I look forward to Friday and Saturday nights on the couch. It’s on my television from 9pm to midnight while I play on my iPad.
The things you see range from sad, to funny…all the way to terrifying. The cross section of humanity you’re exposed to is enlightening. Some of the insanity police officers encounter gives you a real appreciation for the work they do.
If criminals would make sure the bulb that illuminates their license plate works they’d get away with significantly more than they do.
The prevalence of marijuana has turned into instant probable cause for the police.
It feels like the only people in the country with valid drivers licenses and current car insurance are members of my immediate family.
The number of car chases, foot pursuits and combative suspects is astounding. People of interest, on the verge of being charged with a simple misdemeanor, routinely make the insane decision to run and resist. It’s also surprising to see how many people police let go for altruistic reasons.
Maybe I’m alone and no one else watches. It’s my guilty pleasure at the end of a work week. There may be some wine involved as well…
A TV show about all of the most sensational police activity will not be reflective of real life, or even daily police work (much of which is social work).
This pretty much sums up what my BIL, a police officer in San Francisco, has described to us. He has shared some pretty crazy stories with us about the people he encounters on a regular basis.
@ucbalumnus I don’t think the name “Live Social Work” would resonate with potential viewers.
There are calls that involve social work situations, but, admittedly, most of the footage they choose to highlight is more compelling.
What you watch on a Friday night is actually happening that night. They aren’t cherry picking calls from the week, or month. There seem to be plenty of interesting incidents per night to fill a 3 hour time slot.
After listening to a combination of NPR and the POTUS channel on Sirius all week at work I enjoy a little apolitical entertainment on the weekend.
@4kids4us Agreed, I have friends from local and state departments, both on the road and in leadership positions all the way up to city police chief. There are plenty of mundane work hours, but when police confront danger or tragedy, normal citizens have a hard time relating to the experience.
Never heard of it - but I just tuned in to our local police scanner as I heard a ton of sirens and while it’s midday they made me uneasy. Apparently a car was driving on the wrong side of the street. I stopped listening, it was worse than not knowing what the sirens were for!
@GKUnion , I thought I was the only one who watches Live PD! It has replaced HGTV for great background TV for when I’m sitting with my laptop. Your description of the show is spot on! I also get a kick out Dan Abrams’ double entendre joking with “Sticks” and Tom Morris Jr.
Google to listen/read about the This American Life “I’m on TV” episode which investigates and highlights This show. .
It’s premise is that the PDs and producers have an incentive to make us keep watching. They misrepresent some of the cases and a lot of it is edited to seem more sensational than it really is.
https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/offenders/qa03401.asp?qaDate=2016 indicates that the evening hours have the highest crime rate for adult offenders (probably convenient for running the show in the evening). Juvenile offenders’ highest crime rate occurs in the afternoon, but the show probably prefers to show police encounters with adult suspects due to privacy issues with juvenile suspects.
@GKUnion We don’t have cable, so I don’t watch regularly. I have kids in law enforcement and think your summation is fairly accurate. Both the amount of stupid criminals and the amount of stupid excuses they make are high. What amazes me more, though, are the ones that tell the truth. Some of the confessions and background stories are very interesting.
The average cc reader and public, IMO, have little comprehension of the BS that law enforcement deals with on a routine basis. The show reflects this aspect. The crap that people do in their cars is amazing. Cooking meth in the backseat with your unrestrained baby and toddler? Great idea…
“The number of car chases, foot pursuits and combative suspects is astounding.” Agreed. Car chases/sirens are stressful for me (IRL, not the show), as is hugging them through their vests. The worst for them are the dead and dying kids in vehicle accidents. Police are human, too and I think the show portrays that.
The kind of criminals commonly encountered by most police on the street are probably selection-biased toward stupidity. Non-stupid people are more likely to be able to hold down legal jobs (e.g. if you can reliably pick locks, you can earn a better and safer living as a locksmith than as a thief), or do white collar crimes (financial and other scams, corruption in business and politics, Singer-related college admissions cheating, income tax cheating, etc.), or do crimes that are commonly difficult to enforce against and prove beyond a reasonable doubt in court (e.g. some kinds of sexual misconduct).
@Anneiv It’s interesting that much of the show isn’t that sensational in nature. The “ Top 40 of 2019” didn’t even have some of the craziest incidents. I agree that they have an incentive to keep people watching, but the criminals seem more than willing to help out.
@sryrstress Tell your kids I appreciate what they do and hope they stay safe. Very few people bring their work home the way law enforcement officers do. We had an recent incident locally that must have been horrific for the first responders.
@ucbalumnus Agreed on the juvenile privacy aspect. Also, I heard an interview today with the host, Dan Abrams. He explained that they have a 30 minute delay so producers can evaluate sensitive footage. They occasionally blur people’s faces. There have been accidents they made a concerted effort to keep their cameras at a distance from. For the most part, though, they film in public so most everything is fair game. Honestly, what the cameramen run blindly into, in the dark, with little protection amazes me.
Never heard of it until several fellow Grand Jurors mentioned watching it. It is oddly compelling.
Grand Jurors hear about what happens in many of these calls. Police work is a lot of boring stuff interspersed with occasional life or death situations.
Live PD was abruptly canceled yesterday. Odd that a show that follows police officers on calls with HD cameras would be canceled in a time when filming police calls is so important.
But then, the shows wouldn’t have gotten viewers if they showed all of the mundane social work or mental health situations that get dumped onto the police because there is no funding for social workers and mental health people to properly help the people in question.
