Market

Market Opportunity and Audience

Genre dominance: TV police procedurals have never left the air: in any given Nielsen ratings week, crime/police dramas account for 4 of the Top 10 most-watched scripted series on broadcast television. The genre has been continuously on air since the old-time radio show Dragnet premiered first on TV in 1951—over 75 unbroken years.

Comp titles: Perfect for readers of Elaine Rapping's Law and Justice as Seen on TV, Jason Mittell's Genre and Television, and fans of titles like Everything I Need to Know I Learned from TV and The Showrunner.

True crime market: The global true crime market was valued at approximately $1.1 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach $2.25 billion by 2030 (Grand View Research). Cop TV sits at the precise intersection of true crime appetite and prestige TV discourse.

Streaming demand: Streaming has supercharged the genre: Law & Order: SVU alone has generated over 2 billion minutes of streaming on Peacock annually, making it one of the platform's most-watched catalog titles. NCIS remains among the most-streamed shows on Paramount+.

Cultural moment: The "Defund the Police" movement peaked in 2020, generating significant cultural anxiety around law enforcement representation; yet TV police dramas saw audience increases, not decreases, in the 2020-2022 period—a paradox this book is uniquely positioned to explain.

Policy relevance: Academic and policy crossover: 62% of Americans report that their primary understanding of police investigative procedure comes from television (Pew Research Center, 2019). The book speaks directly to debates about police reform, jury bias, and media literacy.

Core audience: Nostalgia economy: Viewers aged 45-65 (the dominant book-buying demographic) grew up on cop TV shows like Starsky & Hutch, Hill Street Blues, and Miami Vice. This book delivers both nostalgia and intellectual vindication of their viewing habits.

Industry readership: The global TV market generates over $500 billion annually; understanding its most durable genre has clear commercial and academic value to industry professionals, writers' rooms, and showrunners—an underserved professional readership.

Prestige TV moment: With prestige crime series like True Detective, The Wire (which entered a new cultural moment via streaming), Fargo (based on the acclaimed Coen Brothers 1990s feature film), and Only Murders in the Building dominating Emmy nominations, discourse around the genre is at a generation-high.

The Paley Center for Media offers various programs at both East Coast (NYC) and West Coast (Los Angeles, CA) locations, and they are especially enamored of cop TV presentations.

Global reach, international market: U.K., Australia, and Canada all have rich national traditions of police drama (Midsomer Murders, Blue Heeler, The Murdoch Mysteries) addressed in the book, significantly expanding export and foreign rights potential.

Author Credentials

Unique dual expertise: Dr. Michael Arntfield is a former London, Ontario (Canada) police officer and homicide detective turned Fulbright Scholar and award-winning professor at Western University (Canada)—one of fewer than 5 individuals in the world who has held both roles credibly.

Washington, DC credibility: Co-director, Murder Accountability Project (Washington, DC)—the nation's leading homicide accountability think tank and victim advocacy group.

Law enforcement reach: Guest lecturer: FBI Academy at Quantico; Western Australian Police Academy; police services in the U.K., EU, and across North America (U.S. / Canada)—routinely uses cop shows as pedagogical tools in professional law enforcement training.

Academic pedigree: Visiting Chair, Vanderbilt University (Nashville, 2017); upcoming visiting scholar, The Citadel, South Carolina (2027)—establishing credibility across both coastal and Southern U.S. academic markets.

Publishing track record: Author of 12+ trade and scholarly books; contributor to 100+ journal, encyclopedia, and anthology articles; among the most frequently cited academics at Western University.

Public communicator: TED speaker with demonstrated ability to translate criminological expertise into compelling public-facing content.

Active TV presence: Current on-air talent: To Catch a Killer (OWN/Tubi, 2014–present); Evil Lives Here (Investigation Discovery/Disney+, 2019–present); Time to Kill, all 3 seasons (HBOmax/international, 2019–present); Catching a Serial Killer: Bruce McArthur (Oxygen/international, 2021–present).

Hollywood relationships: Three existing true crime books in development as scripted series with U.S. producers represented by CAA; life rights optioned multiple times by American studios and streamers—placing Arntfield at the center of the very industry he's writing about.

Publicity

Print, Broadcast & Major Media

Major trade reviewers: Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, and Booklist among others (including BookPage)

National newspapers: The New York Times (Arts, Sunday Review, TV criticism desk), The Washington Post (TV/Style), The Los Angeles Times (TV/Calendar), USA Today, The Guardian (both U.S. and U.K. editions, ideally), The Wall Street Journal (Leisure & Arts)

Culture & criticism: The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Vulture (New York Media), The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, Slate (TV section), Salon

Entertainment trade press: TV Guide, Entertainment Weekly, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline—trade publications reaching the industry readership who will find this book professionally essential

History & culture press: Smithsonian Magazine, American Heritage, Lapham's Quarterly—history/culture angle on the cop show as social document

Psychology/social science press: Psychology Today, Psychotherapy Networker, Scientific American Mind—the book's exploration of how cop shows shape public perception of crime and justice maps directly to media psychology readership

Law enforcement “trade” press: Police Magazine, Law Officer, Law Enforcement Today—cop shows as training aids is a genuine hook with professional law enforcement readers

Canadian media/press: The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Maclean's, CBC Books—Arntfield is a high-profile Canadian academic; the Disney/RCMP and LAPD/Dragnet stories are North American news

International media: Australian/UK press: The Guardian Australia, Sydney Morning Herald, BBC Culture—international angle on global cop show franchises

NPR: Fresh Air (Terry Gross is an ideal interviewer for a book about TV history and cultural analysis), On Point, 1A, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, To the Best of Our Knowledge

Broadcast TV: CBS Sunday Morning (ideal long-form cultural segment), PBS NewsHour, C-SPAN Book TV, NBC's The Tonight Show w/Jimmy Fallon, ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live! (the Star Trek/Gene Roddenberry “From Real-Life Cop to Fantasy-Space-Travel Show Runner” revelation is a late-night booking hook)

Cable TV: CNN (law enforcement and cultural history angles), MS NOW, History Channel, AMC (home of prestige crime drama programs), Investigation Discovery

Podcasts

Pop culture & celebrity: Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, SmartLess, Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, and The Joe Rogan Experience (among various others)

TV criticism & fandom: Binge Mode, The Watch (The Ringer), TV's Top 5 (THR), Series Regular, Scriptnotes—dedicated TV podcast audiences are the book's core early adopters

History & revisionism: Revisionist History (Malcolm Gladwell), You're Wrong About, American History Tellers, Backstory—the LAPD/Dragnet, Disney/RCMP, and Chicago PD embargo stories are perfect revisionist history fodder

True crime: Your Own Backyard, Crime Junkie (9M+ downloads/episode), My Favorite Murder, True Crime Obsessed, Casefile—true crime podcast audiences are the single largest overlap with this book's readership

Social science & ideas: Hidden Brain, Freakonomics Radio, The Ezra Klein Show—the social science of why we watch cop shows and how they shape public opinion on criminal justice

Law & criminal justice: Law School Transparency, Opening Arguments, Strict Scrutiny—the book's examination of jury bias, the CSI effect, and public legal literacy has a natural legal podcast audience

Canadian podcasts: Canadaland, The Current (CBC), Search Engine (PJ Vogt)—Canadian media for Arntfield's home market and the Disney/RCMP chapter