Cinematic Badges
This chapter examines some of the tensions involved in the development and maintenance of film-specific forms of police public relations and addresses the persistence of certain cultural and institutional anxieties. From the threat of repetition and generic stagnation to the frictions resulting from the coexistence of strict representational codes and countervailing “realist” imperatives, these tensions and anxieties further illustrate the sheer complexity of cinema’s intersections with police power in the United States. American police departments have long been committed to shaping American film culture to their own advantage. American police officials were not necessarily easily satisfied by screen representations, and their ongoing demands had unexpected and sometimes contradictory effects.