Philadelphia Police Department - Popular Culture

Popular Culture

  • The Philadelphia Police Department is featured in the 1978 zombie film Dawn of the Dead in which the PPD S.W.A.T. team clears out a tenement building which was harboring the undead.
  • The 1983 comedy Trading Places, Dan Aykroyd's character is detained and questioned by members of the PPD.
  • The 1985 thriller Witness features Harrison Ford's character as a detective in the PPD who is hunted by corrupt members of the department.
  • The PPD's Recruit Training Academy was featured in an episode of Da Ali G Show in which Ali G participates in several police training exercises.
  • The police/drama series Cold Case involves detectives of the Philadelphia Police Department.
  • The 1990 action/comedy Downtown featuring Anthony Edwards and Forest Whitaker.
  • The PPD is shown assisting members of the Baltimore Police Department on a 2002 episode of The Wire during the extradition and arrest of criminal Wee-Bey Brice.
  • The television series Monk mentions that Lieutenant Randy Disher served as a police sergeant for several years in the PPD.
  • The PPD is featured in the series Presidential Agent written by W.E.B. Griffin.
  • The PPD is featured in the series Badge of Honor written by W.E.B. Griffin.
  • The PPD is also featured in the 2007 film Shooter, starring Mark Wahlberg.
  • The PPD is also featured in the 2008 BBC documentary Law and Disorder in Philadelphia, presented by Louis Theroux.
  • The PPD is featured in several segments of the television series Cops during the early 1990s and 2000s.
  • A member of the PPD shoots himself to death after being overcome by suicidal madness in the 2008 environmental thriller The Happening by director M. Night Shyamalan.
  • Several of PPD Mounted and Patrol cars appear in an early Jeff Bridges film Winter Kills 1979.
  • Remake of Blow Out with John Travolta in 1981 was filmed in Philadelphia and included several members of the PPD.
  • Members of the department were depicted in the 2009 thriller film, Law Abiding Citizen.
  • The homicide unit of the PPD is featured in the crime series written by Richard Montanari.
  • The Delaware Valley Police Department (DVPD) from the 2012 TV series Beauty and the Beast is a fictionalized version of the PPD. The DVPD's commissioner is Capt. Logan Walsh (played by Hugh Laurie)

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