10 Hot Female Detectives Throughout TV History from 'The Mod Squad' to 'Rizzoli and Isles'

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Brenda Leigh Johnson on The Closer

Kyra Sedgwick played a police detective who transferred from the South to Los Angeles in order to become that city’s deputy chief, and while she could seem as sweet as the Georgia peach her parents assumed she was, when she was dealing with her passel of unruly (mostly male) employees or the (mostly male) perps she’s one tough-ass bitch. She’s so not queer, but based on Sedgwick’s other roles in which she is (What’s Cooking? for one) it’s not hard to imagine Chief Johnson batting for our team. Plus, have you seen those legs?

Shakima “Kima” Greggs on The Wire

Sonja Sohn played the best lesbian cop ever to grace our TV sets and it took no imagination on our part. On HBO’s long-running crime drama, The Wire, Greggs was one of the best detectives in the narco squad, battling dealers, dopers, and male cops who didn’t take kindly to chicks on the job. At home she had a girlfriend, a baby, and eventually a whole lot of lesbian drama as — like dozens of (male) TV cops before her — loses herself in the job and ends up a cheating dog. But even with philandering and the hazing of her squad mates, Greggs from beginning of the series to the sad end, showed the rare kind of lesbian on TV: one that felt authentic.

Stacy Sheridan on TJ Hooker

This may have been William Shatner’s show (he’s the eponymous TJ Hooker) but it was the star-maker for the ever-gorgeous Heather Locklear, who came on as police rookie Stacy Sheridan in season two. Sheridan, a second-generation cop, began as a police academy recruit but by end of her first season she was on patrol with the men, sometimes the centerpiece of an episode of this popular and gritty (for its day) police procedural. She was the next generation of Mod Squad’s Julie Barnes, a perfect for the ‘80s babe with a badge (and a gun). Anyone going through puberty in the early- ‘80s remembers officer Sheridan well (I mean, it’s Heather Locklear, for goodness sake). Bonus: in one episode she goes undercover at a strip joint and does the best pre-Flashdance performance.

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