I recall one of the producers of COPS being on NPR a while ago. He said that people generally agreed to relese the footage because their cameramen and producers playd, well, “good cops.”
You’ve just been arrested, you’re sitting on a curb handcuffed, everyone is yelling at you, telling you to shut the fuck up.
So a TV producer walks up to you calmly, offers a little bit of sympathy, and asks politlely if you could do him this “little favor” of signing a release for him.
Apparently, that usually works, or at least it works often enough to base a show off of.
See Wilson v. Layne, cited earlier in this thread.
Both *Wilson * and Hanlon involved execution of warrants, but I doubt the fact that a search falls within an exception to the warrant requirement will make a difference.
The two kinds of cases where I have seen the camera enter a home recently are:
Someone in the home has called the cops, and I’m guessing, perhaps off camera, has invited the crew in.
Drug house takedowns (I don’t know if this footage predates 1999). I wonder though if broadcasting the result of an invasion of privacy (the court held that it was an invasion of privacy, but it was reasonable for the cops to think it wasn’t) doesn’t subject the show to liability. They must be:
a. Getting consent from somewhere;
b. Using officers to video the takedown and broadcasting that footage
c. Or, as the Court hinted, getting the issuing magistrate to issue a warrant that permits a news crew.
I heard a similar (or the same?) interview, but this one was with a consent specialist. Those are the folks who follow the crew around and get written consent from the people in the videos.
That person (I seem to recall a female voice) described one guy, who really made an ass of himself on the video. He was willing to sign the consent as long as they included footage of him playing his guitar. They struck a deal. I remember the episode, too. He was really terrible.
Now that I think about it, you might be right. And it could explain why COPS isn’t as entertaining as it used to be. I’ve noticed lately that most of the episodes are about prostitution stings in public places, petty drug busts in public places, and uninteresting traffic stops in public places.
