PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — The iconic reality television show, Cops, is back filming in Pierce County with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department.
“My dad was actually on Cops back in the nineties,” Sergeant Darren Moss said. He told KIRO 7 the show has a long-standing relationship with the department and when Sheriff Ed Troyer was approached by the show, he agreed to let them film again.
“The Cops crew will ride with a deputy for a couple of days in a row and what they decide to keep and not keep really depends on if it’s a good enough incident or interesting enough of a story,” Moss said.
Moss said they did enter a contract with the show but there isn’t any exchange of money. The contract he said ensures the department isn’t liable for anything that airs and that the show has insurance for its employees who are riding along with deputies.
Moss said the show filmed with PCSD as recently as 2019 but the show was cancelled by Paramount back in 2020 after the death of George Floyd.
“I am concerned in terms of why Cops was cancelled, the reasoning behind it, was it too controversial, you know maybe some inflammatory comments, I’m not sure,” Matt Loeb, who lives in the county, said.
However, Patricia Leckenby said she thinks it’s a good idea to have the show back filming.
“Could give a maybe more humanistic view of what the police do every day I know they’ve certainly helped me a few times,” she said.
The department said it believes this will help with recruiting and provide even more transparency.
“It gives people an inside look at the patrol car and how we do our job and how we’re professional at our jobs,” Moss said. “We’re still short about ten patrol deputies but our budget has been lowered so we have a smaller number to get to whole staffing, we used to be budgeted for 354 and a half deputies and now we’re at 324.”
Moss also said the department will get to review video before it airs, mostly regarding sensitive subjects or incidents. He also said both suspects and victims will have to sign waivers as well.
“If they don’t have those waivers signed off then they’re probably less likely to use that footage,” he said.
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