Detective Christine Mannina returns to ‘The Shift’

By Rodney Richey, Herald Bulletin Feature Writer

November 03, 2009 08:06 am

— INDIANAPOLIS — Christine Mannina is not the average television personality heading into the second season of a hit series.
For one thing, Mannina carries a gun.
The grimly funny, plain-spoken Indianapolis Metropolitan detective works with a dedicated squad of homicide investigators, subjects of a cable TV documentary series called “The Shift.” The show airs on Investigation Discovery, cable channel 471 from Comcast.
An Indy native, Mannina first appeared about a decade ago on an Oxygen channel series called “The Women and the Badge,” which profiled female officers all across the country.
A producer with the Oxygen show remembered Mannina and her grounded approach to police work, very close to the Jodie Foster character in “The Silence of the Lambs.”
“Originally, (the proposed series) was just going to follow me for six weeks,” said the 38-year-old detective.
“But I said, ‘I’ve got a great shift with my co-workers, and we do a rotation, so I don’t take every single murder, so if you follow me for six weeks, I might get one. My partners will get the others.’ So it developed into, not just following me, but following my co-workers as well.”

“Being me”
For a brief first-year series on a cable network with a narrow distribution, “The Shift” developed an avid following, especially in foreign markets. So returning for a second season feels good to Mannina.
“(The first season) was a fun experience, and I think the city of Indianapolis really enjoyed the show. People have enjoyed all the characters, so it’s a good thing.”
Mannina, who went by her married name Minka the first season, first got the police bug in an ironic way. At age 7, she was on a family drive when her father was stopped for speeding.
“I was just so enthralled by the officer and his actions and the way he dealt with my father,” she said.
One of her first jobs was with the Family and Children’s Center in Mishawaka, helping juveniles with behavioral issues. She had also been a high school basketball coach in Shelbyville.
After her first year as a police officer in Bremen, she made the transition to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, where she has served for 13 years, eight in the homicide division.
Although she and her colleagues — Detective Lesia Moore, Capt. Mark Rice, Detective Jesse Beavers, Deputy Chief William Benjamin, Sgt. Jeff Breedlove, Lt. Kevin Kelly, Detective. Todd Lappin, Detective Tom Tudor and Sgt. Mark Hess — are followed every step by a TV crew documenting each case, the proprieties of homicide work are not lost on the filmmakers, she said.
“The most important thing to us — and to them really — is the integrity of our work,” Mannina said. “The cameras and the show are all secondary. And they get that.” She added that the only time she would shut down filming was in a situation hazardous to the camera crew.
She said she never worries about how the city or the department will be perceived on the show.
“You know, I’m just being me. If somebody wants to follow me around with a camera, that’s fine with me. I’m not going to do anything different.”

Career guidance
Part of Mannina’s “just being me” is her darkly funny take on her job, as when, in the first season, she promised to take an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department cadaver dog for a steak dinner if he helped her find a missing body.
“They’re good dogs,” she said. “They’re wonderful, and they assisted us in that case in a strong way.”
Life for the detective has not changed much since the first season. Her family — father, mother and older sister — all live in Indianapolis.
“They definitely don’t think I’m anything of a hotshot,” Mannina said. “But they’ve always been supportive of my career. And it’s been fun for them, too. They watch me on TV, but they really know me.”
She does get recognized more now, on the Internet and on the streets of Indy. Some of her biggest fans, she said, are young girls who see her in “The Shift” and consider a career in law enforcement.
“I just got an e-mail from a young girl’s mother that lives in California and has watched every single episode. She explained to me that her daughter was having some difficulty and couldn’t decide what path she wanted to take.”
The takeaway? The girl, now interested in forensics, will visit Indianapolis this month. She and her mother have an appointment to meet with Mannina.
“Any time you can positively influence anybody, it’s always a good feeling.”
Contact Rodney Richey: 640-4861, rodney.richey@heraldbulletin.com.

‘The Shift’
What: Documentary series portraying the work of homicide detectives in Indianapolis
When: 10 p.m. Wednesdays, 1 a.m. Thursdays, 7 p.m. Saturdays
Where: Investigation Discovery (Comcast channel 471)
Information: http://investigation.discovery.com/tv/the-shift

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