Chicago PD needs to promote one of its characters to detective in season 12

Chicago PD lost more than a pivotal character when Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) decided to walk. The character was a detective, like her ex-husband, Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer), and their exits in seasons 10 and 11, respectively, stripped the IU of any such ranking.

Basically, there's a ranking chasm heading into season 12. Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) is a sergeant, but everybody else in the IU is an officer. It's an odd discrepancy, and given how important Halstead and Upton were to the show during their respective runs, the upcoming season would benefit from having more characters with a detective in front of their name.

LaRoyce Hawkins is pushing for Atwater's promotion

This is something that LaRoyce Hawkins has been pushing for since season 10. The actor, who plays Kevin Atwater, thinks it's time that some of the established characters in the show be promoted to the role of detective, and we agree.

Hawkins revisited this stance during a recent interview with TV Insider. He made it clear that he was less concerned with incoming cast members than he was bolstering the credentials of those who have been part of the IU for over a decade.

"To be honest with you, I don’ think I’m really worried about teammates," he explained. "As much as I would really love to be a detective, since it doesn’t seem like we have any detectives on the unit."

There are currently no detectives on Chicago PD

The actor also noted that characters like Atwater and Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) appear ready to take on more of a workload:

"Somebody should probably step up. Somebody might deserve that role with those responsibilities, but it’s up to the powers that be, naturally."

Once again, no notes. The actor has hit the nail on the head, and it's something that his One Chicago peers agree with. While Chicago Med star Jessy Schram and Chicago Fire star David Eigenberg have no stake in the future of Hawkins' character, they agreed with his stance. "He’s detecting the audience for a pulse of this," Eigenberg quipped during their panel discussion.

Whether or not its Atwater, we think Chicago PD would benefit from promoting within, and giving Voight some firepower in the badge department.