How do they film the show?
Take a typical scene of a domestic violence report. A policemen enters a house where a family is trying to fend off a drunk abusive father. The wife screams that the man is violating a court injunction, the man screams that she hit him first,etc,etc. The cop takes the woman outside to calm her down and ask for details, and the camera follows them out into the yard . Then the cop returns to the house, takes the man into the kitchen, handcuffs him and asks more questions, while the camera follows every step of the way.
All this happens with nobody ever looking directly into the camera, or making any mention of the filming. But if you are inside your own house , wouldnt you ask who the hell is the guy filming all this, and why is he in my living room?
And wouldn’t it interfere with the policeman , having a cameraman tailing him as he walks through the house and tries to calm hysterical people?
Nobody ever seems to notice the cameraman-either as a disadvantage, or an advantage. I would expect somebody to say “who is that guy with the camera-- I aint talking to you with a camera on me”, or “here, he hit me and you can see the bruise–take a picture of it with your camera so I can show it to the judge”
And the cop never turns around to the cameraman and says “wow, take a picture of that–5 bags of cocaine–right out in the open”.
I don’t think it’s fake. Word would have leaked out by now.
However it is obviously heavily edited. There are a lot of jumps in continuity. Presumably the bits you mention are edited out. Also everyone involved signs releases allowing their image to be shown on TV. When they don’t the face is blurred out.
I read a magazine article interviewing a COPS camerman a while back, and a apparently an astonishingly high number of people consent to having being on the show. Most people seem to be more concerned with finding out when their show will be on the air than they are with being arrested on national television.
I don’t really know what you’re talking about as far as the cuffing goes.
I’ve seen it take like 10-20 seconds but that’s not “forever.” I think police in general don’t like to needlessly hurt people so they are careful to put the cuffs on in a way that won’t hurt the wrists or shoulders and will of course also still be secure.
And even if “real” cops don’t care day to day they probably do everything as by the book as they can while being filmed.
The premise of COPS isn’t really that far out there.
Lots of Police Departments allow “citizen ridealongs.” I’d heard of said citizen ridealongs before but considered them to be bollocks. However when I took a criminal justice course the instructor (himself an ex police officer) wanted us to interview a police officer and if possible go on a ridealong. The instructor said every jurisdiction has different rules on it but a lot of them are very open to letting people do ridealongs for educational purposes. Some of course are against it completely.
On the ridealong I went on though I wouldn’t have been allowed to follow the police into someone’s home or anything like that, so obviously the cameramen from COPS are getting extra access or maybe the jurisdictions they do their work in are even more liberal with ridealongs.
These are people who don’t act surprised when they look up and see a cop in their trailer.
If I were getting arrested, I would prefer to have a cameraman there. They can’t show anything unless I consent, and it’s a lot less likely to end up with my rights being violated. Then again, the criminals and losers on this show aren’t as smart as me, and rarely as sober. [and I’m a frickin’ lush!]
Perhaps that is the same article I once read. It said that while the video of arrests is genuine but heavily edited, all sound effects like tires squealing and sirens blaring were added in the studio later.
It’s a Hollywood production and the actors are cheap.
What I don’t understand is how come every time they arrest someone for having a domestic in their home, it’s always, without fail, some guy with no shirt on and tattoos all up his arms who drives a pickup truck. The consistency of this is really quite astonishing.
A couple of times, I’ve seen people in these scenes ask about the cameraman, and a cop will say “don’t worry about it” or “Never mind him” or something like that, and it’s over in a moment. I guess the times that this takes more than a couple of seconds get edited out.
IIRC, there was a court case a couple of years ago concerning Cops and the judge ruled that they cannot just go into people’s homes. From the language I heard, it sounded like the camermen had been in the habit of barging in, although clearly people have to sign consent forms to be on TV. It seemed like after that they started showing arrests taking place outside. I haven’t watched in a while, not sure if they’re showing reruns that have indoor confrontations. Kind of ruins the voyeurism for me - seeing how other people live was half the fun!
Another thing, if I had to guess, would be that the show’s producers maintain only loose ties with the camera crews; that is, its in their best interest for the camerapeeps to be as aggressive as possible (as with any reporter). On the other hand, I doubt FOX execs relish dealing with people trying to litigate. I picture this somewhat along the lines of the papparazzi (although not quite that freelance).
If I’m thinking of the same case, it wasn’t Cops, but a newspaper cameraman who barged in and got a shot of an elderly couple in their underwear. The paper published the photo and got sued. I met one of the lawyers on the case but couldn’t get a lot out of him. One thing he said was that the case would have serious reprecussions for cops and other similar shows.
One fact I dimly recall from the case is that the plaintiffs were’t involved in the matter the police were investigating. The police went into the wrong house. (again IIRC). I think someone who calls the police or commits a crime has less of a civil right of privacy, but IANAL.