A & E NETWORKS' / LIVE P.D. - INFORMATIVE ENTERTAINMENT?
Friday and Saturday nights, for 3 hours each night, the A & E (television) network airs LIVE PD, a COPS-like program hosted by ABC News Legal Analyst Dan Abrams that purports to broadcast live video from various police and sheriff's departments around the country.
While LIVE PD tries to convince viewers they are providing a public service by broadcasting the actions of law enforcement officials directly to the masses in the interest of transparency, one must remember that LIVE PD is no more than an unscripted "show", designed to entertain, not a "program" intended to inform. The show DOES however highlight issues that the public should be aware of... including abuses of authority, violations of civil rights by law enforcement and unacceptable activities by officers and deputies which endanger the public.
> First, the "live" videos you see on the broadcasts are not live - there is a 20 to 25 minutes delay between the action on the street and the videos being broadcast. To determine the delay, listen for the police dispatcher giving times over the radio. While editors attempt to edit out radio traffic which notes time, they do sometimes slip through. Further, keep an eye on clocks on the walls in businesses, and occasionally, you can see the time displayed on an officer or deputy's watch.
> While it would be all but impossible to air all the footage recorded on Friday and Saturday nights from all six departments, video of those instances where law enforcement are not acting in a manner which the public might approve are never aired, giving the impression that the activities never took place.
High speed responses to calls a dozen or more miles away are common in Richland County, South Carolina. Law enforcement officials drive without seatbelts, while reading dispatch and other notes on their in-car computer screens. Running stop signs when not responding to a call is almost routine on the show, and on one recent show, a Sheriff's Department Lieutenant made a right turn from a center lane - without activating emergency lights - and ran into a citizen's vehicle that was innocently driving down the road.
> LIVE PD camera crews not only endanger law enforcement personnel and victims of crimes, they invade the protected privacy of individuals.
On 24 November 2017, Pasco County Florida sheriff's deputies responded for a second time in a matter of hours to a female attempting to break the windows out of a home in a domestic dispute. When deputies arrived with the cameras in tow, the homeowner, on his own front porch, asked that he not be recorded, yet the crew continued to video him just feet from his face. After informing the crew and deputies on the scene that he did not give permission to be recorded, he finally retreated inside his home and slammed the door to get away from the LIVE PD crew. Sheriff's deputy Ashley Frame then stated (to the camera) that the victim obviously did not want their assistance. Deputy Frame then radioed her dispatch, advising that the victim slammed the door in (her) face and did not want help with the domestic violence situation he suffered.
On more than one occasion, deputies inform the camera crew (and citizens) that their probable cause for pulling over a vehicle is that they (deputy) could smell the odor of marijuana as the vehicles passed - in opposite directions - at relatively high speeds. When reviewing video in some of these instances, it will be noted that the windows in both the patrol vehicle and the suspect vehicles. Cops will also state that they detect the odor of marijuana or alcohol so as to establish probable cause to search the vehicle without consent - as odors do not register on video or audio recordings and can not later be effectively disputed.
Most vehicle traffic stops as depicted on LIVE P.D. are "pretextual" - the officers are actually using traffic violations (real or imagined) as probable cause to stop and question and/or search the occupants of the vehicle. Most of these instances occur with gang unit officers or drug interdiction officers attempting to gather intelligence. When a cop asks a citizen where they are coming from, where they are going or virtually anything unrelated to the alleged traffic infraction, it is an attempt to either gain intelligence or to establish some sort of probable cause to search the vehicle.
In almost every broadcast, law enforcement officials inform citizens that they are not under arrest, rather, they are simply being "detained". Officers/deputies then proceed to handcuff the citizens and go through (search) their pockets and belongings. While law enforcement is allowed to pat-search citizens for weapons (on their person and in the area under their immediate access/control - commonly known as a TERRY search from a U.S. Supreme Court case TERRY v. OHIO), cuffing and conducting an invasive search is not an option unless a). there is probable cause to believe that a crime has or is being committed, and that the person detained has committed that crime b). the person consents to the action, or c). the person is considered by the official to be in custody (i.e. under arrest). Unless the citizen knows the difference between being detained (which is lawful), and a de facto arrest (what cops laughingly call a 'catch and release') and lodges a complaint, cops continue to violate the civil rights of citizens before our very eyes.
LIVE P.D. is somewhat entertaining, and can be informative - if you know what to look for. Now you know...
While LIVE PD tries to convince viewers they are providing a public service by broadcasting the actions of law enforcement officials directly to the masses in the interest of transparency, one must remember that LIVE PD is no more than an unscripted "show", designed to entertain, not a "program" intended to inform. The show DOES however highlight issues that the public should be aware of... including abuses of authority, violations of civil rights by law enforcement and unacceptable activities by officers and deputies which endanger the public.
> First, the "live" videos you see on the broadcasts are not live - there is a 20 to 25 minutes delay between the action on the street and the videos being broadcast. To determine the delay, listen for the police dispatcher giving times over the radio. While editors attempt to edit out radio traffic which notes time, they do sometimes slip through. Further, keep an eye on clocks on the walls in businesses, and occasionally, you can see the time displayed on an officer or deputy's watch.
> While it would be all but impossible to air all the footage recorded on Friday and Saturday nights from all six departments, video of those instances where law enforcement are not acting in a manner which the public might approve are never aired, giving the impression that the activities never took place.
High speed responses to calls a dozen or more miles away are common in Richland County, South Carolina. Law enforcement officials drive without seatbelts, while reading dispatch and other notes on their in-car computer screens. Running stop signs when not responding to a call is almost routine on the show, and on one recent show, a Sheriff's Department Lieutenant made a right turn from a center lane - without activating emergency lights - and ran into a citizen's vehicle that was innocently driving down the road.
> LIVE PD camera crews not only endanger law enforcement personnel and victims of crimes, they invade the protected privacy of individuals.
On 24 November 2017, Pasco County Florida sheriff's deputies responded for a second time in a matter of hours to a female attempting to break the windows out of a home in a domestic dispute. When deputies arrived with the cameras in tow, the homeowner, on his own front porch, asked that he not be recorded, yet the crew continued to video him just feet from his face. After informing the crew and deputies on the scene that he did not give permission to be recorded, he finally retreated inside his home and slammed the door to get away from the LIVE PD crew. Sheriff's deputy Ashley Frame then stated (to the camera) that the victim obviously did not want their assistance. Deputy Frame then radioed her dispatch, advising that the victim slammed the door in (her) face and did not want help with the domestic violence situation he suffered.
On more than one occasion, deputies inform the camera crew (and citizens) that their probable cause for pulling over a vehicle is that they (deputy) could smell the odor of marijuana as the vehicles passed - in opposite directions - at relatively high speeds. When reviewing video in some of these instances, it will be noted that the windows in both the patrol vehicle and the suspect vehicles. Cops will also state that they detect the odor of marijuana or alcohol so as to establish probable cause to search the vehicle without consent - as odors do not register on video or audio recordings and can not later be effectively disputed.
Most vehicle traffic stops as depicted on LIVE P.D. are "pretextual" - the officers are actually using traffic violations (real or imagined) as probable cause to stop and question and/or search the occupants of the vehicle. Most of these instances occur with gang unit officers or drug interdiction officers attempting to gather intelligence. When a cop asks a citizen where they are coming from, where they are going or virtually anything unrelated to the alleged traffic infraction, it is an attempt to either gain intelligence or to establish some sort of probable cause to search the vehicle.
In almost every broadcast, law enforcement officials inform citizens that they are not under arrest, rather, they are simply being "detained". Officers/deputies then proceed to handcuff the citizens and go through (search) their pockets and belongings. While law enforcement is allowed to pat-search citizens for weapons (on their person and in the area under their immediate access/control - commonly known as a TERRY search from a U.S. Supreme Court case TERRY v. OHIO), cuffing and conducting an invasive search is not an option unless a). there is probable cause to believe that a crime has or is being committed, and that the person detained has committed that crime b). the person consents to the action, or c). the person is considered by the official to be in custody (i.e. under arrest). Unless the citizen knows the difference between being detained (which is lawful), and a de facto arrest (what cops laughingly call a 'catch and release') and lodges a complaint, cops continue to violate the civil rights of citizens before our very eyes.
LIVE P.D. is somewhat entertaining, and can be informative - if you know what to look for. Now you know...