The legend that is Dick Wolf continues to be an unstoppable force in television.
One of television’s most successful franchises is tackling a very relevant and topical subject matter as iconic Emmy Award-winning producer Dick Wolf brings Law & Order: Hate Crimes to audiences beginning with a 13-episode order from NBC.
Co-created with former Law & Order: Special Victims Unit showrunner Warren Leight, the latest installment of the enduring and wildly popular Law & Order franchise is based on New York’s actual Hate Crimes Task Force, the second oldest bias-based task force in the U.S.
The unit, which pledges to uphold a zero-tolerance policy against discrimination of any kind, works under the NYPD’s real Special Victims Unit and often borrows SVU’s detectives to assist in their investigations.
The first incarnation of this new unit will be introduced in the latter part of the upcoming 20thseason of “SVU.”
“As ‘Law & Order: SVU’ enters its remarkable 20thseason, it is exciting to get back into business with Dick Wolf on a new ‘Law & Order’ incarnation that feels extremely timely,” said Lisa Katz, Co-President of Scripted Programming, NBC Entertainment. “Considering that last year there was a double-digit rise in hate crimes in our 10 largest cities — the highest total in over a decade — it seemed like this topic is begging to be explored.”
Law & Order: Hate Crimes is set in New York City, where crimes motivated by discrimination are vigorously investigated by an elite, specially trained team of investigators. Going behind the headlines and viral videos, these diverse, dedicated and passionate detectives will stop at nothing to bring these criminals to justice.
“As with all of my crime shows, I want to depict what’s really going on in our cities and shine a light on the wide-ranging victims and show that justice can prevail,” Wolf said. “Twenty years ago when ‘SVU’ began, very few people felt comfortable coming forward and reporting these crimes, but when you bring the stories into people’s living rooms – with characters as empathetic as Olivia Benson – a real dialogue can begin. That’s what I hope we can do with this new show in a world where hate crimes have reached an egregious level.”
**Photo courtesy of Evans Vestal Ward/NBC**