It follows the daily routine of officers of the Kansas City Police Department, and was initially shown on National Educational Television (NET) (predecessor to the PBS in the United States).
In one scene, a white plainclothes officer puts a black prostitute in a chokehold, doing so with such force that her tongue juts out of her mouth.
[4] To create the film, which was shot in 1968,[1] the filmmakers accompanied police officers in patrol cars as they responded to a variety of calls, ranging from domestic incidents to an armed robbery and a lost child.
The film documents racial tensions between the police and local residents, and also records the officers complaining to each other as well as engaging in brutality.
Wiseman said that "we liberals frequently forget that people do terrible violence to each other, against which the police form a minimal and not very successful barrier.
Prior to the telecast, NET president John F. White, overruling PBL executive's decision, ordered that obscenities be cut from the audio track.