Law and Order

Law and Order is a 1969 documentary film by Frederick Wiseman that shows the daily routine of officers of the Kansas City Police Department. It was Wiseman's third film after Titicut Follies (1967) and High School (1968). The films were among the earliest examples of direct cinema by a U.S. filmmaker. The police documentary, initially shown on National Educational Television (NET) (predecessor to the PBS Public Broadcasting System) in the United States, was directed, produced and edited by Wiseman, and the cinematographer was William Brayne. It won an Emmy Award as best documentary of the year. Synopsis The film follows the members of the Kansas City Police Department, who are largely white, as they engage in daily patrol activities, interacting with members of the public. The scope of their activities is broad, ranging from bringing a lost child to the police station to making arrests. In one scene, a white plainclothes officer puts a black prostitute in a chokehold, doing so with such force that her tongue juts out of her mouth. Production To create the film, which was shot in 1968, the filmmakers accompanied police officers in patrol cars as they responded to a variety of calls, ranging from domestic incidents to an armed robbery and a lost child. The film documents racial tensions between the police and local residents, and also records the officers complaining to each other as well as engaging in brutality. Wiseman spent over 400 hours accompanying officers in the patrol cars in making the film. The New York Times said that "his 'method,' as he might very well describe it, is simply to 'hang around.'"