SCOTTISH police might just have found a secret ally in their battle with gangsters: crime writers.
Senior officers and politicians are mulling a scheme to change the way the Mob is portrayed on screen and page.
Law enforcement sources have long moaned about TV shows and books which glamorise organised crime without explaining its grim reality. Now, inspired by US TV series like the award-winning and eye-opening drama The Wire, they want to do something about it.
A proposal, quietly published by the Scottish Government’s Serious and Organised Crime Task Force, suggests formalising current ad-hoc arrangements for briefing fiction writers.
It says: “The FBI have held more general seminars with established writers, in order to provide briefings on the nature and variety of their work, and to answer technical questions related to different crime types they are tackling.
“Similar engagement with producers of fiction by criminal justice agencies in Scotland is difficult to quantify but is not actively advertised as a service by any members or actively co-ordinated by the Task Force itself.
“Consideration of opening such channels may be an important step towards informing the public of the evolving nature of organised crime.”
Sources stressed nobody wants to tie the hands of producers - just offer them a chance to know what the latest trends are in drugs, racketeering or corruption.
Police and partners want to use cop shows and airport thrillers to reinforce core safety and public information messages, not least for those who do not read a paper or watch the news.
Two years ago Scotland’s then chief constable, Phil Gormley, held a meeting with the nation’s crime writers. Revealed by Rebus creator Ian Rankin, the pow-wow was designed to reassure authors that their sleuths would not be killed off by the new national force.
Ken Stott as Rebus
Police Scotland, after all, has major investigation units that deal with the kind of homicides once handled locally. Mr Rankin said writers told Mr Gormley that the new service was a “nightmare”. He told them it would ‘freshen up their prose”.
READ MORE: The crime shows Scottish cops like and loathe
Police sources have long argued that fictional portrayals of murder investigations are completely unrealistic. It takes a huge team of experts to find a killer, sometimes scores of detectives, scenes of crime officers and support staff. Stories, however, tend to be driven by character, sometimes a single sleuth, sometimes a killer or a gangster.
The Wire, five seasons of award-winning TV, changed that. Its huge cast exposed the scale of policing - and those policed. Gangsters were not glamorous: they exploited children to sell drugs.
Alistair Fraser, of Glasgow University, recently completed a major report for the Organise Crime Task Force on how gangsterism blights real communities.
He said: “Ask any criminologist what their favourite TV show is and they will all answer the same: The Wire,” he said. “Not just for depictions of criminal groups and street culture but also policing, the courts, media etc. It is sociological through and through.
“There have been a couple of others in a similar vein - Love/Hate in Dublin; Gomorrah in Naples; Top Boy (to an extent) in London - but nothing close to The Wire. And nothing at all in Scotland.”
Gomorrah
“The Wire’s an example of what can be done when great journalism and ambitious TV production comes together with a decent budget and support, and shows the inner-life of the city in a way that no other medium can."
Dr Fraser continued: “I’ve always thought Glasgow would make a good setting for something similar: it is a city rich with stories, where fact and fiction often merge.”
Novelist Liam McIlvanney - whose latest novel The Quaker is set in 1960s Glasgow - is known for carefully researched stories. But he was sceptical about any scheme to use TV or novels for “messaging”.
He said: “It’s not the crime writer’s job to reflect the current reality of organised crime in any kind of documentary or journalistic fashion.
“The novelist’s job is to invent plausible fictional scenarios that throw light on some aspects of what it means to be human. As a novelist, my loyalty is to the story, not to ‘the facts.”
READ MORE: The crime shows Scottish cops like and loathe
It’s not just mafia portrayals that vex some experts. Scottish forensic psychologist Karyn McCluskey, chief executive of Community Justice Scotland and fan of The Wire, questioned what she called the “salacious and gratuitous” depiction of violence, especially against women.
She added: “The prevalence and lazy reliance on the degradation and murder of women in crime drama is top of my list of reasons for turning off. Do we need to torture and punish our female characters to prove they’re strong? We need much less of this - there are so many other stories that need to be told.”
READ MORE: The crime shows Scottish cops like and loathe
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “It is essential that people understand the reality of serious organised crime – that beneath its any superficial glamour, it preys on the vulnerable, it destroys lives and it damages communities.”
Karyn McCluskey on The Wire
The Wire was something really special: real characters, flawed and complicated, made mistakes and bad decisions - often with the best intentions.
There were no angels and demons – every character was trying to make it through their life and do the best with what they had, no matter how broken and chaotic.
It’s no surprise that writer David Simon was a former crime reporter and this, combined with casting of people who had experience of that world, created an insightful, authentic piece of drama.
It was full of truth about the human condition, adverse childhood experiences, hopelessness and alienation. Great writing can change the way people perceive the world – and I think The Wire showed the grey areas and nuance that life is all about.
READ MORE: Alistair Fraser on why Scotland must change its attitude to organised crime
The questions TV producers ask police
The creators of crime drama or fiction can bombard the police with questions.
One of their most common queries? To check their fictional characters do not share a name with a serving officer. Writers do not want their sleuths - though not those with names like Endeavour Morse, Cormoran Strike or John Rebus - to embarrass real detectives. Police Scotland has also advised on procedure, such as how a suspect or witness would be handled, and briefed on the work of specialists such as divers or organised crime investigators.
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