Chicago P.D. Viewers Are Shouting For A Character's Promotion After Season 9 Episode 18

The characters on the hit television series "Chicago P.D." have been put through the wringer in Season 9. The very first episode of the season deals with a wounded officer and an extrajudicial killing, which sees Detective Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) and Sergeant Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) make some tough decisions. Season 9 gets more intense from there, and has stories that involve gangs, shootings, stabbings, cultists, and a secret marriage, just to name a few of the events.

Episode 18 of Season 9, titled "New Guard," continues with the trend of growth and new additions. In desperate need of extra law enforcement agents, the police department chooses to relax its requirements, which leads to new officers like Dante Torres (Benjamin Levy Aguilar). The seemingly reserved Torres is partnered with Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer), and as they are on patrol, they are called to a shooting. Halstead tells Torres to stand back and observe, but Torres gets involved anyway, much to the chagrin of Halstead. Later, Torres oversteps boundaries again during an interrogation, which causes some eyebrows to be raised. This is augmented by the fact that Voight tells the police unit that there is a potential of a gang-affiliated spy, which raises further suspicions. The questions surrounding the new addition of Torres are eventually resolved, but the events of "New Guard" have caused quite a stir among fans, who are clamoring for a certain character's promotion.

Called to popular online opinion outlets like Reddit and Twitter, several fans of "Chicago P.D." are calling for the promotion of Jay Halstead to the rank of sergeant after seeing him take a leadership position during "New Guard." On Twitter, user @imjustwritingg wrote, "I love Jay Halstead and can't wait for him to be Sergeant. That is all." Many other Twitter users agreed with that assessment, including @thefandommom, who wrote, "Okay but can I please get Sergeant Jay Halstead please?" 

Those sentiments were also shared by many fans on Reddit, with u/FissileWaif stating that "Chicago P.D." should do a plot that involves the arrest and incarceration of Sergeant Voight, which makes sense considering some of the current events. They wrote, "I think some story line like this revolving around Voight in prison and Jay as the leader would be awesome." However, there were  a few dissenters among the Redditor ranks, with u/Character-Summer644 saying, "If jay leads the team, whole show will tank."  Meanwhile, u/januarysdaughter added, "I really don't care for Jay, so him leading the unit would be the last thing I want." 

Despite a few outliers, it appears as if there are many "Chicago P.D." fans who would love to see Halstead move into a greater position of authority.