The fifth season focuses on the media industry. Faced with the dilemma of declining profits, a decrease in the number of reporters and news, and a decline in news quality, the Baltimore Sun reports on a special news feature on the murder of homeless people. Fifteen months after the end of the fourth season, Mayor Carcetti cut the police budget to reduce the education deficit and forced the case investigation to be suspended. McNulty returned to the major crime team and fabricated a serial murder case of homeless people by forging evidence. He secretly contacted reporters, gained social attention, and finally won the mayor's support for the investigation. McNulty distributed the resources he obtained to the detectives of the police station, which made significant progress in many cases...