Cameras will be in some Baton Rouge police cars every Friday and Saturday for the police reality TV show “On Patrol: Live.”
The show features a curated feed of officers from across the country doing their jobs. The cameras started rolling last month.
BRPD’s first appearance on the show featured a man in a green hoodie being attended to after being in a car accident earlier this summer. In the clip, the man lies on the side of the road, clearly disoriented. A BRPD officer leans next to him to make sure he doesn’t move. He isn’t identified by name, but you can clearly see his face.
BRPD Chief TJ Morse said the producers of the show approached him fresh off the heels of his appointment last year. He said the producers liked his approach to policing.
“ Some of the speeches and some of the vision I had for the department,” Morse said. “and a lot of the things that we had going on here.”
Morse hopes to show the good that the police do through BRPD’s involvement with the show. He also hopes it will drive recruitment and bolster morale.
“Most of what you see is just negative, negative, negative. And we don't get to talk about the amazing things we have that are going on,” Morse said.
BRPD’s force is short 156 officers. In a presentation given to the East Baton Rouge Metro Council in June, Morse said that he needed to get creative to recruit officers with limited funds.
He also explained to the council that he can veto what’s shown on the program and has control over which patrol cars get cameras. The contract for the show was approved with only two council members in opposition.
Councilman Darryl Hurst voted in favor of the show, noting that he enjoys watching similar television. However, if it ends up harming the city’s image, the police chief’s job could be at risk.
“It’s either gonna move Baton Rouge forward, or we’re going to have a new police chief,” Hurst said.
Morse said he or a member of his staff can prevent something from airing if it’s a threat to the safety or security of officers or the community. BRPD’s contract with Half Moon Pictures, LLC says content can only be pulled for the safety and security of BRPD, but Morse said this includes the safety of the community.
However, ordinary people caught on tape won't have the same kind of creative control. And like the man in the car accident, the show rarely blurs their faces.
This has some residents concerned about the potential damage it could do to one’s reputation.
Gary Chambers, a Baton Rouge advocate and entrepreneur who grew up with a brother who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, said families might think twice about calling the police.
“ A mother who is dealing with an autistic son who's having challenges that day and she needs to call for assistance that day. Does that mother deserve for her and her son to be broadcast on television?” Chambers said.
Stacey Pearson, a Baton Rouge resident and former Louisiana state trooper, said she supports Chief Morse’s vision for BRPD, and she likes that he wants to treat people with dignity and respect. But she questions if the TV show achieves that, and if so, “at whose cost?”
“How would you feel if the worst thing that you ever did was recorded and just out there in the public view?“ she said. “There's a million other things that the Baton Rouge Police Department could do or, in some cases, are already doing. Show them in a positive light without exploiting someone that's down.”
Aaron Duplantier, an assistant professor studying media and popular culture at Nicholls State University, agrees.
Duplantier has watched hundreds of hours of police reality TV shows — most famously the show “Cops.”
At the end of the day, he said, the show’s goal is to entertain its audience. Moments like letting a father off with a citation for marijuana are often followed by high-speed chases.
He also said that for police recruitment, the show might not help because its audience skews older.
“The target demographic does not coincide with the group of people that I think the police department in Baton Rouge would really be interested in,” Duplantier said.
The show’s contract is set to expire in a year, but could be renewed.
