4 (12:20 PM) Multnomah Co Sheriff's Dept - Deputy Lane Sawyer and Sgt. John Bunnell drive and explain about surveillance they have on a business in the southeast. They have a warrant on the business and the house and have Bob now on a traffic stop in a blue Camero. John says he won't cooperate. They talk to Bob Park, who has his kid with him. Lane tells him he works narcotics and has been watching him sell coke. He can say nothing if he wants, but Lane can go full bore on him, if he finds enough he can go federal and Bob can get 10 years. Bob says he isn't the guy, they should know who he is getting it from. Lane says he might know who he is, but needs his cooperation. They check his trunk, it's filled up by a large speaker. They find a shotgun inside and he says it doesn't work and is old. There is a handgun in the front, but no dope in the car. He has a wad of cash on him. (1:15 PM) They take him back to a hotel and have him make a call to his buyer. He wants a half and tells her to be careful. John tells him they will set the call up for 1pm tomorrow. If he doesn't show up he promises that he'll come down hard on him. He didn't show up and a warrant issued for his arrest. (11:00 AM Next Day) Deputy Dennis Fitz says a package came by UPS and it was ID'd for drugs. (Narcotics Task Force Briefing) They have the package and want to deliver to the house and arrest who accepts it (12:10 PM) They go to the house and there are two women inside. Deanna says the package is for her. John tells her to be very cooperative. She says she will. John says if she is truthful she can stay home, if she jerks them around, she'll be going to jail. In the back they find a drug scale and bags of coke. The women says they are not heavily involved in coke sales, the maximum she sells to is to 10 people a day, not $1000s a day. John asks where she got the coke. She says a guy named Mike. John asks what would happen if she called him. She calls to make a meet for an ounce. John sets up a meeting - it never ends.(2:27 PM) John says the guy is en route. When he shows up, grab them both and he'll meet with Lane. The guy shows up in blue and black shorts. He and a woman go up to the house. Once they go inside the cops run to the house. The girl has a cigarette in a passing grip as they cuff her and take her out. They ask Mike where he gets it from. He says the guy they busted, Bob Park. Lane asks where he is. He says he doesn't know directly, but he'll make a deal (9:45 PM) They set up a meeting with Bob at a car wash. They jump him and he growls and says OK. John yells at him that they told him not to screw around and he learned his lesson. He has a bag of dope and a couple bags in the van. Bob gets a bloody lip in the struggle. John says he wants to search his van and apartment. Bob says there is nothing, same as last time, he wants to talk to his lawyer, then says to go ahead and look. The van is gross, covered in filth. John says it's 2:30 AM, it took 12 hours and 2 arrests later they are still going. John's favorite saying is, "You gotta be tough to live out west". (Street Patrol) Portland North Precinct - Officer Becky Wooten takes the call of a stolen bike that comes in to 911. She says a neighborhood boy stole it yesterday, she got it back, but now she doesn't want to mess with. She goes to the house, talks to the mom, says he did it before, but doesn't know the house where the bike belongs to. Becky has been there before and says if he comes back to call them and they'll take it. Call even if he doesn't have the bike. Kevin is a young black kid in a Nike soccer shirt who comes walking up. She cuffs him, says he's going to jail and he cries. She mirandizes him and puts him in the back of the police car until he calms down. She says she talked to his mom, she knows. He says Milton told him to take it. He can't take stuff because people tell him to. He'll be the one that goes to jail.. She tells him she'll think about taking the cuffs off. She closes the door on h m and leaves him there. Becky tells the mom she doesn't want him to know there isn't much that they can do to him. She keeps him back there and drives to a house looking for Milton. Becky goes to Milton's house on 18th, says he stole 2 bikes and took them apart. Mom goes in and finds Milton, he says Kevin isn't a close friend and tells him he doesn't want to hang around with him or go to his house anymore. They dare each other to steal. Becky says if they hang out together she'll arrest them both for whatever crime the one does. Milton asks if he's going to the judge and he'll be good. Becky says she isn't unarresting him, just giving him to the custody of his mom and the paperwork is on it's way. She takes him home and if it works, that's one less 7 year old off the street.
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.