One of Chicago’s toughest precincts gets a much-needed tech boost in FOX’s pulse-pounding new drama APB. Justin Kirk stars as Gideon Reeves, an engineering billionaire who, after witnessing his best friend’s murder, infuses the Chicago Police Department’s troubled 13th District with his money and his technology and reboots it as a private police force.
“And we have crime-fighting robots!” laughs Kirk.
But flashy uniforms, hot vehicles, drones and robots aside, Reeves is an Elon Musk-like problem solver who sees the precinct’s main problem as an engineering one, and sets about optimizing the way police work is done. He introduces next-gen police gear and an app that gives power to the public by turning them into pseudo-deputies with real-time reporting capabilities. “It’s an app that works almost like Uber,” Kirk explains. “You just go on it and within two minutes, help is ostensibly there.”
The success of this revolutionary police force depends on technology and Reeves’ technical officer (Caitlin Stasey) and her self-described “ragtag team of hackers and nerds,” who filter much of the influx of info using mind-blowing algorithms and futuristic geek-chic dramatics.
But not everyone in the district welcomes change with open arms, and Reeves has to win over the precinct’s newly appointed captain (Ernie Hudson) and the rest of the department, who cut their teeth on traditional police work. Leading the charge is a street-smart cop (Natalie Martinez) who tells Reeves that “technology doesn’t solve cases, cops do,” and an unpredictable beat cop whom actor Taylor Handley describes as “an analog signal in a digital world.”
APB holds a mirror to modern problems in police work and explores the gray area that exists between using technology for the greater good and the invasion of privacy that technology and information inherently bring. “We explore the good and the bad,” says Kirk. “And then at the same time, we’re an entertaining cop show with drones and chasing bad guys.”
APB > FOX > Mondays at 9/8c, beginning Feb. 6
