Depictions of police officers on television news grew from 2010 to 2015 (though 2010 contains only half a year's data) at a linear rate, from around 4,000 seconds of airtime in 2011 to more than 10,000 seconds of airtime in 2015. Police have remained a steady fixture in the half-decade since, neither increasing nor decreasing in their airtime, with ABC showing them the most, followed by NBC and then CBS, though NBC actually ramped up appearances last year.
The timeline below shows the total yearly seconds of airtime depicting police across the three stations.
Showing the same timeline at monthly resolution (the dip in 2020 reflects that it is obviously only a partial year to date).Late 2012 and early 2013 can be seen to be the inflection point when police became fixtures on television news, increasing rapidly over 2013 and 2014 with large spikes in 2015 before settling into a steady state in early 2017.
