A police officer in Des Moines, IA, performs a routine traffic stop on a vehicle registered to a person who doesn't have a valid driver's license. When the suspect fails to present ID, and then attempts to flee, officers tackle him and find marijuana in his possession. Then, officers of the Springfield Police Department in Springfield, MO, pull over a vehicle for running a stop sign. The driver admits to smoking marijuana, while a passenger is in possession of marijuana and mushrooms. Finally, a deputy of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office in Florida responds to a knife robbery call from a cell phone store, where the victim is also a suspect
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.