Hank Voight is a fictional character in the television series Chicago P.D. He appeared in a recurring capacity in Chicago Fire and as a main character in Chicago P.D., as the head of the Chicago Police Department's Intelligence Unit, which operates out of the 21st District. Despite Voight's reputation as a suspected dirty cop and for using underhanded methods, he commands his unit's loyalty and respect.
The character was initially introduced in Chicago Fire as a dirty cop who tries to cover up a crime by his son Justin and uses all means necessary to do so, including threatening Fire Lieutenant Matthew Casey, one of the protagonists of Chicago Fire. Voight's circumstances were eventually clarified with the creation of the spin-off Chicago P.D. However, he has a well-documented feud with Caseyas a result of what happened between themand his interactions with the firefighters of 51 are marked by tension and suspicion, despite the fact that he earns their grudging respect for his dedication in seeking justice for crime victims. Voight carries a SIG Sauer P229 as his sidearm.
Relationships Hank has a son named Justin whom he bails out in "Professional Courtesy" after he crashes into a van while under the influence of alcohol. As the result of Justin's recklessness, the boy (Mike Duffy) who was in the van is paralyzed from the waist down, stopping him from playing hockey ever again. This incident marks the beginning of the tension between Hank and Fire Lieutenant Matthew Casey (Jesse Spencer).
Hank is widowed; his wife Camille died six years prior to "Now I'm God" of ovarian cancer. Hank's father, Richard, was also a Chicago police officer, was killed when Hank was 8.
While working a joint case with the NYPD Special Victims Unit, Voight and Cpt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) establish a bond of trust and friendship despite their differing methods.
Assistant State Attorney Nina Chapman arrives in Chicago at the end of Season 9. After working numerous cases with Voight, she eventually tells Voight that she has feelings for him. Voight's complex past has prevented him from reciprocating those feelings.
In Chicago Fire This character was first seen in Chicago Fire as an antagonist. Voight's ruthless methods cause friction with Lieutenant Matthew Casey, a firefighter at the nearby Firehouse 51. Casey had arrived on the scene of a serious car crash where the driver, Voight's son Justin, had been drinking. The resulting arrest would have been a DUI with possible repercussions as the passenger in the other car had been paralyzed from the waist down. Voight had tried various methods to stop Casey from filing the report against Justin, beginning with bribery (a new television set for the CFD) and escalating to physical threats towards Casey and his then-fiancée, Dr. Hallie Thomas. Voight attempted to have Casey injured or killed, but was arrested by Detective Antonio Dawson (Jon Seda) in a sting. While in prison he offers Gabriela Dawson (Monica Raymund) information on who shot Antonio, who was working undercover at the time. This was in exchange for a future favor, which Dawson reluctantly accepted. Internal Affairs (I.A.) later releases Voight from prison and promotes him to Sergeant of the Intelligence Unit at CPD. Voight began working with Dawson and Detective Juiliet "Jules" Willhite (Melissa Sagemiller) to investigate a series of murders relating to pharmacy nurses. The case was related to a drug dealer named Thomas Cobb, whom Voight killed to protect Casey. Unfortunately, Hallie was murdered after accidentally discovering a drug operation at the clinic she worked at.
Later in the series, he investigates a gang drive-by shooting which claimed the life of a young girl. Working alongside Dawson and Detective Erin Lindsay (Sophia Bush), Voight uses firefighter Joe Cruz's brother, Leon, who had former ties to the gang, as part of a sting. The operation ended with the successful capture of the intended gang lord, but also the deaths of two gang members.
In "Category 5", when Voight wants Casey's help with an investigation into Jack Nesbitt, Casey turns him down, indicating there are still tensions between them. Casey eventually agrees to get some intel after he himself notices something was not right. In the season 3 finale, Gabriela discovers that Casey has gone missing.
In Chicago P.D. It is common knowledge in the Chicago police department that Voight is a suspected dirty cop for being associated with unscrupulous individuals in Chicago's underworld, breaking police protocol and taking bribes. It's revealed Voight has now and then outright committed and covered up crimes. However, despite his ruthlessness and his morally ambiguous and underhanded approach to police work, Voight is a veteran who is determined in getting the job done, is extremely dedicated to the victims of his cases, goes out of his way to protect and help vulnerable young people, and does have his fellow cops' and Chicago's best interests at heart. It is revealed that he is working with Internal Affairs using his dirty cop reputation as part of an operation to bring down heavy hitters in Chicago's crime world.
Prior to his arrest in 2012, Voight served in the Chicago PD's Gang Unit for almost 15 years. He has worked with his long-time best friend, Detective Alvin Olinsky (Elias Koteas), who later transfers to Intelligence, and Detective Jimmy Shi (Mark Dacascos), who now heads up a deep undercover vice squad in Chinatown. It is revealed that a number of years ago, after the death of Olinsky's partner, Eddie Penland, Voight, Shi and Olinsky took the murderer, Browning, out to the docks and killed him by taking him "for a boat ride."
Voight has a strained relationship with his son, Justin Voight. This may be due to the fact that his job in CPD was demanding and occupied most of his time. Justin acts out (usually by drinking and driving or fighting in bars) and hangs out with the wrong crowd. More recently, Justin was involved as an accessory to the murder of a rival gang member by his corrupt friend Joe Catalano. Voight learns from Antonio Justin's involvement was that of an innocent pawn and allows the case to be buried. Voight then takes Justin out and forces him to enlist in the United States Army to keep him out of trouble. Voight then kills Catalano by drowning him in the river.
While Voight struggles with his relationship with his own son, he has a tendency to help vulnerable young people. He took Erin Lindsay under his wing (and became her legal guardian) when she was a teenager and got her to stay away from drugs. She, in return, became his C.I. and later joined the CPD. More recently, he helped a 13-year-old boy named D'Anthony get out of the gang culture his older cousin forced him into. He later gives D'Anthony's aunt $4,000 to look after his basic needs.
Season 2 Voight learns that he is going to be a grandfather when he meets Olive, who got pregnant by Justin before he enlisted. In "An Honest Woman" Voight is beaten and kidnapped along with Olive by two criminals who threaten to kill Olive if Voight does not open his safe. It was revealed that earlier, she had run her mouth to an old friend of hers and confessed that Justin had told her about his father's secret stash. Then later, her friend went behind her back and betrayed her. The friend ended up telling other people about Voight's money, and one of these guys approached Olive with a knife. He cut her, but not deep enough to actually hurt the baby. Just so she knew he was prepared to cut her child out of her if she didn't help them set up Voight. Hank tracks all the people involved, starting with painfully interrogating the friends, and threatening one of the assailants. After one of the assailants was killed by his colleague, Hank arrests the man and nearly kills him but settled for beating him and letting him be processed. At the end, he gives Justin the ring that formerly belong to his mother (that was stolen in the robbery but recovered) and encourages him to propose to Olive.
Hank is friends with the 21st District's Desk Sergeant Trudy Platt (Amy Morton), and has a decent working relationship with District Commander Ron Perry (Robert Ray Wisdom), who had "six hundred reasons why he didn't want [Voight] to run Intelligence, but one reason why"—because he got results. However, his relationship with Cmdr. Perry's successor, Cmdr Fischer (Kevin J. O'Connor), is not nearly as amicable.
In "Chicago Crossover", an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, he interrupts an interrogation handled by SVU detectives Nick Amaro (Danny Pino) and Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), to do his own way of interrogation (beating the suspect to tell what that person knows). Benson stops him and threatens to arrest him, but along the way she allows him to. During the course of the case, the two of them are able to strike up a friendship.
In "The Three Gs", after working on the human trafficking case, he threatens the officer that filed an official complaint against Sean Roman. He offers him to go to a dentist under his financial help or threatens to beat him up.
In "Daydream Believer", he threatens to beat serial killer Greg Yates (Dallas Roberts) to death after he kidnaps and murders Nadia Decotis (Stella Maeve), Intelligence's civilian administrator, and when he saw the crime scene of his two victims in the apartment building. At the end, when Yates was in holding, Hank relieves the corrections officer of his duty and roughs Yates up, insisting he must feel what his victims went through and never let his guard down.
At the end of "There's My Girl", he demotes Kevin Atwater following an IAB investigation after he leaves a soda can with the suspect that leads to his suicide and promotes Officer Kim Burgess to replace him.
In "Born Into Bad News", he shows his concern for Erin Lindsay when she begins going back to the same person that she once was, and when her mother, Bunny, starts to show up back in Lindsay's life (hinting at the rivalry between the two). At the end, when he is pleading for Lindsay not to quit the department, she still sticks with her decision for her mother to step in.
In "Start Digging", Voight is offered a meritorious promotion to lieutenant by Commander Emma Crowley (Barbara Eve Harris) and the CPD brass as part of the new Chicago Police Superintendent's reorganization of the department that includes getting officers like Voight off the streets. However, before Voight could either accept or decline the promotion, his son, Justin, is assaulted and later dies of his injuries. Voight goes on a revenge mission using whatever means necessary to find Justin's murderer. He has friends find and take the murderer Kevin Bingham to him, where he forces him to dig a hole and executes him. In "The Silos", he is brought back to the silos by Commander Emma Crowley and Internal Affairs detectives, to see if they can recover the body and get him to confess. When no body is found, he is quickly released and goes back on duty. It was later revealed that Lindsay and Olinsky had moved the body prior to I.A. getting there.
In "Grasping for Salvation", a gun that was used in the murder of a boy was connected to a 17-year-old case that he and his old partner Detective (now Lieutenant) Denny Woods had solved. When he found out that Voight was investigating the case, he brings him up to the review board for disobeying a direct order. And when the suspect that Voight and Woods arrested was innocent, Voight tried to have him released. It was later revealed that Woods had altered evidence to get him in prison.
Season 5 In the premiere "Reform", he sees a psychiatrist after Lindsay leaves CPD to join the FBI. He has difficulty working with Lieutenant Denny Woods after he became the new independent auditor. He forms an alliance to Alderman Ray Price, when he becomes entangled in an investigation that involved Detective Halstead.