How to Use police procedural in a Sentence

police procedural

noun
  • This recount of the search for Short's killer isn't a police procedural.
    — Piu Eatwell, Philly.com, 11 Jan. 2018
  • The tense police procedural takes place in a small town that knows how to keep secrets, if not always for the right reasons.
    — Joan MacDonald, Forbes, 13 Dec. 2024
  • The show is a gritty police procedural; its true genre, however, is the fairy tale.
    — Megan Garber, The Atlantic, 2 Dec. 2019
  • The novel’s blend of police procedural and horror works well.
    — Gabino Iglesias, New York Times, 30 Apr. 2024
  • The police procedural went on to have a 12-season run at the network.
    — Miles Beller, The Hollywood Reporter, 20 Sep. 2022
  • Murder will out as the police procedural returns for a third season.
    — Los Angeles Times Staff, Los Angeles Times, 7 July 2023
  • The police procedural was renewed for a third season in March.
    — Taijuan Moorman, USA Today, 8 Apr. 2026
  • The first part of this book is a police procedural with Dawkins and his partner Rook trying to catch the spies.
    — Mary Ann Grossmann, Twin Cities, 5 Apr. 2026
  • For both of you, having been on other police procedurals, what sets On Call apart?
    — Brande Victorian, The Hollywood Reporter, 20 Dec. 2024
  • The show combines the twin dramas of military life and police procedural.
    — Greg Evans, Deadline, 5 Aug. 2024
  • The remainder of High and Low is one of the strongest police procedurals of all time.
    — Wesley Stenzel, EW.com, 27 Mar. 2024
  • In the mold of every police procedural ever, the narrative is built around an odd-couple crime-solving duo.
    — Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter, 19 Feb. 2025
  • All good things must come to an end — including the fan-favorite police procedural Blue Bloods.
    — Toria Sheffield, People.com, 19 Oct. 2024
  • Like yarn stretched across a bulletin board in a scene from a police procedural, this early monkey brain network was difficult to parse link by link.
    — Grace Huckins, Wired, 17 Aug. 2020
  • There’s even a story by Ed McBain, a master of the police procedural.
    — John J. Miller, WSJ, 23 Dec. 2021
  • This series is going to be more action-packed than the Kubu books, which are really police procedurals.
    — Mary Ann Grossmann, Twin Cities, 16 June 2019
  • There are a few different flavors — the straight-up police procedural, the more cable-y court thriller, the legal drama.
    — Kathryn Vanarendonk, Vulture, 24 Feb. 2021
  • Like Flowers in Sand pairs its wrestling with a tight police procedural and commentary on struggling coastal towns.
    — Geoffrey Bunting, TIME, 5 Aug. 2024
  • Critics and showrunners alike say that the police procedural, the most American genre, is in crisis.
    — Doreen St. Félix, The New Yorker, 8 Mar. 2021
  • Their decision to sell up after such a short time no doubt has to do with the police procedural getting canceled in April after three seasons.
    — Wendy Bowman, Robb Report, 12 July 2024
  • Blake explains that the reason why young women, in particular, so love the police procedural is for one simple reason.
    — Lizz Schumer, PEOPLE, 29 Oct. 2025
  • Nearly all of the pilots NBC has ordered this winter have a police procedural bent.
    — Joe Otterson, Variety, 23 Jan. 2026
  • The series is framed as a police procedural, but also a contest for an object, and an answer, between better and worse factions, which is not quite to say good and bad.
    — Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 3 Jan. 2021
  • But there was more to the classic police procedural than Morton Stevens’ indelible music.
    — Louis Peitzman, Entertainment Weekly, 10 June 2026
  • In honor of the police procedural returning for a fourth season, here's all about the real-life partners of the Will Trent cast.
    — Christopher Rudolph, PEOPLE, 6 Jan. 2026
  • Handy also guest-starred on one of the greatest police procedurals of all time, NYPD Blue.
    — Britt Hayes, Entertainment Weekly, 5 June 2026
  • Adam-12 was a police procedural that ran from 1968 to 1975.
    — Victoria Edel, PEOPLE, 8 June 2026
  • That might sound like a knock, but Rookie Cops is a surprisingly spry police procedural even if that aspect is not the main attraction (so to speak).
    — Geoffrey Bunting, Time, 1 Aug. 2025
  • Like the show they were based on, the movies were spoofs of popular police procedurals rife with sight gags, non-sequiturs, and Abbott and Costello-like wordplay.
    — Mike Miller Published, EW.com, 7 May 2025
  • On Saturday, May 11, Priem — a grip who worked on the police procedural — died at age 66.
    — Esther Kang, Peoplemag, 15 May 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'police procedural.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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