‘Chicago P.D.’ Is Finally Promoting an Officer in Season 12: ‘It Made a Lot of Sense’

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“People are going to be promoted,” showrunner Gwen Sigan says of Chicago P.D. Season 12. Finally.

After all, following Tracy Spiridakos‘ exit and Detective Hailey Upton leaving Intelligence, there are zero detectives in the unit. Kim Burgess (Marina Squerciati), Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger), and Kevin Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins) have been officers since the beginning of the show. (Benjamin Levy Aguilar‘s Dante Torres, who joined in Season 9, is an officer, and this year’s new recruit, Kiana Cook, Toya Turner, is as well.) But that’s going to change in Episode 6. (Season 12 premieres on Wednesday, September 25.)

“Someone’s getting promoted, and it’s somebody I think who’s wanted it for a while and that it made a lot of sense for us,” Sigan tells TV Insider. “In the [writers’] room, we’ve talked about that storyline for so long, but how do you make it a story? How do you make it interesting? How do you make it something that really reveals something about who this person is and is not just a piece of paper?”

That echoes what Sigan told us at the end of last season after the finale, when she noted that after the test, they just do the same job; that’s what we’ve seen on P.D. all this time with Intelligence. But the writers have found a way to use this storyline for the character who is getting that promotion.

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“We really leaned into the real promotion process in Chicago and just show that it actually is really hard to become a detective, and so seeing that and seeing this character and what it means as far as looking at who you want to be as a police officer and how it’s going to be affected by a promotion like this was really fun,” Sigan says. “And I think it’ll add some new dynamics to the unit.”

So who do you think is getting that promotion in Season 12? Let us know in the comments section, below.

Chicago P.D., Season 12 Premiere, Wednesday, September 25, 10/9c, NBC