Out of Exile: The Recusal of the Chicago Police from American Film and Television, 1961-2011

The prime-time debut and subsequent cancellation of the Fox police procedural The Chicago Code, in 2011, briefly returned the once iconic Chicago Police Department to a place of prominence in the American crime drama. The series marked an end to the once official and later unofficial fifty-year mora...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Canadian review of American studies 2013-01, Vol.43 (3), p.388-410
Main Author: Arntfield, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
City ordinances
Police
Popular culture
Subcultures
Television programs
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:The prime-time debut and subsequent cancellation of the Fox police procedural The Chicago Code, in 2011, briefly returned the once iconic Chicago Police Department to a place of prominence in the American crime drama. The series marked an end to the once official and later unofficial fifty-year moratorium on the fictionalized use of the department’s name, image, and uniform in film and television, as well as a controversial ordinance prohibiting police dramas from being filmed on location in Chicago itself. The present article examines what impact this protracted self-exile from the mythography of the police —the depiction of the police myth in the arts and media—has meant for the Chicago Police Department in terms of its place in both American society and the national police subculture during a time when other police departments were undertaking significant modernization and commercialization efforts. The article additionally examines what the legacy of The Chicago Code may mean for the Chicago Police Department’s imagistic reinvention and eventual reintegration into American popular culture.
ISSN:0007-7720
1710-114X
DOI:10.3138/cras.2013.026