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.