"The Wire" - Season One: The Authorities Quiz

Answer: Listening devices

The "wire" was the wire tap that the police detail had obtained which allowed them to get information on Avon Barksdale's operation. The wire was authorized for a specific period of time, and Lieutenant Daniels would use that fact to fight any attempt to shut down the detail.

Besides the wire tap, the police also put listening devices on people who came in contact with Barksdale's crew and used one to bug his office.

Answer: McNulty

Neither Detective McNulty nor Judge Phelan was happy that D'Angelo Barksdale was found not guilty after a witness changed her testimony. After McNulty told Phelan that Avon Barksdale's crew was involved in several murders and that no one was investigating Barksdale, Phelan called Deputy Burrell, with the result being that a detail was set up to do so.

Answer: Pryzbylewski

When Lt. Daniels asked for additional personnel to work his detail, he was largely given misfits, including Pryzbylewski (Prez), who had retained his job despite numerous incidents because he was the son-in-law of Police Major Valchek. Daniels assigned Prez to desk duty after Prez blinded a kid in the projects for sitting on his car. Putting him on desk duty turned out to be a fortuitous move by Daniels, because Prez was good at puzzles and was able to figure out that the numbers that showed up on the pagers were actually codes.

Answer: Bubbles

Bubbles "Bubs" showed the police who the most important players in the gang were by putting a red hat on the guys while the police took long-distance photos, and he generally let the police know what was happening in "the pit". He did try to give up drugs and managed to stay clean for a short while, but at the end of season one, he was using again.

Answer: Follow Stringer Bell

McNulty told the kids to play "front and follow" with Stringer Bell; he apparently used them for this purpose before. He temporarily lost them, however, and had to have them paged over the intercom. The kids did manage to get Stringer Bell's license plate number, but the incident caused McNulty to end up in court when his wife tried to have his visitation limited (he talked her out of it).

Answer: Pawn shop unit

Detective Freamon was quick to tell anyone who asked that he had been working in the pawn shop unit for thirteen years and four months. He was a hard-working and intelligent detective, but he had been on the bad side of his prior deputy commissioner and was sent to the one assignment he didn't want: the pawn shop unit.

Answer: He was in training that week.

Lieutenant Daniels had suspected they had a leak in their detail because Deputy Burrell always knew what they were doing. But Burrell wasn't aware that they had drilled through the wall of Avon Barksdale's office and had inserted a camera/bug. Daniels realized that Carver was gone that week for training, and he confronted him when Carver returned. Carver said the deputy had cornered him, and he couldn't say no.

Answer: Herc

Thomas "Herc" Hauk surprisingly ended up in 18th place overall among officers taking the exam, with Carver ending up 37th. Herc bragged about his impending promotion, even instructing Carver on how to treat him once he was promoted, but in the end, it was Carver who made sergeant, not Herc.

Herc said that he probably was skipped over due to the police brutality charges against him, but it turned out that Carver was promoted due to his connection to Deputy Burrell.

Answer: Politicians

Avon Barksdale owned a number of empty buildings around town, with quite a few of them being in one run-down area of the city. Detective Freamon found out that this area was scheduled for a multi-million dollar refurbishment, which would make Barksdale's properties worth a lot of money. Freamon also realized that Barksdale had been tipped off about the project in advance, meaning that there was a political connection to the gang. Additionally, one of the people arrested by the police detail turned out to be the driver for a State Senator, and they were ordered to quickly release him.

As the detail closed in on the money, they were told to raid Barksdale's stash house and arrest the dealers, and then the detail was shut down.

Answer: Harbor patrol

At the beginning of the season, Detective McNulty had said that the one place he wouldn't want to be assigned was on a boat. As the season progressed, he managed to repeatedly infuriate his boss, Major Rawls, so when the Barksdale detail was disbanded, Rawls brought Detective Freamon into the homicide department and sent McNulty down to the marine unit.