Wiktionary
n. a sub-genre of crime fiction which portrays the activities of a police force as they investigate crimes. Unlike other types of crime fiction, the perpetrator may be known at the outset of the story.
Wikipedia
The police procedural, or police crime drama, is a subgenre of detective fiction that attempts to convincingly depict the activities of a police force as they investigate crimes. Although traditional detective novels usually concentrate on a single crime, police procedurals frequently depict investigations into several unrelated crimes in a single story. Traditional mysteries usually adhere to the convention of having the criminal's identity concealed until the climax (the so-called whodunit), whereas in police procedurals, the perpetrator's identity is often known to the audience from the outset (the inverted detective story). Police procedurals depict a number of police-related topics such as forensics, autopsies, the gathering of evidence, the use of search warrants, and interrogation.
Usage examples of "police procedural".
Harris' novel is a state-of-the-art police procedural, and an outstanding examination of the anatomy of madness as exemplified by its hero and villains alike.
It stands as the prime example of a police procedural that induces an overwhelming sensation of pity in the reader.
Although I prefer the English whodunit variety, I have dipped into jaded private eyes, secret agents, and an occasional police procedural.
The book is a landmark in itself as the first British police procedural novel-an area of crime fiction in which Creasey under various of his pen names proved himself to be a master.
McBain easily matches his achievement with an inspired police procedural, topped off with a completely unexpected and satisfying twist at the end.
One officer sat not six inches away from him, a recorder on his lap, holding a police procedural mystery novel in his right hand.
Sergeant Kathy Ertz graciously answered even my weirdest police procedural questions and Deputy Sheriff Marshall Multhauf took me on a drive-along.
Alfred Bester wrote The Demolished Man, a police procedural set in a society of telepaths.
The book is part coming-of-age novel and part police procedural, because he ends up being recruited by what passes for the police in Bordertown to help this cop solve a problem.