Best Police Procedural

Unnatural is a Japanese police procedural and forensic television drama that aired on TBS in 2018. Written by Akiko Nogi, the series centers on the fictional Unnatural Death Investigation laboratory based in Tokyo. The narrative follows a team of forensic pathologists who investigate unusual, violen...

MIU404 is a Japanese police procedural television drama written by Akiko Nogi and broadcast on the TBS network in 2020. The narrative centers on the Mobile Investigative Unit (MIU) of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, focusing specifically on two mismatched detectives tasked with rapid-respo...

Z-Cars is a British television police procedural series produced by the BBC that originally aired from 1962 to 1978. Set in the fictional town of Newtown, the series was filmed in and around the Liverpool area. It is historically significant for its gritty realism, depicting police officers as compl...

Dark Winds is an AMC television series that premiered in 2022, adapting Tony Hillerman's mystery novels featuring Navajo Tribal Police officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. Set in the 1970s on the Navajo Nation, the police procedural distinguishes itself through its Indigenous creative team, which inc...

19-2 is a Canadian police procedural television series set in Montreal that depicts the professional and personal lives of officers in the city's police department. The show originated as a French-language series on Radio-Canada in 2011 before being adapted into an English-language version that aire...

Wallander is a British television series broadcast on BBC One from 2008 to 2016, starring Kenneth Branagh as the fictional Swedish detective Kurt Wallander. Adapted from the acclaimed novels by Henning Mankell, the series maintains its setting in the town of Ystad, Sweden, and was filmed on location...

Inspector Lewis is a British detective drama that aired on ITV from 2006 to 2015, serving as a spin-off of the long-running Inspector Morse television series. Kevin Whately reprises his role as Robert Lewis, who has been promoted to Detective Inspector and solves complex murders in the academic city...

"Da Vinci's Inquest" is a Canadian television drama series that aired on CBC Television from 1998 to 2005, spanning seven seasons. The show stars Nicholas Campbell as Dominic Da Vinci, a crusading coroner in Vancouver, British Columbia, who frequently uncovers uncomfortable truths about the city's c...

"Cardinal" is a Canadian crime drama television series that aired on CTV from 2017 to 2020, adapted from the John Cardinal novel series written by Giles Blunt. The show stars Billy Campbell as Detective John Cardinal and Karine Vanasse as Detective Lise Delorme, who work together to solve complex mu...

"Adam-12" is an American police procedural television series created by Jack Webb and Robert A. Cinader that aired on NBC from 1968 to 1975. The series follows two patrol officers of the Los Angeles Police Department, veteran Pete Malloy and rookie Jim Reed, as they respond to calls across the city....

"Wallander" is a Swedish crime drama television series that aired from 2005 to 2013, starring Krister Henriksson as the titular Detective Kurt Wallander. Based on the character created by author Henning Mankell, the series was produced by Yellow Bird and broadcast on SVT. The narrative is set in the...

"Underbelly" is an Australian true-crime television drama series that premiered on the Nine Network in 2008. The program employs an anthology format, with each season dramatizing distinct, real-life criminal events and figures in Australian history, most notably the Melbourne gangland killings that...

"Inspector George Gently" is a British television crime drama series produced by the BBC and broadcast between 2007 and 2017. The program stars Martin Shaw as the titular Inspector Gently, a Scotland Yard detective who relocates to North East England in the 1960s. Based on the long-running series of...

Between the Lines is a British police drama that aired on BBC One from 1992 to 1994 across three series. Created by J.P. Smith, it stars Neil Pearson as Detective Superintendent Tony Clark, who works for the Complaints Investigation Bureau, the internal affairs division of the Metropolitan Police. T...

Wisting is a Norwegian crime drama television series that premiered on TV 2 Norway in 2019. Based on the novels of Jørn Lier Horst, the series follows Detective Inspector William Wisting, portrayed by Sven Nordin, a veteran police investigator working in the coastal town of Larvik. Parallel storylin...

La Trêve (released internationally as The Break) is a French-language Belgian crime drama television series that premiered on RTBF in 2016. The narrative centers on Police Inspector Yoann Peeters, who relocates to a small rural village in the Belgian Ardennes but becomes deeply entangled in a comple...

The Brokenwood Mysteries is a New Zealand television detective drama series that premiered in 2014. The show is set in the fictional, quirky rural town of Brokenwood and follows Detective Senior Sergeant Mike Shepherd as he solves complex homicide cases using unorthodox methods. The series blends cl...

Developed by Veena Sud, The Killing is an American crime drama that aired on AMC from 2011 to 2014, concluding on Netflix. The series is a direct adaptation of the Danish show Forbrydelsen, following Seattle homicide detectives Sarah Linden and Stephen Holder, played by Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnam...

Hamish Macbeth is a BBC Scotland comedy-drama television series that aired for three seasons from 1995 to 1997. Starring Robert Carlyle in the title role, the show follows a laid-back police constable stationed in the fictional Scottish Highland village of Lochdubh. The narrative blends traditional...

Vienna Blood is a television period drama and police procedural co-produced by the BBC and ORF, premiering in 2019. Set in early 20th-century Vienna, the series is based on the Liebermann Papers novels by Frank Tallis. The narrative follows the investigative partnership between Austrian Detective In...

Blue Heelers is an Australian police drama television series that aired on the Seven Network from 1994 to 2006. The show is set in the fictional rural town of Mount Thomas, Victoria, and follows the lives and daily duties of the local police officers. Over its twelve-season run, it produced 510 epis...

Professor T is a Belgian police procedural crime drama that aired on VTM from 2015 to 2018, starring Koen De Bouck as Jasper Teerlinck, a brilliant but eccentric criminology professor at Ghent University who serves as a police consultant. The character exhibits obsessive-compulsive disorder traits a...

The Equalizer is an American crime drama that aired on CBS from 1985 to 1989, starring Edward Woodward as Robert McCall, a former covert intelligence operative who offers his services to ordinary people facing threats in New York City. The series blended detective work with espionage elements and wa...

Criminal Minds: Evolution is a 2022 revival of the long-running CBS crime drama Criminal Minds, released on the Paramount+ streaming service. The season follows the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit as it investigates a network of serial killers who formed connections during the COVID-19 pandemic, led...

Tell Me What You Saw is a 2020 South Korean crime drama that aired on the cable channel OCN, starring Jang Hyuk as Detective Oh Hyun-jae and Choi Soo-young as Cha Soo-young, a trauma survivor with eidetic memory who assists in criminal investigations. The series follows the two characters as they co...

Cold Squad is a Canadian police procedural television series that aired on CTV from 1998 to 2005, spanning seven seasons. Set in Vancouver, the series follows a specialized police unit dedicated to investigating unsolved murders or "cold cases." The show starred Julie Stewart as Sgt. Ali McCormack,...

"Den som dræber" (Those Who Kill) is a Danish crime drama series that premiered on TV2 Danmark in 2011. The series follows detective inspector Katrina Ries Jensen (Laura Bach) and forensic psychiatrist Thomas Schaeffer (Jakob Cedergren) as they work together to solve complex serial killer cases in a...

Dixon of Dock Green is a British television police procedural produced by the BBC, broadcast from 1955 to 1976. Set in the fictional Dock Green police station in London's East End, it starred Jack Warner as PC George Dixon, an approachable community policeman. Running for 22 series and over 400 epis...

Halifax f.p. is an Australian crime drama series that aired on the Nine Network from 1994 to 2002, starring Rebecca Gibney as Dr. Jane Halifax, a forensic psychiatrist who consults with police on complex criminal investigations. The series comprised 21 feature-length episodes across five seasons, ea...