Cops (TV series)

2014 Wendy's shooting incident

On August 26, 2014, at roughly 9:20 p.m., a Cops crew was recording in Omaha, Nebraska, with the Omaha Police Department, during their final week working in Omaha since arriving in June. A police officer pulled up to a Wendy's restaurant during an armed robbery and called for backup. One of the other responding officers had a Cops crew (consisting of an unnamed cameraman and audio technician Bryce Dion) present in their cruiser. The crew began recording the robbery inside Wendy's.^[21][22]

Following the shootout, the robber was hit several times by police fire and Cops audio technician Bryce Dion was hit once by police fire; both were transported to the hospital where they were both pronounced dead shortly thereafter.^[23][24][25]

The 38-year-old Dion had worked on Cops for seven years. Langley Productions stated that in 25 years of video recording, this was the first incident in which any crew member had been seriously injured or killed.^[22] A Cops crew working in Springfield, Missouri also wrapped following the Omaha incident.^[26] In Dion's honor, the show aired an hour-long "best of" episode featuring his work on its September 20, 2014 episode.^[27]

The events ^[28] of the robbery happened quickly, taking only seconds, exemplifying how police have to react and make split-second decisions. Detective Darren Cunningham responded to the call while Officer Brook Riley and Officer Jason Wilhelm were accompanied by the Cops crew. Detective Cunningham, together with Officer Riley, went through the front door and unholstered their firearms, while Officer Wilhelm went to the backside of the restaurant to cover an emergency exit door that only opens from the inside. The officer remained at the door to cover a potential escape. Inside the restaurant two police officers approached the robber, 32-year-old Cortez Washington, who was in the back of the restaurant and had not seen the officers arrive. For unknown reasons, Washington walked to the front counter, where officers identified and instructed him to lay on the floor––but Washington immediately pointed and fired a pistol while moving towards the officers, who returned fire. Detective Cunningham retreated into the hallway towards the restroom and continued firing at Washington, who had now turned the corner and stood where the officers had initiated contact. Officer Riley moved around the column and into the waiting isle at the counter. As Washington passed the uniformed police officer, he aimed his weapon towards the officer and continued firing as he moved towards the front exit. Audio technician Bryce Dion was caught in the ensuing crossfire as the officer fired back at Washington, who stumbled into the parking lot and then collapsed from his injuries and was arrested.

After the scene was secured, it was discovered that Washington's pistol was actually an airsoft handgun which strongly resembled a real Taurus firearm.^[29]

The three police officers were placed on paid leave following the shooting and pending the result of the investigation. A grand jury acquitted all three officers.^[30]

Washington was placed on parole and had served time in Missouri after pleading guilty and being convicted in 2011 and sentenced to seven years in a Missouri prison as an accessory to second-degree robbery for robbing a Raymore jewelry store. Washington had a lengthy criminal record in Wyandotte County, Kansas. Washington was paroled in September 2013 after only serving two years of his prison sentences and received credit for more than a year in pre-trial custody. Missouri law does not take into account any prison time that a convict served in any other states, including its neighboring state Kansas. This technicality allowed Washington to be eligible for parole while only serving 15% of his sentence, as his existing criminal record did not weigh into the oversight decision for parole release.^[31]

Bryce Dion was struck by a stray bullet that had been fired through a window by an unidentified officer. The bullet had entered under Dion's left arm, where his bullet-proof vest did not cover, entered his left lung and struck his heart. Dion lost consciousness almost instantly. CPR was performed on Dion by officers at the scene, and he was transported to the hospital where he was declared dead. Dion's death certificate states he lived for twenty minutes after being shot.

On the night of August 26, 2014, at around 9 p.m., roughly 20 minutes prior to the Wendy's robbery, Washington's 24-year-old girlfriend, Jeneva Arias, robbed a Little Caesars Pizza restaurant at North Saddle Creek Road and California Street, using the same airsoft pistol that Washington would later use. Washington served as the getaway driver for that robbery.^[32] During the Wendy's robbery, the roles were reversed and Arias was Washington's getaway driver, but when she heard the shots being fired she left the vehicle and ran away. Police found a tip jar that Arias stole from Little Caesar's inside the vehicle, as well as personal items belonging to Washington. Arias's fingerprints were on the tip jar, which at the time of the robbery held roughly $3 in change. Arias faced up to 50 years in prison for various charges. While in jail, she committed felony assault by throwing a soap mixture into the face of a health care worker and fractured a jailer's hand. Arias was given a plea bargain, plead no contest to reduced charges, and was sentenced to a maximum of six years in jail through concurrent sentencing.^[33]

On February 26, 2016, Bryce Dion's brother, Trevor Dion, filed a lawsuit against the City of Omaha, alleging that inadequate communication and coordination between dispatchers and the officers arriving at the scene contributed to Dion's death. The suit also blames the authorities' decision to invite the Cops video crew to go with officers.^[34][35]

On April 24, 2018, an unidentified Douglas County District Judge refused the City of Omaha's request to bar the release of the video of the robbery-shooting at Wendy's and ordered the City of Omaha to release all materials related to the death of Bryce Dion, of which only still frames had been previously released.^[36]

On April 25, 2018, the video recorded by the Cops camera crew was released. The video was shown in open court and The Omaha World Herald requested a copy, which it later released.

The wrongful death lawsuit filed against the City of Omaha by Trevor Dion is still ongoing.

International

Cops is broadcast in the UK on CBS Drama, CBS Reality and Fox. In Portugal the show is aired on Fox Crime, in Brazil on TruTV, in Colombia on TruTV, in Australia on Network Ten, One (a sub-channel of Network Ten) and CI Network, in Japan on Fox Crime, in India on STAR World and FOX Crime, in Norway on Viasat 4, in Sweden Reloaded airs on TV12 while original runs on TV6 and TV10, and in Denmark on Canal9.

In Canada, both the original and Reloaded versions of the series aired on Action. BiteTV began airing the series in December 2014 (until its relaunch as Makeful in August 2015), while sibling channel RadX (which re-branded to BBC Earth in January 2017) began airing it on Monday, August 3, 2015.^[37]

Cops 2.0

An enhanced version of the series branded as Cops 2.0 with live web chats and program facts aired on G4 from May 2007 to 2009.^[38]

Cops Reloaded

In January 2013, 20th Television announced that a new syndicated version titled Cops Reloaded would begin airing on CMT as well as local stations.^[39] The new format features slightly edited segments of classic Cops episodes, allowing for four segments per each half-hour episode. This version contains all new graphics and soundbites during the opening theme song, and older segments are modified and framed to a sharpened widescreen image for the high-definition format if they were originated in standard definition.^[40]

Recognition

Cops has received four Primetime Emmy nominations, as of May 2017. The website of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences specifically lists four nominations of Cops for "Outstanding Informational Series" (in 1989, 1990, 1993, and 1994)—but ultimately, no Emmy awards were awarded to the show.^[45][9][46]

Awards won have included:

• 1993: the American Television Award for "Best Reality-Based Program"^[46]
• 2008: American Cinema Editors, USA Eddie (award) for "Best Edited Reality Series"^[46]

Other nominations (not resulting in an award) have included:

• 2016: Critics' Choice Television Award for "Best Unstructured Reality Show"^[46]

Criticism

Though popular and long-running, Cops has drawn mixed reviews, and raised ethical questions.

Influence on media

The show The X-Files released a pseudo crossover episode of Cops called "X-Cops" (season 7, episode 12) in which FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully collaborate with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in order to catch a mysterious, shapeshifting entity. In the tradition of the real-life Cops program, the entire episode is shot on video. Some actual deputies were featured in the episode.

Fox's long running sketch comedy show Mad TV did a parody called "Clops", which is shot in claymation, and consisted of animated cops and criminals.

Animal Planet aired its own version called Animal Cops, featuring animal control services and animal welfare organizations.

Fox's In Living Color did a parody called "Thugs", that was shot from the point of view of the criminals.

Seattle's sketch comedy show Almost Live! did a parody called "Librarians", and "Cops in ...".

In 1994, children's show Bill Nye the Science Guy did a parody called "Cops in Your Bloodstream".

Troops is a mockumentary by Kevin Rubio that had its debut at San Diego Comic-Con International on July 18, 1997 and was subsequently distributed via the internet. The movie is a parody of Cops, set in the Star Wars universe. In the movie, Imperial stormtroopers from the infamous Black Sheep Squadron patrolling the Dune Sea on the planet Tatooine run into some very familiar characters while being recorded for the hit Imperial TV show Troops.

Several short lived shows paid homage to Cops' format, such as LAPD: Life on the Beat and Police POV, among numerous others.

Jay Leno made several parodies of the series on The Tonight Show in the mid-90's, which included rewrites of the theme song, suggesting such spin-offs as:

DUMB COPS "Whatcha gonna do, with a low I.Q.?",

SHORT COPS "Whatcha gonna do, when you're 4-foot-2!?", and

MALL COPS "Whatcha gonna do, when there's nothin' to do?".

Home intrusion

A 1999 United States Supreme Court decision, Wilson v. Layne, No. 98-83, (and the Court's simultaneous stance on an Appeals Court ruling in a similar case Hanlon v. Berger, No. 97-1927, and its affiliate case, CNN v. Berger, No. 97-1914) appeared to legal scholars to restrict the actions of Cops video crews, and some suggested it might even spell the end for that TV series.^{[56][57][58][59]}

In the Wilson case, a Washington Post newspaper reporter and photographer accompanied a federal marshal (Layne) and local officials when the authorities entered a home (of the Wilson family) acting on a search warrant. The Supreme Court ruled that law enforcement officers may not bring a media ride-along guest with them when entering a private home to execute a search warrant, stating that it was a violation of the Fourth Amendment rights of the people in the home to be "free from unreasonable searches and seizures," and to be "secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects." The Court affirmed (or reaffirmed, in some views) the policy that officers may not bring into the home, with them, people whose role was not in the direct service of the purpose of the warrant. Though that Court, by its own admission (stated in the majority Opinion document), was usually divided on Fourth Amendment issues, the Court, in this case, ruled unanimously that the authorities' accommodation of the media intrusion violated the Fourth Amendment.^{[60][56][57][59]}

And the Court further ruled that officers violating that ruling, and allowing unnecessary parties to invade with them, were liable to those in the home they had entered, and could be sued for damages. The lone dissent on that element of the case was on the question of current liability (Justice Stevens believed that the officers in that specific case were liable—but the rest of the Court agreed to give them qualified immunity, because the Justices believed that the Supreme Court had not yet made its position sufficiently clear on that issue; however, any subsequent violators would be held liable by the Court.)^[60][56][59]

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the organization most associated with defending the Bill of Rights, and whose local affiliate represented the Wilson plaintiffs, took an even more sweeping view in favor of the plaintiffs, preferring the Fourth Amendment privacy protections against any potential First Amendment "freedom of the press" issue in that case.^[61][56]

In the Hanlon case, the Supreme Court further extended the protections of their Wilson ruling to include not only the house of the plaintiffs, but also the curtilage—the enclosed and concealed-from-public-view, private space around the house (commonly including yard, carport and/or garage).^[59]

However, COPS executive producer John Langley said the show would continue to be produced, in the following season, in the format of "a pure ride-along show"—claiming that the show had always gotten releases from anybody shown on camera, even those people depicted under arrest. (However, Langley's statement did not indicate whether the releases were gained before or after recording, and did not indicate whether some subjects had been videoed without giving their consent, and then simply not been shown—"involved"—in the resulting program.) Further, Langley noted, most of what the show depicts occurs in "the street or in cars".^[56][62]

Impact of video recording on the Dalia Dippolito case

In 2011 Cops dedicated an entire episode to the case of Delilah "Dalia" Dippolito of Boynton Beach, Florida, who was accused of solicitation to commit first-degree murder after being secretly videotaped hiring a hitman (who was actually an undercover cop) to kill her husband in 2009. At trial, her defense attorney claimed that Dippolito was tricked into signing the Cops release form.^[63] The defense attorney also claimed that her husband orchestrated the plot to get aired on Cops.^[64] In truth, Cops producers were outraged when investigators persuaded Dippolito to sign the release form before they questioned her, believing that since it was done under color of law, it would be useless. They later convinced Dippolito to sign a second waiver, saying they would give her a chance to tell her side of the story.^[65]

Ultimately, both defenses failed, and Dippolito was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison.^[66] However, the state's Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new trial in 2014, finding that the judge at the first trial erred by not doing enough to ensure that jurors weren't improperly exposed to pretrial publicity. The appeals court found that the judge should have questioned the jurors individually, rather than as a group, regarding how much they knew about the case. It also found that the judge should have dismissed the entire jury when one prospective juror revealed she'd read about Dippolito's attempt at poisoning her husband.^[67] She was later released on an appeal to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, pending a retrial on May 23, 2016.^[68] On August 17, 2016, the appeals court rejected her appeal without comment.^[69]

Her retrial began with jury selection on December 1, 2016.^[70] The jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict and a mistrial was declared on December 14, 2016.^[71] A second retrial was scheduled to start in June 2017.^[72] On June 16, 2017, she was convicted.^[73] She faced up to 20 years in prison when sentenced on July 21, 2017. Judge Glenn Kelley ordered her held without bail. Her defense attorneys said they will appeal the verdict. On July 21, 2017, Dippolito was sentenced to 16 years in prison.^[74]

The Dippolito case has also been featured on ABC's 20/20, NBC's Dateline, CNBC's American Greed, and the syndicated show Crime Watch Daily.^{[75][76][77][78][79][80]}

Defendant use of COPS video

COPS video has been subpoenaed and used by defense attorneys, and has resulted in suppression of evidence owing to police misconduct revealed in the COPS video.^[81][82]

In 2015, "late at night in a high-crime area," a Fort Myers, Florida, police officer—accompanied by a Cops video crew—stopped and frisked a man who was wearing dark clothing and walking in the middle of the street. In an encounter that lasted only 23 seconds, the officer discovered that the suspect (who turned out to be a convicted felon) had a gun, and the suspect was arrested.^[81][82] In subsequent criminal proceedings, in federal district court, the defendant moved to suppress the frisk-acquired gun evidence on the ground that the officer violated the defendant's Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures—arguing that the officer didn't have "reasonable suspicion" to frisk him. More specifically, the defendant argued that the officer didn't believe, reasonably, that his safety was threatened—nor the safety of others—before conducting the pat-down. The officer countered that the defendant had exhibited suspicious behavior that justified the frisk. Relying heavily on the "indisputable video evidence" that contradicted the officer's testimony on multiple points, the judge agreed with the defense, and barred the evidence of the handgun. Further, the judge suggested that the officer may have altered his original report after viewing the COPS video.^[81][82]

At least one academic reviewer of the case described it as raising questions about how often such police actions are illegal, but unprovable—describing it as strong justification for requiring police officers to wear body cameras.^[81][82]