Do these people still have to sign a release to allow themselves to be shown on television.

If I were being arrested, and the COPS film crew was filming it, there's no way in hell I'd allow myself to be shown on tv.

It's kind of scary that some people would actually want their arrests to be televised.


And I'm just waiting for a live episode. How great would that be?

The ones whose faces are shown have to sign something. Those who don't want to participate have their faces blurred.

For some of these lowlifes it's a badge of honor to appear on TV, even if they're being exposed as criminals in the process.

What's the saying?: 'It's better to achieve notoriety than not to be noticed at all'. Something like that.

Yeah, they do sign a release. My only gripe is that we never know what happened after the arrests were made. Did they do jail time?

Plus, I know now I have no life since no one I know has ever been on Cops.

I would be willing to bet that the show pays them for allowing their faces to be shown. I find it hard to believe that they all do it just for the notoriety.

off topic i suppose, but man, i love this show. Saturday night at 8 is my favorite hour of tv. All these hackneyed sitcoms can eat the police's baton. WOO HOO SACRAMENTO PD FOREVER.

For some reason I thought that if they were found guilty thier faces could be shown but those who were later released, cases dismissed, found innocent or trials were pending were blurred out.

I have no idea why I thought that but for some reason it popped into my head.

Perhaps they receive some lighter sentence or financial aid or something. I love who the cops are like "Innocent until proven guilty" even when some cokehead woman calls the cops cuz she got fleeced out of $20 because she got a piece of plaster

i first thought this show was scripted from day one. if a cop and a guy holding a camera came to my house to arrest me, i would be complaining about the camera insted.

I always assumed they were re-enactments. I think a higher percentage of real criminals wear shirts.

I think the criminals caught on tape are the type of people who love seeing themselves on televsion, no matter what kind of light that they are portrayed in.

I love the show. I love looking for the unconstitutional police techniques and also seeing how most of these criminals are too stupid to realize that they have the right to remain silent & the right to say 'no' when a policeman asks to conduct a search. I only wish that they would do follow-ups on the arrests. I always wonder how many of these get thrown out.

Nobody's gonna give you no chickin! police now give you no bread!

This is why I hate the show. I hate seeing how many people don't know their rights, and how many people freely give them up.

Why? For two reasons. One, it makes for lazy police work. When the police encounter a real 'criminal' who knows better, and shuts up and waits for a lawyer, they are unprepared for how to deal with it. Many times they get upset and wonder why this 'criminal' isn't behaving like other criminals and just admitting to everything and handing over all the evidence. It may lead to violence or even more unconstitutional police techniques (I've been subject to both).

The other reason is that people start thinking this is normal. That when you're pulled over and the officer asks your permission to search, he's not really asking, and you have to say yes, because if you weren't hiding anything, you wouldn't mind a search. Truth is, there are many good reasons to refuse a search, and if the cop is asking for your permission to search, it's because he doesn't have enough probable cause to just do it anyway. If he had probable cause to search, he wouldn't ask your permission.

True - those are legitimate concerns. I can see why it troubles you to the point that you hate the program.

I'm of the opinion that if every teenager was required to take a basic course on the Constitution/Bill of Rights/American Gov't in HS, there would be a lot more crime in this country. It is almost sad to see so many people not know their rights even with all of the cop shows that have aired on TV since Miranda.

Haha, here's my one run in with the police...

I work at a store, and I have to let you know about what happens after we close. After I close I have to mop the floors and do some bookwork and such. During this time, people will come to the store, and see that it's locked. They will see me in there. They will get confused. They think all convience stores are open 24 hours just because 7-11 is. They bang on the door and I will go over and say we're closed. They often get very very angry. They'll kick the door, throw a rock at the window, or anything. Sometimes they will not bother to wait for me, when they see the door is closed, they get really mad and hit the window and swear at me. The other night, this other lady was working and a woman wouldn't leave, she kept knocking on the door and wouldn't go until she was allowed to use the bank machine.

So anyways, tonight we were getting the floors waxed. The floor cleaners come at around 10:15pm and I close then so they can clean the floors and then wax them. After they are done, at about 11pm, they leave, but I have to let the wax dry, so I lock the door and sit down behind the counter. I can't do any thing like clean the machines because I can't walk on the floor since it's being waxed. It's actually pretty damn boring. I just read a magazine or something for the most part.

So I'm sitting there, reading Time. Someone knocks on the door. I sit up and yell that we're closed. They stop. Then start yelling again. I look up and yell we're closed but to come back in half an hour. I can see now it's a group of people, a couple guys, one about 25, is the one doing the banging. I deal with guys his age all the time. We have a bar next door, and so they come over drunk, act obnoxious and get cigarettes, often making a mess, harrasing other customers or myself. I figure this guy wants some smokes and he is just not giving it up. I point to the floors and and say we're closed. He yells to come over. I point to the floors again and sit down. I'm not going to deal with this guy. I'm not going to walk on the raw floor and ruin it just to tell him he can't have cigarettes, and then have him swear at me because of it. I go back to reading my magazine, and ignore the banging. It eventually stops after a few minutes.

Five minutes later it starts again at the back door. I am annoyed now. I start to think of the number for the bar next door. Maybe they can send a bouncer over so when I open the store I wont be attacked or something.

Just then though, I hear "Open up! police!"

I look up and there is a police officer at the door, her hand on her gun. I get up, and walk to the door, the floor sticks to my shoes because it's not quite done yet. I am as nervous as hell. I have no idea what she wants. I have never shop lifted, vandelised, parked illegally, smoked drugs, ect. So I have NO dealings with cops or anything. I have only ever talked to them during school when they have that day where a cop comes in. (You know, the time where a kid always asks "Can I see your gun?" and the cop says no you can't, because it's a loaded weapon... ect.. ect..)

I open up and let her in. She asks me my name and she asks if I have anything on me. She takes my birthdate as well. She asks what's going on and didn't I hear her partner banging on the back door. Obviously she's a little pissed off at me because she thinks I was ignoring a cop.

She tells me the people outside called the police because they thought I had been injured and were worried about me when I wouldn't answer the door. She continues to ask me questions for a few minutes. Trying to make sure I'm really alright I guess. I explain to her how people always bang on the windows like that when we're closed because they want stuff, so I ignore it. I said I gestured to them we were closed. So she says alright, and goes to talk to the crowd which has now gathered outside the store.

Her partner comes up to me and gives me a stern talking to about how we need to have a closed sign now. Because he doesn't want to come out here again, and doesn't want someone to break a window. Personally, I don't know HOW that would have prevented the event, but I'm not going to argue with a cop. He also adds that people keeping coming up to the store, fine out it's closed and get angry and so that's another reason to have a closed sign, again, I don't see how that helps, but I agree with him.

A few things bother me though:

- Why the hell didn't the store get PHONED before I had police banging on my door ordering to be let in? We have a bar next door, they would have a phone. We have a payphone outside, and there's a phonebook there which we are in.

- The guys were yelling and gestering for me to "come here." If they were concerned about me then why were they yelling at me to come over there?

- I clearly yelled at them we're closed. Even if they didn't hear me, they could see me yelling. They could have seen me pointing to the floor. They could have seen me reading a magazine! Also, because of the map, all the signs and displays and small racks had been moved, often on top of other racks. It would be clear as day to look in and see that the place was not open for business.

- The cop told me something along the lines that we need a sign because he sees people keep driving up and getting angry and saying "he told me they're open until 12, that bastard!" obviously now, the cop should realise WHY I ignored banging on the door. But I got the impression he did. And again, why would a closed sign fix any of this?

- Why the hell did the police take down all my vitals?

So yeah, that's my first run in with the police. I had my waxing ruined and stayed beyond an hour late because of it.

Ugh, at least Dante gets to play hockey on the roof. I don't get to do anything. Just have my job suck.

The producers/owners of this show must be rich beyond their wildest dreams. It's been a prime time hit for years. It's in syndication everywhere, and there are no actors to pay the big $$ and royalties to. Their budget is probably a fraction of a sitcom's.

I love the show, but it's great when they slip up a little and see exactly how many police there are off camera. They apparently flood the area with cops so the taping will go off without a hitch. That's a good idea, but it's a little bit funny to see 12 or 13 officers standing in the background at a traffic stop.

These people on COPS are idiots. They have the right to remain silent and don't have to talk. The people obiviously get some finances off of their idiocy.

But hey...they might be too drunk and could care less about their rights.


One hell of a great show though...I love seeing idiots on camera.

Edit: I went ahead and posted my thoughts and then I read the rest of the replies. And I see that my comments have already been noted, but is worth noting again...

Perhaps this is the main reason they are in trouble?

The X-Files did a hilarious spoof on the COPS show called X-COPS

I think I was implying it to mean for not knowing their rights and for getting in trouble.