I suspect the closest thing to being a cop without actually being one is to do regular ride-alongs, filming police, recording for highly popular shows such as LivePD and COPS and The First 48. While the former is the latest real-time-cop-culture sensation (currently in its ratings-rave second season), COPS just chronicled its 30th year bringing actual police footage into your home without needing a warrant. COPS also made famous its series premier theme song “Bad Boys” and helped Inner Circle climb the music billboard charts.
Actually, another way to be right where the police action occurs is to physically be the action, you know…the kind cops call suspects…the ones who get the free ride to county jail while wearing temporary bracelets. But it is not recommended; there are better ways.
Videographer and boom operator are more suitable roles to be close to cops without taking a ride to the local pokey. Indeed, by default, crews filming police take the ride to the pokey…they just do not stay there. You get it.
So, what goes into pulling-off such a reality TV show?
As one may suspect, the perils for film crews are equally as dangerous as they are for the law enforcement officers with whom they ride. Universally, any type of ride-along, whether it be a college criminal justice student, a police intern, a politician desirous of a dose of what his/her cops endure, or aspiring police candidates…everyone signs a “hold-harmless” contract so that if things go horribly awry and injury ensues (“reality” TV), the police agency is indemnified and not held liable. A transparent and straight-up handshake.
Because it is the real deal, each film crew member endorses such an agreement in exchange for presence in the police inner sanctum…and all its potentiality. Like cops, they suit-up, gear-up…and go “in-service.” What happens after that is anyone’s guess.
Given the omnipresence of peril, to some degree crews filming police are also outfitted like cops: ballistic vests are typically mandatory and mimic journalists who report from war-torn battlegrounds in foreign nations. Logically and logistically, the camera equipment becomes another barrier between bad guys and bad boys’ behaviors.
A colleague of mine was the man behind the lens when a COPS segment in 1996 captured a suicidal woman, armed with a butcher knife, who volleyed craziness while deputies on-scene tactically assessed and reassessed by the nanosecond. He reminisced, “That segment definitely set my career on a path for almost 20 years.”
Ultimately, the viewing public weighed-in, slandered the deputies for what the suicidal woman sadly brought upon herself—view the clip on any number of YouTube postings and you’ll read the ridiculous anti-police diatribe. But it was caught on film. A slo-mo playback chronicles the woman refusing to exit her vehicle as a deputy employs calming verbiage while maintaining a safe distance. The woman exits her van, lashing the air before literally and intentionally winding the knife in a relative 360-degree spin while deputies adapted and conducted a take-down from behind.
Could those deputies have shot the woman? Indeed. Would they have been justified? Given the circumstances, absolutely. She was armed, refused myriad lawful commands from law enforcement officers, and made an abrupt motion while wielding her butcher knife—a deadly weapon. Those details meet the criteria equating to a justified officer-involved shooting…in relative textbook fashion.
It is what was off-screen and on the passenger-side of the vehicle which an personal source saw, and shared: a deputy out-of-frame was unholstering his firearm when the woman exited her vehicle while armed with the knife, directing herself at another deputy. In scant seconds, the source on scene witnessed the deputy reholster his service weapon and go for the take-down bodily.
Same Perils Police Confront
Naturally, there is no guarantee that any film crew member will not be subject to injury or fatal interactions. Such was the case when, despite wearing ballistic properties, COPS production crew member Bryce Dion was filming an exchange of gunfire between Omaha police and an armed robber at a Wendy’s restaurant in August 2014. Mr. Dion, a COPS sound technician, was shot in the gun battle and mortally wounded.
A report in Mashable.com indicated the following scenario explained by Omaha, Nebraska police Chief Todd Schmaderer: “Officers continued firing on the suspect as he exited the restaurant, and that was when the ‘COPS’ crew member, 38-year-old Bryce Dion, was also struck. Dion was wearing a bullet-proof vest, but a single bullet that hit his arm ‘slipped into a gap in the vest’ and entered his chest, Schmaderer said.”
“My concern with my officers is that they are taking this very hard. Bryce was their friend,” Chief Schmaderer said at a press conference describing the incident.
The folks who produce COPS wrote the following commemoration on August 26, 2016: “Two years ago today we lost an amazing friend, co-worker, and COPS family member. Gone but not forgotten. Rest in peace Bryce Dion.”
Pursuant to Mr. Dion’s death, his family retained an attorney and filed a “wrongful death” suit against the City of Omaha and the Omaha Police Department. The family attorney claimed “I don’t think Bryce Dion signed up for the risk of being shot by a police officer.” Of course he didn’t. Albeit tragic, Mr. Dion did acknowledge and confer his willingness to be in an arena in which many dangers exist, and that he understood unforetold harm may evolve. It can be likened to joining the US armed services.
Per a TMZ report, “In the suit, the family says the police were negligent because they didn’t give Bryce adequate training, supervision or protection.”
Subsequent to the shooting incident which culminated in Dion’s death, a federal investigation ensued. The US Department of Labor’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) decreed additional safety factors. According to PoliceOne.com, OSHA investigators “issued guidelines but did not issue any citations or penalties.”
OSHA’s written summary entailed Langley Productions teach its film staff to “record from a distance when there is gunfire in the area, take precautionary measures when deciding to accompany law enforcement into crime scenes, and removing bonus incentives that encourage employees to take risks to capture more.”
Heeding and exceeding OSHA’s recommendations, Langley Productions claimed it will also implement “even stricter procedures and policies to avoid any unforeseen tragedy in the future.”
Inherent in the very nature in filming cops in real-life, real-time events are tragedies foreseeable and unforeseeable. It is the bread and butter behind the existence of COPS and its decades-long success with millions of viewers tuning in episode after episode. The stark reality of police culture is confronting the unknown, often culminating in inexplicable circumstances.
Naturally, no one wanted such a tragedy to occur while also tacitly realizing that such bizarre instances can happen.
Sentiments from Behind the Camera
As The First 48 senior producer John X. Kim said, “The First 48 is about stories that are very primal” and “the most shocking thing that I’ve learned is what people will do to other people for the slightest of reasons.” Indeed, his last point is the core of cops and why they take to the streets 24/7/365. A behind-the-scenes peek into who and what makes the show so intriguing was captured via an A&E YouTube video revealing production crew sentiments.
With emotion in her throat, First 48 editor Michelle Brundige explained, “What we are telling is real, and you can’t help but be affected by that in your own life.” First 48 editor Montres Henderson touched upon how working on the show personally impacted his life: “I think it made me a lot more sensitive as a person, a lot more sensitive to appreciate people and appreciate the moments.”
Age of Transparency
Increasingly so, levels of government seek to become more transparent in their operations without sacrificing the necessary confidentiality while sleuthing and conducting investigations,
Film crews are outfitted with two-way communication devices, earpieces, and apps via which messaging is afforded. As a cohort of mine put it: “Quick actions are necessary during filming cops, especially while an in-progress crime is unfolding.” Camera operators and sound techs must be relatively clairvoyant, prescient, without a script to follow. Those are inherent dynamics for reality TV to garner riveted audiences.
As one may suspect, police tactics and command presence are factors gleaned by videographers…so body language and changes in cops’ mannerisms are mechanisms signaling film crew personnel that Something is up, get ready for the action! without discounting officer safety features. And all that recorded action comes to you via the cinematographic talents of men and women behind the scenes who are wholeheartedly along for the ride.
This piece is dedicated to all footage seekers behind the cinematic technology which brings the police into our domains, largely live and in-person. This coverage is especially devoted to Bryce Dion who perished doing what he adored.
