Fuzz was made into a mediocre film, released in 1972, directed by Richard A. Colla and starring Burt Reynolds, Raquel Welch, Jack Weston, and Tom Skerritt, with Yul Brenner as the Deaf Man. The movie tried to mix laughs with excitement in an oddball way but did not have the style to pull it off.

One critic described the film as an effort to create a M*A*S*H of police dramas.

Several attempts have been made to film the 87th Precinct series. Rights to three of the novels were acquired by William Berke, a producer-director at United Artists, in the late 1950s. Cop Hater (1958) was shot entirely on location in New York City with Robert Loggia playing Steve Carella, and the film received good notices, especially from Variety's reviewer. The second book filmed by Berke, The Muggers (1958), was also shot in New York with Loggia repeating his...