FOX
"Cops" producers will be on the lookout for bad behavior while filming on Maui. The hit series is in its 15th season.
‘Cops’ on the lookout
for Maui’s ‘bad boys’
"Bad boys, bad boys
Whatcha gonna do
When Sheriff John Brown come for you ..."
"Cops," the cinema vérité style police series considered a precursor to today's reality show frenzy, is riding along and filming for the next several weeks with Maui Police Department officers during their eight-hour shifts.
The Langley Productions' show which airs on Fox Television began filming Tuesday and will finish around Nov. 20. A producer is scheduled to arrive today.
A camera and sound person will accompany an officer, usually during the evening shift, in no specific area. Because the officers are on duty, they will not receive extra compensation for participating in the production.
The television crew will ride along with several officers during the five-day-a-week filming. MPD's watch commanders selected the officers for the filming assignment but they could also decline.
A meeting was held Tuesday between MPD and production officials to discuss the police department's media policy to prevent interference with officers' duties.
Langley Production officials contacted MPD in June about the filming, which had to be approved by MPD, the mayor's office and Maui County's legal staff.
This is not the first time Maui police have been profiled on television. Several years ago, Maui police were featured on "Real Stories of the Highway Patrol," which didn't air in the islands, officers said.
The four-time Emmy Award nominated "Cops" series hit its 500th milestone episode last season, surpassing the records of the classic drama series "Hawaii Five O." "Cops" entered its 15th season this fall.
"Cops" premiered on the FOX network March 11, 1989. The series' cameras have captured barricaded suspects, car chases, undercover drug raids and busts, and a myriad of domestic disputes that offer vivid glimpses into the human condition.
The show has profiled law-enforcement agencies in more than 140 different cities in the United States, Hong Kong, London, Central and South America, Moscow and Leningrad. It was also the first American television program allowed to follow the police in the former Soviet Union.
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