Are TV/Movie police stations in any way accurate?

[Hampshire]

On any police drama they always show the police station as a very busy place, one large room with lots of desks, criminals paraded past everyone, visitors coming and going.
In real life any police station I have been to, small local ones, they have been very quiet places. Offices seperate from any criminal booking area. Offices enclosed or seperated into cubes. Not a lot of staff around. No giant open room. Very controlled access to visitors.

Are big city police stations like this also or do they really exist as seen on TV?

(Same for hospitals like ER or Grey's Anatomy. I've never been to one laid out in such an open fashion.)

[cochrane]

The police station in Barney Miller is said to have been quite accurate.

[Don Draper]

I was an innocent bystander to an armed robbery about a year & a half ago, and thus did get to be interviewed by the detectives, go to the station and look at mug shots, (try to) I.D. someone in a lineup. What was most shocking to me personally was that it really was like a Law & Order set-up. The way the cops walked, talked, the seedy precinct house. And the few friends I mentioned it to who'd been in similar situations thought the same thing too - everyone joked about the detectives being 'straight out of central casting.'


On the flip side, my father was a doctor, one of my brothers is an RN, and I have two good friends who are ER doctors. All of them say that Scrubs is a more realistic portrayal of a hospital than ER or Grey's Anatomy.

[RickJay]

Originally Posted by The New and Improved Superman

On the flip side, my father was a doctor, one of my brothers is an RN, and I have two good friends who are ER doctors. All of them say that Scrubs is a more realistic portrayal of a hospital than ER or Grey's Anatomy.

Of course, Scrubs actually has its own hospital; they shoot most of the show in what was an unused hospital in Los Angeles, the North Hollywood Medical Center.

[astorian]

Years ago, I read a newspaper article that compared some of Chicago's REAL hospitals with what was seen on "e.r." and "Chicago Hope."

One doctor put it thus: "If 'e.r.' wants to be accurate, there should be a lot more doctors from India, and a LOT time spent doing more paperwork."

[Baker]

Originally Posted by astorian

Years ago, I read a newspaper article that compared some of Chicago's REAL hospitals with what was seen on "e.r." and "Chicago Hope."

One doctor put it thus: "If 'e.r.' wants to be accurate, there should be a lot more doctors from India, and a LOT time spent doing more paperwork."

My mother, who was an R.N. said much the same thing. Not about Indian doctors, but about paperwork, and having to attend long, boring meetings.