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‘Live PD’ Brings Viewers Along For The Ride As Police Officers Patrol Their Communities

By Charlinda Robinson
Published on: 02:05 PST, Oct 27, 2016

A&E is joining the national conversation on policing in America with Live PD, which takes viewers inside some of the country’s busiest police departments. Deadline shared that Live PD rides along as the officers patrol their communities in real time, but the series will air on a delay due to the unpredictability of what could occur, and the potential of cameras capturing anything that could be disturbing to the audience.

“Every day the demands for more transparency in law enforcement continues to come from both civilians and police across the country,” said Rob Sharenow, EVP and General Manager of A&E and Lifetime. “Live PD will not only highlight the difficult work being done by our men and women in uniform as they go out into the streets never knowing what to expect, but also answers citizens’ calls for clarity.”

The eight two-hour episodes of Live PD will combine dash cams, along with fixed rig and handheld cameras, to capture the work of six urban and rural police forces all at the same time on what is described as a typical Friday night. ABC’s chief legal analyst, Dan Abrams, will serve as the Live PD in-studio host, while Dallas Police Department detectives Rich Emberlin and Kevin Jackson, who have been partners for over 20 years, guide viewers and provide insight throughout the evening. They will explain what is occurring as they move between the featured police departments, and they will offer an inside look at each live incident that occurs. Live PD will have a social media component as well, including special feeds that will take viewers behind the scenes of the Live PD studio.

For an early look at what to expect on Live PD, A&E posted a Live PD pre-show clip to their Facebook page. The network invited viewers to “Join us inside the studio for an unprecedented look into our control room and check out how Live PD, our groundbreaking new series, is created during this technical run-thru.”

The Hollywood Reporter shared that Live PD will air during what could be best described as a volatile period of time that many police departments in urban areas are currently facing. Several incidents have ramped up the tension, and in July, five Dallas police officers were killed during a rally that followed the police killing of two unarmed African-American men, Philando Castile and Alton Sterling.

According to the Tulsa World, the Tulsa Police department will be a part of Live PD, and their contract to do the show was finalized before the Terence Crutcher incident. On September 16, Crutcher was killed by a Tulsa police officer during a traffic stop. Recently, Live PD camera crews have been shadowing the Tulsa gang unit officers in order to prepare for the show, and they will continue to do so through mid-December for the eight-week program. Sgt. Sean Larkin stated that the TPD is the only one whose gang unit is being highlighted on Live PD.

The Tulsa PD is not compensated for its role in the show, and police spokesman Leland Ashley said the motivation to be involved in this program and other shows like A&E’s First 48 is to give the public a better idea of just how the department works.

“I think the main thing is just to show what our department is about,” Ashley said. “It shows individuals the type of officers we have and the type of department we have.”

For Live PD, crew members are required to wear bulletproof vests because they get out of the patrol cars along with the officers during traffic stops, which is something local media members or private citizens would never be allowed to do. The crews also sign confidentiality agreements that are included in their contract with the department, and this affords them a higher level of access.

“The entire time we’re at work, the camera crews are with us. They go to lunch with us. (They’re out) when we go do car stops,” Larkin said. “They’re involved with everything we do.”

The First 48 crew has been filming and working with the department for about three years. The show follows them around the office and at crime scenes, and there are times that the police instruct the crew to edit some details of a particular case or to not film certain interactions. Larkin sees both shows as good for both recruiting and publicity because they offer a different view of law enforcement’s relationship with the communities that they are policing.

“It’s not like it’s portrayed in the national media, that there’s this tremendous animosity between police and the community,” Larkin said. “I think they’re going to see the exact opposite: that we get along really well with one another.”

David Doss, former news executive producer at CNN, ABC, and NBC, will serve as showrunner for the series. Live PD is produced for the A&E network by Big Fish Entertainment with Dan Cesareo, David Doss, George McTeague, Kara Kurcz, and John Zito serving as the executive producers. For the A&E network, Elaine Frontain Bryant, Shelly Tatro, and Sean Gottlieb are the executive producers.

Are you planning to watch Live PD? Leave your comments, thoughts, and opinions about this new series below. Live PD premieres on Friday, October 28 at 9 p.m. ET on A&E.

[Featured Image by A&E]

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