| Cops | |
|---|---|
.svg) | |
| Genre | Documentary Reality |
| Created by | John Langley Malcolm Barbour |
| Developed by | Stephen Chao |
| Directed by | Dale Dimmick Gabriel Koura |
| Narrated by | Burt Lancaster (pilot episode) Harry Newman |
| Opening theme | "Bad Boys" byInner Circle |
| Composers | Michael Lewis (pilot) Nathan Wang (season 1) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English[a] |
| No. of seasons | 37 |
| No. of episodes | 1,240 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | John Langley Malcolm Barbour (1989–1994, seasons 1–6) |
| Producers | Andy Thomas (1989, season 1) Paul Stojanovich (1989–1990, season 2) Bertram van Munster (1990–1997, seasons 3–9) Murray Jordan (1997–2001, seasons 10–13) Jimmy Langley (2001–present, seasons 14–present) Morgan Langley (2007–present, seasons 20–present) |
| Running time | 30 minutes (season 1–3) 30–37 minutes (season 4–present) |
| Production companies | Barbour/Langley Productions (1989–1999, seasons 1–11) Fox Television Stations Productions (1989–2013) Langley Productions (1999–present, seasons 12–present)[1] Fox Entertainment (season 33–present) |
| Original release | |
| Network | Fox |
| Release | March 11, 1989 (1989-03-11) – May 4, 2013 (2013-05-04) |
| Network | Paramount Network[b][2] |
| Release | September 14, 2013 (2013-09-14) – May 11, 2020 (2020-05-11) |
| Network | Fox Nation |
| Release | October 1, 2021 (2021-10-01) – present |
Cops (stylized inall caps asCOPS) is an American documentary television series that is currently in its 37th season.[3] It is produced by Langley Productions[4] and premiered on theFox network on March 11, 1989. The series, known for chronicling the lives oflaw enforcement officials, followspolice officers andsheriff's deputies, sometimes backed up bystate police or other state agencies, duringpatrol,calls for service, and other police activities includingprostitution andnarcotic stings, and occasionally the serving ofsearch andarrest warrants at criminal residences. Some episodes have also featured federal agencies.
The show's formula follows thecinéma vérité convention, which does not consist of any narration, scripted dialogue,incidental music or added sound effects, depending entirely on the commentary of the officers and on the actions of the people with whom they come into contact, giving the audience afly on the wall point of view. Each episode typically consists of three self-contained segments which often end with one or morearrests.
It is one of the longest-runningtelevision shows in the United States and, in May 2011, it became the longest-running show on Fox (since then, its duration has been surpassed by the duration ofThe Simpsons). It also became the longest running live action series on Fox. WhenAmerica's Most Wanted was canceled after 23 years, the show's hostJohn Walsh, made numerous appearances onCops.[5][6] In 2013, the program moved to Spike TV, now known asParamount Network.[7]
In late 2007, during the premiere of its 20th season, episodes ofCops began broadcasting inwidescreen, though not inhigh definition. In June 2020, Paramount Network pulled the show from its schedule in response toGeorge Floyd protests following his death while under arrest by theMinneapolis Police Department,[8] and announced its cancellation days later.[9]
The show remains in production for its international and overseas partners, and began to film anew inSpokane County, Washington, with its sheriff's department in October 2020.[10] In September 2021, it was announced that Fox siblingFox Nation picked up the show. The 34th season premiered in September 2022.[11][12][13][14] Season 35 premiered on April 7, 2023. Following a three month hiatus, the show returned on October 6.[15] Season 36 would premiere on April 5, 2024 with several episodes featuring beach patrol officers duringspring break.[16][17] Season 37 would premiere on March 7, 2025, initially consisting of 10 special spring break-themed and Las Vegas-themed episodes before airing its first standard episode on October 24, 2025.[18][19][20][3] Filming for the upcoming 38th season of Cops got underway by May 2025.[21]
Cops was created byJohn Langley andMalcolm Barbour, who tried unsuccessfully for several years to get a network to carry the program. When the1988 Writers Guild of America strike forced them to find other kinds of programming, the youngFox Television network picked up the low-costCops, which had no union writers.[7][22]
The program premiered on the Fox television network on March 11, 1989,[7][23] following a seven-week test run on six Foxowned-and-operated stations.[24] The program was one of only two[when?] remaining first-run prime-time programs airing on Saturday nights on the four major U.S. broadcast television networks (along with CBS's48 Hours Mystery). Malcolm Barbour left from producingCops in 1994.
For the first 25 seasons,Cops was broadcast by the Fox television network with reruns of earlier seasons syndicated by local television stations and cable networks, includingtruTV andG4.[25] After Fox canceled the show in May 2013,Spike-which later became known as the Paramount Network- picked it up[7] for an additional five seasons, in addition to reruns of previous seasons.[2] The 30th season premiered on June 17, 2017.[26]
On August 21, 2017,Cops celebrated its 1,000th episode with a live special calledCops: Beyond the Bust, hosted byTerry Crews (who plays a police sergeant in the sitcomBrooklyn Nine-Nine), which included historical clips from the run of the program as well as reunions of officers and the suspects that they arrested.[27] The date of the 1,000th episode also marked a shift of episode premieres from Saturdays to Mondays.[28]
The show follows officers in 140 different cities in the United States,Hong Kong,London, and the formerSoviet Union.[29]
In the wake of the protests following themurder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota under police custody, Paramount Network pulled the series from the air ahead of its season 33 premiere, which was scheduled for June 1, 2020. On June 9, 2020, a network spokesperson announced "Cops is not on the Paramount Network and we don't have any current or future plans for it to return".[8][9]The episode "Party in a Box" (season 28, episode 20, originally aired December 12, 2015) featuredAtlanta Police Department Officer Garrett Rolfe, who in 2020 was charged with thekilling of Rayshard Brooks during adriving under the influence investigation.[30]
In September 2020,Cops resumed production. The new episodes were being produced for international syndication and to fulfill contracts overseas that had not expired; Langley did not secure a domestic distributor until 2021.[31] Rocket Rights picked up the show for distribution outside the United States in early-2021, with Langley's distribution unit, Langley Television Distribution (as of 2021) handling sales in the United States.
On September 13, 2021, it was announced that Fox's sister streaming serviceFox Nation had picked up the show. The 33rd season premiered on October 1, 2021.[32][12] Fox Nation premiered the show's 34th season on September 30, 2022.[13][14]
On July 11, 2025,Cops, which still regularly airs on Fox Nation,[32] aired a new episode on the Paramount Network again titled "Stick and Move".[33]
Cops was created byJohn Langley and his producing partnerMalcolm Barbour. In 1983 they were working onCocaine Blues,[34] a television series about drugs. As part of his research Langley went on a drug raid with drug enforcement officers and was inspired to create a show focusing on real-life law enforcement. Before that, there had been only a few instances ofcinéma vérité productions documenting the work of police officers, such asRoger Graef'sPolice in 1982.[35]
In the late 1980s, after producing the livesyndicated specialsAmerican Vice: The Doping of a Nation,Murder: Live From Death Row, andDevil's Worship: Exposing Satan's Underground all withGeraldo Rivera, Langley and Barbour pitched theCops show concept toStephen Chao, aFox programming executive who would one day become president of theFox Television Stations Group and laterUSA Network. Chao liked the concept and pitched it toBarry Diller, thenChief Executive Officer of the Fox Network. Malcolm Barbour left from producingCops in 1994.
AWriters Guild of America strike was occurring at the time and the network needed new material. An unscripted show that did not require writers was ideal for Fox. The first season aired in 1989 and consisted of 15 episodes featuring theBroward County Sheriff's Office. Since then, it has often been one of the highest-rated reality-TV programs, in part due to its low production cost (estimated at US$200,000 per episode in the early 1990s) and thus its capacity to show new material each week.[35]
The original concept of the show was to follow officers home and tape their home lives along with their work. After a while the idea of following officers home was deemed too artificial by Langley and was abandoned. Thereafter, the format of three self-contained unscripted segments without narration or music became the show's formula.
Since the third episode of Season 2, every episode ends with a police radio excerpt referencing the intersection of SE 132nd Ave. and SE Bush St. in thePowellhurst-Gilbert, Portland, Oregon neighborhood ofPortland, Oregon.[36] A female officer says, "132 and Bush, I've got him at gunpoint", and a female dispatcher replies, "132 and Bush. Cover's Code 3." Another woman says, "Units 25, 14 can transmit on Tac 2", and the dispatcher replies, "Okay, we'll still send it Code 3." Then an instrumental version of "Bad Boys" plays over the credits.[37] On the first season ofCops, instead of "132 and Bush, I've got him at gunpoint", it was a police radio excerpt from theBroward County, Florida Sheriff's Office. In the first two episodes of the second season, a different police radio excerpt from thePortland Bureau of Police was used.
Cops aired on Fox's traditional Saturday-night lineup since its debut in 1989. As of 2012, the program retained its traditional time slot, but aired more intermittently asFox Sports scheduled more sports programming in Saturday-night primetime, withNASCAR on Fox in the late winter and spring,Major League Baseball on Fox throughout the spring and summer,Fox College Football in the fall, and variousFox UFC throughout the year.Cops was then scheduled on weeks without any sporting events, followed by an encore presentation of a Fox drama series.
In 2013, it was announced that Fox had cancelled the program. However, it was later announced that Spike TV had picked up the program for another season.[38][39] In August 2017, Spike moved the show's time slot to Monday.
| International agencies | |
|---|---|
| Countries | Agencies |
| Hong Kong | Hong Kong Police Force |
| USSR | Militsiya |
| United Kingdom | Metropolitan Police |
In one episode, theproduction sound mixer for the camera crew, a formeremergency medical technician, assisted a police officer in performingcardiopulmonary resuscitation (season 2, episode 7).[citation needed]
In an episode in season 11 that took place in 1998 inAtlanta, Georgia, camera operator Si Davis, who was aLas Vegas Metropolitan Police Department reserve police officer, dropped the camera and assisted an Atlanta police officer in wrestling a suspect into custody. It turned out that the APD officer had been injured during a foot pursuit; meanwhile,mixing console Steve Kiger picked up the camera and continued recording the action, which eventually made the air (season 11, episode 5).
In another episode, a rape suspect fled and outran officers, only to have the cameraman follow him the entire time, until police caught up to the suspect and subdued him (season 10, episode 19).
In season 13, episode 18, a cameraman caught up to a suspect and pushed them to the ground before the officer arrived to arrest them.
In an episode of season 14 (2001–2002), during the arrest of a man after a car chase inHillsborough County, Florida, the sound mixer held the suspect's sister away from the deputy after she tried to intervene in her brother's arrest.
During the first episode of season 22, which aired on September 12, 2009, an officer with theLas Vegas Metropolitan Police Department was tackled by a suspect. The camera operator and Las Vegas Fire Department personnel wrestled the suspect away from the officer.[citation needed]
In episode 32 of season 22, an officer fromAmarillo, Texas Police Department responded to a possible auto burglary. The suspect was found inside the car and attempted to flee from the responding officer, however the suspect was stopped by theproduction sound mixer that was standing in the path that the suspect intended on escaping with.[citation needed]
In episode 17 of season 26 that aired on February 1, 2014, during the arrest of a man inSacramento, California, for battery on his girlfriend, one of the camera crew pulled one of the suspect'sAmerican pit bull terrier away from one of the arresting officers. The dog was biting the officer on the leg after being commanded to do so by the suspect.[citation needed]
During the recording of episode 7 in Season 27, the camera crew assisted in detaining the passenger of a vehicle whose operator had fled on foot from officers inLafayette, Louisiana. As police chased the driver, who successfully evaded arrest, the camera crew secured the vehicle by giving directions to the passenger; at one point, the camera operator can be seen gesturing to the passenger to place the latter's hands on the dashboard.[citation needed]
On August 26, 2014, at roughly 9:20 p.m., aCops crew was recording with theOmaha Police Department inOmaha, Nebraska, during their final week working with them since arriving in June. A police officer drove to aWendy's restaurant during arobbery and called for backup. One of the other responding officers had a two-personCops crew (a cameraman and audio technician Bryce Dion) present in his or her cruiser. The crew began recording the robbery inside Wendy's.[41][42]
Authorities later identified the robber as 32-year-old Cortez Washington, whom police shot several times during the shootout. A police officer fired through a window, hitting Dion (wearing a bullet-resistant vest) once under the arm. Medics transported both to the hospital, and both died, with Dion being pronounced dead shortly after arrival.[43][44][45][46]
The 38-year-old Dion had worked onCops for seven years. Langley Productions stated that, in 25 years of video recording, this was the first incident in which a crew member was seriously injured or killed.[42] ACops crew working inSpringfield, Missouri, alsowrapped following the Omaha incident.[47] In Dion's honor, the show aired an hour-long "best of" episode featuring his work on its September 20, 2014 episode.[48]
The robbery's events took only seconds to happen.[49] Detective Darren Cunningham responded to the call while theCops crew accompanied Officer Brooks Riley and Officer Jason Wilhelm. Cunningham and Riley entered the front door and unholstered their firearms, while Wilhelm went to the restaurant's back part to cover an emergency exit door that opens only from indoors. Cunningham and Riley approached Washington, who was at the restaurant's back part and did not see the officers arrive. For unknown reasons, Washington walked to the front counter, where the officers identified him and told him to lie on the floor—but Washington immediately pointed and fired a pistol while moving toward the officers, who returned fire. Cunningham retreated into the hallway toward the restroom and kept firing at Washington, who had then turned the corner and stood where the officers had initiated contact. Riley moved around a column and into the waiting aisle at the counter. As Washington passed the uniformed police officer, he aimed his weapon toward the officer and continued firing as he moved toward the front exit. Dion was caught in the ensuing crossfire as the officer returned fire at Washington, who stumbled into the parking lot and fell from his injuries before his arrest.
After the scene was secured, authorities learned that Washington's pistol was actually anairsoft handgun that strongly resembled a realTaurus firearm.[50]
Authorities placed the three police officers on paid leave pending the result of an investigation into the shooting. A grand juryacquitted all three of misconduct.[51]
Washington had a lengthy criminal record inWyandotte County, Kansas. At the time of the Wendy's robbery, he was on parole in Missouri, having been released in September 2013 after serving two years of a seven-year sentence as an accessory to second-degree robbery of a jewelry store, to which he pleaded guilty. In determining sentences and eligibility for parole, Missouri law does not consider criminal records in other states.[46] Approximately 20 minutes before the Wendy's robbery, his 24-year-old girlfriend, Jeneva Arias, robbed aLittle Caesars pizza restaurant, using the same airsoft pistol; Washington served as her getaway driver.[52] Arias in turn was to be Washington's getaway driver in the Wendy's robbery, but fled. While in jail awaiting trial, she committed felony assault via throwing a soap mixture into a health care worker's face and fracturing a jailer's hand. Authorities gave Arias a plea bargain, and she pleaded no contest to reduced charges, and they sentenced her to a maximum of six years in jail through concurrent sentencing.[53]
Bryce Dion's brother, Trevor Dion, filed a lawsuit in February 2016 against the City of Omaha, alleging that inadequate communication and coordination between dispatchers and the officers arriving at the scene contributed to Dion's death. The suit also blames the authorities' decision to invite theCops video crew to go with officers.[54][55] On April 24, 2018, a Douglas County District Judge refused the City of Omaha's request to bar the release of the video of the robbery-shooting at Wendy's and ordered the City of Omaha to release all materials related to the death of Bryce Dion, of which only still frames had been previously released.[56] On April 25, 2018, the video recorded by theCops camera crew was released. The video was shown in open court and theOmaha World-Herald requested a copy, which it later released.[57] Trevor Dion's lawsuit against the city was dismissed by a judge in July 2019.[58]
The show's theme song is "Bad Boys", performed by reggae groupInner Circle, which was played over a montage of clips.
All episodes ofCops began with a disclaimer. Beginning with later episodes of season 2, the wording was:
Cops is filmed on location with the men and women of law enforcement. All suspects areinnocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
For special episodes ofCops, the wording for the disclaimer was:
This special edition ofCops is filmed on location with the men and women of law enforcement. All suspects areinnocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
The disclaimer in the first two seasons was slightly different: "Cops is filmed on location as it happens. All suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law."Burt Lancaster provided the following narration on the pilot episode: "Cops is about real people, and real crime. It was filmed entirely on location, with the men and women who work in law enforcement."
During at least the first season, episodes featured original scoring in a vein similar to the instrumental backing of the opening song. Some cues were short, others longer, usually over montages. Among the composers who scored episodes were Michael Lewis and Nathan Wang.[citation needed]
The Spike TV-Paramount Network version of the show added theX andInstagram handles andFacebook URL as itssocial media pages to the intro in 2013 until it was removed in 2020.
| Season | Episodes | Originally released | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First released | Last released | Network | |||
| 1 | 15 | March 11, 1989 (1989-03-11) | June 17, 1989 (1989-06-17) | Fox | |
| 2 | 31 | September 23, 1989 (1989-09-23) | May 5, 1990 (1990-05-05) | ||
| 3 | 42 | September 15, 1990 (1990-09-15) | August 3, 1991 (1991-08-03) | ||
| 4 | 45 | August 10, 1991 (1991-08-10) | August 8, 1992 (1992-08-08) | ||
| 5 | 46 | August 15, 1992 (1992-08-15) | August 14, 1993 (1993-08-14) | ||
| 6 | 46 | August 7, 1993 (1993-08-07) | December 17, 1994 (1994-12-17) | ||
| 7 | 41 | May 14, 1994 (1994-05-14) | November 10, 1995 (1995-11-10) | ||
| 8 | 43 | February 25, 1995 (1995-02-25) | July 13, 1996 (1996-07-13) | ||
| 9 | 36 | August 31, 1996 (1996-08-31) | July 26, 1997 (1997-07-26) | ||
| 10 | 36 | September 6, 1997 (1997-09-06) | August 1, 1998 (1998-08-01) | ||
| 11 | 36 | September 12, 1998 (1998-09-12) | September 18, 1999 (1999-09-18) | ||
| 12 | 36 | September 11, 1999 (1999-09-11) | July 29, 2000 (2000-07-29) | ||
| 13 | 40 | May 20, 2000 (2000-05-20) | July 7, 2001 (2001-07-07) | ||
| 14 | 36 | September 1, 2001 (2001-09-01) | September 21, 2002 (2002-09-21) | ||
| 15 | 36 | May 4, 2002 (2002-05-04) | November 1, 2003 (2003-11-01) | ||
| 16 | 41 | April 26, 2003 (2003-04-26) | October 2, 2004 (2004-10-02) | ||
| 17 | 36 | May 15, 2004 (2004-05-15) | August 6, 2005 (2005-08-06) | ||
| 18 | 36 | September 10, 2005 (2005-09-10) | July 22, 2006 (2006-07-22) | ||
| 19 | 36 | September 9, 2006 (2006-09-09) | July 28, 2007 (2007-07-28) | ||
| 20 | 38 | September 8, 2007 (2007-09-08) | August 2, 2008 (2008-08-02) | ||
| 21 | 36 | September 7, 2008 (2008-09-07) | July 25, 2009 (2009-07-25) | ||
| 22 | 36 | September 12, 2009 (2009-09-12) | July 31, 2010 (2010-07-31) | ||
| 23 | 22 | September 11, 2010 (2010-09-11) | June 18, 2011 (2011-06-18) | ||
| 24 | 22 | September 10, 2011 (2011-09-10) | April 7, 2012 (2012-04-07) | ||
| 25 | 16 | December 15, 2012 (2012-12-15) | May 4, 2013 (2013-05-04) | ||
| 26 | 22 | September 14, 2013 (2013-09-14) | March 8, 2014 (2014-03-08) | Spike | |
| 27 | 33 | July 12, 2014 (2014-07-12) | May 9, 2015 (2015-05-09) | ||
| 28 | 33 | June 20, 2015 (2015-06-20) | April 30, 2016 (2016-04-30) | ||
| 29 | 33 | June 4, 2016 (2016-06-04) | April 22, 2017 (2017-04-22) | ||
| 30 | 33 | 22 | June 17, 2017 (2017-06-17) | November 13, 2017 (2017-11-13) | |
| 11 | January 22, 2018 (2018-01-22) | May 21, 2018 (2018-05-21) | Paramount Network | ||
| 31 | 33 | June 4, 2018 (2018-06-04) | May 20, 2019 (2019-05-20) | ||
| 32 | 33 | June 3, 2019 (2019-06-03) | May 11, 2020 (2020-05-11) | ||
| 33 | 33 | October 1, 2021 (2021-10-01) | July 8, 2022 (2022-07-08) | Fox Nation | |
| 34 | 17 | September 30, 2022 (2022-09-30) | March 31, 2023 (2023-03-31) | ||
| 35 | 33 | April 7, 2023 (2023-04-07) | March 29, 2024 (2024-03-29) | ||
| 36 | 28 | April 5, 2024 (2024-04-05) | July 18, 2025 (2025-07-18) | ||
In September 1992, reruns ofCops went into broadcast syndication, and like Fox's fellow seriesThe Simpsons, it became a mainstay of the format, with its carriage being led byFox Television Stations itself, be it Fox stations or those stations which belong to its sister networkMyNetworkTV; it was also consistently included on the schedule ofThe CW's smaller-market chain of local cable channels and broadcast subchannels,The CW Plus. Seasons 7-24 would air onCourt TV which eventually rebranded toTruTV in 2008, over the course of its syndicated run from 1998-2014 on the network, seasons 7-24 would be broadcast on the network, in 2014, it was announced the program would be pulled off the air by 2015, due to its syndicated contract expiring, the network decided not to renew the contract and by January, 2015, the network would stop airing the syndicated reruns. In the fall of 2013, it mainly began to air on Spike (now Paramount Network) on the cable side as part of that network's agreement to air new episodes, after several years ontruTV. Older episodes were picked up by the now defunctCloo in September 2014, after spending years on the now defunctG4, which was discontinued in December 2014. Local station syndication of the show was prevalent on most Fox stations and affiliates at the time, but as of 2015, older episodes were shifted intoCops Reloaded.WGN America also carried reruns of the regular version. At the start of 2016, the episodes in the now defunct Cloo/G4 package were moved into the Spike TV-Paramount Network syndicated package when the former G4-Cloo syndication agreement expired, giving that network the rights to the majority of the program. After Viacom's acquisition ofPluto TV in 2019, a 24/7 channel made up of episodes of the series directly programmed under license from Langley Productions was launched.[59]
Related to Paramount ending its carriage ofCops in June 2020, it has also relinquished its syndication rights; WGN America, which began to convert to a general news network asNewsNation undernew ownership, also decided to stop carrying the show at the end of its existing carriage contract, which happened to terminate by coincidence on June 30, 2020.[60]Disney Media Distribution, which syndicates the FTSP-era episodes under its former name of20th Television to local television stations, replaced the series for the remainder of the summer with the 2018–19 run of the defunct syndication version ofWho Wants to Be a Millionaire on June 15 (of which an hour of episodes were distributed, asCops was often paired withLive PD: Police Patrol, which was also pulled from syndication at the same time new episodes of that series were cancelled).[61]Reelz began to carryReloaded episodes again on September 3, 2021. Reelz also began to carry older episodes of the regular version from seasons 8-17. Since May, 2023, Fox Business has also began carrying syndicated reruns of seasons 32, 33. Law & Crime Network carries syndicated broadcasts of Reloaded as of 2023.
Cops is broadcast in the UK onCBS Drama,CBS Reality andFox. In Portugal the show is aired onFox Crime, in Brazil ontruTV, in Colombia on truTV, in Australia onNetwork Ten,10 Bold (a sub-channel of Network Ten) andCrime + Investigation, in Japan on Fox Crime, in Philippines onC/S 9, in India onStar World and FOX Crime, in Norway onV4, in SwedenReloaded airs on TV12 while original runs onTV6 andTV10, and in Denmark onCanal 9.
In Canada, both the original andReloaded versions of the program aired onAction (nowAdult Swim). BiteTV began airing the program in December 2014 (until its relaunch asMakeful in August 2015), while sibling channel RadX (which re-branded toBBC Earth in January 2017) began airing it on Monday, August 3, 2015.[62]
An enhanced version of the program branded asCops 2.0 with live web chats and program facts aired onG4 from May 2007 to 2009.[63]
In January 2013,20th Television announced that a new syndicated version titledCops Reloaded would begin airing onCMT as well as local stations andThe CW Plus.[64] The new format features slightly edited segments of classicCops episodes, allowing for four segments per each half-hour episode. This version contains all new graphics and soundbites during the opening theme song, and older segments are modified and framed to a sharpenedwidescreen image for thehigh-definition format if they were originated instandard-definition television.[65]
The program has had several "best-of" home videos, includingCops: In Hot Pursuit,Cops: Shots Fired,Cops: Bad Girls,Cops: Caught in the Act , andCops: Too Hot for TV which included segments containing profanity and nudity that was edited out of the network version.[66]Cops: Too Hot for TV also had a deluxe edition which had a segment containing especially graphic content, including police finding a man who had hanged himself in his garage and the aftermaths of two different shootings. Before the aforementioned segment, there was an announcement by John Langley, stating that "This next segment isn't just too hot for TV, it's also probably too hot for this video. Once you've seen it, you'll know why."[67]
ACops: 20th Anniversary Edition two-disc DVD with viewer favorites from each season, several behind the scenes features, and the original one-hour pilot was released in the United States and Canada on February 19, 2008.[68]
| Title | Format | Ep # | Discs/tapes | Region 1 (US) | Special features | Distributors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cops: In Hot Pursuit | VHS | - | 1 | - | N/A | Langley Productions |
| Cops: Shots Fired | VHS | - | 1 | - | N/A | Langley Productions |
| Cops: Bad Girls | VHS | - | 1 | - | N/A | Langley Productions |
| Cops: Caught in the Act | VHS | - | 1 | - | N/A | Langley Productions |
| Cops: Shots Fired | DVD | Special | 1 | March 23, 2004 | Never-before-seen footage. | 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment |
| Cops: Bad Girls | DVD | Special | 1 | March 23, 2004 | Never-before-seen footage. | 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment |
| Cops: Caught in the Act | DVD | Special | 1 | March 23, 2004 | Never-before-seen footage | 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment |
| Cops: The Bad Karma Collection Vol 1 and2 | DVD | Special | 2 | August 8, 2006 | None | 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment |
| Cops: 20th Anniversary Edition | DVD | 1 | 2 | February 19, 2008 | Cops 20th Season Special Original Pilot Episode Parodies and tributes Famous Fan Favorite Scenes from all 20 Seasons The Story ofCops Cops onCops Lights! Camera! Action! Toughest Takedowns | 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment |
| Cops: Wildest Chases | DVD | Season 26, Episodes 8–9, 11–12, 15, 22 Season 27, Episode 03 | 1 | May 19, 2015 | None | Paramount Home Entertainment |
In 1994, Pacific Gameworks created a proposal for avideo game project intended for theAtari Jaguar based upon the TV show; however, production of the game never started and it was left unreleased.[69]
In 1995, Nova Productions andAtari Games released aLaserDisc arcade game based on the show. The game uses live-actionfull motion video for graphics and consists of a driving stage and a shooting stage very similar toMad Dog McCree.[70]
In 1999,Cops associate producer and sound mixer Hank Barr publishedThe Jump-Out Boys, a book about the show's production.[71]
Cops has received fourPrimetime Emmy nominations, as of May 2017. The website of theAcademy of Television Arts & Sciences specifically lists four nominations ofCops for Outstanding Informational Series (in 1989, 1990, 1993, and 1994) but ultimately no Emmy awards were awarded to the show.[23][72][73]
Awards won have included:
Other nominations (not resulting in an award) have included:
Even though it is popular and long-running,Cops has drawn mixed reviews, and it has also raised ethical questions.
In Season 3 (1991-1992), Alan Bunce ofThe Christian Science Monitor praised the show as network television's "only true 'cinema verite' series"—declaring it "innocent of re-enactments," and "free of fancy production effects," while remaining "doggedly faithful to its format."[74] Bunce raved about its "honesty of tone" and the show's "commitment" to, in his words, "recording exactly what happens" (nothing more, nothing less)—"an implicit rebuke" to what he called "the excesses and sleight-of-hand" indulged in by most other "reality" shows. "Cops", he said, "is a stickler for authenticity."[74]
In 1999, theLos Angeles Times'Pulitzer Prize-winning, long-time, television criticHoward Rosenberg[75] chastised ride-alongreality TV shows (likeCops, which he particularly named), as "uniting" police and media in ride-alongs where each party is "an extension of the other."[76] When invading "private property with their cameras rolling," said Rosenberg, these partnerships' behavior is "appallingly indifferent" to the "fundamental privacy rights" of the people whose homes they invade, and the resulting TV shows depict "social and moral crises" deceptively, "without context"—doing so in "the most narrow, emotional terms" they can.[76] In a 2009 interview,Cops executive producer John Langley admitted that his show is built around a three-segment structure, presenting an "action" piece, an "emotional" piece, and a "thought" piece[77] (an example of therule of three).
Rosenberg further describes such a commercial police–media partnership as exceptionally prone to media corruption—yielding misleading, one-sided perspectives. "The collusion potential is enormous," says Rosenberg, because a so-called "reality" series can choose to air nothing that they fear will put their partners (the police) in a bad light (an embarrassment which, says Rosenberg, would cut off the TV show's access to the ride-alongs, resulting in "no access, no show".)[76]
A podcast calledHeadlong: Running from Cops[78] started in April 2019. Presented byDan Taberski, it investigatesCops andLive PD, their alleged treatment of participants and whether scenarios are portrayed truthfully.[79][80][81]
Critics have noted the use of propaganda for cops, orcopaganda, in the showCops.[82] The civil rights groupColor of Change began a campaign to cancelCops in 2013, stating that the show's producers and advertisers had "built a profit model around distorted and dehumanizing portrayals of black Americans and the criminal justice system." Civil rights leader and president of Color of ChangeRashad Robinson praised Paramount for cancelling the program, adding that shows such asCops "that glorify police but will never show the deep level of police violence are not reality, they are P.R. arms for law enforcement. Law enforcement doesn’t need P.R. They need accountability in this country."[83]
In June 2004, researchers atOld Dominion University videotaped 16 episodes ofCops and then evaluated them for crime content, and for the race and gender of characters depicted. They found prior studies statistically reinforced in their descriptions of racial misrepresentation onCops. The study found that, onCops,African-American men were overwhelmingly shown as perpetrators—usually of violent crimes—andHispanic men (rarely depicted at all) were also usually depicted as violent criminals. The police officers depicted were overwhelmingly White, and the disproportionately few White offenders were more-often portrayed as involved in non-violent offenses.[84] As a response, the show's co-creator John Langley tried to include White offenders in each episode.[85]
Statistical correlations betweenactual crime rates and types (by race and gender, as reported by the FBI'sUniform Crime Reports) and the Old Dominion study's analysis of characters in theCops episodes indicated that theCops episodes (on average) sharply skewed the numbers, racially, making African-American and Hispanic men appear far more responsible for violent crime than they actually are in the U.S. population at large. At the same time, White males were shown onCops as a far less culpable group than they actually are, statistically.[84]
The study also noted that women were almost totally ignored inCops—seldom appearing as either officers or offenders. Finally, it noted that the show overwhelmingly depicted violent crimes, despite such crimes being a distinct minority of crime in the U.S.[84]
In 2004, researchers Theodore O. Prosise (University of Washington), and Ann Johnson, Ph.D. (University of California/Long Beach), studied a random, but non-scientific, sample of 81 anecdotes fromCops episodes—analyzing their content, subjects and characters. They concluded that the program was racially skewed, negatively misrepresenting African-Americans, depicted as a criminal class out of proportion to their actual percentage of U.S. crime, in particular.[86]
Moreover, the study indicated that theCops episodes appeared to selectively edit out failed police efforts, and police-initiated actions "on a hunch" that resulted in the discovery of no grounds for an intervention or arrest—showing only those officer "hunches and suspicions" that were productive—creating the illusion that officer instincts were more reliable and valid than in actual life. The study's authors expressed concern that this provided TV viewers with implicit—and misleading—justification for police actions that amounted to "racism, discrimination or profiling."[86]
The show has been criticized for its predominant focus on criminal activities among the poor. Critics of this aspect of the show say it unfairly presents the poor as responsible for most crime in society while ignoring the "white-collar crimes" that are typical of the more wealthy. Controversialdocumentary filmmakerMichael Moore raises this tenet in an interview with a former associate producer ofCops, Richard Herlan, in Moore's 2002 movieBowling for Columbine.
Herlan's response to Moore was that television is primarily a visual medium, requiring regular footage on a weekly basis to sustain a show, and police officers "busting in" on an office whereidentity theft papers are being created or other high-level crime rings are operating does not happen very often. It is therefore not likely to be recorded and thus not shown. The low-level crime featured on the show happens every day, providing large quantities of material suitable for taping.
A 2001 study of 117 Justice Studies[87] students atArizona State University—a cross-section sample proportionally representative of the genders and races of all justice studies students at ASU—found various correlations between students' race and gender and their attitudes towards representative episodes ofCops. The study found that students were drawn to the violence in the program. It also found that students interpretedCops scenes as valid and informative representations of the genders and races different from their own—eliminating the need to learn about them through direct personal contact.[88]
In 2005 in response to a request forCops taping, Patrick Camden, theChicago Police Department's deputy director of news affairs stated, "police work is not entertainment. What they do trivializes policing. We've never seriously even considered taping."[89] TheFairfax County Police Department, located inNorthern Virginia, has similarly refused to allowCops taping since the show originally aired, as have theWashington, D.C. Police,St. Louis City Police, and theHonolulu Police Department. In addition, the show has rarely featured federal law enforcement agencies because such officers often work undercover and as a result, they are not inclined to have their work broadcast.
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Animal Planet aired its own version calledAnimal Cops, featuringanimal control services andanimal welfare organizations.
Several other American shows have paid homage toCops' format, such asLAPD: Life on the Beat,Police POV,Live PD andOn Patrol: Live.
A similar Canadian series calledUnder Arrest aired in the 1990s and 2000s.[90]
ThreeFox series parodied their own network's program.Mad TV featured a series of filmed parodies called "Clops", shot inclaymation, and consisted of animated cops and criminals, commonly in exaggerated situations analogous to the real series.In Living Color did a parody called "Thugs", from the point of view of a group of criminals. In 1992, the episode "Homer's Triple Bypass" fromThe Simpsons featured a parody of the show entitled "Cops: In Springfield".
Seattle's sketch comedy showAlmost Live! did a parody called "Librarians", and "Cops in ...".
In 1994, children's showBill Nye the Science Guy did a parody called "Cops in Your Bloodstream", with said 'police officers' representingwhite blood cells attempting to stop 'criminal'infections.
Troops is a mockumentary by Kevin Rubio that had its debut atSan Diego Comic-Con on July 18, 1997, and was subsequently distributed via the internet. The movie is a parody ofCops, set in theStar Wars universe. In the movie, Imperial stormtroopers from the infamous Black Sheep Squadron patrolling the Dune Sea on the planet Tatooine run into some very familiar characters while being recorded for the hit Imperial TV showTroops.
In 2003,Reno 911! is a mockumentary-style parody of law enforcement documentary shows, specifically Cops.
Shrek 2 parodied show calledKnights which showedShrek,Donkey, andPuss in Boots being arrested (the latter for possession ofcatnip).
On January 28, 2019,The Late Show with Stephen Colbert did a parody calledMueller which featuredCNN's footage ofRoger Stone's arrest the previous week, with footage of otherDonald Trump associates' arrests mixed into actualCops opening titles, and a fictional FBI agent providing recaps of the action.[91]
Jay Leno parodied the program onThe Tonight Show in the mid-90s, which included rewrites of the theme song with various insults, including "dumb cops", "short cops" and "mall cops", with appropriate characters and changed lyrics.
Two episodes of the sitcomMy Name Is Earl had the main characters being arrested during fictitious tapings ofCops.
TheDead or Alive video game series had a parody show calledAgents which showed the man being arrested bygovernment agents for torturing and abusing his ex-girlfriends,grifting,fraud,movie piracy,TV episode piracy,impersonating now-deceased Fame Douglas,mocked and impersonated onHelena Douglas on the internet andforging his own video game and sent tofederal prison.[citation needed]
The showThe X-Files released a pseudo crossover episode ofCops called "X-Cops" (season 7, episode 12, originally aired February 20, 2000) in which FBI Special AgentsFox Mulder andDana Scully collaborate with mostly fictitious deputies from theLos Angeles County Sheriff's Department, an actual LAPD SWAT team was also featured in the episode, in order to catch a mysterious,shapeshifting entity. In the tradition of the real-lifeCops program, the entire episode is shot on videotape.
A 1999United States Supreme Court decision,Wilson v. Layne, No. 98-83, (and the Court's simultaneous stance on an Appeals Court ruling in a similar caseHanlon v. Berger, No. 97-1927, and its affiliate case,CNN v. Berger, No. 97-1914) appeared to legal scholars to restrict the actions ofCops video crews, and some suggested it might even spell the end for the program.[92][93][94][95]
In theWilson case, a reporter and photographer fromThe Washington Post accompanied a federal marshal (Layne) and local officials when the authorities entered a home (of the Wilson family) acting on a search warrant. The Supreme Court ruled that law enforcement officers may not bring a media ride-along guest with them when entering a private home to execute a search warrant, stating that it was a violation of theFourth Amendment rights of the people in the home to be "free from unreasonable searches and seizures," and to be "secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects." The court affirmed (or reaffirmed, in some views) the policy that officers may not bring into the home with them people whose role was not in the direct service of the purpose of the warrant. Though that court – by its own admission (stated in the majority opinion document) – was usually divided on Fourth Amendment issues, the court ruled unanimously in this case that the authorities' accommodation of the media intrusion violated the Fourth Amendment.[92][93][95][96]
The court further ruled that officers violating that ruling, and allowing unnecessary parties to invade with them, were liable to those in the home they had entered, and could be sued for damages. The lone dissent on that element of the case was on the question ofcurrent liability (Justice Stevens believed that the officers inthat specific case were liable—but the rest of the court agreed to give themqualified immunity, because the justices believed that the Supreme Court had not yet made its position sufficiently clear on that issue; however, any subsequent violators would be held liable by the court).[92][95][96]
TheAmerican Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), whose local affiliate represented theWilson plaintiffs, took an even more sweeping view in favor of the plaintiffs, preferring theFourth Amendment privacy protections against any potentialFirst Amendment "freedom of the press" issue in that case.[92][97]
In theHanlon case, the Supreme Court further extended the protections of theirWilson ruling to include not only thehouse of the plaintiffs, but also thecurtilage—the enclosed and concealed-from-public-view, private space around the house (commonly including yard, carport or garage).[95]
However,Cops' executive producer John Langley said the show would continue to be produced, in the following season, in the format of "a pure ride-along show"—claiming that the show had always gotten releases from anybody shown on camera, even those people depicted under arrest. (However, Langley's statement did not indicate whether the releases were gained before or after recording, and did not indicate whether some subjects had been videoed without giving their consent, and then simply not been shown—"involved"—in the resulting program.) Further, Langley noted, most of what the show depicts occurs in "the street or in cars".[92][98]
Cops dedicated an entire episode ("Smooth Criminal", season 24, episode 3, originally aired September 24, 2011) to the case of escort Delilah "Dalia" Dippolito ofBoynton Beach, Florida, who was convicted of solicitation to commit first-degree murder after being secretly videotaped hiring ahitman (who was actually an undercover cop) to kill her husband in 2009. At trial, her defense attorney claimed that Dippolito was tricked into signing theCops release form.[99] The defense attorney also claimed that her husband orchestrated the plot to get aired onCops.[100] In truth,Cops producers were outraged when investigators persuaded Dippolito to sign the release form before they questioned her, believing that since it was done undercolor of law, it would be useless. They later convinced Dippolito to sign a second waiver, saying they would give her a chance to tell her side of the story.[101]
Ultimately, both defenses failed, and Dippolito was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison.[102] However, the state'sFourth District Court of Appeal ordered a new trial in 2014, finding that the judge at the first trial erred by not doing enough to ensure that jurors were not improperly exposed to pre-trial publicity. The appeals court found that the judge should have questioned the jurors individually, rather than as a group, regarding how much they knew about the case. It also found that the judge should have dismissed the entire jury when one prospective juror revealed she had read about Dippolito's attempt at poisoning her husband.[103] She was later released on an appeal to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, pending a retrial on May 23, 2016.[104] On August 17, 2016, the appeals court rejected her appeal without comment.[105]
Her retrial began with jury selection on December 1, 2016.[106] The jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict and a mistrial was declared on December 14, 2016.[107] A second retrial was held in June 2017,[108] and on June 16, 2017, she was convicted again.[109] Judge Glenn Kelley ordered her held without bail. Her defense attorneys said they would appeal the verdict. On July 21, 2017, Dippolito was sentenced to 16 years (of the maximum of 20) in prison.[110] Florida's Fourth District Court of Appeals upheld her conviction in March 2019,[111] the Florida Supreme Court rejected without comment her request to review the 2017 conviction,[112] and her appeal to theUS Supreme Court was refused in February 2020.[113]
The Dippolito case has also been featured onABC's20/20,[114]NBC'sDateline,[115]CNBC'sAmerican Greed,[116] the syndicated show distributed byWarner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution,Crime Watch Daily.,[117][118][119] andYouTube.[120]
Cops videos have beensubpoenaed and used by defense attorneys, resulting in the suppression of evidence owing to police misconduct which was revealed in theCops videos.[121][122]
In 2015, "late at night in a high-crime area," aFort Myers, Florida police officer—accompanied by aCops video crew—stopped and frisked a man who was wearing dark clothing and walking in the middle of the street. In an encounter that only lasted 23 seconds, the officer discovered that the suspect (who turned out to be a convicted felon) had a gun, and the suspect was arrested. In subsequent criminal proceedings, in federal district court, the defendant moved to suppress the frisk-acquired gun evidence on the ground that the officer violated the defendant'sFourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures—arguing that the officer did not have "reasonable suspicion" to frisk him. More specifically, the defendant argued that the officer did not believe, reasonably, that his safety was threatened—nor the safety of others—before conducting the pat-down. The officer countered that the defendant had exhibited suspicious behavior that justified the frisk. Relying heavily on the "indisputable video evidence" that contradicted the officer's testimony on multiple points, the judge agreed with the defense, and barred the evidence of the handgun. Further, the judge suggested that the officer may have altered his original report after viewing theCops video.[121][122]
At least one academic reviewer of the case described it as raising questions about how often such police actions are illegal, but unprovable—describing it as a strong justification for requiring police officers to wearbody cameras.[121][122]
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