Cops?

[Highwaystreets]

i was just wondering if any of you have ever been on the show "COPS", i was just watching and was thinking it would be a bit annoying to have them there.

[Welpe]

I have been a couple of times...was not wearing a shirt either time.

[Bobecc]

I always wondered how much of the stuff on there was rigged. Not rigged by the show, but by the Officers. You know, one of the off-duty guys pretends to be a tranny prostitute named T-bone.

[Highwaystreets]

I always wondered how much of the stuff on there was rigged. Not rigged by the show, but by the Officers. You know, one of the off-duty guys pretends to be a tranny prostitute named T-bone.

yah i have always wanted to know that, and how long the camera men are with the guys, like one shift or just until they get something.

[savage4presiden]

I have talked to officers who say that the camera crews usually stay on for about two to three months. The reason for this, they said, is that many police incidents aren't wrapped up in twenty to thirty minutes; they take much longer, even days. So, they have to wait a lot just to find a segment that they can make into a decent show.

[Highwaystreets]

I have talked to officers who say that the camera crews usually stay on for about two to three months. The reason for this, they said, is that many police incidents aren't wrapped up in twenty to thirty minutes; they take much longer, even days. So, they have to wait a lot just to find a segment that they can make into a decent show.

yah i believe that, they don't still make this show do they? i thought i was all re-runs?

[AmericanMan]

yah i believe that, they don't still make this show do they? i thought i was all re-runs?

Yes they still make the show, just visit the website, however there are way too many re-runs with the same old agencies. I wish they would do a show about court security

[AmericanMan]

Did you ever notice sometimes when an official is in route to a call, all of a sudden there will be a camera man filming the car go by and all of a suden the next shot is in the car going to the call. Ironically enough when the vehicle goes by there is no camera crew in the car. They must pre-shoot these.

[OnAJourney]

Did you ever notice sometimes when an official is in route to a call, all of a sudden there will be a camera man filming the car go by and all of a suden the next shot is in the car going to the call. Ironically enough when the vehicle goes by there is no camera crew in the car. They must pre-shoot these.

Yea I've always wondered how/when they did that.

Its not like they are going to stop down the road and let the camera man out to walk down the street and film a drive by. Then the officer slams on the breaks to let him back in.

I agree it would seem to be annoying. Especially if you have to jump in the vehicle and take off fast to chase someone. You have to wait for the guys to catch up.

[Da Po-po]

I haven't been on COPS, but the local Fox station does a similar type show. It's really not much different than a ride-along except you are on camera. Some of the guys hate it, but I always thought it was kind of cool. Since we have a fairly small department, I have been on it a lot. Now everywhere I go, people say, "Hey, I saw you on TV!" The funniest thing to happen was on a DUI stop where the driver didn't want to do the SFST's until I promised that the TV crew wasn't riding because he remembered seeing me on TV. What made it even better was that I had audio and video running in the patrol car and I asked him why he was worried about the TV camera and he said he didn't want all his friends seeing him on TV as drunk as he was. Doh!

[Highwaystreets]

Yea I've always wondered how/when they did that.

Its not like they are going to stop down the road and let the camera man out to walk down the street and film a drive by. Then the officer slams on the breaks to let him back in.

I agree it would seem to be annoying. Especially if you have to jump in the vehicle and take off fast to chase someone. You have to wait for the guys to catch up.

hahaha, i just saw that last night, the one cruiser the were in hit a spike belt, so they were out, and then it automatically switched to another car in persuit.

[Chiller]

How about the ones were the guy carrying the camera is running faster then the cops while chasing someone...Now that is funny

[savage4presiden]

They still make it.

Edit: Whoops! Someone already said it.

[Praetorian]

How about the ones were the guy carrying the camera is running faster then the cops while chasing someone...Now that is funny

Those cameras are hella heavy. I know they wear BPvests, but they must have some kind of padding because I have held those cameras and I had a bruise the size of a softball on my right shoulder.
Plus, they are expensive. I did a project from my TV Productions class last semester, and we went to a comedy group's performance to get some B roll. We brought two JVC cameras similiar to the ones they use, a tripod and two lavalier mics. Together it was about 15,000$ worth of equipment...in the hands of three freshman... I was so nervous about breaking anything, I didn't pay attention to half the stuff I was recording. I was staying stationary the whole time, too, unless I got on stage a bit for a better angle. I can't imagine having to jump over fences and run through the woods in pursuit with an 8,000$ + camera...

[TFlanary]

Well, the cameras are only about 20 lbs or so. Anyways, they do wear Bullet proof vests, as is obviously needed, and all the camera men are in very good shape.

There are of course pre-shot sequences, and they usually have 2-4 camera men recording different shots. I believe they do a ride along for about 2-3 weeks or until they get enough stuff to fill a segment. It's not staged, but you can watch the cops and they most often do a horrible job with procedures. We've done a training class on them, watching a COPS episode and correcting everything that he did wrong.

They use the same departments alot because they have contacts at those departments. The original idea started in a town near Seattle, Washington. It's also the longest and oldest Reality TV show.