I’ve been a big-city copper for just under ten years. The amount of manure dumped on us is astounding. Then along comes End of Watch where we’re shown to be good and decent human beings doing a difficult job in a very realistic setting. There were a few exaggerations but overall, officers Taylor and Zavala are great at being police. They truly love each other and they have respect for everyone.



Adam-12 was an epic TV show for its time that provided the LAPD great PR a few decades after widespread corruption had gripped the department. It did a good job showing police officers doing police work in the context of the 1960s. I can’t envision their two stars Malloy and Reed joking about their captain being so handsome that they would possibly go down on him. Yet the Taylor and Zavala update is accurate. That’s how we talk. The crudest humor you could possibly come up with goes from the report writing room all the way to our cars “the black and white.” My wife teaches 5th grade in a neighboring and very sheltered suburb and I was laughing my ass off at how shocked she was by the jokes. I kept pausing the movie and telling her, “This writer did his homework, believe me.” The ridiculous amount of caffeine needed to stay awake through a ten- or twelve-hour shift is also dead-on. Pushing a black and white is no easy task, especially at three AM.

The movie also nailed the serious things we do. The LA Times will give endless coverage to a police corruption scandal but they never mention the two Newton Division cops who discovered grotesque child abuse committed by their crackhead mom. The film shows us rescuing kids from a burning building before the fire department gets there. I know coppers who have done this on three separate occasions. They did what was needed. They acted to save lives. The character’s conversation after was also extremely real. They weren’t particularly proud and when their wives found out, they got an earful. How about that fire department by the way? It must be nice to get paid to eat, sleep, and work out.

The kid stuff is the worst part of this job. I have dealt with horrible child-abuse investigations at least twice in my career. In the movie, officer Taylor goes up on the roof, cries, and then vigorously works out. A lot of us truly do feel sickened by the disgusting filth we have to witness every day. I like that the star experienced the emotion and then did something productive by exercising rather than turning to booze. I reacted viscerally to the scene because I have two sons, four and two.

I could feel his pain. A few years ago, I was transporting two little seven-year-old girls who were the victims of molestation. It was a 100-degree day so I cranked up the A/C and told them I’d also get her some lemonade. The little girl behind me replied with a very timid, “Thank you, sir.” I almost completely lost it right there. Luckily, it was a bright sunny day so I could hide behind my sunglasses.

I’ll end with how the movie begins because it is absolutely perfect.

I am the police, and I’m here to arrest you. You’ve broken the law. I did not write the law. I may disagree with the law but I will enforce it. No matter how you plead, cajole, beg or attempt to stir my sympathy. Nothing you do will stop me from placing you in a steel cage with gray bars. If you run away I will chase you. If you fight me I will fight back. If you shoot at me I will shoot back. By law I am unable to walk away. I am a consequence. I am the unpaid bill. I am fate with a badge and a gun. Behind my badge is a heart like yours. I bleed, I think, I love, and yes I can be killed. And although I am but one man, I have thousands of brothers and sisters who are the same as me. They will lay down their lives for me and I them. We stand watch together. The thin-blue-line, protecting the prey from the predators, the good from the bad. We are the police.

—FRANCISCO MURPHY

Check out my blog Tales From the Blue Side