Two African American NYPD detectives navigate the special dangers of undercover work and corrupt colleagues while investigating a ruthless federal prosecutor’s ties to the Russian mob.

SYNOPSIS:

John Sumner and Avery Pettis, two undercover New York City police detectives, are assigned to Transit District 4, one of the NYPD agencies responsible for maintaining order in the serpentine subway system of New York, on the trains and platforms around the city.

The seemingly random murder of a pickpocket they’d previously arrested leads to questions, then suspicions of a wider corruption in play. Thanks to faces seen in a snippet of home video, their investigation leads to a scandal that implicates rogue cops at the NYPD and a federal prosecutor in a relationship with the Russian crime syndicate.

This is a story of undercover police officers struggling to balance life on the street, married life at home, and their relationships with others in the department. It tells how, for both detectives, life “on the job” means accepting the reality of the color of the day, a color selected by department command and intended to clearly and secretly identify undercovers to other police officers as they do their work — a way to distinguish the good guys from the bad guys. It’s a system of identification that is far from foolproof.

In the course of their investigation, both men face an obstacle that corrodes and compromises their relationship, a challenge to their unity as partners borne of the worst kind of dilemma: one of honorable men confronting a situation that compels a dishonorable action. For both detectives, surmounting that obstacle has consequences that change both men, and their department, forever.

Semi-finalist, Stage 32 Diversity Springboard Screenwriting Contest, 2020