I mainly checked this out because the author was the same as the one for Gokusen. This was labeled as a spinoff series, but mainly because the police force is in the same district (Shirokin).
This series didn't receive as high a rating as Gokusen, and many people felt that the author was trying to do the same thing, humor-wise, as Gokusen, but I don't think so. That said, I haven't managed to read the whole series, so I'll update when I do.
Synopsis: Wanko is a newbie police detective on a prestigious team in the Shirokin police force. Unlike the US detective shows or books I see, it seems that Japanese police are organized into teams and teams work on a case under 1 section chief. The team is then also divided into small groups of 2. Although Wanko features on the cover, the series seems to cover the entire team. Wanko is on the squad only due to her bloodhound nose (and because she can talk, unlike police dogs). There's her partner, Kirishima, who's also a young, good-looking, hot-headed detective who seems to use brawn instead of brains. There's Wada, who's a gorilla of a detective; Komatsubara, who's young and wants a girlfriend; Gara, who's the best interrogator in the business; and Yanagi, who's the cool and collected young brains behind the business.
Each few chapters cover a new mystery, and each is interesting on its own. I figured the author wanted to write mysteries after Gokusen because Gokusen's last few books always featured some silly mystery in the additional chapters. And the author also said she wanted to draw a super girly, frilly dressed-up chick after drawing a spectacled woman wearing jerseys for any number of years.
Not the same vein as Gokusen, although I see that the author really likes cool, intelligent, level-headed guys (Yanagi) because she's had these as main(ish) characters in three of her series already. Not complaining. Hot-headed impassioned dudes are kind of boring after a while.