A 10-56 is the NYPD radio code to respond to a call for an ambulance. If someone calls 911 and requests an ambulance and the dispatcher notices that a patrol unit is in the vicinity of the call, the dispatcher will request that the patrol unit respond to the call to determine the extent of the person's injuries/illness and to also render any aid they can until the paramedics arrive on scene.
When Amy's boss told her that he would fire her if she didn't get an abortion, she threatened to go to the EEOC. EEOC stands for Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. This federal agency enforces the civil rights laws regarding workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates claims of workplace discrimination based on a person's race, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, and genetic information and on retaliation for reporting, participating in, and/or opposing a discriminatory practice.
This episode appears to be based on two separate cases/incidents:
- The 1991 Maria Flores case. In March 1991, in San Diego, California, Flores had just cashed a $378 welfare check when Robert Davis approached her and demanded her money. Flores, who was pregnant at the time, refused to give up her cash, and Davis fired a bullet into her chest. Flores survived the shooting, but her fetus, less than six-months old, died from a combination of blood loss to the placenta and of asphyxiation caused by Flores' own blood loss, low blood pressure, and shock. During Davis' trial, fetal experts testified that the fetus was 22 to 25 weeks old. They disagreed over whether it could have survived outside the womb, but none put the chance of survival greater than 50 percent. Superior Court Judge Michael Wellington, over the objections of the defense, told the jury that a "fetus is viable when it has achieved the capability for independent existence; that is when it is possible for it to survive the trauma of birth although with artificial medical aid." The standard jury instruction defined a viable fetus as one probably capable of living outside the womb, a definition that would have been more favorable to Davis. The jury convicted Davis of fetal homicide but indicated that it was not convinced he knew Flores was pregnant. She weighed 192 pounds when she was not pregnant and stood at 5'1". The case would set a precedent for all other murder cases involving fetal homicide.
- The crime and legal statutes of fetal homicide.
Mike says, "Ours is not to question why, just pick up the garbage." He is paraphrasing a line from British poet Alfred Lord Tennyson poem of 1854 called "The Charge of the Light Brigade." ("Ours is not to reason why; Ours is but to do or die...") The poem details the events of the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War on October 25 1854. Britain and France were at war with the Russian Empire, and that battle was one of the bloodiest of the war.
Molly Price has played four different roles over the course of the series:
- Episode 2.6 Misconception (1991) - Amy Newhouse.
- Episode 6.15 Encore (1996) - OCCB Detective Jones.
- Episode 8.3 Navy Blues (1997) - Quartermaster Stroud.
- Episode 16.15 Choice of Evils (2006) - Allison Ashburn.