"Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge" was written by Dana Gould and directed by Pete Michels. It was first broadcast on the Fox network in the United States on May 22, 2002. The idea for the episode was also pitched by Gould, who had just moved to southern California with his wife. After moving in, the two decided to install an alarm system because, Gould quipped, "the police aren't enough. Too many people wanna kill you." When meeting the other writers, Gould pitched an episode in which Homer becomes the owner of a security company, which then became "Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge." Although current showrunner Al Jean found it "very funny," the episode's first draft was heavily altered after the first table-read, a process in which the script is read out loud to the other writers. During the blackout, Lenny and Carl accidentally crash their cars into a store, causing a riot to erupt. The sequence was conceived by Gould who, after the 1992 Los Angeles riots, was "somewhat obsessed" with civil unrest issues. In the DVD commentary for the episode, he said "I love the idea of, 'All you need is for the power to go out and slowly the fabric of society unravels." While trying to determine who stole Lisa's Malibu Stacy car, Homer holds Bart as his prime suspect. Unbeknownst to Bart, who is eating an apple, Homer tells Lisa "Look at him over there, eating that apple. What is he planning?" Originally, the scene would show Homer suspecting Lisa, but because it bothered the character's voice actor, Yeardley Smith, the scene was changed. American actor Joe Mantegna reprises his role as Fat Tony in the episode.