The project originated when Soutsuu, Fields and Flying Dog asked chief director Goro Taniguchi to coordinate their requests into an original anime concept; wanting to make it a team-based show, he settled on a police story about an experimental unit with limited investigative authority.

Since this was the first Taniguchi work to portray the establishment side rather than terrorists, the protagonists' lack of urgency for change even led to the idea that they would frequently be shown drinking together.

Wanting the show's entertainment hook to be something other than giant robots while still appealing to non-anime fans, Taniguchi deliberately created the Will Wear powered suits as an easily recognizable visual symbol, which is why the story is set in a near future (2035) close to the time of the show's planning.

Series composer Naruhisa Arakawa, who had previously worked on tokusatsu series like Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger, found much of the setting already fixed when he received the proposal, and reshuffled some characters' ranks and positions to add variety, resulting in swaps such as Funasaka and Rin exchanging their originally planned roles (section chief vs. captain).

The series was originally planned as a single one-cour show; only after it was decided to extend it to two cours did the staff push extra unresolved subplots and background elements into the second season.

The character Amano was written as quiet in contrast to the talkative Haruka specifically so that she would have a big talkative moment reserved for her spotlight episode, and her secret 'Bloody Mary' backstory was created by episode 5 scriptwriter Toshiki Inoue.

Chief director Taniguchi specifically cast Natsuki Hanae as Mythos after being impressed by his voice as Gilbert in the 2015 series Junketsu no Maria, saying he wanted to work with him again no matter what.

Most of the mecha and the Will Wear suits are rendered in 3DCG by the studio Orange, while traditional hand-drawn animation is still used for certain characters and situations depending on context.

In episode 1, a shot of two Will Wear users each pulling out their police badges was produced by Orange without director Taniguchi's prior instructions due to a scheduling mix-up, yet the studio still gave each character distinct acting nuances reflecting their personalities, which impressed Taniguchi enough to compare it to tokusatsu suit actors.

Episode 6, featuring the giant robots Mougou and Dooryuu, was conceived as a 'festival episode' after staff including veteran Sunrise 'Yuusha series' artist Masahiro Yamane requested a giant robot-themed episode; Taniguchi even had the color palette shifted to resemble old Sunrise shows for the occasion, giving the production the atmosphere of the classic Yuusha series.

Composer Kotaro Nakagawa, who has scored most of Taniguchi's works, considers Active Raid his masterpiece; he initially wrote a music video theme inspired by Bayside Shakedown but was told to make the main theme brighter and more sports-like, eventually finding the final main theme after writing several other tracks first.

For the roughly 40 tracks of the score, Nakagawa recruited guest musicians including trumpeter Eric Miyashiro, saxophonist Masato Honda and trombonist Eijiro Nakagawa, and recorded in an unusually large hall setup he had long wanted to try, saying he 'finally got to do things I'd always wanted to do.'

On January 29, 2016, the anime released a collaboration illustration with the live-action film Farewell to the Dangerous Detectives on its official site to mark the film's theatrical release the following day.

The Metropolitan Police Department's Public Safety Bureau collaborated with the anime on real anti-shoplifting posters (February 2016) and a promotional video (March 2016) displayed across Tokyo, featuring the show's characters.

A life-size Will Wear suit built by Tsuburaya Productions was displayed at a preview screening event at Human Trust Cinema Shibuya on December 25, 2015, and again at the Comiket 89 company booth.

The series placed 10th in Akiba Souken's 'Winter 2016 Anime Power Popularity Poll' and 6th in Kadokawa's survey on viewing intentions for Summer 2016 anime.