When Officer Tom Hemsley of the Jacksonville, FL, Sheriff's Office attempts a routine traffic stop, the driver of the car refuses to yield and stops just long enough for the passengers to flee. The suspect then leads Officer Hemsley on a high-speed pursuit on several busy highways. After the driver loses control of the vehicle and crashes into a guardrail, he bails out of the vehicle, jumps off an overpass and disappears into the night. Officer Hemsley tries to give chase, but sustains a head injury when he jumps off the overpass and is transported to an area hospital.
Called the original reality show, Cops is a gritty and unfiltered look at the seamier parts of our society as seen through the eyes of the men and women who struggle to keep the peace.
Since 1989, camera crews have traveled across the nation and into other countries providing an intimate look at police officers and the nuts and bolts of their day-to-day work.
Cops uses a modern adaptation of cin... ma v... rit?, a French documentary style of film making from the early 1920s, where life is shot as it happens, without script, narration or interference. Here, the police officer is narrator, guiding you through the shift and what happens within it, using his or her own words.