drill and ceremony

Do the writers and directors just not know how to do this, or do the police really do screwy things like this?

The police forces in most cities and states are para-military (as opposed to pseudo-military, which is what those fake, alarmist groups ought to be called), and a lot of people in police forces are ex-military, so they should already know military drill and ceremony. Since the police sometimes do suit up and march, even if it's just in a parade, I assume they have some kind of training, so is what they do on the show really what police would do, or are the writers and directors just not doing research?

The episode that sticks out most is the one where the dead officer is carried out of a building, and there are a lot of other police milling about. When he is carried out, Provenza shouts "Attention!" and salutes, not in any particular direction. No one comes to attention, but everyone salutes, again, not in any particular direction.

I've been in the military, and if we pulled something like that, we'd get written up, because it was so wrong. But I don't know if what is wrong for the military is somehow right for the police. It looked awful to me, and the opposite of respectful.

You can call people to attention when they are not in formation, but they knew the body was coming out, so it would have been too hard to get into formation. First you call attention, then you say "present arms!" That is the order to salute. Whoever is issuing orders should show people which direction to face, because people who are saluting as a group should all be facing the same direction. You don't move while you are saluting. If the thing you are saluting is moving, you will probably be given the command to "order arms" stop saluting, as soon as it has passed. In any event, if you have been ordered to salute, you don't just drop your salute when you feel like it. You wait for the order.

So was this just "didn't do the research"?