(Pierce County WA - 1:43 AM Public Disturbance Call) South Hill Precinct - Deputy Patrick Davidson works the eat area where there's not many cops, but lots of tweakers and dopeheads. He goes to a hotel on the call of Tim who is really wasted in Apt 21. When Pat arrives Tim takes off and is caught around back. Deputy Eugene Abaun assists. Tim ran because he thought they were trying to hit him, so he threw everything. He was high on coke and was going out to score. He's been awake for 4-5 days, is barefoot, can't walk because he has football feet. He's not on probation, on bond. He's done coke all day since he was 26 years old. He doesn't deal, lost his pipe and is bi-polar. The landlord wants him out. Christine can drive him away because it's not a crime to be high. So they let him go. The owner says he was wandering up and down knocking on doors last night. He told him to stay inside and wants him out tomorrow. He throws his stuff in a garbage bag and leaves. Santa Ana, CA - Officer Garry Caruso grew up around police since his dad was a cop. He saw it, heard stories and it sounded like fun. He wasn't pushed into it. (1:38 AM Street Patrol) They drive an unmarked car into a known gang alley where they go to do and sell drugs. They go after a white El Camino with guys inside and catch them. The driver, Kevin, is an old white guy. The passenger is a young Hispanic. They go to pull the young guy out and he tries to swallow the drugs and they choke it out of him and cuff him. Officer Mary Campuzano was first on the scene. Kevin is on parole for a possession charge in 1998. He was going to pick up a girl named Shasta and the young guy just got in his car because he needed a ride. He saw he had drugs and he told him to get rid of them. Both go to jail. Las Vegas - South East Area Command - Officer Gibron Smith loves Vegas, but it gets hot - over 110 degrees and stays like that for months. It gets real hot on 4 hours of calls outside of your car. Sgt. Kelly White says they can get dehydrated. They go to a gas station where a guy is pumping gas for 4 hours. The guy says he was looking for his keys for 10 minutes. He left home at 8:30 am and now it's 9:30. They tell him it's really 11:45. They find prescription drugs on him with the labels removed. He says they are his moms', but the label wasn't hers. He mixed the bottles to consolidate the pills for her to help her pain. He is a musician, classically trained, but his mom got hurt and he's taking care of her. His face is all made up, but he claims he's not wearing make up. He says his lips are chapped. He was shopping, but bought nothing and didn't get gas. The cashier says she watched him there for hours. He came in to buy stuff, forget his credit card and went back to his car and spent 30 minutes looking for it. His keys he couldn't find were on the roof the whole time.
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.