The making of "Blue Bloods": Sitting down with the show's police consultant

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- The CBS show Blue Bloods is about a family of NYPD officers and many fans are drawn in by how real the show feels. 

"I was in law enforcement for almost 24 years."

Former NYPD Officer James Nuciforo is one of the reasons Blue Bloods has had so much success. 

"I am the technical advisor on the show for all matters police-related," Nuciforo said. 

Any scene you see with an officer, Nuciforo had a hand in it, right down to how a jacket is buttoned or how an officer knocks on the door. 

"For me, as a detective, if you've got to go for your gun and your gun and your jacket is buttoned, you're dead long before you go for your gun," Technical Advisor and former officer James Nuciforo told CBS 58. 

Nuciforo spent years on the force and even though he's out now, he stays a part of the department. 

"Daily, I go to lunches dinners, breakfasts, with detectives, chiefs, commissioners, everything." 

That means storylines on the show often started as a tip from a current cop. 

Nuciforo is in constant contact with the writers. 

"They'll call and they'll tell me what they're thinking about and they'll say, 'Have you ever had any experience like this or know of anything like this,' and more often than not I do," Nuciforo said. 

He reads each script at least three times and that attention to detail pays off. 

"Nothing makes me feel better than when I have cops on the street come up and say 'Hey, we love this show, you guys get it right.'"

"We get a lot of positive response from police officers, my heroes, and I think that's a wonderful compliment," Blue Bloods actor Tom Selleck says. 

"All the time they come up to us and tell us really that they love the way that we portray police men and women and families on our show," says actress Sami Gayle. 

Even with all his contacts and experience, Nuciforo keeps his work in perspective. 

"I also know that this is a television show, it's not a documentary. I give them reality and then we work with it from there. They can't use everything I give them," Nuciforo said.