‘East New York’ Isn’t Just A Police Procedural, It’s About Community

It’s a cop series, but a decidedly different kind of cop series, insist the creative team.

Mike Flynn, the co-creator and executive producer of the new drama East New York says, we just wanted a series that reflects what’s going on in the world and in our country, and I think this is a prime opportunity to show what a cop show looks like in 2022.”

He explains the evolution with, “[The creative team and I], we’ve watched the country kind of shift into a new era, you know, given the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and so many other people that fell to the hands of guns, we wanted to show how cops are working to bridge this gap between the community and the police that has been fractured by them working in communities of disenfranchised people.”

The series is set in the 74^th Precinct in East New York – a working-class neighborhood on the edge of Brooklyn in the midst of social upheaval and the early seeds of gentrification. Using some creative methods, Deputy Inspector Regina Haywood, the newly promoted head of the department, plans to bridge the gap between police and community, but that path will not be easy.

The series stars Amanda Warren as Haywood, Jimmy Smits as Chief John Suarez, Ruben Santiago-Hudson as Officer Marvin Sandeford, and Richard King as Captain Stan Yenko, along with Olivia Luccadi and Lavel Schley as Officers Brandy Quinlan and Andre Bentley.

The location plays a key role in the series, says Flynn. “We figured that by setting this in a neighborhood in East New York, it’s an untapped neighborhood that’s kind of slowly seen a tide of gentrification. And, it’s a neighborhood that’s as vibrant, full of colorful people, full of hard-working, honest people that tends to get a negative kind of rep over the course of the last several years, if not decades.”

It’s the marriage of police and neighborhood that the series is looking to highlight, reveals Flynn. “We wanted to showcase the lives of the cops who live and work in this precinct and how their personal ethos reverberates through the investigations that they work and how that affects the lives of the community.”

Smits agrees, adding, in this particular neighborhood, with this particular set of people, both law enforcement and the citizens of the community, we’re reflecting a more truthful image of the interplay between the community and law enforcement.

Revealing Haywood’s mission and it’s consequences, Warren says of her character, “She is in very much a conventional space doing unconventional things in a very diverse environment. She is trying something that is new, and with that, there is some resistance to breaking habit. So with that comes your inherent and organic conflict. We see a lot of trial and perhaps error in her methods and approach and collaboration within the precinct and within the residents that she’s serving.”

Speaking about the public perception of police officers, Smits offers, “The bottom line is that people get into law enforcement to be, as President Obama said, a guardian, not a warrior. And that’s what we have to remember, that we’re there to protect and serve the people of the community that we’re involved in. In this instance, East New York. “

Kind says that there’s also the common troupe, which he feels is misguided, of the kinds of cops that appear on every police series, explaining, “when I tell somebody I’m doing a cop drama, they all say, ‘Are you a good cop or a bad cop? And I said, ‘There’s eight regulars on this show, and all of them are good cops. They’re good people. They have flaws, as a banker has flaws, as a doctor may have flaws.’”

He adds about the series, “As opposed to being a procedural, [the creative team] are showing us as people. But, primarily, I believe policemen are good people who want to keep stability in a community and in their country.”

Speaking about his personal feelings regarding law enforcement, Kind admits, “I can’t believe that men and women go into law enforcement to be bad, and that’s what I have to say, and I think we have to underline that. I think their goals are to be good people.”

A key factor in the series follows a real-life trend, says Flynn, as he points out, “We see happening around the country [is that] police [are] moving into the communities in which they serve. And I think that has an immediate ripple effect on certain areas that experience a high crime rate. So [we] wanted to reflect that in our show in terms of what would happen if people start to see police living amongst them, and I think that can offer a lot of stories down the line.”

Expounding on the narrative, William Finkelstein, co-creator and executive producer, who spent years working on the highly-regarded police drama, NYPD Blue, says, “We’re not making a documentary. We’re making a dramatic series. We’re telling stories about a community and the cops who are in the middle of that. The idea is, ‘how much does it change if they are of the place that they are serving as opposed to coming into it and leaving it every day? How do we change the perception of cops looking at the people who live in this community? How do we change the perception of the people looking at cops?’ And, you know, that’s the business of the series.”

He very much wants viewers to understand that, “we are not in the business of serving as propagandists or as public relations devices. We are dramatists, all of us. We tell stories. And we hope that our stories resound with a truthfulness that, when people see it, they will feel as though there’s a legitimacy to the story that we’re telling.”

‘East New York’ debuts Sunday, October 2nd at 9:30/8:30c and then moves to its regular timeslot, Sundays at 9/8c on October 9th. The series is also available for streaming live and on demand on Paramount+