The TV Show COPS

The television show COPS is one of the longest currently running television shows in the U.S. Its creators John Langley and Malcolm Barbour aired their first season in 1989, showcasing their iconic “Bad Boys” theme song. COPS follows a documentary format, providing insight to the exciting field of police work and often focusing on life through the eyes of a beat cop. Film crews shadow police officers in their everyday operations without any narration or scripts. Along with patrol officers being shadowed, the show will occasionally show sting operations where drug dealers and prostitution is combated. COPS is a very fast paced show, often displaying high intensity situations police go through in their normal work day. In addition, patrol

officers will often share insight about their daily tasks and help provide understanding of events that occur. The show follows local and state agencies from around the country, also including places like Hong Kong and London (Barbour & Langley, 1989).
COPS intends to maintain neutral portrayal of police officers as they carry out their everyday duties.

Film crews do not interact with police operations, they simply shadow patrol officers often in dangerous situations. In the show negative connotation of police is rarely seen, the show often displays police doing their work correctly and without malice. Although never directly referred to, the show often finds itself humanizing police officers and portraying them as peers just doing their jobs. Their insight of police work often sides with pro-police mentality as the show spends most it’s air time displaying operations of police rather while often neglecting insight from perpetrators. COPS portrays police as everyday people who have vowed to better a community, while the show emphasizes high intensity situation for a more entertaining viewing experience. Officers are often seen exercising values of community-based policing, attempting to combat problems beyond crimes by working with community members and staying personally involved in their surroundings. Overall police are portrayed in a positive manner when police seen in the show maintain suspect rights and attempt to provide the best outcome for suspects and community members (Barbour & Langley,

1989).
Although COPS has acquired mixed reviews as many believe it raises ethical questions of police work. Many experiences displayed in the show occur in lower income neighborhoods based on the simple concept that these neighborhoods produce more calls to service, in turn providing more content for television. Many critics of the show believe that the show promotes stereo types of low income neighborhoods being filled with criminals. Police patrol experiences often imply that many of these lower class citizens are guilty of crimes that have been committed; although each show clearly states that “all suspects are innocent until proven guilty in the court of law.”
The show does a great job showing a variety of different policing tactics used around the country when officers vary in attitudes and opinion in different situations. The majority of officers seen in the show portray a classic community-bases police officer, although variance in patience, aggression, and confidence is seen among patrol officers. COPS, unintentionally, shows trends of high confidence and low patience aligns with more experienced officers, while trends of lower confidence and higher patience is witnessed in younger officers. Backgrounds of each officer are often given when being shadowed by film crews, each officer’s background and training is often an indicator of how they will handle situations. Finally, an officer’s physique is also an indicator of how each officer will approach each situation, for example a smaller officer may need to apply more aggressive tactics to combat suspects much larger than themselves (Barbour & Langley, 1989).
The show COPS does and adequate job representing multiple topics we have discussed in class. The most notable topic the show relates to is our topic of community-based policing. The tactic of community-based policing is a trend displayed by almost every agency seen in the show. Community-based policing is a philosophy that emphasizes close relation to community members in efforts to promote public safety (Peak & Sousa, 2017). In most cases officers attempt to work with individuals, as best they can, to prevent crimes from occurring in the future, rather than simply responding to calls of service. An example of community-based policing in the show COPS is when officers respond to a call of alligator crawling into someone’s house, officers could have called animal control but instead attempt to solve the problem on their own (Barbour & Langley, 1989). This obviously is not under a police officer’s scope of practice although this deed influenced better ties with their community members.
Officers in each episode provide input on the everyday stresses they encounter, many of which state that their passion for helping people and their co-workers are their main support. Although never directly stated the main four stressors we discussed in classed can be applied to each officer portrayed in the show. Police encounter stress from their organizations, the justice system itself, the public, and their intrinsic duties (Peak & Sousa, 2017). Many patrol officers seen on COPS do not specifically state their stressors, although they do provided insight on factors that help them work past their stress. It is a trend in the show for officers to refer to their passion for public service and the friendships they build while on the job to combat stress. When sheriff deputy Mendez describes his stressors of his beat being a drug dependant community and a common hatred for police, he provides a great example of how it can be stressful to remain at a job where officers are constantly facing people who have animosity against law enforcement.
Prior to each incident that occurs in COPS the officer shadowed usually takes a moment to recap the incident and justify what occurred.

During this time in the show officers usually will explain laws broken and regards for their personal safety to justify their use of force or their actions (Barbour & Langley, 1989). Use of force is a “hot topic” in policing today, many people have a misunderstanding of the use of force continuum discussed in class. Use of force is very commonly seen in COPS and if officers were not allowed the opportunity to explain their actions the show could create a poor representation of police officers. Luckily the show attempts to clarify use of force by allowing the shadowed officer a chance to explain their actions after the incident. An example of reasonable use of force is seen in the show when an small female officer has to use her taser neglects to follow commands of the officer and keeps walking toward her, a larger male officer probably would not have to use a taser to subdue the man but the female officer feared for her protection so the force was justified (Barbour & Langley, 1989). Factors like officer size can account for how much force is used in a situation. When people claim excessive use of force they often neglect to consider officer and public safety and will quickly assume officers are abusing their

powers.
Another thing shown in COPS is the real-life application of police discretion. On many occasions in the show an officer is witnessed using their discretion to better the community they protect. Discretion is when a police officer may ignore the “letter of the law” to create a more effective outcome of a situation. Discretion of police can be determined by a variety of things like, the law, an officer’s attitude, the citizen’s attitude, and a citizen’s social status as described in the text (Peak & Sousa, 2017). An example of officer discretion is seen when an officer allows a young man to be taken home by his parents after he is caught trespassing and evading police, the officer believed the kid would benefit more from being punished by his parents rather than juvenile hall (Barbour & Langley, 1989). Discretion often will benefit situations by allowing officers to decide the most effective outcome of a situation. Although discretion in policing can cause inconsistencies and biases may play a role in the decisions of an officer.
COPS does a good job portraying a police officer’s role in a community, although it emphasized the more exciting incidents to maintain an audience. It portrays officers in a way that humanizes by providing slim insight to their lives and personal beliefs. To maintain excitement in the show COPS focuses on scenarios that involve police use of force or pursuits, creating a sensationalized view of police work (Barbour & Langley, 1989). On the other hand, critics of the show believe it makes police presence seem bias. The majority of police encounters in the show are in lower income neighborhoods, when almost all people arrested in the show are coming from these areas it creates a misrepresentation for low income community members. People in these low income areas are typically minorities, who are being depicted as criminals. In conclusion, the argument against the show is that is maintains a pro-police view that degrades people of lower class communities.
Watching COPS after taking this course gave me much better understanding of what was occurring in each police encounter. The show provides minimal detail on each situation that occurs and before this class it was often hard to tell how police justified their actions, unless they explained it. Understanding police methods and reasoning seem crucial to obtain a correct understanding of the show. Without taking a policing course it could be very easy to misconceive police officer’s actions in the show. Understanding the use of community-based policing, stressors, use of force continuum, and discretion seems vital to obtain a proper view of the show. Finally understanding of a police officer’s obligations may provide incite as to how an officer will respond to certain calls and what he prioritized when on a call to service.
The show COPS would become much less entertaining if it was based purely on the information obtained in the course. The action packed show would become much slower due to the fact that policing is not all constant action. Police must perform tasks other than arresting criminals, such as writing police reports and training. Also a better understanding of the justice system would if the show was based on ideas of the class. The show currently fails to explain how much of the justice system works and if the show was based on information learned in the course more than just the initial contact with witnesses and victims would be shown. Many of the police officers show in COPS considered beat cops, police that are on patrol of a certain area. In the course we discussed how these are among the lowest ranking individuals of the police force, the show would greatly change if we shadowed those higher in the chain of command or those dedicated to doing more than just responding to calls. In conclusion the show would obtain a much more comprehensive view of our justice system and this could benefit our society by informing citizens of how it works.