Chicago PD patrol officers always work in teams of two.
When the series first began, Burgess and Kevin Atwater were uniformed personnel who were often the first to respond on a scene. After Atwater joined Intelligence, Burgess was partnered with Sean Roman until her promotion in season 4. Since then, Chicago PD has only shown random patrol officers, but they also work in teams, with more than one briefing the Intelligence officers about the case.
Aside from Cook, no other patrol officer character has been announced. Thus, it appears she is currently without a partner. This does not fit with the way that Chicago PD has traditionally handled stories involving patrol officers and thus, it is a problem that the show will likely have to address for the sake of consistency. Adding another officer would also ensure Chicago PD’s stories are as realistic as possible, as it would hurt the show’s credibility if Cook were constantly jumping into dangerous situations without backup.
Chicago PD season 12’s return to using patrol officers offers new storytelling opportunities but also makes it trickier to replace Upton. Now, NBC and Wolf Entertainment will need to cast two more characters instead of one. Currently, there has been no mention so far of Upton’s true replacement in Intelligence, as well as Cook’s potential patrol partner.
Chicago PD could use rotating guest stars as the partner of the week or have the partner appear on-screen only in some episodes while having them be mentioned but not seen in others. This would allow the police procedural to hire someone on a recurring or guest basis instead of hiring two full-time actors. Regardless of how One Chicago wants to handle this, Chicago PD season 12 must get some additional personnel in the District for them to do their jobs effectively.