''Police Beat'' is a 2005 American crime film directed by

Robinson Devor Robinson Devor is an American film director, screenwriter and editor. He is also a film professor at Cornish College of the Arts. Devor has directed both documentaries as well as fiction films; his filmography includes narrative works such as '' ...

and written by Charles Mudede. It follows the life of an

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n-born

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

bicycle officer simply known as "Z" for a week. While Z goes about on his policing duties, he finds himself mentally preoccupied with his girlfriend who has gone on a camping trip with an old male friend. This obsession with the absence of his girlfriend and the escalating jealousy and paranoia makes him unfazed by the crimes he witnesses, which take place in locations all over Seattle (including the

Arboretum An arboretum (: arboreta) is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees and shrubs of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arbor ...

, Gasworks Park in Wallingford, and the

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factory in Renton) on different levels of depravity. The story is narrated by Z in his native

Wolof language Wolof ( ; , ) is a Niger–Congo language spoken by the Wolof people in much of the West African subregion of Senegambia that is split between the countries of Senegal, The Gambia and Mauritania. Like the neighbouring languages Serer and Fula, ...

(the language of

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and parts of

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

, the

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, and

Mauritania Mauritania, officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a sovereign country in Maghreb, Northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Western Sahara to Mauritania–Western Sahara border, the north and northwest, ...

), though he makes the transition to English when interacting with those around him. ''Police Beat'' provides an interesting glimpse into the life of a new immigrant to the United States that focuses less on the protagonist's experience as a new citizen and more on his response to life in an American city. His observation of both human vice and social outlook is contrasted with his conservative sense of duty, both to his work as a police officer and his relationship with his girlfriend. Based on real police reports that appeared in Charles Mudede's column "Police Beat" for the weekly '' The Stranger'', the film also provides a snapshot of Seattle in the early 21st century.

References

External links

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''Police Beat''
at

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2005 crime drama films Films set in Seattle 2005 films Fictional portrayals of the Seattle Police Department American crime drama films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films English-language crime drama films Wolof-language films {{2000s-crime-drama-film-stub