The First Police Procedurals.

Michael over at 2blowhards recently stated,
". . . it was the crime novelist Ed McBain who kicked off the 'police procedural' genre. . . ."

Not precisely. Although Lawrence Treat denied it, he is frequently credited as the "father" of the police procedural, and Lancashire-born Maurice Procter also made important contributions, such as Hell Is a City (1954). In addition, according to Dean James, although McBain (aka Evan Hunter) certainly popularized and gave distinction to the police procedural, recognition should be given to American author Hillary Waugh (for Last Seen Wearing, 1952) and ever-energetic British writer John Creasey (under the J. J. Marric pseudonym, for Gideon's Day, 1955; filmed by John Ford as Gideon's Day, aka Gideon of Scotland Yard, 1958). Waugh's and Creasey's works appeared before McBain's Cop Hater (1956).