Tonight (Monday) the Spokane City Council will consider whether to put restrictions on companies that film reality TV shows that feature city police officers.
Occasionally, Spokane officers are featured on a TV program called “COPS.” It includes scenes such as this.
(sounds of a scuffle)
Cop: “Sit down! Sit down! Sit down!”
Suspect: “It’s my apartment!”
Cop: “You need to put your hands behind your back.”
Suspect: “No, I’m not.”
Cop: “You’re gonna get maced. You’re gonna get maced. Do you want to get maced?”
Suspect: “No.”
This is not an episode that featured city of Spokane officers.
Police Chief Craig Meidl says the department has an agreement with Langley Productions, the company that has made “COPS” for about 30 years.
“We have an opportunity for our community to show not only the types of calls that their officers are going on while they’re in bed sleeping, that they’re not ever aware of, but it also allows them to see the professionalism of the officers that we have in our agency," Meidl said.
The Spokane County Sheriff’s Department has its own TV contract for a program called “Live PD.”
Some in Spokane think police reality programs show the city in a less than flattering light. Some have complained to City Council President Ben Stuckart, who had his assistant do a study of shows such as “COPS.”
“These shows, the live reality TV shows, show that there’s an overrepresentation of minorities as perpetrators of crime, so they’re perpetuating systemic racism," Stuckart said. "These shows overrepresent the instances of violent crime that happens in communities because people would rather watch on their TV violent crime than watch your normal shoplifting or something like that. And they also overrepresent the number of crimes that end up getting resolved, so it sets up an unrealistic expectation of how many crimes are actually resolved.”
Some want the city to ban the police department from having its officers participate in these programs. Stuckart doesn’t propose that, but he is offering an ordinance that would make TV companies jump through more hoops to get the footage they want.
His measure would require companies to buy a city business license. They would also have to keep up to a million dollars in liability insurance. And he wants companies to get the written consent of the people they film.
“We saw a call on Live PD that happened on the South Hill, where the sheriff’s responded," Stuckart said. "Now, if you’re having the worst day of your life, you’ve been beaten by your wife or your husband, and you’re answering the door, you do not expect to have a television camera that is going to put you on TV to the rest of the nation.”
Meidl says some of these things are already policy. The officers can refuse to allow camera operators in their cars and the department has complete control over what goes on the air. He says his department has developed a good level of trust with Langley. He worries that putting too many restrictions on filming — such as requiring suspects’ written consent — may drive away media companies.
“If they send their employees here and they’re only getting a quarter of the folks that are willing to sign that waiver, that’s not a good return on their investment, so rather than continue to come back here, it is conceivable that they would go somewhere else,” Meidl said.
And that, he says, would be a lost opportunity to market the city police department.
“Every person that I have heard from, both internally and externally, has absolutely loved it. In fact, they think it is one of the coolest things to see their city and their police department on national TV,” Meidl said.
The ordinance would not only apply to Langley, which films Spokane police, but also the company that produces the “Live PD” program, if and when its crews enter the city limits.