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Cops (TV program)

Cops (stylized as COPS) is an American reality legal television documentary programming series that is currently in its 36th season. It is produced by Langley Productions and premiered on the Fox network on March 11, 1989. The series, known for chronicling the lives of law enforcement officials, follows police officers and sheriff's deputies, sometimes backed up by state police or other state agencies, during patrol, calls for service, and other police activities including prostitution and narcotic stings, and occasionally the serving of search/arrest warrants at criminal residences. Some episodes have also featured federal agencies. The show's formula follows the cinéma vérité convention, which does not consist of any narration, scripted dialogue or incidental music/added sound effects, depending entirely on the commentary of the officers and on the actions of the people with whom they come into contact, giving the audience a fly on the wall point of view. Each episode typically consists of three self-contained segments which often end with one or more arrests.

It is one of the longest-running television shows in the United States and, in May 2011, it became the longest-running show on Fox (since then, its duration has been surpassed by the duration of The Simpsons). It also became the longest running live action series on Fox. When America's Most Wanted was canceled after 23 years, the show's host John Walsh, made numerous appearances on Cops. In 2013, the program moved to Spike TV, now known as Paramount Network.

In late 2007, during the premiere of its 20th season, episodes of Cops began broadcasting in widescreen, though not in high definition. In June 2020, Paramount Network pulled the show from its schedule in response to George Floyd protests following his death while under arrest by the Minneapolis Police Department, and announced its cancellation days later. The show remains in production for its international and overseas partners, and began to film anew in Spokane County, Washington, with its sheriff's department in October 2020. In September 2021, it was announced that Fox Nation picked up the show. The 34th season premiered in September 2022. Season 35 premiered on April 7, 2023. Following a three month hiatus, the show returned on October 6. Season 36 would premiere on April 5, 2024 with several episodes featuring beach patrol officers during spring break.

History
Cops was created by John Langley and Malcolm Barbour, who tried unsuccessfully for several years to get a network to carry the program. When the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike forced them to find other kinds of programming, the young Fox Television network picked up the low-cost Cops, which had no union writers.

The program premiered on Fox on March 11, 1989. When the show went primetime in 1991, and consisted of two episodes in the 8 p.m. hour, it was called Primetime Cops in promos for several years. The program was one of only two remaining first-run prime-time programs airing on Saturday nights on the four major U.S. broadcast television networks (along with CBS's 48 Hours Mystery). Malcolm Barbour left from producing Cops in 1994.

For the first 25 seasons, Cops was broadcast by Fox with reruns of earlier seasons syndicated by local television stations and cable networks, including truTV and G4. After Fox canceled the show in May 2013, Spike picked it up for an additional five seasons, in addition to reruns of previous seasons. The 30th season premiered on June 17, 2017.

On August 21, 2017, Cops celebrated its 1,000th episode with a live special called Cops: Beyond the Bust, hosted by Terry Crews (who plays a police sergeant in the sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine), which included historical clips from the run of the program as well as reunions of officers and the suspects that they arrested. The date of the 1,000th episode also marked a shift of episode premieres from Saturdays to Mondays.

The show follows officers in 140 different cities in the United States, Hong Kong, London, and the Soviet Union.

In the wake of the protests following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota under police custody, Paramount Network pulled the series from the air ahead of its season 33 premiere, which was scheduled for June 1, 2020. On June 9, 2020, a network spokesperson announced "Cops is not on the Paramount Network and we don't have any current or future plans for it to return". The episode "Party in a Box" (season 28, episode 20, originally aired December 12, 2015) featured Atlanta Police Department Officer Garrett Rolfe, who in 2020 was charged with the killing of Rayshard Brooks during a driving under the influence investigation.

In September 2020, Cops resumed production. The new episodes were being produced for international syndication and to fulfill contracts overseas that had not expired; Langley did not secure a domestic distributor until 2021. Rocket Rights picked up the show for distribution outside the United States in early-2021, with Langley's distribution unit, Langley Television Distribution (as of 2021) handling sales in the United States.

On September 13, 2021, it was announced that Fox Nation had picked up the show. The 33rd season premiered on October 1, 2021. Fox Nation would then premiere the show's 34th season on September 30, 2022.

Production
Cops was created by John Langley and his producing partner Malcolm Barbour. In 1983 they were working on Cocaine Blues, a television series about drugs. As part of his research Langley went on a drug raid with drug enforcement officers and was inspired to create a show focusing on real-life law enforcement. Before that, there had been only a few instances of cinéma vérité productions documenting the work of police officers, such as Roger Graef's Police in 1982.

In the late 1980s, after producing the live syndicated specials American Vice: The Doping of a Nation, Murder: Live From Death Row, and Devil's Worship: Exposing Satan's Underground all with Geraldo Rivera, Langley and Barbour pitched the Cops show concept to Stephen Chao, a Fox programming executive who would one day become president of the Fox Television Stations Group and later USA Network. Chao liked the concept and pitched it to Barry Diller, then Chief Executive Officer of the Fox Network. Malcolm Barbour left from producing Cops in 1994.

A Writers Guild of America strike was occurring at the time and the network needed new material. An unscripted show that did not require writers was ideal for Fox. The first season aired in 1989 and consisted of 15 episodes featuring the Broward County Sheriff's Office. Since then, it has often been one of the highest-rated reality-TV programs, in part due to its low production cost (estimated at US$200,000 per episode in the early 1990s) and thus its capacity to show new material each week.

The original concept of the show was to follow officers home and tape their home lives along with their work. After a while the idea of following officers home was deemed too artificial by Langley and was abandoned. Thereafter, the format of three self-contained unscripted segments without narration or music became the show's formula.

Since the third episode of Season 2, every episode ends with a police radio excerpt referencing the intersection of SE 132nd Ave. and SE Bush St. in the Powellhurst-Gilbert, Portland, Oregon neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. A female officer says, "132 and Bush, I've got him at gunpoint", and a female dispatcher replies, "132 and Bush. Cover's Code 3." Another woman says, "Units 25, 14 can transmit on Tac 2", and the dispatcher replies, "Okay, we'll still send it Code 3." Then an instrumental version of "Bad Boys" plays over the credits. On the first season of Cops, instead of "132 and Bush, I've got him at gunpoint", it was a police radio excerpt from the Broward County, Florida Sheriff's Office. In the first two episodes of the second season, a different police radio excerpt from the Portland Bureau of Police was used.

Cops aired on Fox's traditional Saturday-night lineup since its debut in 1989. As of 2012, the program retained its traditional time slot, but aired more intermittently as Fox Sports scheduled more sports programming in Saturday-night primetime, with NASCAR on Fox in the late winter and spring, Major League Baseball on Fox throughout the spring and summer, Fox College Football in the fall, and various Fox UFC throughout the year. Cops was then scheduled on weeks without any sporting events, followed by an encore presentation of a Fox drama series.

In 2013, it was announced that Fox had cancelled the program. However, it was later announced that Spike TV had picked up the program for another season. In August 2017, Spike moved the show's time slot to Monday.

Camera crew involvement
In one episode, the production sound mixer for the camera crew, a former emergency medical technician, assisted a police officer in performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (season 2, episode 7).

In an episode in season 11 that took place in 1998 in Atlanta, Georgia, camera operator Si Davis, who was a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department reserve police officer, dropped the camera and assisted an Atlanta police officer in wrestling a suspect into custody. It turned out that the APD officer had been injured during a foot pursuit; meanwhile, mixing console Steve Kiger picked up the camera and continued recording the action, which eventually made the air (season 11, episode 5).

In another episode, a rape suspect fled and outran officers, only to have the cameraman follow him the entire time, until police caught up to the suspect and subdued him (season 10, episode 19).

In an episode of season 14 (2001–2002), during the arrest of a man after a car chase in Hillsborough County, Florida, the sound mixer held the suspect's sister away from the deputy after she tried to intervene in her brother's arrest.

During the first episode of season 22, which aired on September 12, 2009, an officer with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department was tackled by a suspect. The camera operator and Las Vegas Fire Department firefighter/paramedics wrestled the suspect away from the officer.

In episode 32 of season 22, an officer from Armarillo, Texas Police Department responded to a possible auto burglary. The suspect was found inside the car and attempted to flee from the responding officer, however the suspect was stopped by the production sound mixer that was standing in the path that the suspect intended on escaping with.

In episode 17 of season 26 that aired on February 1, 2014, during the arrest of a man in Sacramento, California, for battery on his girlfriend, one of the camera crew pulled one of the suspect's American pit bull terrier away from one of the arresting officers. The dog was biting the officer on the leg after being commanded to do so by the suspect.

During the recording of episode 7 in Season 27, the camera crew assisted in detaining the passenger of a vehicle whose operator had fled on foot from officers in Lafayette, Louisiana. As police chased the driver, who successfully evaded arrest, the camera crew secured the vehicle by giving directions to the passenger; at one point, the camera operator can be seen gesturing to the passenger to place the latter's hands on the dashboard.

2014 Wendy's shooting incident
On August 26, 2014, at roughly 9:20 p.m., a Cops crew was recording with the Omaha Police Department in Omaha, Nebraska, during their final week working with them since arriving in June. A police officer drove to a Wendy's restaurant during a robbery and called for backup. One of the other responding officers had a two-person Cops crew (a cameraman and audio technician Bryce Dion) present in his or her cruiser. The crew began recording the robbery inside Wendy's.

Authorities later identified the robber as 32-year-old Cortez Washington, whom police shot several times during the shootout. A police officer fired through a window, hitting Dion (wearing a bullet-resistant vest) once under the arm. Medics transported both to the hospital, and both died, with Dion being pronounced dead shortly after arrival.

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 a crew member was seriously injured or killed. A Cops crew working in Springfield, Missouri, also wrapped following the Omaha incident. In Dion's honor, the show aired an hour-long "best of" episode featuring his work on its September 20, 2014 episode.

The robbery's events took only seconds to happen. Detective Darren Cunningham responded to the call while the Cops crew accompanied Officer Brooks Riley and Officer Jason Wilhelm. Cunningham and Riley entered the front door and unholstered their firearms, while Wilhelm went to the restaurant's back part to cover an emergency exit door that opens only from indoors. Cunningham and Riley approached Washington, who was at the restaurant's back part and did not see the officers arrive. For unknown reasons, Washington walked to the front counter, where the officers identified him and told him to lie on the floor—but Washington immediately pointed and fired a pistol while moving toward the officers, who returned fire. Cunningham retreated into the hallway toward the restroom and kept firing at Washington, who had then turned the corner and stood where the officers had initiated contact. Riley moved around a column and into the waiting aisle at the counter. As Washington passed the uniformed police officer, he aimed his weapon toward the officer and continued firing as he moved toward the front exit. Dion was caught in the ensuing crossfire as the officer returned fire at Washington, who stumbled into the parking lot and fell from his injuries before his arrest.

After the scene was secured, authorities learned that Washington's pistol was actually an airsoft handgun that strongly resembled a real Taurus firearm.

Authorities placed the three police officers on paid leave pending the result of an investigation into the shooting. A grand jury acquitted all three of misconduct.

Washington had a lengthy criminal record in Wyandotte County, Kansas. At the time of the Wendy's robbery, he was on parole in Missouri, having been released in September 2013 after serving two years of a seven-year sentence as an accessory to second-degree robbery of a jewelry store, to which he pleaded guilty. In determining sentences and eligibility for parole, Missouri law does not consider criminal records in other states. Approximately 20 minutes before the Wendy's robbery, his 24-year-old girlfriend, Jeneva Arias, robbed a Little Caesars pizza restaurant, using the same airsoft pistol; Washington served as her getaway driver. Arias in turn was to be Washington's getaway driver in the Wendy's robbery, but fled. While in jail awaiting trial, she committed felony assault via throwing a soap mixture into a health care worker's face and fracturing a jailer's hand. Authorities gave Arias a plea bargain, and she pleaded no contest to reduced charges, and they sentenced her to a maximum of six years in jail through concurrent sentencing.

Bryce Dion's brother, Trevor Dion, filed a lawsuit in February 2016 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. On April 24, 2018, a 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. 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. Trevor Dion's lawsuit against the city was dismissed by a judge in July 2019.

Opening sequence
The show's theme song is "Bad Boys", performed by reggae group Inner Circle, which was played over a montage of clips.

All episodes of Cops began with a disclaimer. Beginning with later episodes of season 2, the wording was:

"Cops is filmed on location with the men and women of law enforcement. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. - Harry Newman provided by the following narration on the next episode."

The disclaimer in the first two seasons was slightly different: "Cops is filmed on location as it happens. All suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law." Burt Lancaster provided the following narration on the pilot episode: "Cops is about real people, and real crime. It was filmed entirely on location, with the men and women who work in law enforcement."

During at least the first season, episodes featured original scoring in a vein similar to the instrumental backing of the opening song. Some cues were short, others longer, usually over montages. Among the composers who scored episodes were Michael Lewis and Nathan Wang.

The Spike/Paramount Network version of the show added the Twitter handle and Facebook URL as its social media pages to the intro in 2013 until it was removed in 2020.

Domestic
In September 1992, reruns of Cops went into broadcast syndication, and like Fox's fellow series The Simpsons, it became a mainstay of the format, with its carriage being led by Fox Television Stations itself, be it Fox stations or those stations which belong to its sister network MyNetworkTV; it was also consistently included on the schedule of The CW's smaller-market chain of local cable channels and broadcast subchannels, The CW Plus. Seasons 7-24 would air on Court TV which eventually rebranded to TruTV in 2008, over the course of its syndicated run from 1998-2014 on the network, seasons 7-24 would be broadcast on the network, in 2014, it was announced the program would be pulled off the air by 2015, due to its syndicated contract expiring, the network decided not to renew the contract and by January, 2015, the network would stop airing the syndicated reruns. In the fall of 2013, it mainly began to air on Spike (now Paramount Network) on the cable side as part of that network's agreement to air new episodes, after several years on truTV. Older episodes were picked up by the now defunct Cloo in September 2014, after spending years on the now defunct G4, which was discontinued in December 2014. Local station syndication of the show was prevalent on most Fox stations and affiliates at the time, but as of 2015, older episodes were shifted into Cops Reloaded. WGN America also carried reruns of the regular version. At the start of 2016, the episodes in the now defunct Cloo/G4 package were moved into the Spike/Paramount Network syndicated package when the former G4/Cloo syndication agreement expired, giving that network the rights to the majority of the program. After Viacom's acquisition of Pluto TV in 2019, a 24/7 channel made up of episodes of the series directly programmed under license from Langley Productions was launched.

Related to Paramount ending its carriage of Cops in June 2020, it has also relinquished its syndication rights; WGN America, which began to convert to a general news network as NewsNation under new ownership, also decided to stop carrying the show at the end of its existing carriage contract, which happened to terminate by coincidence on June 30, 2020. Disney Media Distribution, which syndicates the FTSP-era episodes under its former name of 20th Television to local television stations, replaced the series for the remainder of the summer with the 2018–19 run of the defunct syndication version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire on June 15 (of which an hour of episodes were distributed, as Cops was often paired with Live PD: Police Patrol, which was also pulled from syndication at the same time new episodes of that series were cancelled). Reelz began to carry Reloaded episodes again on September 3, 2021. Reelz also began to carry older episodes of the regular version from seasons 8-17. Since May, 2023, Fox Business has also began carrying syndicated reruns of seasons 32, 33. Law & Crime network carries syndicated broadcasts of Reloaded as of 2023.

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, 10 Bold (a sub-channel of Network Ten) and Crime + Investigation, in Japan on Fox Crime, in Philippines on C/S 9, in India on Star World and FOX Crime, in Norway on V4, in Sweden Reloaded airs on TV12 while original runs on TV6 and TV10, and in Denmark on Canal 9.

In Canada, both the original and Reloaded versions of the program aired on Action (now Adult Swim). BiteTV began airing the program 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. Since 2022, Cops now airs on 24/7 channels by LG Channels and Samsung TV Plus.

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

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. 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 television. From 2016-2018, Cops Reloaded aired on the CW network. On January 29, 2024, season 1 of Cops Reloaded was added to Tubi. In February, 2024, Season 1 of Cops Reloaded was also added to Peacock TV.

Home media
The program has had several "best-of" home videos, including Cops: In Hot Pursuit, Cops: Shots Fired, Cops: Bad Girls, Cops: Caught in the Act , and Cops: Too Hot for TV which included segments containing profanity and nudity that was edited out of the network version. Cops: Too Hot for TV also had a deluxe edition which had a segment containing especially graphic content, including police finding a man who had hanged himself in his garage and the aftermaths of two different shootings. Before the aforementioned segment, there was an announcement by John Langley, stating that "This next segment isn't just too hot for TV, it's also probably too hot for this video. Once you've seen it, you'll know why."

A Cops: 20th Anniversary Edition two-disc DVD with viewer favorites from each season, several behind the scenes features, and the original one-hour pilot was released in the United States and Canada on February 19, 2008.

Tie-ins
In 1994, Pacific Gameworks created a proposal for a video game project intended for the Atari Jaguar based upon the TV show; however, production of the game never started and it was left unreleased.

In 1995, Nova Productions and Atari Games released a LaserDisc arcade game based on the show. The game uses live-action full motion video for graphics and consists of a driving stage and a shooting stage very similar to Mad Dog McCree.

In 1999, Cops associate producer and sound mixer Hank Barr published The Jump-Out Boys, a book about the show's production.

In 2000, The sci-fi series The X-Files created an episode called “X-Cops”, which followed was shot in the style of a normal Cops episode, but dealt with the main characters of X-Files dealing with a shapeshifter.

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.

Awards won have included:
 * 1993: the American Television Award for Best Reality-Based Program
 * 2008: American Cinema Editors, USA Eddie (award) for Best Edited Reality Series

Other nominations (not resulting in an award) have included:
 * 2016: Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Unstructured Reality Show

Criticism
Even though it is popular and long-running, Cops has drawn mixed reviews, and it has also raised ethical questions.

Positive
In the show's third year, 1992, Alan Bunce of The Christian Science Monitor praised the show as network television's "only true 'cinema verite' series"—declaring it "innocent of re-enactments," and "free of fancy production effects," while remaining "doggedly faithful to its format."

Bunce raved about its "honesty of tone" and the show's "commitment" to, in his words, "recording exactly what happens" (nothing more, nothing less)—"an implicit rebuke" to what he called "the excesses and sleight-of-hand" indulged in by most other "reality" shows. "Cops", he said, "is a stickler for authenticity."

Negative
In 1999, the Los Angeles Times' Pulitzer Prize-winning, long-time, television critic Howard Rosenberg chastised ride-along reality TV shows (like Cops, which he particularly named), as "uniting" police and media in ride-alongs where each party is "an extension of the other." When invading "private property with their cameras rolling," said Rosenberg, these partnerships' behavior is "appallingly indifferent" to the "fundamental privacy rights" of the people whose homes they invade, and the resulting TV shows depict "social and moral crises" deceptively, "without context"—doing so in "the most narrow, emotional terms" they can. In a 2009 interview, Cops executive producer John Langley admitted that his show is built around a three-segment structure, presenting an "action" piece, an "emotional" piece, and a "thought" piece (an example of the rule of three).

Rosenberg further describes such a commercial police–media partnership as exceptionally prone to media corruption—yielding misleading, one-sided perspectives. "The collusion potential is enormous," says Rosenberg, because a so-called "reality" series can choose to air nothing that they fear will put their partners (the police) in a bad light (an embarrassment which, says Rosenberg, would cut off the TV show's access to the ride-alongs, resulting in "no access, no show".)

A podcast called Headlong: Running from Cops started in April 2019. Presented by Dan Taberski, it investigates Cops and Live PD, their alleged treatment of participants and whether scenarios are portrayed truthfully.

Critics have noted the use of propaganda for cops, or copaganda, in the show COPS.

2004 Old Dominion study
In June 2004, researchers at Old Dominion University videotaped 16 episodes of Cops and then evaluated them for crime content, and for the race and gender of characters depicted. They found prior studies statistically reinforced in their descriptions of racial misrepresentation on Cops. The study found that, on Cops, African-American men were overwhelmingly shown as perpetrators—usually of violent crimes—and Hispanic men (rarely depicted at all) were also usually depicted as violent criminals. The police officers depicted were overwhelmingly White, and the disproportionately few White offenders were more-often portrayed as involved in non-violent offenses. As a response, the show's co-creator John Langley tried to include White offenders in each episode.

Statistical correlations between crime rates and types (by race and gender, as reported by the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports) and the Old Dominion study's analysis of characters in the Cops episodes indicated that the Cops episodes (on average) sharply skewed the numbers, racially, making African-American and Hispanic men appear far more responsible for violent crime than they actually are in the U.S. population at large. At the same time, White males were shown on Cops as a far less culpable group than they actually are, statistically.

The study also noted that women were almost totally ignored in Cops—seldom appearing as either officers or offenders. Finally, it noted that the show overwhelmingly depicted violent crimes, despite such crimes being a distinct minority of crime in the U.S.

2004 Prosise-Johnson study
In 2004, researchers Theodore O. Prosise (University of Washington), and Ann Johnson, Ph.D. (University of California/Long Beach), studied a random, but non-scientific, sample of 81 anecdotes from Cops episodes—analyzing their content, subjects and characters. They concluded that the program was racially skewed, negatively misrepresenting African-Americans, depicted as a criminal class out of proportion to their actual percentage of U.S. crime, in particular.

Moreover, the study indicated that the Cops episodes appeared to selectively edit out failed police efforts, and police-initiated actions "on a hunch" that resulted in the discovery of no grounds for an intervention or arrest—showing only those officer "hunches and suspicions" that were productive—creating the illusion that officer instincts were more reliable and valid than in actual life. The study's authors expressed concern that this provided TV viewers with implicit—and misleading—justification for police actions that amounted to "racism, discrimination or profiling."

Targeting the poor
The show has been criticized for its predominant focus on criminal activities among the poor. Critics of this aspect of the show say it unfairly presents the poor as responsible for most crime in society while ignoring the "white-collar crimes" that are typical of the more wealthy. Controversial documentary filmmaker Michael Moore raises this tenet in an interview with a former associate producer of Cops, Richard Herlan, in Moore's 2002 movie Bowling for Columbine.

Herlan's response to Moore was that television is primarily a visual medium, requiring regular footage on a weekly basis to sustain a show, and police officers "busting in" on an office where identity theft papers are being created or other high-level crime rings are operating does not happen very often. It is therefore not likely to be recorded and thus not shown. The low-level crime featured on the show happens every day, providing large quantities of material suitable for taping.

Influence on viewers
A 2001 study of 117 Justice Studies students at Arizona State University—a cross-section sample proportionally representative of the genders and races of all justice studies students at ASU—found various correlations between students' race and gender and their attitudes towards representative episodes of Cops. The study found that students were drawn to the violence in the program. It also found that students interpreted Cops scenes as valid and informative representations of the genders and races different from their own—eliminating the need to learn about them through direct personal contact.

Rejections by police departments
In 2005 in response to a request for Cops taping, Patrick Camden, the Chicago Police Department's deputy director of news affairs stated, "police work is not entertainment. What they do trivializes policing. We've never seriously even considered taping." The Fairfax County Police Department, located in Northern Virginia, has similarly refused to allow Cops taping since the show originally aired, as have the Washington, D.C. Police, St. Louis City Police, and the Honolulu Police Department. In addition, the show has rarely featured federal law enforcement agencies because such officers often work undercover and as a result, they are not inclined to have their work broadcast.

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

Several other American shows have paid homage to Cops' format, such as LAPD: Life on the Beat, Police POV, Live PD and On Patrol: Live.

A similar Canadian series called Under Arrest aired in the 1990s and 2000s.

Parodies
Three Fox series parodied their own network's program. Mad TV featured a series of filmed parodies called "Clops", shot in claymation, and consisted of animated cops and criminals, commonly in exaggerated situations analogous to the real series. In Living Color did a parody called "Thugs", from the point of view of a group of criminals. In 1992, the episode "Homer's Triple Bypass" from The Simpsons featured a parody of the show entitled "COPS: In Springfield".

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", with said 'police officers' representing white blood cells attempting to stop 'criminal' infections.

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.

Shrek 2 had a clip of a parody show called Knights which showed Shrek, Donkey, and Puss in Boots being arrested (the latter for possession of catnip).

On January 28, 2019, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert did a parody called Mueller which featured CNN's footage of Roger Stone's arrest the previous week, with footage of other Donald Trump associates' arrests mixed into actual Cops opening titles, and a fictional FBI agent providing recaps of the action.

Jay Leno parodied the program on The Tonight Show in the mid-90s, which included rewrites of the theme song with various insults, including "dumb cops", "short cops" and "mall cops", with appropriate characters and changed lyrics.

Two episodes of the sitcom My Name Is Earl had the main characters being arrested during (fictitious) tapings of Cops.

The Dead or Alive video game series had a parody show called Agents which showed the man being arrested by government agents for torturing and abusing his ex-girlfriends, grifting, fraud, movie piracy, TV episode piracy, impersonating now-deceased Fame Douglas, mocked and impersonated on Helena Douglas on the internet and forging his own video game and sent to federal prison.

The upcoming untitled Oddworld film had a parody show called Police which Sligs, Vykkers, Interns, Outlaws, Wolvarks and Gloktigi attempts to track down and arrest Abe and Munch.

The X-Files pseudo-crossover episode
The show The X-Files released a pseudo crossover episode of Cops called "X-Cops" (season 7, episode 12, originally aired September 20, 2000) in which FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully collaborate with mostly fictional deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (an actual LASD SWAT team was also featured in the episode) in order to catch a mysterious, shapeshifting entity. In the tradition of the real-life Cops program, the entire episode is shot on video.

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 the program.

In the Wilson case, a reporter and photographer from The Washington Post 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 ruled unanimously in this case that the authorities' accommodation of the media intrusion violated the Fourth Amendment.

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 liability (Justice Stevens believed that the officers in  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).

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.

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).

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".

Impact on the Dalia Dippolito case
Cops dedicated an entire episode ("Smooth Criminal", season 24, episode 3, originally aired September 24, 2011) to the case of call girl/escort Delilah "Dalia" Dippolito of Boynton Beach, Florida, who was convicted 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. The defense attorney also claimed that her husband orchestrated the plot to get aired on Cops. 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.

Ultimately, both defenses failed, and Dippolito was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison. However, the state's Fourth District Court of Appeal ordered a new trial in 2014, finding that the judge at the first trial erred by not doing enough to ensure that jurors were not improperly exposed to pre-trial 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 had read about Dippolito's attempt at poisoning her husband. She was later released on an appeal to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, pending a retrial on May 23, 2016. On August 17, 2016, the appeals court rejected her appeal without comment.

Her retrial began with jury selection on December 1, 2016. The jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict and a mistrial was declared on December 14, 2016. A second retrial was held in June 2017, and on June 16, 2017, she was convicted again. Judge Glenn Kelley ordered her held without bail. Her defense attorneys said they would appeal the verdict. On July 21, 2017, Dippolito was sentenced to 16 years (of the maximum of 20) in prison. Florida's Fourth District Court of Appeals upheld her conviction in March 2019, the Florida Supreme Court rejected without comment her request to review the 2017 conviction, and her appeal to the US Supreme Court was refused in February 2020.

The Dippolito case has also been featured on ABC's 20/20, NBC's Dateline, CNBC's American Greed, and the syndicated show distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution, Crime Watch Daily.

Use of Cops videos by defense attorneys
Cops videos have been subpoenaed and used by defense attorneys, resulting in the suppression of evidence owing to police misconduct which was revealed in the Cops videos.

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 only lasted 23 seconds, the officer discovered that the suspect (who turned out to be a convicted felon) had a gun, and the suspect was arrested. 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 did not have "reasonable suspicion" to frisk him. More specifically, the defendant argued that the officer did not 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.

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 a strong justification for requiring police officers to wear body cameras.

title: Cops (TV program)


text:
Saldanha Steel

Saldanha Steel was a South African steel company originally formed as a partnership between Iscor Limited and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC). Saldanha Steel is now part of ArcelorMittal South Africa, which in turn is part of global steel company ArcelorMittal. The mill was shutdown and mothballed in 2020 resulting in the loss of 1500 jobs.

Operations
The R6,8bn Saldanha Steel facilities, situated on the Cape west coast roughly 10 km away from Langebaan Lagoon's ecologically sensitive wetlands, has been designed to produce 1.25 million tons of hot-rolled carbon steel coil per year. The mill was commissioned in 1998.

Following the unbundling of Iscor's mining and steel assets, the Industrial Development Corp. has now become a major shareholder of Iscor Ltd.

It is one of the few steel making plants which do not use blast furnaces and coke. The factory comprises the process parts (right to left on image above when scrolled)

 * Ore storage and processing in the large silos
 * Midrex process in the smaller tower. Iron oxide in lump and pellet form is reduced using purified Corex off-gas. The Corex gas is processed in a Vacuum Pressure Swing Adsorption (VPSA) plant to remove the carbon dioxide and water (products of reduction) to produce reduction gas for the Midrex process. This Midrex plant differs from conventional Midrex plants as it does not use reformed natural gas but purified Corex gas as reduction medium.
 * Corex Process in the large tower with the pyramid. The process uses iron oxide in lump and pellet form with coal and coke to produce liquid iron. The coal and coke is gasified to produce a reducing gas (carbon monoxide and hydrogen) that reduces the iron oxide before it is melted to produce liquid iron.
 * Flaring off the excess reduction gas, which cannot be used anymore for energy, in the flare stack left of the Corex tower
 * Meltshop, the building left of the flare stack, consists of Conarc for melting the iron products again from the Corex and Midrex processes. The Conarc consists of two electric arc furnace shells with one set of electrodes for arcing and one top lance for oxygen blowing. It combines conventional electric arc furnace (EAF) with basic oxygen furnace (BOF) operation.
 * Sheet rolling facility in the fairy like building left with all the pyramids. Starting with hot rolling of slabs up to 90 cm wide and 7.5 cm thickness, finally to one millimeter thin sheet rolls which are stored in the very left of the building and shipped to the customer. A temper mill facility is available to temper the coils or to split coils into smaller coils.
 * The tall tower in front of the rolling mill building is an Air Liquide air separation plant to elemental oxygen, nitrogen and argon.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Saldanha Steel


text:
Zuma Township, Rock Island County, Illinois

Zuma Township is located in Rock Island County, Illinois. As of the 2010 census, its population was 757 and it contained 315 housing units. Zuma Township was originally named Walker Township, but was renamed on October 1, 1857.

Geography
According to the 2010 census, the township has a total area of 24.34 sqmi, of which 23.77 sqmi (or 97.66%) is land and 0.57 sqmi (or 2.34%) is water.


text:
User talk:GovnoTebi

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title: User talk:GovnoTebi


text:
Talk:Cops (TV program)/Archive 1

COPS 2.0
shouldnt something about G4's cops 2.0 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.118.146.222 (talk) 04:41, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Canada
Was COPS ever filmed in Canada? I thought I remember seeing an episode based in Toronto. --209.226.183.16 02:55, 3 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Not to my knowledge. Denelson83 02:06, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

They did have episodes in the United Kingdom. I do believe that their was an episode in Toronto once.

I did add constables to the list as they did have a couple of scences with one of the Tarrant County, TX preceints Constable's Office.
 * There's a version called "To Serve and Protect" that films in Seattle, Vancouver, and Edmonton, and maybe some other locations. Bobanny 02:58, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Constables
Constables...is there a part of the United States where this term is used to describe police officers? If not, should this word be used? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.73.82.69 (talk • contribs)

 * Some depts in the U.S., such as in Texas, use the term constable.--TruckOttr 08:10, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

 * Look here for more on the title of "Constable" and how it's used in the US and elsewhere. -Maverick 20:58, 9 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Either way, when a constabulary duty's to be done, to be done, a copper's lot is not an 'appy one. Wahkeenah 02:23, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

 * In Pennsylvania, local circuit courts refer to their uniformed officers as "constables", whose duties include transporting prisoners to courts from county prisons and serving criminal and traffic warrants on defendants. Kepiblanc (talk) 19:44, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

Theme Song
Does anyone know what theme song Cops used before Bad Boys?

4:35pm, 6 March 2007
 * Car 54 Where Are You? Wahkeenah 02:22, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Release / Consent?
Does anybody know about forms for release or consent forms suspects sign to appear in episodes? They must sign something, as their likeness is being used in a 'for profit' format, so I imagine criminals agree to be shown on TV, and likely are paid for the appearance.

Seems pretty obvious to me there must be a release form, considering that some episodes have suspects with blurred faces, plus, if I were being arrested, I'd love to have an extra bill to post bail with.

Anyways, wondering if somebody knows more about this, it would be nice to include this in the article. TotalTommyTerror 20:21, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

 * According to the book The Jump-Out Boys, written by COPS producer/soundman Hank Barr, all subjects appearing on the show generally need to sign a release form. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.  If they don't, the clip usually isn't aired, and if it is the subject's face is blurred out.  In any case, nobody gets any money out of it, except for the police officers doing their job and the COPS crew doing theirs. -Maverick 09:36, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

That's something I've always wondered, too. HOW do they get suspects to sign releases, especially when some of them are in extremely embarrassing or humiliating positions? Is there any evidence that the producers pay off families and suspects? -76.4.52.247 15:42, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

 * Methinks some people will do anything to get their fifteen minutes of fame, including having their sorry, half-dressed asses arrested on nationwide television. In some cases, I suppose it's the kind of thing that could actually gain some "street cred."
 * I also have to wonder why more of these people don't take a swing at the cameraman. If there's a call to my home, I can see the cops having a right to enter, but I'm going to toss a chair at the trespasser with the camera.
 * * Septegram * Talk * Contributions * 19:42, 25 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Almost everyone 'featured' on that show eventually pleads, or is found, guilty. There is wide leeway for photographing crime scenes/arrests/etc of the guilty.  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perp_walk for e.g. Marteau (talk)

Article assessment
I've rated this article as start class. It contains some of the information you would expect but is missing some sections (see WikiProject Television/Television programs). I've rated the importance as mid because of the high number of other shows influenced by this one. To improve the article start adding some more sources.--Opark 77 23:04, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Episode Numbers
In the infobox to the right, it says that there are nearly 2,000 episodes aired (circa April 2007), and then in the introductory paragraph, it states a "milestone" of 650 episodes (circa 2006). There is surely a mistake one way or the other, or one of either of those numbers need to be specified. Thought I'd bring this to everyone's attention. Mattygabe 20:32, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

Okay...
So this article contained a very large amount of unreferenced material. I have removed the gibberish and hid the stuff that is useful. I have also fixed all the messiness in line with the manual of style. Any new stuff, or any attempt to bring the hidden stuff back in, will need references. See WP:V, WP:ATT, WP:NOR. --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 01:39, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

This article is crap?
It contains almost no information about the show and is 80% a list of parodies. Rubbish.

 * Agreed. Feel free to add sourced material to improve the article instead of complaining, eh? --Edward Morgan Blake 21:15, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

 * I've split off the material noted above (including a list of shows influenced by COPS and a rundown of references to COPS in popular culture) unto their own article, COPS in popular culture. --Edward Morgan Blake 22:17, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

No mention of the harassment, brutality, attempted murder, & assault by the cops?
Atleast half of each show is chock full of cops committing all sorts of crimes - mainly assault and attempted murder. Where's the mention of that in this article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.100.229.240 (talk) 01:49, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

 * I dunno, but I always wonder why they never show the criminal getting away. -Rolypolyman 15:44, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

 * Probably because the actions that you see are not crimes because they occurred during the course of their duties. Equinox137 (talk) 02:08, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

 * More than half of the time the police officers are right to do what they do —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.205.239.163 (talk) 23:59, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

 * Most of the episodes do start with the cautioner that everyone is proven innocent until proven otherwise. My guess is that the police officers just do their jobs and try to get control over the situation and then get the suspect(s) and the situation under control. Not every arrest ends in a conviction... 84.48.92.217 (talk) 20:13, 21 November 2008 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Cops Logo.JPG
Image:Cops Logo.JPG is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 06:06, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

mardi gras
I think a something that is notable about this series is that from the eighth season to the seventeenth season, the first two to three episodes those seasons were episodes regarding police enforcing the law during Mardi Gras. Since Katrina, the show has not covered Mardi Gras. -- Brian ( view my history )/( How am I doing? ) 03:04, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Why is this article titled COPS (TV series) instead of Cops (TV series)?
"COPS" isn't an acronym. Shouldn't the title of the show be Cops instead of COPS? --Metropolitan90 (talk) 17:25, 9 October 2010 (UTC)
 * As far as I know, it was always shown in all caps and perhaps people distinguish the show from it? -  ShootinPutin109  Talk. 03:44, 25 October 2010 (UTC)
 * While Cops is not an acronym, and you are correct, it should be lower cased, the show title from Fox is COPS, in all Caps, so the article name matches the show title. NECRAT Speak to me 06:49, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

It is (or was) taught in most Police Academies that the origin of the Term COP comes from the 1800s in when British "bobbies" patrolled the streets. They, it is said, were actually Constables and the term was a short version of "Constable On Patrol or COP". So it actually could be considered an Acronym. Another more colloquial explanation was that about the same period the Police Officers, or Constables wore "COPPER" buttons on their Jackets. So the local hoods might call out "here come the 'COPPERS'" which was truncated to "here come the 'COPS'" at some point. This folklore of course does not support COPS being an Acronym. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 132.62.88.94 (talk) 00:58, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

 * There's great disagreement about where the term "cops" comes from, but in any event it's moot: We don't do all-caps for company names, titles, etc. (It's Time magazine, not TIME magazine) per WP:MOSCAPS and WP:ALLCAPS. --Tenebrae (talk) 14:42, 21 October 2012 (UTC)

Refusal to tape in certain cities
In the article, it is quoted "Police departments in Austin, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Honolulu, Orlando, Fairfax County, Virginia, and San Jose, California have refused requests to tape in their cities". With no citation or reference. I have been a faithful watcher of COPS for almost 15 years and know for a fact they've shot in Honolulu, and I seem to remember them in Detroit as well early on. NECRAT Speak to me 07:08, 20 December 2010 (UTC)
 * In any case, "refused" is a bit strong and POV. More likely, it would be accurate to say these places "declined" to have COPS film with them for whatever reason. 76.22.32.86 (talk) 03:40, 4 September 2011 (UTC)
 * I agree with that statement 100%  NECRAT Speak to me 11:28, 18 March 2012 (UTC)

Criticism Section
The Criticism section is not supported by references, and is pretty clearly POV. The one single reference refers to a single comment by the Chicago Deputy Director of News Affairs that has little or no connection to the rest of the section. Johnny Squeaky (talk) 03:49, 4 September 2011 (UTC)

Episode list
Is it possible to create an episode list? -- 91.66.20.249 (talk) 17:55, 5 September 2011 (UTC) Score: http://www.thefutoncritic.com/showatch/cops/listings/

Total of episodes
How many total of episodes from March 11, 1989 to now? Well, I am not sure and I make it clear. Thanks! —Sheenmeister (talk) 22:08, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

End Credit Audio Clip
This has been a constant source of "bickering", and article editing and reverting. It was totally unsourced, wasn't worthy enough of a point to be it's own anyways. So it has been removed and a single line blurb was added to the production section. Please don't revert this beyond this, or else I will get the article locked again. NECRAT Speak to me 06:26, 10 March 2012 (UTC)

What does this sentence mean?
"The series is currently one of only two remaining first-run prime-time programs airing on Saturday nights on the four major U.S. broadcast television networks..." Arcanicus (talk) 01:31, 13 July 2013 (UTC)

Cinema verite verification
Most other sources state Cops to be filmed "as it happens," that is, it is not reenacted as would be the case with cinema verite. If there is some reliable first source to discount this, please advise. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.107.80.115 (talk) 03:49, 23 March 2014 (UTC)

Vague Article
I came to this article to understand more about the filming art/process of COPS and why the suspects never look directly or approach the camera. The article does not go into detail as to the legality of being filmed if it is in fact real life non-actors being filmed. Maybe this is edited out, but it does not seem so. I am very disappointed that I do not know if COPS is just another so called "reality" with amateur acting TV show or true real life. Most of the police officers on the show always seem to use excessive force, are overly vigilant, and excessively violent. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.92.63.39 (talk) 03:56, 26 July 2014 (UTC)

Wendy's shooting
I would guess the COPS employee killed was not killed by the "gun" but by an officer's bullet, right? Thanks, 66.25.212.112 (talk) 18:31, 27 August 2014 (UTC)

Requested move 18 September 2015

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: No consensus. Our guidelines typically call for ambiguous titles to be fully disambiguated, but solid arguments were made here in favor of the status quo. Specifically, that any confusion is likely to be among the (relatively few) readers looking for COPS (animated TV series) who are sent here by accident, rather than readers looking for this much more prominent article being sent the other way. As such, I find no consensus for a move, after over two weeks and a relisting. Cúchullain t/ c 20:05, 6 October 2015 (UTC)

Cops (TV series) → Cops (reality TV series) – due to the ambiguous nature of the naming, and rather poor distinction with capitalization, since the stylization of this TV show is allcaps "COPS". There is little distinction between TV shows -- 70.51.202.113 (talk) 03:30, 18 September 2015 (UTC) --Relisted. George Ho (talk) 05:23, 25 September 2015 (UTC)

Survey

 * Feel free to state your position on the renaming proposal by beginning a new line in this section with  or  , then sign your comment with  . Since polling is not a substitute for discussion, please explain your reasons, taking into account Wikipedia's policy on article titles.

This is the primary topic for the phrase "Cops (TV series)" by leaps and bounds, so redirecting it to a disambiguation page would be highly counterproductive (because it would merely add a navigational step for the overwhelming majority of readers seeking this article, while doing nothing to improve the experience of the few people seeking the cartoon's article), and redirecting it to a renamed version of this article would be pointless. Note that this is covered in policy: —David Levy 14:21, 19 September 2015 (UTC) You're conflating recognizability and ambiguity. Regarding the former, are you suggesting that "Cops" is unrecognizable as the program's title? In other words, do you expect readers seeking the article about the reality show to see "Cops" and not recognize it as that topic's name? Regarding the latter, I'll reiterate that the cartoon's title isn't formatted as "Cops" in any normal context; it's an acronym, not merely a stylized logotype. Because the reality show's title sometimes appears as "COPS", the word's all-uppercase form – either alone or with "(TV series)" appended – realistically could refer to either program. That's why additional disambiguation ("animated", which just replaced "1988") is used in the title of our article about the cartoon. The inverse, however, isn't so; "Cops (TV series)" refers strictly to the reality show, so no further disambiguation is needed. It clearly is not a primary topic, as they do not use disambiguators, being primary topics, they reside at the undisambiguated location. No one asserts that the reality show is the primary topic for "Cops". In my reply to Andrewa, I addressed the issues of disambiguation and primacy separately. If both television programs were titled "Cops", the reality show would be the primary topic for "Cops (TV series)" (which probably would serve as a redirect, due to the ambiguity issue). But again, the cartoon isn't titled "Cops", nor is such formatting used in any normal context. So the reality show is the only topic for "Cops (TV series)". Nonetheless, if someone seeking the obscure cartoon's article accidentally arrives at that of the reality show, a hatnote points him/her to the correct page. —David Levy 06:51, 21 September 2015 (UTC)
 * Support I am the nominator -- 70.51.202.113 (talk) 06:33, 19 September 2015 (UTC)
 * Oppose, unless and until we need to distinguish this television series from another titled Cops. The animated series is called COPS (all-uppercase).  The reality show's logo has all-uppercase styling, but this merely means that someone seeking the article about the reality show might accidentally find information about the cartoon.  The inverse (someone seeking the cartoon's article arriving at this one) is unlikely, particularly given that topic's relative obscurity.  But in case it does occur, that's why the hatnote is included.
 * This TV show is usually stylized as "COPS" allcaps, and frequently appears that way, so using lowercase doesn't really show which show this is about since people expect this show to be capitalized, thus adding the "reality" will show which show this is about. -- 70.51.202.113 (talk) 03:23, 20 September 2015 (UTC)
 * I addressed this claim above. Did you read my comments?  —David Levy 03:48, 20 September 2015 (UTC)
 * WP:RECOGNIZABILITY That this show is using "Cops" is not the way that it appears in the world at large to a large portion of the readership, so it is not recognizably distinguished from the All-Caps TV show link COPS (TV series). It clearly is not a primary topic, as they do not use disambiguators, being primary topics, they reside at the undisambiguated location. This topic therefore is not a primary topic, because it uses a disambiguator. -- 70.51.202.113 (talk) 04:50, 21 September 2015 (UTC)
 * WP:RECOGNIZABILITY That this show is using "Cops" is not the way that it appears in the world at large to a large portion of the readership, so it is not recognizably distinguished from the All-Caps TV show link COPS (TV series).

Secondly, on what do you base the conclusion that "neither series can claim to be the primary topic"? How, in your view, does a current, internationally distributed TV program with four Emmy Award nominations and 950 installments televised in a 26-year period (during which it became the longest-running series in the Fox Network's 30-year history) lack primacy over a program with a single 65-episode season broadcast over a 5-month span in 1988/1989? —David Levy 23:11, 20 September 2015 (UTC) The reality show's overwhelming predominance absolutely is relevant. If the proposed move were carried out, it wouldn't change the target of Cops (TV series), which would simply become a redirect to this article. That's what we do in cases where an overwhelmingly predominant subject actually does share its exact name with other entities of the same type. In the example that you cited, Angel (TV series) redirects to Angel (1999 TV series). This reflects the existence of an obscure TV series sharing the exact title Angel. In another example, Thriller (album) redirects to Thriller (Michael Jackson album), despite the Thriller disambiguation page listing seven other albums whose exact title is Thriller. In this instance, we have zero articles about other TV series titled Cops or commonly referred to as such, so there isn't even a semantic reason to append additional disambiguation (let alone a navigational one). —David Levy 21:57, 26 September 2015 (UTC)
 * Support. Current title is ambiguous to the point of being misleading. Neither series can claim to be the primary topic. Suggest a two-way DAB. Andrewa (talk) 18:34, 20 September 2015 (UTC)
 * Firstly, the other series is titled "COPS" – an actual acronym (not merely a logo's styling). It isn't called "Cops" in any context, so no such ambiguity exists.  (As explained in the policy quoted above, a capitalization difference is an accepted point of differentiation.)  It's reasonable to assert that the reality show's logo might be taken to mean that the program's title is "COPS", but that only justifies additional disambiguation of the title used for the cartoon's article (which contains "COPS").  "Cops (TV series)", conversely, refers to the reality show alone.
 * See discussion  below. Andrewa (talk) 04:55, 3 October 2015 (UTC)
 * See . —David Levy 17:31, 3 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Oppose. On one hand, I agree that capitalization vs. no-capitalization is not a sufficient disambiguator, and is at best a minor reason to endorse the current title.  However, the difference in importance of the two TV series isn't even close; "Cops" is easily 100x as relevant as COPS.  Page view stats largely bear this out: http://stats.grok.se/en/latest/COPS_(1988_TV_series), http://stats.grok.se/en/latest/COPS_(animated_TV_series) (the sudden recent spike for the animated show is illusory because there was a parallel RM there which brought traffic to it).  There was a similar failed move request for Dynasty (1981 TV series) & Dynasty (Australian TV series); while the gap isn't quite as calamitously huge in general importance in this case, "Cops" is still sufficiently more important that it has priority on the simple (TV series). SnowFire (talk) 21:54, 25 September 2015 (UTC)
 * Support. I can understand the reasoning for the "oppose" side of this discussion, but "(TV series)" is not distinct from "(animated TV series)" in my mind. Furthermore, we didn't consider relevance with certain other shared names like Angel (1999 TV series) so I don't see how relevance can be used as a defense for keeping the page where it is. ONR (talk) 20:52, 26 September 2015 (UTC)
 * The title of the cartoon's article contains "animated" because the reality show's title sometimes is styled as "COPS". Conversely, the cartoon's title never appears as "Cops".  "COPS (TV series)" might refer to the reality show, but "Cops (TV series)" doesn't apply to the cartoon.
 * Oppose - I'll remove "1989" from wikilinks of this article. Meanwhile, "reality" isn't necessary. At first I was in favor of further disambiguation, but significance and recognition of the series is greater than the other series. Therefore, let's leave the title as is. For what it's worth, I did add "1989", but it was removed. George Ho (talk) 07:05, 6 October 2015 (UTC)

Discussion

 * Any additional comments:

 * I fixed the typo for you. (id est realty → reality) Gh87 in the public computer (talk) 19:22, 18 September 2015 (UTC)
 * Thank you -- 70.51.202.113 (talk) 05:37, 19 September 2015 (UTC)

From the survey above: It isn't called "Cops" in any context, so no such ambiguity exists. (my restyling of existing emphasis) False and easily disproved. Have a look at this ebay listing which reads Cops Vol.1 Animated Series - (DVD Animation) Used - Free UK P&P. I'm sure it won't be hard to find other examples, this particular styling is so easily omitted. Similar to The Man from U.N.C.L.E. which is often referred to as The Man from Uncle (need I really give examples?). Andrewa (talk) 04:42, 3 October 2015 (UTC)

 * After I wrote that, it occurred to me that someone might take it literally and find examples of someone referring to the animated series as "Cops". To eliminate that technicality, I wrote "any normal context" (emphasis changed) in subsequent instances.
 * There's no need to debate whether an eBay listing constitutes a "normal" context. It isn't a reliable source for the determination of normal usage, which is the concept that I'm attempting to convey.  I'm not suggesting that no one ever has or ever will mistype the cartoon's title as "Cops".  I don't doubt that persons seeking the article about that program occasionally reach this article accidentally.  That's why a link to COPS (animated TV series) appears in the hatnote.  How, in your view is this insufficient (and how would the requested move improve the situation)?  —David Levy 17:31, 3 October 2015 (UTC)

 * It's not a big issue, but it's completely unnecessary to have these people reach the wrong article and then need to click on the hatnote (which should remain). The requested move improves the situation by significantly reducing this risk. Andrewa (talk) 08:55, 4 October 2015 (UTC)

 * A redirect from Cops (TV series) to Cops (reality TV series) would have no impact on navigation. Changing its target to a disambiguation page would cause everyone (both the vast majority seeking the reality show's article and the small minority seeking the cartoon's article) to fail in their initial attempt, necessitating that they follow a link.  I don't regard this as an improvement.
 * If our top priority were ensuring that no one ever reached the wrong article, every page title with the slightest known chance of topical confusion would lead to a disambiguation page. Instead, we prioritize readers' overall navigational experience.   Sometimes, that does entail sending them to a disambiguation page.  In other cases, when the likelihood of confusion is relatively low, a hatnote (pointing to a disambiguation page and/or one or more other articles) is more appropriate.  This instance falls squarely within the latter category.  Readers seeking the cartoon's article via any title – of which those accidentally reaching Cops (TV series) are a small subset – compose a segment that doesn't approach the quantity of readers seeking the reality show's article.  —David Levy 17:58, 4 October 2015 (UTC)

 * Point taken about eBay not being a reliable source. It is however quite sufficient to demolish the claim made (and this is not a matter of splitting hairs, as your suggestion that someone might take it literally might suggest - your emphasis on any made my interpretation the only possible one, in my view). You have now toned it down, and I think that's good. Andrewa (talk) 09:03, 4 October 2015 (UTC)

 * I'm not implying that your response was pedantic. I'm saying that my statement's initial wording was overly broad and failed to properly convey the intended concept.  I haven't toned down my claim; I've expressed it with greater precision/clarity.  It would be preposterous to assume that no one on the planet ever styled the cartoon's title as "Cops" under any circumstance at any point in time.  The same is true of every instance in which capitalization differentiates multiple subjects' names, so an assertion to the contrary (as conveyed by a literal reading of my sloppy wording) would be absurd on its face.  —David Levy 17:58, 4 October 2015 (UTC)

Also from the survey above: How, in your view, does a current, internationally distributed TV program with four Emmy Award nominations and 950 installments televised in a 26-year period (during which it became the longest-running series in the Fox Network's 30-year history) lack primacy over a program with a single 65-episode season broadcast over a 5-month span in 1988/1989? Interesting question. But the onus of proof is on those who wish to assert primacy. Lots of old short-running shows are now considered classics. This may not be quite in that category, but it does seem to punch well above its weight. Andrewa (talk) 04:52, 3 October 2015 (UTC)

 * Indeed, the onus of proof is on those who wish to assert primacy. That's what I'm doing.  So is SnowFire.  Obviously, you wish to counter this assertion.  I see no evidence that the animated series "does seem to punch well above its weight", but you're welcome to provide some.  —David Levy 17:31, 3 October 2015 (UTC)

 * In my view, the arguments you have provided to date do not establish primacy in terms of guidelines. There is no case to answer. Andrewa (talk) 08:55, 4 October 2015 (UTC)

 * Understood. I disagree, but I'm certainly not demanding that you address arguments that you see no need to rebut.  —David Levy 17:58, 4 October 2015 (UTC)

 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Stylized form as article title
I was woundering why French, German and Spanish versions of Wikipedia (COPS (fr), COPS (es), COPS (de)) have Cops stylized as COPS in the article title, and here instead it is Cops. --Giacomo Sarrocco (talk) 11:28, 27 June 2016 (UTC)

Impact of filming on the Dalia Dippolito case
this section is outdated. "Her retrial is due to begin with jury selection on December 1, 2016."

this date already happened. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.67.120.61 (talk) 20:57, 14 January 2017 (UTC)

"Camera crew involvement" - 1st paragraph deleted
The opening paragraph of the "Camera crew involvement" section has been deleted. It had long been flagged (since 2010) as being unsourced, and (as of May, 2017) no one had ever fixed that problem -- leaving this paragraph without any indication of a valid, independent source.

Furthermore, the paragraph appeared very much as if it were written by a corporate public-relations office, or as a legal disclaimer by the production company's lawyer (either of which would be a violation of WP:NPOV) -- rather than an independent editor's summary of information from any neutral third-party, secondary source, as called for by WP:NPOV and other elements of WP:STYLE.

It originally read:

 * The camera crew that follows the officers are instructed to maintain a fly on the wall position, not interfering or making their presence known on camera unless otherwise necessary for the safety of officers and civilians on scene. However, there have been multiple instances where the safety of the officers has necessitated their involvement.

In particular, the last sentence makes a very subjective, and potentially litigious, claim:
 * there have been multiple instances where the safety of the officers has necessitated their involvement.

Such a serious claim needs a substantial source.

This section could, concievably, benefit from a similar opening paragraph -- IF (and ONLY if) it is from an independent source, citing appropriate third-party, secondary source(s) (preferably major-media or academic sources) as called for by WP:NPOV and other elements of WP:STYLE.

~ Penlite (talk) 10:39, 28 May 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
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I have just modified one external link on Cops (TV series). Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20111103084545/http://www.fox40.com/news/headlines/ktxl-fox-cancels-americas-most-wanted-show-helped-solve-some-local-cases-20110516%2C0%2C5549397.story to http://www.fox40.com/news/headlines/ktxl-fox-cancels-americas-most-wanted-show-helped-solve-some-local-cases-20110516%2C0%2C5549397.story

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Why is it always the IP editor who loses edit-war reports?
, why is it that every time there's a battle between an IP-based editor and an account holder, not matter which one originally reports, even if the improvements were made by the IP instead of the account holder, you admins always go after the IP by protecting the article instead of blocking the warring account-based editor, which only hinders the IP making the improvements instead of the auto-confirmed or higher account holder, rather than placing the same value on IPs as you place on account-based editors like WP rules tell you to do? 2600:100E:B10A:2C45:BD2E:9AC6:5122:4098 (talk) 14:34, 21 September 2017 (UTC)
 * I can't edit the article either. It's locked for everyone except admins. Nobody "won" or "lost", it was basically a stalemate. TomCat4680 (talk) 14:35, 21 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Oh, you can't? Haha, I'm so used to those saying "semi-protected" that I didn't read that summary this time.
 * OK, ha, never mind then, Drmies. 2600:100E:B10A:2C45:BD2E:9AC6:5122:4098 (talk) 14:43, 21 September 2017 (UTC)"
 * Thank you for answering that question, TomCat. IP, you were both edit warring. If I had played it by the book, I probably would have blocked one of your IPs, semi-protected the article, blocked TomCat, and then gone after every article you edited to protect it and to block any IP I see you use. So take your pick. [OK. Saw your note.] Drmies (talk) 14:44, 21 September 2017 (UTC)
 * You're welcome, Drmies. Haha, okay, you just made me smile. Thanks for that. And thanks for your comment too, TomCat. 2600:100E:B10A:2C45:BD2E:9AC6:5122:4098 (talk) 14:49, 21 September 2017 (UTC)

title: Talk:Cops (TV program)/Archive 1


text:
Hwang Kee

Hwang Kee (Hwang Gi; November 9, 1914 – July 14, 2002) was one of the most important and influential figures in the Korean martial arts. He was the founder of the school of Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan style.

He was one of the five original Founders to open solely Korean Martial Arts Kwans, after the Japanese Occupation. In the 1970s Chuck Norris broke ties with him. His best student Pat Johnson made the International Tang Soo Do Congress and Mr. Norris made the American Tang Soo Do style. One of his famous quotes is “where there is preparation there is no fear” He was born in South Korea and was later moved to China after World War II. He was taught the style of Wing Chun and Kung Fu. Later he settled in Japan and was taught the style of Shotokan later he made the style of Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan and applied all of his knowledge into the style.

Martial arts training
Hwang Kee was born on November 9, 1914, in Jang Dan, Kyong Ki province of Korea, while it was under Japanese occupation. His father was a scholar and teacher, thus Hwang was one of the few young men in the province to complete high school in 1935.

He first studied martial arts, Tae Kyun while in school. Following graduation, he went to work for the Manchurian Railroad, where he claimed to have learned the martial art of Kuk Sool under Chinese Master Yang Kuk Jin, although some of his peers doubt this assertion. Master Won Kyuk Lee of the Chung Do Kwan, claimed that Hwang was a student at his kwan, gaining the equivalent of a green belt. Hwang disputed Lee's claim, and acknowledged only Yang Kuk Jin as his teacher. It is likely that Hwang Kee learned Yang style Tai Chi Chuan among other arts from Yang Kuk Jin, as the Tae Guk Kwon Hyung taught at upper levels is known in Tai Chi Chuan as the Yang style short form. Hwang returned to Korea from China in 1937, he wanted to continue his martial education, but the Japanese occupation limited his options. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, while working for the Cho Sun Rail Way Bureau, he began to study Okinawan Karate by reading books available at the local library.

During the late 1930s, Hwang Kee had mastered the native Korean martial arts of Subak and Taekkyon. It was during this time that the Japanese occupied Korea, and the resident general, in an attempt to control the population, banned the practice of native martial arts, setting the penalty at imprisonment. In 1936, Hwang Kee attracted the attention of the Japanese secret police, forcing him to pack his bags and set out on foot for Manchuria, where he experienced scenes of lawlessness and destruction whilst working as a railroad worker. As a result, Hwang Kee decided to enter China, where he would live the next 20 years. He entered China at night from the southern end of the Great Wall of China, which he scaled and descended into China on the other side.

"I climbed the wall at night, I was in excellent physical condition at the time and there were parts of the Great Wall that were lower than others. I ran up the side of the wall two or three steps and then grabbed at the top. Once on top, I distracted the soldiers guarding the other side by throwing rocks away from where I climbed down."

At this time in China, it was hard for any martial artist to find a master willing to take them on as a student. Despite this, Hwang Kee became acquainted with Master Yang, who taught Hwang Kee the northern style Yang kung-fu (Nei-ga-ryu), a stronger and more passive art than the southern style that can be used at close quarters. Following the conclusion of World War II, Hwang Kee returned to Korea.

Founding of Moo Duk Kwan
In 1945, grandmaster Hwang Kee formed his first school. Initially he titled his first school Hwa Soo Do ("Flowering Hand Way") Moo Duk Kwan, and his first two attempts at running a school were unsuccessful. In the early 1950s, he changed the name of his school to Tang Soo Moo Duk Kwan because Tang Soo (a direct Korean translation of Chinese and Japanese "China (or Chinese) Hand") was more familiar to Koreans from their exposure to Japanese martial arts. Much of the philosophy and many of the original forms (poomse) and techniques were direct derivations of Shotokan Karate, first created by Gichin Funakoshi. But Tai Chi Chuan and Shaolin Long Fist forms are taught in the upper levels of the style.

In 1957, Hwang claimed to have made several major discoveries in his reading the four hundred-page woodblock print Muye Dobo Tongji. The Muye Dobo Tongji was a book commissioned in 1790 by King Jeongjo of Korea, which illustrated indigenous Korean martial arts. Hwang Kee incorporated these teachings into his Tang Soo Do discipline and renamed the art he created Soo Bahk Do. By 1953 and onward until 1960, the Moo Duk Kwan had risen to become biggest Moo Do organization in Korea, with close to 75% of all martial artists in Korea practicing Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan. In 1960, the Korean Soo Bahk Do Association was incorporated and registered with the Korean government as the traditional Korean martial art.

During the 50th anniversary celebration of the founding of the Moo Duk Kwan in 1995, Hwang Kee officially renamed the art from Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan to Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan.

Philosophy
A distinctive philosophical component of Soo Bahk Do and some Tang Soo Do systems is the inclusions of guidelines and principles of Daoism (Taoism), created by Laozu and developed by Confucius.

One philosophy that Hwang included throughout his art was that no one could ever reach perfection. This was visible in his decision to use the Midnight Blue Belt over the Black Belt. This was also due to the fact the Koreans thought of black as the color of death (it also meant perfection though humans are never perfect), but the midnight blue sky was limitless, just like the training and knowledge that one could practice in a lifetime.

title: Hwang Kee


text:
Penguins & Polarbears

"Penguins & Polarbears" is a song by the Swedish punk rock band Millencolin from the album Pennybridge Pioneers. It was released as a single on 24 January 2000 by Burning Heart Records, including two B-sides from the album's recording sessions, "Queen's Gambit" and "Dinner Dog". An accompanying music video for "Penguins & Polarbears" was also filmed and released released on disc 2 for the CD release. In Triple J's Hottest 100 for 2000 the song was number 41.

Track listing
CD single
 * 1) "Penguins & Polarbears"
 * 2) "Queens Gambit"
 * 3) "Dinner Dog"

7" vinyl
 * Side A:
 * 1) "Penguins & Polarbears"
 * 2) "Queens Gambit"
 * Side B:
 * 1) "Dinner Dog"
 * 2) "An Elf and His Zippo"

title: Penguins & Polarbears


text:
Talk:Frog Buttress

I merged, and cleaned up the language some, but it still needs some more objectivity, ideally by somebody with some more direct experience and/or a guidebook (also to be a citation). Stan 03:29, 12 October 2005 (UTC)

title: Talk:Frog Buttress