With policing reform hot in the news, the law enforcement and public safety advisory group 21CP Solutions is going Hollywood with an exclusive consulting deal with CBS Television Studios on crime procedurals and legal dramas, Variety reports. 21CP is made up of police chiefs, lawyers and community representatives who work with government agencies to “advance 21st century policing” concepts.
R. Scott Gemmill, showrunner and executive producer of NCIS: Los Angeles, says he is “very excited” about the CBS-21CP alliance. “This new partnership will help us ensure that our storytelling continues to produce accurate portrayals of law enforcement, and will hopefully allow us to play a small part in the ongoing reform moving forward.” 21CP Solutions partner Ronald Davis served in the Obama administration as the director of the Justice Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services from 2013 to 2017. Davis’ team that will work with CBS includes: Laurie Robinson, a former DOJ official now at George Mason University; legal scholar Matthew Barge, who has served as a federal court monitor overseeing police reform consent decrees; Roberto Villaseñor, a member of President Obama’s task force on 21st century policing and a 35-year veteran of the Tucson Police Department; Annette Sikka, who spent time in Kosovo overseeing policing projects for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the United Nations; and attorney Brian Maxey, the former COO of the Seattle Police Department.