Brooklyn Nine-Nine to address police brutality in new series

US comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine will address police brutality in a new storyline.

Co-creator Dan Goor said the show’s writers would tackle the topic in the upcoming eighth season but stressed they would handle it with care.

Speaking to Variety, he said: “We want to make sure we get it right.”

Andre Braugher, who stars as precinct captain Raymond Holt, said it was important the show addressed the subject.

He told the magazine: “Brooklyn Nine-Nine has to commit itself, as a comedy, to telling the story of how these things happen, and what’s possible to deal with them.

“I don’t have any easy answers, nor do I have a window into the mind bank of this writing staff.

“Can you tell the same story? Can anyone in America maintain any kind of innocence about what police departments are capable of?”

Braugher, who is African-American, said he had reassessed his portrayal of the “heroic cop” figure on the show following protests prompted by the death of unarmed black man George Floyd in Minnesota.

He said he had “no idea what season eight of Brooklyn Nine-Nine is going to be, because everything’s changed”.

Braugher added: “Can a comedy sustain the things that we’re trying to talk about? I don’t know.

“It could be a really groundbreaking season that we’re all going to be very, very proud of, or we’re going to fall flat on our face.

“But I think this is a staff, a cast and a crew that’s willing to take it on and give it our best.

“I think we have a damn good chance to tell the kinds of stories that heretofore have only been seen on grittier shows.”

Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which stars Andy Samberg and Braugher as New York police officers in Brooklyn’s fictional 99th Precinct, was cancelled by Fox after season five, but snapped up by NBC for further seasons.

In June, one of its stars, Stephanie Beatriz, called on other actors who play police officers to donate towards a bail fund amid the anti-racism protests sweeping the US.