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Police Across the U.S. Welcomed Cop Show "The First 48." Then Relationships Soured.
https://www.propublica.org/article/first-48-reality-tv-police-dallas-memphis-mobileWhen the A&E true crime reality television show “The First 48” comes to town, the police and sheriff’s departments that work with it do not receive financial compensation from the show. The benefits are more intangible: a chance to showcase and celebrate the work of a department’s officers, the opportunity to improve their image in the eyes of the public, and some acknowledgement for victims who might be overlooked by the media.
But the show’s two-decade history of filming in cities across the U.S. has also left a complicated trail of problems and municipal regret, as ProPublica has reported. Detectives have admitted that they’ve acted out scenes as the cameras rolled. Key developments in the investigations have sometimes not been shown or mentioned. Episodes sometimes aired before defendants went to trial, publicly disclosing information that potential jury members and witnesses would normally never hear in court.
What’s more, many law enforcement and legal experts wonder whether the mere presence of cameras changes how the police behave, twisting the truth for the sole purpose of a more engaging narrative.
“I don’t think that anyone would deny that having a camera when you’re doing a ride-along like that affects behavior,” Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm said in 2010, after a 7-year-old girl was shot and killed during a Detroit police SWAT-style raid “The First 48” was filming. “I think it’s not a good practice.”
(snip)
Once problems arise, these once enthusiastic and mutually beneficial partnerships between the police and reality television can turn into messy breakups. It can also take time for the problems involving “The First 48” to come to light, sometimes years after the episodes have aired and only after cases have wound their way through the courts.
Here’s how that has played out in three cities.
But the show’s two-decade history of filming in cities across the U.S. has also left a complicated trail of problems and municipal regret, as ProPublica has reported. Detectives have admitted that they’ve acted out scenes as the cameras rolled. Key developments in the investigations have sometimes not been shown or mentioned. Episodes sometimes aired before defendants went to trial, publicly disclosing information that potential jury members and witnesses would normally never hear in court.
What’s more, many law enforcement and legal experts wonder whether the mere presence of cameras changes how the police behave, twisting the truth for the sole purpose of a more engaging narrative.
“I don’t think that anyone would deny that having a camera when you’re doing a ride-along like that affects behavior,” Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm said in 2010, after a 7-year-old girl was shot and killed during a Detroit police SWAT-style raid “The First 48” was filming. “I think it’s not a good practice.”
(snip)
Once problems arise, these once enthusiastic and mutually beneficial partnerships between the police and reality television can turn into messy breakups. It can also take time for the problems involving “The First 48” to come to light, sometimes years after the episodes have aired and only after cases have wound their way through the courts.
Here’s how that has played out in three cities.
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