COPS is a reality show that is "filmed on location with the men and women of law enforcement". It is arguably the most realistic Reality Show on television. There is absolutely no script and no narration outside of the opening credits; everything you see is real people in real situations.
COPS was conceived when TV executive, Stephen Chao, having gotten a surprise hit on his hands by launching what would be the pilot of America's Most Wanted, wanted to pitch another show about real crimes and law enforcement. He met with director and producer John Langley in 1987, who suggested an expansion on a concept he had already tested with his one-off special, American Vice: The Doping of a Nation in 1986, where he had convinced officials of the Broward County, Florida Sheriff's Department to allow cameras to accompany them on a previously-scheduled drug bust. The show eventually hit American TV screens in 1989, and much like Most Wanted, it became an overnight sensation.
The basic premise is as follows: camera crews follow police officers in various cities as they go about their jobs. While your average police officer's job is generally mundane, COPS makes it look rather... well, not glamorous, but certainly more action-packed than usual. Chases, drug busts, a couple of prostitution busts, and the occasional idiotic moment from several suspects.
COPS deals with issues from basic domestic disturbances to neighborhood disputes and complaints; the camera crew, it should be noted, is wearing body armor, and in some cases, they're peace officers themselves. Occasionally, they get involved in the action — one member of the camera crew in a particular episode was an off-duty sheriff's deputy, and had to drop the camera at one point to assist in subduing a rowdy suspect!.
The show's proven formula that has remained popular for years, along with other elements and more, helped COPS stay on the air for a record of consistent viewership that many shows couldn't even dream of. COPS is the longest-running Reality Show on television: it has run since 1989, giving it a run of more than three decades.
The show was also originally part of the longest unchanged nightly schedule in American television, Fox's Saturday night schedule, alongside America's Most Wanted. COPS's 25-year run on the Fox network ended in 2013, with the program moving to Spike TV that fall. During its run on Spike, the show had celebrated airing its 1,000th episode on August 21, 2017 as part of its 30th season overall. The show would continued to air as Spike was relaunched as Paramount Network in 2018.
Naturally, as a long-running reality show, COPS has had its share of controversies.
There had been disagreements between police departments and production companies, especially when it comes to the "right to privacy" provisions of US (and Canadian) law; film and television crews fight hard for the public's right to know and "freedom of information", but police agencies cooperating with COPS crews protested that the "right to know" did not trump the individual's right to privacy and security of person. Eventually, it was decided, in consultation with the producers of COPS, that the individual's right to privacy should be respected, and that the faces, license-plates, and addresses of those featured on the show must be obscured in post production. People who signed waivers appear without pixellation, so it has often been assumed that every drunk, naked ranting guy being handcuffed said at some point (and after they sobered up), "Yes, I want to appear on TV like this." Ninety percent of arrested suspects opt to appear without blurring. But ultimately, it is worth noting it has often been seriously called into question how "voluntary" signing these waivers actually are, with several people featured on the show later claiming that they either had no recollection of signing them, were definitely not sober or in their right mind when signing them, or had signed under duress or false pretences from the arresting officer(s) and/or producers. The show's co-creator and long-time executive producer, John Langley, even openly acknowledged the "color of authority" effect in an interview, explaining that that it was a common policy to have the arresting officers, if not outright ask the arrestee to sign the waiver, then at least somehow imply that it is in their best interest to do so, as it would actively discourage them from refusing. In the end, it is very questionable if something really can be considered an "voluntary" act when you had handcuffs on at the time. There is also the problem that COPS rarely, if ever, acknowledges when a person arrested on screen is later found to be innocent of any wrongdoing by the justice system. Several persons depicted on the show, who have had their names cleared in court afterwards, have often complained that COPS continued to feature the recordings of their arrest in reruns, without any clarification that they were later officially declared innocent, often tarnishing their reputation for years.
Suddenly, in the wake of protests against Police Brutality following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, major networks and their parent companies decided that airing reality programming centered around the police seemed uncomfortable. Thus, COPS would be cancelled on June 9, 2020
with Paramount Network announcing that they had no intention of bringing it back. In addition, the reruns of the first 25 seasons, which Disney acquired when they bought 20th Century Fox in March 2019note , were pulled as well, with Disney offering reruns of the final season of the syndicated version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. However, the show would still be produced for international syndication, and to fulfill overseas contracts that had not yet expired, with filming for new episodes having resumed on September 2020. In September 2021, Fox announced that the series would return on the streaming service Fox Nation on October 1, 2021. COPS can also be seen worldwide on Pluto TV, which is owned by ViacomCBS.
Not be confused with the animated series C.O.P.S.
COPS provides examples of:
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: A disproportionately large amount of the show's incidents involve alcohol. Or drugs.
- Bail Equals Freedom: A handful of segments show why this is not Truth in Television. If the bondsman gets wind that a suspect plans on skipping town, violated bail conditions, or has not made a court appearance, they will find that suspect with the help of an armed police escort. The suspect's cooperation determines if the front door survives.
- Blatant Lies:
- Yes, of course the police can't tell you're drunk.
- The opening of any sting will begin with "Are you a cop?" followed by "No." There's an urban legend that a police officer is required to tell you they're a cop if you ask them to because not doing so is entrapment. This is patently untrue, given that undercover police work is a thing. Entrapment only applies if a cop forces you to commit a crime. Example But since this bit of misinformation helps with their job, the cops are in no hurry to correct criminals who think otherwise.
- People arrested for drug possession will nearly always try to lie about it. They can be caught driving a car full of drugs, wearing pants made of drugs while smoking drugs, and they'll still claim it's not their drugs. Bonus points when they claim it's not their drugs because it's not their car. Apparently car theft is better than drug possession.
- At least one suspect claimed that he shouldn't be arrested for wearing pants full of drugs because "These aren't my pants." It did not work.
- By extension of the above, many seem to believe that a cop absolutely has to believe their story no matter how ludicrous. Be it drug possession, stolen vehicle, whether one person was driving or the other, whether the husband or the wife are chronic abusers, suspects have a habit of making up something ridiculous when the cop witnessed the crime.
- The Big Easy: Several episodes have taken place in New Orleans, usually during Mardi Gras, when there would naturally be more action.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: The show did try to maintain something of a journalistic or documentary feel (at least initially) and has a protocol of maintaining the fourth wall, but occasionally a judgement call will dictate breaking it, such as a cameraman helping an exhausted police officer perform CPR on a subject.
- By-the-Book Cop: Almost everything shown by the police officers is by-the-book, even if some things are occasionally skipped over in the show itself for time, like the reading of a suspect's Miranda rights. Unsurprising, given that they were confident enough to have their activities filmed; you'd better be damn sure you're not involved in violating procedure if there's going to be a camera crew following you around.
- Crossover: Yes, really- once with The X-Files, where a normal episode gets interrupted by Mulder and Scully chasing a Monster of the Week; and twice with My Name Is Earl, where it's depicted as being set in Camden County and following their police force. The latter takes place in-universe before Earl discovered karma. (Both shows were also produced by Fox, though the latter aired on NBC.)
- Deep South: Averted. The show is somewhat famous for the shirtless, toothless morons, but they're seen all over the country. It isn't just hillbillies, folks; trailer trash is nationwide. When the show is in the Deep South, the officers shown are diverse in both gender and ethnicity, in fairly good shape, and well spoken (with perhaps a hint of a drawl to give away a locale). It's a far cry from most Hollywood portrayals of southern law enforcement.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The first season included scenes of police officers off-duty, and/or at home with their families. Past the first season, this kind of footage almost never comes up. Also, the end credits were accompanied by a series of songs styled after "Bad Boys", instead of an instrumental of that song, and the iconic police scanner audio was different.
- Eat the Evidence: People have tried this with their entire stash of crack cocaine at once. Not only does this not work — the cops got it on-camera, after all — but now the suspect will be going to the hospital to get their stomach pumped.
- Escaped Animal Rampage: One episode has the police dealing with a zebra escaped from a zoo. They rescue the zebra from drowning in a swimming pool.
- Fair Cop: Zigzagged. There's a lot of criteria for who gets filmed for this show, such as service record, camera presence, and yes, physical appearance. Most of the cops are at least average-looking, with a few particularly handsome/beautiful specimens.
- Fan Disservice: For all the jokes about male suspects being shirtless, it's just as likely they're people you don't really want to see shirtless. Quite a few have been pretty beaten up by years of drug and alcohol abuse, and the types of people cops frequently deal with aren't usually the most fitness-minded.
- Fell Off the Back of a Truck: A number of people pulled over for having a stolen vehicle claim to have legitimately bought the vehicle from a friend, and not having proof of a vehicle purchase immediately on-hand is not so unreasonable (though these people still get arrested since they are technically in possession of the vehicle). However, attempting to explain this after taking the police on a high-speed chase is a good way to lose credibility.
- Idiot Ball:
- The way a lot of suspects get caught. One of the most common themes is the officer will pull them over or otherwise stop them for something incredibly minor, which would only result in a warning or a minor citation, only for the suspect to flee, which results in them getting arrested.
- Running from the police once they've cuffed your hands behind your back. One instance had a suspect run twice after being handcuffed, each time ending with predictable results.
- Another instance involved a man calling the cops because someone had stolen his marijuana. He was arrested.
- Some fleeing suspects act like their home is sanctuary and will go inside thinking the police can't arrest them in their own home. The police promptly arrest them.
- Bonus points for those who try to fake that they've just woken up when they are sweaty and visibly out of breath.
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In Memoriam: Each episode of Season 35 featured a dedication to creator John Langley at the end credits, as it was the first season produced since his 2021 death. - Lighter and Softer: Early episodes had cases often end without resolution, and sometimes would focus on more serious incidents, such as investigating a murder scene, or examining a discovered skeleton to determine who it was and how they died. As the show went on, less serious crimes such as domestic assault or resisting arrest took the spotlight.
- Long Runner: The show's first season was in 1989, and it still airs to this day. It made a Channel Hop to Spike TV in fall 2013, another one to Spike's successor Paramount Network in 2017, and a third to Fox Nation in 2021. A 35-year run on TV is something that few programs have even come close to matching.
- Lower-Class Lout: Most of the criminals tend to be in a pretty poor state of physical health, lower-class income, and probably on some sort of drug. Several parodies make note of this.
- Mood Whiplash: Some segments have officers pull over a car and talk to the driver in a friendly manner about a small issue with their car (broken light, expired tags, etc.) before the officer suddenly pulls out their service pistol and screams at the driver to exit the car with their hands in the air. The most common trigger is spotting what looks to be a gun in reach of one of the car's occupants.
- Multi-National Shows: Not shows per se, but episodes; the show has shot specials in Hong Kong, London, and the former Soviet Union.
- Never My Fault: Fleeing suspects will berate the police for arresting them in front of their children, characterizing it as unnecessary and a blatant show of force. Naturally, they ignore the fact that the police would not have piled into the room if it had not been for the suspect running from them in the first place.
- Sometimes goes hand-in-hand with Blatant Lies, as some suspects both drunk and sober try to pass the blame off on the person with them. When they were found alone. One man's imaginary friend was called "Catfish", while another tried to pin his trouble on a fellow named "Scooby".
- Once per Episode: Usually, segments will end in an arrest (even for ones where the segment was actually focusing on something small - usually, due to being overdue to a court hearing or a related crime on record, or because someone did something stupid like lie to a cop). If it doesn't end in an arrest, it's usually because someone was shot or injured and the suspect already fled the scene.
- Any time there is a domestic disturbance call, you can almost guarantee it will involve a man who is not wearing a shirt.
- Opening Narration: "COPS is filmed on location with the men and women of law enforcement. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law."
- Our Lawyers Advised This Trope:
- "Due to the graphic nature of this program, viewer discretion is advised." This is an addition to the second part of the aforementioned Opening Narration.
- Last names and street names in addresses get bleeped out as to protect the right to privacy of the people on-camera. Also, anyone who doesn't allow their image to be used on TV will have their face blurred out.
- Pixellation: Used to protect the identities of people who don't sign waivers as well as for the usual censorship purposes, and the occasional drunk nude reveler. In return, the people left unblurred get a small performer's fee. If the editors have to do a lot of blurring, the clip has to be really good.
- Playing Possum: At least two incidents have a suspect faking at least being unconscious in order to avoid the cops. One, a drunk woman, failed to capitalize on the fact that the cop just threw her onto the sidewalk for biting his arm and dropped the trick in seconds to get up and fight him more. The second, a man, demonstrated that paramedics will blow a suspect's cover if the cops are forced to call them. Not that the cops in either situation believed that they were unconscious to begin with, as even the cops know what unconsciousness looks like.
- Police Brutality: Two incidents - one, where a North Vegas cop was fired for police brutality, which resulted in his footage being excised (and, though footage showed up in the spin-off Street Patrol, he went unnamed), and an incident in Pierce County, Washington, where a cop was charged with brutality for roughing up a homeless man mistaken to be a burglar.
- This is one of the reasons why cameramen aren't allowed in certain cities' police forces (such as Honolulu), as the police fear they'd be drowned in brutality complaints. Note that a majority of these police forces refusing footage have a lot of brutality complaints.
- This trope was averted in an episode where a cop shot a suspect armed with a knife in a pretty clear-cut case of self-defense. The full footage shows multiple officers trying to both talk to the suspect and peacefully subdue him, and the suspect was shown on-camera lunging at the cop in question with the knife.
- Reading Your Rights: Varies. Sometimes, reading a suspect their rights is cut for time. Other times, there is no need to read the Miranda warning because the suspect is not being interrogated. Example Then, there are those that insist that the police cannot arrest them because they have not been read their rights. Police are often wise to this kind of argument and will sometimes read the warning just to placate the suspect, although they are just as likely to ignore this since the cop knows their job better than that.
- Reality Show: Doesn't get much more real. There's no script (outside of the opening), the cops are real cops, and the things they investigate are real crimesnote . More than thirty years after its debut, it's still going due to it being incredibly cheap to make and popular enough with the audience to bring in money.
- Shock and Awe: Unsurprisingly, it's not uncommon to see a suspect who thought it was a good idea to run or fight find themselves getting tased.
- Shirtless Scene: Many of the perps don't wear shirts.
- Sound-Effect Bleep: People tend to swear while being arrested. Also, whenever a name is mentioned, last names and addresses are muted, usually covered by a radio squelch tone. Car license plates are also visually blurred.
- Spin-Off: Street Patrol on MyNetworkTV consisted of previously unused COPS footage - some of which was filmed over a decade earlier - with added background music. Jail (also on MyNetworkTV, and later Spike TV) took the filming indoors.
- Stupid Crooks: Quite a few of these show up. For example, one woman called the police because her neighbor wouldn't return twenty dollars. When asked what she gave the neighbor the money for, the woman openly tells the cop that she was trying to buy crack. As a bonus, when the officer asks the neighbor about it, the neighbor denies having taken the money because she's a prostitute, not a drug dealer. One of the most common themes is the officer will pull them over or otherwise stop them for something incredibly minor, which would only result in a warning or a minor citation, only for the suspect to flee, which results in them getting arrested.
- Takes Ten to Hold: Truth in Television, since it was one of the first popular series to follow real American law enforcement around. There would be suspects too strong for one officer to restrain. In one episode, there was a sweaty naked suspect; the officers said it was hard to get a grip.
- Unbuilt Trope: By the time the term "Reality TV" became a popular genre, this show was already considered a long-runner. Also, it's fairly unusual compared to most modern reality TV shows, which still involve a fair amount of scripting and behind-the-scenes organization. By contrast, COPS is still completely true-to-life with no scripting, just cameramen filming real police doing their real jobs.
- Uncancelled: Twice during its history. The first time was when Spike TV picked up the series in 2013 immediately after Fox cancelled it, and the second in 2021 when it moved to streaming on Fox Nation after Paramount Network cancelled it.
- Visible Boom Mic: One of the rare shows where this is more-or-less acceptable, considering that the camera and sound guys have to run after criminals as quickly as the cops do. Even still, they do their best to pull their booms out of the shot once it's all calmed down.
