Thanks to Zoë Samudzi and Briana Ureña-Ravelo for feedback on parts of what follows. Deeply influential but not directly cited below are Sylvia Wynter on the idea of The Human and Che Gossett‘s years of twitter musings on humanity/animality along with decades of Black feminist abolitionist visions and critiques, especially the works of Ruth Wilson-Gilmore, Mariame Kaba and Angela Davis. Credit for anything useful below is theirs. Feedback – constructive, destructive and other – welcome.

Season 1 – Season 2 – Season 3 – Season 4 

Chicago P.D. is a police drama produced by Wolf Entertainment running on NBC since 2014 with an ensemble cast structure centered around Hank Voight (Jason Beghe). The show tells fictional stories of the Chicago Police Department’s Intelligence Division as they try to incarcerate or kill people they criminalize.[1] It has single episode story lines with regular longer arcs or recurring story elements mixed in. Chicago P.D. mixes elements of a police drama and procedural with the procedural aspects focusing on torture. Its program is lionizing John Burge – albeit not by name and likely unthought – where the Chicago police coerce confessions through torture in semi-official locations, “The Cage” in Chicago P.D.. The show portrays the killer cops as heroic and their violences practical through gritty dialogue, Beghe’s gravely voice and quick trigger, the cops’ connections to criminalized populations that frame them as criminally knowledgeable and grounded and the decision to use handheld cameras for a more kinetic feel.

Chicago P.D. is well acted for the most part and competently shot. It has mostly coherent storylines and good pacing which would make it well scripted were it not for so many character tropes and bad dialogue. Its main drawbacks are not technical, but ethical. Chicago P.D., even by the low standards of cop shows, stands out for how warmly it embraces murderous cops and torture. Its heroes are at times portrayed ambiguously but are, like its closest predecessor The Shield, still virtuous protagonists. The horrors they enact and all their violences are towards supposedly noble ends.

Below are data tables that look at how frequently various things happen in the first season’s stories. Many of the categories reflect things seen in other cop shows too. Others are more unique to Chicago P.D. or useful only with lots of other context. For each table I try to offer context in the surrounding annotations. Some categories that are useful in other cops shows or even different seasons of the same show are not always applicable to others so this data overview will have tables others do not and vice versa.

Season one police killings

Chicago P.D. at least partially resolves six of season one’s fifteen episodes with the police killing the person they are criminalizing, killing nine people along the way. The amount of people killed by any particular cop in season one is only slightly remarkable. But the totals over the whole series show that most Chicago P.D. main cast characters are serial killers. For example in the season two episode “Called in Dead”, Alinsky (Elias Koteas) says that he’s killed seven people to that date (three in the show to that point, the others from before the show starts). They are what the title character from Dexter is just lacking the self-awareness. More troubling is how Chicago P.D. normalizes police shootings as heroic outcomes as explored below the table.

Episode name/date	Killed by police	Episode resolved via suspect’s death	Criminalized person killed by
E1 “Stepping Stone” 8 Jan 2014	0	No	N/A
E2 “Wrong Side of the Bars” 15 Jan 2014	1	No	Dawson
E3 “Chin Check” 22 Jan 2014	1	Yes	Ruzek
E4 “Now Is Always Temporary” 29 Jan 2014	1	Yes	Dawson
E5 “Thirty Balloons” 5 Feb 2014	1	No	Voight
E6 “Conventions” 26 Feb 2014	1	Yes	Alinsky
E7 “The Price We Pay” 5 Mar 2014	1	Yes	Voight
E8 “Different Mistakes” 12 Mar 2014	0	No	N/A
E9 “A Material Witness” 19 Mar 2014	0	No	N/A
E10 “At Least It’s Justice” 2 Apr 2014	0	No	N/A
E11 “Turn The Light Off” 9 Apr 2014	0	No	N/A
E12 “8:30 PM” 30 Apr 2014	0	No	N/A
E13 “My Way” 7 May 2014	1	Yes	Halstead
E14 “The Docks” 14 May 2014	1	No	Voight
E15 “A Beautiful Friendship” 21 May 2014	1	Yes	Burgess

The Chicago police department kill someone they criminalize in over 40% of the season one episodes. Chicago P.D. is not directly responsible for material world police shootings but it, like all cop shows, plays a role in (re)producing public support for police violence through discursive illustration. It offers an imaginary heroic police violence. It relies on an audience that accepts these outcomes as palatable or else it would be read as the sadistic horror it is or, possibly, the audience would be aware of their enjoyment of sadistic horror. In Weber’s description of the state as the claimant to a monopoly over legitimate violence, Chicago P.D. normalizing police violence is the same as normalizing the state itself. The audience receiving these stories as heroic is part of statism; the organization of sociality around monopolies over legitimate violence.

Who do the cops pursue?

But to what end is the monopolized, legitimatized violence deployed? Chicago P.D. produces stories that portray the U.S. carceral system as not being built around Black Captivity. It tells stories of Black Captivity often without Black people. This is not a disavowal of Black criminality nor white innocence. It still narrates through Black criminality, often explicitly as when Voigt coerces snitches from his gang contacts in several early episodes. Instead it relies on Black Captivity being grammatical to the viewing audience. Audiences bring the knowledge of Black Captivity and mass incarceration to the show already. It doesn’t have to be said when it is the framework through which the audience understands the concept of prisons. So when Chicago P.D. represents cops criminalizing mostly non-Black people as their universe, it still does so through Black Captivity.

Chicago P.D.‘s first season presents a radically different picture of police violence than the material world offers. The CPD in season one pursues predominantly white people. The table below shows the demographics.

Episode name/date	Racialization of person/people the cops criminalize	Episode notes
E1 “Stepping Stone” 8 Jan 2014	Non-Black latinx	Non-Black Colombians are narcos, Black ppl are gang members
E2 “Wrong Side of the Bars” 15 Jan 2014	Non-Black latinx	Non-Black Colombians are narcos
E3 “Chin Check” 22 Jan 2014	White	Black people are gang members
E4 “Now Is Always Temporary” 29 Jan 2014	Black, white	Black people are gang members
E5 “Thirty Balloons” 5 Feb 2014	White	Mexicans are narcos
E6 “Conventions” 26 Feb 2014	White
E7 “The Price We Pay” 5 Mar 2014	White
E8 “Different Mistakes” 12 Mar 2014	Chinese	Chinese are Triads
E9 “A Material Witness” 19 Mar 2014	Non-Black latinx	Black ppl and non-Black latinxs are gang members
E10 “At Least It’s Justice” 2 Apr 2014	White
E11 “Turn The Light Off” 9 Apr 2014	White
E12 “8:30 PM” 30 Apr 2014	Non-Black latinxs	Colombians are narcos
E13 “My Way” 7 May 2014	South Asian	Syrians are hospital bombing suspects
E14 “The Docks” 14 May 2014	Non-Black latinxs	Colombians are narcos
E15 “A Beautiful Friendship” 21 May 2014	Non-Black latinxs	Colombians are narcos

In Arabs and Muslims in the Media Evelyn Alsultany describes a “field of meaning” beyond simple ideas of representation. She writes:

The critical cultural studies approach that I employ strategically privileges the analysis of ideological work performed by images and story lines, as opposed to reading an image as negative or positive, and therefore gets us beyond reading a positive image as if it will eliminate stereotyping. If we interpret an image as either positive or negative, then we can conclude that the problem of racial stereotyping is over because of the appearance of sympathetic images of Arabs and Muslims during the War on Terror. However, an examination in relation to its narrative context reveals how it participates in a larger field of meaning about Arabs and Muslims. The notion of a field of meaning, or an ideological field, is a means to encompass the range of acceptable ideas about the War on Terror.

Here I use this “field of meaning” to look at how Chicago P.D. ties racialized subject positions to specific racist types. So in keeping with Alsultany’s focus, how often are Arabs and Muslims story lines not articulated to terrorism? As in, does Chicago P.D. allow Arabs and Muslims to have meaning that is not tied to terrorism?

Chicago P.D. mentions latinxs as part of the plot in seven episodes. In each, the reference or entire story is about narcotrafficantes or gangs. There is not a single story arc to the contrary. This is Chicago P.D.‘s entire field of meaning for latinxs – specifically non-Black latinxs – in season one.

Chicago P.D. mentions Black people as part of the plot in six episodes. In only one, “Wrong Side of the Bars”, is the Black character not articulated to gangs. Most are an early season story arc where Voight coerces Black drug dealers to snitch for him. Gangs/drug dealers are Black people’s field of meaning in season one.

The only season one episode with Muslims is about a bombing and the only one with with non-main cast Asians is about the Triads. This sample is too small to define the field of meaning.

Big Hero vs. Big Villain storytelling

Chicago P.D. regularly uses a cop show trope I’m calling Big Hero vs. Big Villain. Big Hero vs. Big Villain are story arcs where the police are less systemic violence’s agents and more individuals in contest with others. Big Hero vs. Big Villain can include a systemic framework as in The Wire‘s story lines of McNulty vs. the Barksdale Crew or Stringer Bell. Chicago P.D. does not do this in a meaningful way. Instead its Big Hero vs. Big Villain stories act as personal quests, deeply personal battles and redemption arcs for its protagonists and adds a level of illegibility to the people the CPD pursues through making their motivations more arbitrary. Season one has two main Big Hero vs. Big Villain story arcs. The first, Dawson v.s El Pulpo, starts in the first episode and ends in the season’s penultimate episode with the unit arresting Pulpo while Dawson is in the hospital. The second main arc is Voight vs. Internal Affairs, a slow burning story that continues throughout the series with the occasional flare-up.

Heroic portrayals of torture and police brutality

Chicago P.D. embraces police torturing people like no other show on television. The closest is Supernatural where the Winchester brothers frequently torture ‘demons’ towards various ends, usually to extract information. But torture isn’t central to their characters. It is for Voight in Chicago P.D. and, to a lesser extent, Alinsky. Chicago P.D. portrays torture as heroic in either how the heroes do the torturing or torture is a successful tactic, usually both. It is so common that it must be either convincing or have an already convinced audience. If it did not, much like the above police killings, the audience would receive it as the sadistic horror it is.

Episode name/date	Is there torture/police brutality?	What happens?
E1 “Stepping Stone” 8 Jan 2014	Yes	Voight beats someone to extract information
E2 “Wrong Side of the Bars” 15 Jan 2014	No	N/A
E3 “Chin Check” 22 Jan 2014	Yes	Voight and Alinsky kidnap and beat a Black man
E4 “Now Is Always Temporary” 29 Jan 2014	Yes	Lindsay locks a dopesick sex worker in a cage to extract information
E5 “Thirty Balloons” 5 Feb 2014	Yes	Voight beats two men with a pool cue and puts his pistol in a man’s mouth to extract information
E6 “Conventions” 26 Feb 2014	Yes	Voight cuts someone with a knife to extract information
E7 “The Price We Pay” 5 Mar 2014	No	N/A
E8 “Different Mistakes” 12 Mar 2014	No	N/A
E9 “A Material Witness” 19 Mar 2014	Yes	Voight beats a man with a crowbar and threatens to have him raped
E10 “At Least It’s Justice” 2 Apr 2014	Yes	Voight shoots a man in the leg just because
E11 “Turn The Light Off” 9 Apr 2014	Yes	Voight and Alinsky put a man’s hand in a garbage disposal to extract information
E12 “8:30 PM” 30 Apr 2014	Yes	Voight tortures a man in a hospital boiler room
E13 “My Way” 7 May 2014	No	N/A
E14 “The Docks” 14 May 2014	Yes	Voight beats and, with Alinsky, chokes a man with chains while preparing to drown him
E15 “A Beautiful Friendship” 21 May 2014	No	N/A

Chicago P.D. tortures the people it criminalizes in ten out of fifteen season one episodes (67%). It starts in the first episode when the show introduces “The Cage”, a location where the unit takes people to torture them. No character offers any meaningful dissent to these actions. Chicago P.D. portrays Voight torturing people as not only ethical, but effective. I aspire to abolition in this writing and am not concerned with “innocent” people being imprisoned so much as doing away with the prisons altogether. “Innocent” is not an ethics counterpoint to “guilty” when the supposedly “guilty” are victims of state violence, not necessarily causers of any harm. With that said, Friedrich Spee noted in his 1631 text Cautio Criminalis that “Torture has the power to create witches where none exist.” He continued, critiquing witchhunting advocates noting that “every one of their teachings concerning witches is based on no other foundations than fables or confessions extracted through torture.”

Real world Chicago police have long engaged in torture and Voight and his unit bear strong resemblence to Jon Burge, a highly decorated Chicago cop who coerced confessions by torturing, primarily, Black people his unit kidnapped off the street. Spee loudly critiqued torture as producing no useful information in the early 1600s and studies ever since have agreed with him. Given this, Chicago P.D. in two-thirds of season one episodes is naming witches “based on no other foundations than fables or confessions extracted through torture.” There is no reason to think anybody tortured by Voight’s unit or implicated by the tortured even did the thing they were accused of. Abolition says “Don’t hunt witches in the first place.” That is the important question. Even with that understanding, Chicago P.D. portrays the most harmful method of witchhunting in its firm support for torture and police brutality. Instead of the normal carceral apologia that killer cops are bad apples not reflective of the system, the show argues that the killer cops are actually the good apples.

Other cop show tropes

Chicago P.D. does not have many sex worker themes in season one. The character Nadia is a sex worker snitch active in a few episodes and is “saved” from sex work and addiction by Dawson and Linsay after Linsay tortures her by locking her in The Cage while she’s dopesick. Sex workers as coerced snitches has a long history in cop shows and Chicago P.D.‘s criminalization of sex work will have to wait until I post several seasons of data to have enough points to define it in detail or do a character review of Nadia through all her episodes before her character is killed.

Chicago P.D. does not make significant use of the Ticking Time Bomb, carceral ableism or several other cop show tropes in season one. Further seasons will illuminate more themes. Feedback appreciated. Thanks for reading.

(1) I say “or kill” due to Chicago P.D. frequently resolving storylines by killing the suspect. This occurs far too often to consider it anything other than an expected outcome for the showrunners.