HBO’s The Wire is legitimately one of the best shows ever created. There's a reason why it's President Obama's favorite show. The series chronicled Baltimore's struggle with inner city drug wars with a certain grit and authenticity that we don't see on TV today. It was in fact so real the actual police had to say something to the show's creators. Showrunner David Simon told The Baltimore Sun they were asked to change the plot several times by law enforcement officials so they wouldn't “reveal certain vulnerabilities" of the police department.
“The transition from landlines to cellular technology left police investigations vulnerable well over a decade ago,” Simon said.
He noted that there was new technology at the time — such as Nextel phones that mimicked walkie-talkies — that “was actually impervious to any interception by law enforcement during a critical window of time.”
“At points, we were asked by law enforcement not to reveal certain vulnerabilities in our plotlines,” Simon said. That included communications using Nextel devices.
Simon doesn't regret withholding from the show, "to highlight this vulnerability in our drama would have irresponsibly driven the communications of every criminal conspiracy into an impenetrable hole."
[via Uproxx]
