Oh yeah, another thing I learned from cop shows is that detectives, amateur or pro, can have near-celebrity status in which their reputation precedes them, even among the general public. “Hey, I know you-- you’re the world’s greatest detective, right?”
Wait?! The blue wire with the red stripe or the red wire with the blue stripe?
Never mind the wires, what no TV cop realizes is that the big red digital readout that every TV bomb has, also has timer controls on it. Just change the setting from 1 minute 29 seconds and counting down, to an hour, and buy yourself a lot more time. Just be careful not to accidentally adjust the timer the wrong way…
Maine, Oxford and Scandinavia might look nice on the telly but they’re sure keeping the funeral parlours busy, according to the Sun. After totting up the figures, Radio 4’s More or Less has worked out that the deadliest fictional place in the world of deadly fictional places is Cabot Cove in Maine, home town of one Jessica Fletcher (played by Angela Lansbury) in Murder, She Wrote , which has 149 murders for every 100,000 people. Ystad, home of Swedish detective Wallander, is nipping at its heels, with 110 murders per 100,000.
I think they have forgotten Kembleford.
https://www.reddit.com/r/fatherbrown/comments/hc388o/homicide_rate_kembleford/
Dividing 20 by 0.091 we get approximately 220. So even by a very conservative estimate, Kembleford has a homicide rate that is 220 times the average rate of England at the time. It is also makes Chicago, and other places known for high crime rates, seem like havens of peace by comparison.
What about Midsomer County? 
I recently started my investigation into Jessica Fletcher, the early years, and so far Cabot Cove isn’t all that deadly. Only two murders so far. The bulk of those meeting their untimely demise around her have been on the road. Maybe she becomes more of a homebody as she gets older.
They go on to cover that, but at least in MM they change villages all the time.
Crime fighting, particularly when it comes to private investigators, can be done by people with a wide variety of physical and emotional impairments.
Acute OCD (Monk)
Paraplegia (Ironside)
Blindness (Longstreet)
Old age (Barnaby Jones)
Obesity (Cannon)
Autism (Alphas, The Bridge)
Undiagnosed autism (Bones)
Deafness (Sue Thomas: F.B. Eye)
The Father Brown Corollary to this rule is to always be the first person arrested for the crime because they are always innocent.
Although my wife and I spend our evenings sitting on the same couch, somehow one of us can sneak out of the house, commit a complicated murder, and return home without ever being noticed, giving us a perfect alibi when the cops interview us. In the first half of the show.
Rugged handsomness (Castle)
You left out “Sarge” (played by George Kennedy), a cop who became a priest after his wife was murdered and devoted himself to catching bad guys.
Priests have hobbies, [Miscreant]. Would you like to become mine?
Back in the '70s, MAD Magazine came up with a new series titled Longsarge, about (IIRC) a blind (or deaf) quadroplegic Buddhist monk on a motorcycle who moonlighted as a PI.
Unless it’s changed since I quit watching it, the perp on NCIS is always one of the first suspects they questioned but discounted.
Last epi, the first guy was guilty. But yeah, the cops always arrest the wrong guy and Father Brown proves he is innocent.
Not so much anymore.
Vintage mob hits with lots of squibs but no blood. See how long it takes you to finger the first victim:
Oddly enough, The Untouchables was criticized at the time for being too violent.
(The windshield effect was achieved using splatballs filled with petroleum jelly.)
That opens up another category - people for whom catching bad people is a later-in-life/second profession, e.g., Diagnosis Murder, Father Dowling Mysteries
I’m surprised no one has come up with a letter carrier detective. After all, they walk a regular route, they know when people move in or out, they’re aware of a sudden increase of packages arriving. Seems like a natural fit.
Not TV but in a movie there is one scene of cops sitting on a house that bothers me. I think Lethal Weapon is the best buddy cop movie ever. There is one glaring flaw. Riggs and Murtagh realize Mr Joshua is going to try and get Roger’s family. They call ahead to get protection on the house. Despite the fact that it’s a Special Ops trained killer coming the cops are just sitting in their car. They are immediately murdered. Mr Joshua enters the house looking for the family. He finds a note saying “Nobody here but the bad guys” and a car comes crashing through the house.
So that means R & M got to the house first, got the family out of the house, left a snarky note on the Christmas tree then left two cops outside to die just so Joshua won’t think they were ready for him. Thats not exactly standard police practice.
well, Riggs is at best CN.
Which episode was that?