# Chicago PD Star Laroyce Hawkins Cops A Plea: Drops Out Faster Than A Suspect On A Foot Chase
Look, we all knew the Chicago PD writers’ room was running on fumes and bad coffee, but even I didn’t see this one coming. In a move that has the entire One Chicago fandom picking up their pitchforks and also their therapy bills, Laroyce Hawkins—who plays the beloved, perpetually-underpaid Officer Kevin Atwater—has officially announced he’s hanging up his badge. Or, more accurately, he’s throwing it at the showrunner’s desk and walking out like a guy who just found out his 401(k) got liquidated for a helicopter chase scene.
For those of you who have better things to do than watch Dick Wolf’s 47th prime-time procedurally generated drama, let me catch you up. Hawkins has been on *Chicago P.D.* since season one, back when the show was still pretending it wasn’t just a vehicle for Hank Voight to commit war crimes with a badge. Atwater was the moral compass. You know, the guy who actually gives a damn about community policing while his colleagues are waterboarding suspects in the back of a van. He was the one Black cop on the show who wasn’t either a) dead, b) framed for a crime, or c) secretly working for Internal Affairs. And now? He’s gone. Poof. Deuces. I guess Voight finally broke him.
According to sources—and by “sources” I mean a vague press release that sounded like it was written by a chatbot that only watched the first season—Hawkins is leaving to “pursue other opportunities.” Ah yes, the Hollywood translation for “I’m tired of being paid per episode to stand in the rain while Jason Beghe yells at me.” Or maybe it’s “I’d rather be on a show where my character doesn’t get shot every other sweeps week.” Atwater has been through more trauma than a therapy group for stunt doubles. He’s been shot, kidnapped, gaslit, and forced to watch his partner get murdered. Honestly, leaving the show is probably the healthiest decision he’s made in eight seasons.
Naturally, the internet is reacting the way the internet always does: with maximum melodrama and zero perspective. The *Chicago P.D.* subreddit is currently a wasteland of hot takes, with posts ranging from “This is worse than when they killed Al” to “Atwater deserved better, but also, who’s going to handle the community outreach plotlines now? The precinct’s one diversity hire just walked.” And they’re not wrong. The show has a weird habit of treating its Black characters like expendable plot devices. Remember when they brought in Tracy Spiridakos and she got to be a whole-ass protagonist while Atwater was stuck doing ride-alongs with problematic rookies? Yeah, me too.
Let’s be real here: Hawkins saw the writing on the wall. *Chicago P.D.* has been on a slow creative decline since season 6. The show has become less about actual police work and more about Voight having a moral crisis every Tuesday, then immediately violating the Constitution to solve it. Atwater was the only character who seemed like he actually read the police handbook. He wanted to be a good cop. The show didn’t want that. The show wanted him to be sad, stoic, and occasionally save a kid from a gang. It’s like the writers looked at his character sheet and checked off: “Black, principled, tortured.” That’s it. That’s the arc.
And let’s not pretend this isn’t also about money. Hawkins was probably the most underpaid member of the main cast. I’m not saying the network was cheap, but I’m pretty sure his contract was drafted on a napkin at a CPD union meeting. Meanwhile, Jason Beghe is out here getting paid in residuals and personal parking spots. The man is literally the face of the franchise. Hawkins? He was the guy who had to make a salad in the break room look compelling. That takes skill. That takes commitment. That takes a guy who knows he’s worth more than a weekly paycheck from a show that peaked when *Empire* was still on the air.
But here’s the real kicker: Hawkins isn’t even getting a proper exit. Early reports suggest his character, Atwater, will be written out via a promotion. Because of course. The show can’t kill him off—that would be too obvious, and also the internet would riot. So instead, they’ll give him a desk job in some precinct that doesn’t exist. He’ll be “transferred” or “assigned to a task force” or some other cop jargon that translates to “we’ll mention his name twice a season and never show his face again.” It’s the TV equivalent of being ghosted by your boss. Atwater deserved a hero’s send-off, not a “Hey, he’s in HR now.”
And honestly? Good for him. Really. Leaving a network procedural that’s been running on autopilot since before COVID is a power move. Hawkins is a talented actor who’s been stuck in a role that required him to be earnest, tired, and the designated moral compass for a squad of borderline vigilantes. He’s going to go do something interesting. Maybe a Netflix limited series. Maybe a Broadway run. Maybe he’ll start a podcast where he just reads Voight’s worst lines out loud. I’d subscribe.
But let’s not pretend this doesn’t sting for the fans. *Chicago P.D.* has been shedding its original cast like a snake that’s allergic to itself. We lost Sophia Bush ages ago. We lost Jon Seda. We lost that one guy who played the informant that got killed in season 2. And now we’re losing Atwater. The show is basically just Voight, Burgess, and a rotating cast of characters who are either about to get shot or about to get promoted off-screen. It’s like watching a retirement home for police tropes.
Final Thoughts
Let’s be honest: Laroyce Hawkins’ exit from *Chicago P.D.* feels less like a creative choice and more like the inevitable cost of a show stretching its narrative thread too thin. For eight seasons, his portrayal of Officer Kevin Atwater brought a grounded, soulful humanity to a series that often leans hard into operatic brutality, making his departure a genuine loss for the ensemble’s chemistry. If this is truly the end of the road for Atwater, it’s a reminder that even the most compelling characters can be casualties of a franchise that prioritizes shock over sustained character development.