agree . . .

Now that NYPD Blue is ending its 12-year run, real policemen can come clean: Barney Miller is more accurate. NYPD Detective Lucas Miller explains:

Many police officers maintain that the most realistic police show in the history of television was the sitcom “Barney Miller,” far more so than that father of reality TV, “Cops.” The action was mostly off screen, the squad room the only set, and the guys were a motley bunch of character actors who were in no danger of being picked for the N.Y.P.D. pin-up calendar. But they worked hard, made jokes, got hurt and answered to their straight-man commander.

For real detectives, most of the action does happen off screen, and we spend a lot of time back in the squad room writing reports about it. Like Barney Miller’s squad, we crack jokes at one another, at the cases that come in, and at the crazy suspect locked in the holding cell six feet from the new guy’s desk. Life really is more like “Barney Miller” than “NYPD Blue,” but our jokes aren’t nearly as funny.