How accurate does police procedure and weaponry have to be?
I am writing a crime thriller genre type script, and I was wondering how accurate it has to be for audiences to accept.
For example, most cops in real life have really short hair, but it's not very stylish. What if I described a cop main character who had longer more flowing hair, to give him some uniqueness as a character, or will audiences not see it as convincing for the role?
Also I am a big fan of westerns and one of the things I like is how the characters where their holsters lower down on the thighs, so they can draw their pistols much quicker. But in real life the police where their holsters on their regular pants belts, and that makes it slower to draw, cause they have to pull up more, with more extension.
I feel that faster draws can be more exciting, but will audiences mind if I have police characters, where their pistols on their lower thighs, like a western?
There is also a shoot out scene between the police and the villains. I was thinking that some of the police could use shotguns, but in real life, the police use shotguns with tubular magazines that run out fast, and are slow to reload, thereby having to pause in the action and suspense to have to reload.
If I wrote it so that the police had shotguns with detachable box magazines instead that carried more rounds and can be reloaded much faster, would audiences see it as unconvincing, since that's not the way it is, and other movies have so often portrayed the police using tubular magazine shotguns?
When it comes to firing pistols, police always fire with both hands like the way Jack Bauer does on 24. But if I wrote it so that a cop fired a gun with one hand, or even had a gun in each hand, would that come off as too cheesy?
There is a fine line between something looking cheesy and something looking cool.
What do you think?
Those are just two examples, but what about things like that, for accuracy? How much does it matter, over style?