Hollywood Law / Blue Bloods

Blue Bloods

For a show about a family running a police department in New York, and one that champions its use of law enforcement consultants, it sure takes a lot of liberties in reenacting the rules of the law in contrast to how they would really work in real life.

---

• In "To Tell the Truth", Danny and Erin have difficulty convincing an eyewitness to testify against a gangster. To remedy this, the cops leak his location to the underworld, then wait for the gangsters to strike before swooping in to "rescue" him.
• In "Critical Condition", Jamie and his new partner, Luisa Sosa, are assigned to "Bingo Bags" — staking out a park bench and wait for someone to take a bag of stolen goods planted there as bait. Jamie squirms over what he views as "borderline entrapment." It would only qualify as borderline entrapment if they convinced someone to take the bag—just leaving it out there is completely legal. To be fair, this is Jamie's personal opinion that we're talking about: it may be legal but it may or may not be strictly nice.
• In "Old Wounds", Erin Reagan prosecutes a case where her ex-husband is the defense attorney, with no one raising any concern over just how much conflict of interest there is at hand. This also happens in other episodes, all without any comment.
• In "Unwritten Rules", Danny gets upset with his prosecutor sister Erin when she won't press charges on a suspect identified as killing a police officer during an armed robbery because the eyewitness, an elderly woman, is shaky on it being him and she doesn't think she'll hold up. While it would still be enough to arrest him, she says to let him go. Later they tell Angelo Reed that there's another witness against him, and offer him a plea deal where he'd only do seven years in prison. Danny then "lets slip" the fact that this witness didn't identify him, and the suspect backs out at once, which is all part of their plan. He's then arrested due to the confession he signed to get the plea deal. While police and prosecutors can lie to a suspect, this does not apply to the terms of a plea bargain, and self-incriminating statements made on the promise of a deal cannot be used against them if it falls through. Very few people would make plea deals otherwise. Angelo Reed would've walked on this technicality.
• "Justice Served":
  • It's suspected that lawyer Angelo Gallo was shot because he dropped his client, a mob boss, who thought he would tell the police about killing a witness to make the case against him go away because supposedly "attorney-client privilege ends" when their business relationship does. Not even close — attorney-client privilege applies to all past criminal activity clients admitted to (unless the lawyer themselves was a party to it). Later on it turns out that Gallo knows the details of the contract killing his client ordered, which he gives to the police. It's not made clear whether he knew about this before or after the crime had occurred, however. Assuming the latter, none of this information could be used against his client.
  • Jamie's partner officer Edie Janko is almost date-raped in her apartment. She's reluctant to come forward out of fear she'll appear weak in front of fellow (particularly male) officers. Finally he convinces her to press charges. Rather than hand it off to the Special Victims Unit, whose detectives handle these sorts of crimes, Janko personally arrests the man who attacked her. This is a massive conflict of interest, as she's the one whose complaint they're arresting him on, a fact that any defense attorney would make hay out of (cue Rule of Drama for this: it's an awesome scene for a TV show but wouldn't happen in real life).
  • Danny is shown as a juror on a murder trial. It would be practically impossible for any police detective to wind up on such a jury, much less one who investigates homicides himself. If nothing else, the likelihood of him knowing likely witnesses would disqualify him. In addition, neither side would want a cop on the jury second-guessing or clarifying police procedures for the other jurors — which is exactly what happens until Danny is kicked off the jury. Then Danny proceeds to take over the case and reinvestigate it, which no police force would likely allow, especially once it had gone to trial.
• In "Custody Battle" Frank is questioned over the fact that his daughter Erin, a prosecutor, was assigned to review the death of a suspect in the custody of his department. Frank is rightly asked if she can be objective, considering that a negative finding will reflect poorly on him as police commissioner. Like the examples above with Erin prosecuting cases where her ex-husband is the defense attorney, it's a conflict of interest to investigate matters than even tangentially have to do with a close relative, and she'd have to recuse herself.
  • This also applies to how Danny often goes to Erin when he needs search warrants. As they are siblings, the same conflict of interest rule may apply here. On the other hand, if Erin doesn't have a choice on which cases are passed to her, there may not be conflict of interest if she's prosecuting a case that Danny investigated.
  • Similarly, in later seasons after the two are married Jamie continues to be Eddie's superior inside the same precinct house. This would not happen because of the same issue-nepotism would always be suspected.
  • A big example of that is "Loose Lips". Erin tries to get Russell Price indicted for beating his girlfriend to death and then trying to kill Jamie by lobbing a Molotov cocktail into his patrol car. There's a massive conflict of interest for an assistant district attorney to prosecute someone who threatened or committed a crime against a friend or relative of theirs (that is, Jamie). Admittedly, the judge at the hearing does point out that the fact that both of Erin's brothers are involved in the case (Danny as lead investigator, Jamie as a victim) could lead to Erin showing perceived bias against the accused, but Erin would have had to have someone else prosecute Price.
• Likewise, someone with Danny Reagan's record of complaints for use of force would probably not be allowed to work with the public. Even with his father being the active commissioner, Danny's actions could easily become a liability for the NYPD if someone sues him for emotional distress/police brutality/whatever.
• "Backstabbers" sees Jurisdiction Friction going on between the NYPD and United States Marshals Service over the manhunt for two prison escapees. While it's never said whether the prison the two escapees broke out of was a federal prison, it's also never said if the prison in question was a state correctional facility. If the latter, the Marshals would have no involvement in the case because they work for the federal government; the US Marshals Service has no responsibility or authority over escapees from state prisons, unless the escapee crossed state lines, which the two escapees haven't. If the former, it would be in their jurisdiction, not that of the NYPD.
• In "All the News That's Fit to Click":
  • An anti-cop criminal shoots Lorenzo Colt, a reporter who happens to be dressed in an NYPD-issue windbreaker, while he's doing a ridealong with Jamie and Edie. The suspect, Michael Hicks, who has a history of violence against cops, is arrested. Colt is brought in to identify the suspect in a lineup, he refuses to identify Hicks and is let go, as is Hicks. In reality, if a victim refuses to cooperate such as refusing to identify a suspect, the state can still prosecute a suspected offender based upon other evidence. Which, for the record, the police already had, as voice recognition had proven with 95% certainty that Hicks made the 911 call that lured Colt and the officers he was riding with into an ambush.
  • Frank surmises (and Danny and others buy into) that the suspect thought they were shooting a police officer due to the fact that Colt was wearing an NYPD windbreaker when he was shot. Now consider Hicks' hatred of cops. Most people in real life know that police officers rarely ever sit in the backseat of patrol cars. Frank and Danny use the term "cop killer" even though the victim survived with fairly minor injuries^note three rounds were absorbed by his bulletproof vest and one lightly grazed his neck; he was also conscious and on the phone with his publisher within a couple hours of the shooting. Based upon the known evidence at the time, it should have been apparent and assumed that Colt was being targeted specifically and not mistaken for a cop — since if the shooter's intent was to kill the officers, he probably would have shot them while they were still on the street and distracted by the reporter. Erin was the only one to properly assess the situation in that no one was killed and it was not a cop involved but a reporter.
• In "Occupational Hazards":
  • When arresting a woman that's running a fraudulent charity that's been using the NYPD emblem, Frank tells her that three other cities have arrest warrants for her and that New York will have to wait. While such a scenario could happen in real life, it'd be more likely to be the case if she was wanted for more serious charges in those other cities. Upon taking her into custody, the state of New York would have the choice of trying her there first or allowing her to be extradited.
  • Twice do characters break police protocol. For instance, when Erin was being followed by the bikers, protocol would be to call for a Radio Mobile Patrol (RMP) car to assist, rather than drive to Danny's precinct. Likewise, when the bomb suspect was at the union meeting, protocol would be to have the sector RMP car respond to assist as they would be far closer, or alternately, to call ESU in.
• In "Drawing Dead," when discussing Marcus Greene, a 14-year-old boy shot dead by a police officer, Erin informs a companion from the DA's office that the boy had a juvenile record for gun possession. The companion asks, "Aren't those usually sealed?" to which Erin replies by implying that she got them by calling in a favor. Juvenile records are sealed to the public but remain available to prosecutors, and any expungement of a juvenile record (the only means by which the record would be permanently unavailable even to prosecutors) is unlikely to occur until the person reaches age 18, and certainly not within two years after the original delinquency charge.
• In "Family Ties," Chelsea Cole, a banker who has handled kickbacks for corrupt deputy mayor Randy St. Clair says, "Where our clients' money comes from is not our concern." Actually, it is. By law, American banks are required to notify law enforcement when they find any evidence that their clients are involved in money laundering or any form of criminal activity. It's justified because as it turns out, she was the lover of the deputy mayor's aide, and they were both accomplices to St. Clair's corruption.
• In "The Road to Hell":
  • Nicky and her friends are pulled over while she's doing designated driver duty for them. An officer finds a controlled substance in the backseat^note the reason he did so is because Nicky's passengers mouthed off to the cops. Since the cops were led to assume that they were hiding something, he looked them over and found the drugs. When they don't immediately tell him who the owner is, they all get arrested. While a field test of the drugs is done, it's done AFTER the arrest. In reality, it's required to be done BEFORE the arrest. After that, the baggie has to be tested for prints, and then the possession is construed to be where it was located, in this situation the girl behind the driver.
  • Not to mention that arresting everyone in the car — especially before any presumptive field test was performed — could be construed by a lawyer as a bad arrest. Proper procedure with any criminal investigation with multiple suspects in the same room/vehicle is to split up the occupants and question them, and only after Mirandizing them (and we see a more proper version of this in the same episode as Danny and Baez deal with four women who are confessing to the same murder). An immediate arrest would not be necessary if no physical or constructive possession could readily be proved. The evidence could have been vouchered and tested for latent prints.
• In "New Rules" and "The Art of War", two things:
  • Erin is put in charge of handling warrants for Danny's case, the murder of a deputy chief and his wife. As said before, since she and Danny are siblings, she would have to recuse herself from such a case because of the conflict of interest at hand. Furthermore, they'd be allowed to detain Mario Hunt for up to 48 hours before they'd have to release him.
  • Such a case would probably be handled by the NYPD Gang Division rather than the Major Cases Unit.
  • In "The Art of War," Danny's lead witness is killed in the hospital. In the course of the shooting, Linda is hit by a few stray bullets and hospitalized as a result. Danny continues to be assigned to the investigation. In real life, he would be required to pass the case off to someone else, again because of conflict of interest (his wife is now among the collateral victims in the case, and such a thing could cloud his judgment). He wouldn't even be allowed to stand in the same room as the shooter, out of reasonable fear that he might take his anger out on the shooter, which could jeopardize the case.
• In "Fresh Start":
  • A man who went through the Fresh Start program has been arrested and accused of shooting a police officer. Yet the officers seem somewhat incompetent in that they don't bother to test the arrested man's hands for gunpowder residue.
  • Furthermore, where were all of the much-vaunted NYPD detectives, who SHOULD have been the ones to investigate the crime? As soon as it became known that the arrested guy did NOT shoot the cop, it's the responsibility of the police, not the D.A.'s office, to find the true shooter. They didn't even consult with anyone at the NYPD. (Yes Anthony is technically from the NYPD, but it's not the same thing.)
• In "Manhattan Queens", someone is doing cannonball speed-runs around Manhattan and taunting the NYPD while doing so. Abigail Baker, Frank's secretary, says she's identified the person as Suffolk County deputy chief Salvatore DeLuca, who's been repeatedly asking her out despite her turning him down. Her evidence is, in her words, the hundreds of voice messages he's left for her, the juiciest of which she says she's saved in case his gestures escalate to harassment. Most states would probably consider that sort of behavior to be stalking. Also, for this to be happening against the Commissioner's secretary without him noticing is a bit suspicious. Furthermore, that Baker could make a positive ID on the voice should've been enough to at least have DeLuca brought in for questioning.
• In "Help Me, Help You," Erin files a complaint against her mentor, a judge who's been imposing harsh sentences on defendants tried in his courtroom ever since his wife was killed in a DWI incident (which does get said judge to realize what Erin's been trying to tell him face-to-face — that he's been letting his grief cloud his judgment). While Erin did the right thing, and anyone can file a complaint against a judge, it usually involves people directly connected with a case. In the first scenario with the first-time offender who got the maximum sentence, the defense attorney certainly should've filed a complaint, as well as made an appeal for an Eighth Amendment violation (cruel and unusual punishment) and prevailed. Same goes for the other scenario, where evidence got tossed — the defense attorney would've appealed.
• In "Through the Looking Glass," a reporter gets an anonymous interview with the man who set a hobo on fire in Brooklyn's Brownsville neighborhood. When told by Frank to give up the killer, she refuses, claiming she's protected by the First Amendment, which it certainly does not when other peoples' lives might be at stake.
• In "Blast from the Past":
  • An officer named Thomas Scully is up for promotion to Sergeant. Thing is, he was acquitted in the death of a Muslim teenager who was shot 61 times while reaching for his wallet in a dark apartment. It's mentioned that the other three officers who were with Scully were also acquitted and resigned after the trial. In real life, it'd be highly unlikely he'd keep his job, since the NYPD, like every other police department, has really strict conduct guidelines. Which means officers can be punished (up to and including loss of job) for misconduct regardless of any criminal trial.^note Which was shown in a season 4 episode where an officer used an illegal chokehold on a suspect in a precinct bathroom — he wasn't indicted, but he lost his job because he broke protocol. Absent something like a political connection, he'd have been let go, and he would have been blacklisted by the department. He'd be placed under a microscope and would be written up for any number of minor violations. Long story short, he'd be run out of the NYPD and probably blackballed at every other police force.
  • Not to mention that by singling out Officer Scully and subjecting him to added scrutiny beyond the promotional process, Frank would open the NYPD to civil action. Indirectly denying him the promotion or making punitive conditions prior to awarding it would practically make it a guarantee.
• From what's shown, it seems that Mayor Carter Poole was elected into office in 2011, and was successfully reelected in 2015, with this implying that mayoral elections in New York City come in the off-year before a Presidential election cycle. In reality, the mayoral election cycle in New York City happens during the off-year after a Presidential election cycle.
• In "The Greater Good," Danny is being hauled before a grand jury over his fatal shooting of Thomas Wilder. Frank refers to Danny's issue as a case of double jeopardy. But Danny was never brought to trial, so double jeopardy would not apply. Furthermore, during the grand jury hearings, Nicky is on the stand and asked what Danny said to Wilder on the other end of the phone conversations. She caves in 2 seconds and not only tells them verbatim, but says it word for word in dramatic fashion. Thing is, her mom is the ADA and was there when Wilder died, so Erin should have prepped her beforehand.
• In "Family Business", Jackie Curatola is trying to locate Danny, abducted by Benjamin Walker. When the cab dispatcher is uncooperative, she threatens him at gunpoint into giving up the location of the cab Danny is in. The reason why she doesn't face any consequences for this is due to the "exigent circumstances" rule (someone's life is in grave danger), which only applies to conducting searches without warrants, not making threats against people.
• In "Love Lost", a suspect's confession is excluded from evidence because he hadn't been read his Miranda Rights before giving this. However, he gave the confession spontaneously, so it would be admissible.
• In "Heavy Is the Head" it's said that the New York state governor can fire Frank, the NYPD Commissioner. However, only the Mayor of New York City can do this—which the show mentioned itself in a previous episode.
• In "Keeping the Faith", Eddie's former commanding officer, once-Sergeant McNichols is now a Captain. Assuming the time between her appearances is the same as the real-world time (6 months) and that she took the appropriate promotional exam, she would have been a Lieutenant. Furthermore, State of New York civil service law mandates that officers spend at least two years at their current supervisory rank before they become eligible to take the next exam.