Facilitator of community

The final theme I found in Nick Jr. shows is how police are shown as symbolic guardians of social order, as archetypical representatives of the community, primarily through community interaction. In Bubble Guppies S5 E4, “The Good, The Sad, The Grumpy,” the two main guppies are police: Molly acts as a sheriff with Gill as her deputy. Their role is to be town leaders, acting as a place where people go when something is troubling or amiss. Despite there being a mayor in this town, Sheriff Molly serves as both the spokesperson and the problem solver: “The townspeople knew they needed help, so they went to the sheriff's office.” It was up to Sheriff Molly to “go save this town.” But unlike previous episodes, Sheriff Molly does not solve crimes or mysteries; instead, she listens to the townspeople, offering empathy, making them feel better, and thus “saving the town.” As a part of the community—indeed, as pillars of the community—the police are shown as protectors of physical and emotional health. They are to be called on in time of mental and corporeal distress, thus making them mediators of community well-being.

 “The Police” (S5 E16) from Peppa Pig similarly shows the police as a part of, and integral to, the larger community. While the children are at school, the arrival of police is described as a special event, and Officer Panda and Officer Squirrel meet the children with light-hearted and funny greetings. Their purpose is to teach the children bike safety, which is one part of what the kids’ teachers deign the “important work” of the police. As the narrator intones, “Peppa loves the police. Everyone loves the police.” Ostensibly, this love comes from the positioning of police as protectors of children (through the teaching of bike safety) and the maintenance of the community (as Officer Panda bumps into a tree, Officer Squirrel makes a note of the “dangerous tree on public highway”). Such a construction of the police aligns with the contemporary political movement of community policing, which promotes teamwork and collaboration within communities to make the police “more proactive and adaptable in dealing with crime as well as becoming more focused on enhancing the quality of life for the community” (Ford, 2007, 321). This model of policing, and the accompanying representations of the police as essential and contributing members of the community, greatly expand the reach and influence of the police. Not only are they “fighting crime” (and apparently solving all of that crime), but they are also mediators, planners, problem solvers, and community organizers.

Discussion

Controlling the image of the police has been crucial since the inception of the contemporary police force. In this way, “policing is as much a matter of symbolism as much as substance” and such a focus tends to reify the police and their power, which is inextricably bound to dominant ideologies of security, safety, and social order (Reiner, 2007, 259). The depictions of police on Nick Jr. children’s shows reinforce this representation, perpetuating an idealized version of police, rather than the constructed nature of their power. In these children’s shows, the police’s authority is naturalized, with structural systems of power ignored and oversimplified in the name of a generalized greater good purpose to “protect and serve.”

The naturalization of authority and power of police is not constructed, however, as threatening, discriminatory, or malevolent. Instead, police are reified through their construction as heroic and compassionate, celebrated as the model of citizenship through their roles as “helpers.” Indeed, each Nick Jr. show reaffirms the police as the gatekeepers of society, mediating between individuals and “defend[ing] the moral structure and…sense of social control” (Jackson & Bradford, 2009, 500). These shows, and their representations of police, contribute to the discourse about “what police are” (good guys) and “what they do” (solve crime, help when needed, sacrifice, protect) and thus the “normative definition of legitimate force” (Martin 2018, 141). And in doing so, these concepts support the “rightfulness, righteousness, and seeming inevitability of police authority” (McNair, 2011, 5). Not only, then, do these shows create police as a celebrity and a necessary part of society, but also validate and rationalize that authority by those same representations.

This Pollyanna representation of the police and the narratives surrounding it cannot be attributed solely to the idealistic narrative of preschoolers’ cartoon shows. Though historically cartoons for young children have been used to teach hegemonic standards such as heteronormativity, gender norms, and whiteness (King, 2010), they still have the ability to subvert dominant narratives and focus on counter-narratives that do not necessarily align with the fairytale conservative world. Examples of subversion and deviation from hegemonic scripts in children’s cartoons are quite abundant. Starting in the 1990s and continuing through the contemporary media landscape, children’s cartoons have and have had plot lines and characters that deal with queerness and LGBTQIA+ issues (Storz, 2022), subversive historical narratives that support anti-oppressive narratives (Mygind & Sereechaiporn, 2019), climate change and radical alternatives for addressing our ecological crisis (Hellman, 2024), and justice, allyship, and community responsibility around ideas of civic engagement (Webb, 2024). This ranges from the character Aang from the Last Airbender whopromotes and sustains his stance on non-violence while simultaneously addressing imperialism and war, to Arthur in his eponymous show covering mental health issues, to Korra in Legend of Korra with storylines about economic inequality and anti-colonialism, to The Dragon Prince tackling xenophobia and racism. Even more historical shows such as Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood took on public segregation, while Sesame Street covered and still covers issues of disabilities, parental incarceration, racism, and homeless, just to name a few. These shows indicate a larger shift in cartoons in discussing more complex social issues, as they continue to “challenge existing power structures, question norms, and inspire action for change by presenting transferable challenges in alternative realities” (Webb, 2024, 12-13).

While one would most likely not expect an animated show, with a target audience of 3 to 5-years-old, to offer a critique of police’s power, legitimacy, and violence, introducing the police at this age does allow for an initiation to and information about people whom they would have very little direct content. And regular exposure to these police characters, particularly for those young children who have had no exposure to police, can alter their beliefs about how the world works and how individuals (like police) behave (Reinhard, Olson, & Kahlenberg, 2017). Research shows that preschoolers “can easily have their vision about their future role in society distorted” by how characters are presented in the cartoons they watch, which “can foster misconceptions of people, places or things” (Schiau et al., 2013, 60). While much of the extant research on this focuses on gender roles (Hentges & Case, 2013; Walsh & Leaper, 2020) and villains (Kort-Butler, 2013; Webb, 2024), the same findings can reasonably be thought to hold true for police representations, which also contain the upholding of neoliberalism. Indeed, research indicates that preschoolers favor information and concepts presented by highly familiar TV characters rather than adult “experts” on the topic (Williams & Danovitch, 2019). That is, their friend Chase or fish-kid Gill seem a more desirable and trusted source of information about police than an adult with experience and expertise related to police and policing. Clearly, there are mitigating factors to the effectiveness of this police narrative on preschoolers. Educators, teachers, peers, religious leaders, siblings—all these micro systems have the ability to either reinforce the dominant narrative of police or, alternatively complicate and subvert this narrative (Johnson, 2010). However, much research (Dugan, 2012; Fisch, Truglio, & Cole, 1999; Graves, 1999) continues to emphasize how the characters, narratives, and animated aspects of cartoons affects preschoolers’ belief systems, including stereotypes, prejudices, or what makes some “good.” Thus, the power and authority concealed within these latent and inescapable systems of knowledge preschoolers’ cartoons seem to inevitably, if not inadvertently, enter and stay in the psyche of children.

The police themselves have made concerted efforts to create and disseminate a friendlier and more sociable image appealing to children, including the introduction in 1980 of the mascot McGruff the Crime Dog, the anthropomorphic bloodhound with his mantra “Take a Bite Out of Crime!” and a coordinated $100 million radio, television, and billboard campaign. The ongoing campaign has been successful: 9 out of 10 adults know McGruff and 8 out of 10 children said they were like to take advice from McGruff (Lendhardt, 2007). Nick Jr. representations can be seen, then, as a companion to the friendliness, expertise, and legitimacy of McGruff.

Clearly, however, police are not simply benevolent. Police misconduct, corruption, militarization, the use of excessive force, racial profiling, as well as the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Michael Brown, Duante Hill (to name just a minuscule few), exemplify the way that “police today are more organized, more powerful, more equipped, better funded, and deadlier than ever” (Wall & McClanahan, 2024, 2). Indeed, 2023 saw a record high number of (over 1,300) police killings in the United States, with black Americans shot and killed at two times the rate of white Americans, and half of fatalities of young people between the ages of 20 and 40 (Fatal Force database, 2024). And while 2020 saw a collective moment of revolution against the police and the racist, capitalist institution that both perpetuates and is perpetuated by it, media coverage of such opposition was framed as unruly riots and television and movies have made little, if any, adjustments to their portrayals. The “bad apple” frame has continued in popular discourse, centering on individuals rather than structural defects and keeping safe the larger foundations of police and policing. And the police themselves are part of this, defining the problem, insisting on itself as the solution, and having unverifiable proof of its success. Nick Jr’s children television shows offer a powerful assist to this narrative, priming children to become the young adults who define social problems and the correct response: just “Call the Police.”

Police misconduct, corruption, militarization, the use of excessive force, and racial profiling are among the many realities of the contemporary police force.	Despite the Black Lives Matter protest, in addition to decades of resistance against police brutality, television and movies have made little, if any, adjustments to their portrayals of police.