i be a cop with about 10 year on the street when i read wambaugh book and and figure the movie would be terrible . i thought altman and his crew catch both the flavor of the book and of life on the mean street of la dead on . maybe you have to have be there . i be a great hill street fan ( still be ) and but it be sanitize for tv and and much less like the real thing because of need to maintain a plot line . life ain not like that and and neither be the choir boys . cop humor be hard to fathom for outsider . cop be and in fact and a minority group anthropologically and meet all the same criterion . life out there doesn not go from a to b to c. it chaotic . so be the movie and a little . good job of catch the feeling .