The reality television show "Cops" has returned to Pierce County and has begun filming episodes with Sheriff's Department deputies on ride-alongs in unincorporated areas.
"Cops" is a cultural behemoth in the world of true-crime TV series. It first aired in 1989 as one of the first reality shows, taking viewers into the day-to-day action of police and sheriff's departments around the United States as law enforcement investigate crimes and, often, make arrests.
Pierce County has been featured in episodes more than 125 times in the more than three decades that the show has existed, according to the Pierce County Sheriff's Department. Episodes continued to be filmed here until as recently as summer 2019.
The series was canceled in 2020 shortly after the murder of George Floyd, a Black man killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis. His death set off protests in major cities across the United States and the world. Demonstrators protested law enforcement uses of excessive force as well as systemic racism in policing and other institutions such as academia, media, corporations and governments.
"Cops" was dropped by the cable network Paramount, where it had aired since moving from the Fox broadcast network in 2013. The show had long faced criticism for showing a skewed view of policing. A study published in 1994 found that the show was three times more likely to associate people of color with violent crime than white people. A co-creator of "Cops," Morgan Langley, was quoted in 2018 stating that the show long ago decided not to perpetuate stereotypes by putting more white people on the show.
The series was revived by Fox News Media in September 2021 for its 33rd season, according to the Associated Press, and new episodes now air on Fox's streaming service, Fox Nation. Reruns from earlier seasons are syndicated on many other networks.
Details of agreement with Langley Productions
The Pierce County Sheriff's Department signed its agreement April 4 with Langley Productions, the production company behind "Cops," to allow filming, according to Sheriff Ed Troyer. He said it underwent a legal review and was also approved by deputy prosecuting attorney Kawyne Lund.
It's unclear when ride-alongs began, but production crews were spotted filming with deputies as early as July 16. Troyer said producers will be in Pierce County until the last week of August, with no hard exit date. The News Tribune has requested a copy of the agreement through a public records request.
In a phone call, Troyer said "Cops" has been one of the best recruiting tools for the department, and he said he felt the show highlights the professionalism of his deputies and the beauty of the area.
"It shows the reality of what we're facing compared to what the media and how much whitewashed stuff — we've got 1,300 calls a day," Troyer said. "And people don't realize what kind of stuff we're doing and how much activity is out there and how much it takes to get the job done."
The Sheriff's Department currently has about 10 vacancies, according to Troyer. The department is budgeted for 402 full-time employees on the law enforcement side for 2024, including about 188 deputies. The budget includes $226 million for the Sheriff's Department and $151 million for corrections.
No money changed hands in the agreement, Troyer confirmed. Episodes won't be filmed in the two cities that contract with the Sheriff's Department for law enforcement services, University Place and Edgewood.
The Sheriff's Department also has significant editing power to decide whether an incident should be cut. Troyer said he used to review copies of episodes for the department, and in three seasons he recalled only making one set of edits for an episode "because it was so bad they sent it to me as a joke to see if I'd bite."
Troyer said the episode wasn't edited to remove anything like a deputy's "bad behavior." He said the decision was made not to air the segment because the call deputies had responded to was "too crazy."
People whose contacts with deputies are recorded by the show's producers are made aware that "Cops" is filming, according to Troyer.
"If they want to sign a waiver they can, and if they don't, then they're not on TV," Troyer said.
The Sheriff's Department has not publicly announced its decision to appear on "Cops." Troyer said they don't want people showboating to try to get on TV. A department spokesperson, Sgt. Darren Moss, said fake 911 calls were also a concern. Troyer said the department would issue news releases after filming is complete.
The News Tribune discovered that "Cops" was filming in Pierce County after a news photographer posted footage of a "Cops" production crew filming Sheriff's Department deputies to the Facebook page "Tacompton Files."
History of 'Cops' in Pierce County
"Cops" has been entertaining audiences with footage of Pierce County car pursuits, drug busts, investigations for car break-ins, murder and other crimes since at least 1992. News photographer and broadcast-news stringer Matthew Washam has been chasing similar scenes for even longer, and he still remembers the first time he ran into a "Cops" production crew.
The call was a triple murder and suicide the morning after Father's Day in 1992 at an apartment in Lakewood. Washam said KING 5 sent him out at about 1 a.m. The scene was still being investigated, and Washam said at first he thought the camera crew on the other side of the police tape was from another local news station. He soon realized it had way more access than any news crew.
"One guy's got a camera, another guy has a mic boom, and they're with the sheriff," he said. "And they go into the building and out the building and, 'What the heck?' Because here I am on the other side of the parking lot. What are they doing?"
Washam's footage of the production crew is preserved on his YouTube channel. He said the "Cops" crew used a three-second shot of him taping the scene with his camera.
The news photographer came upon a "Cops" production crew again July 16 when Washam left the Safeway in Orting and heard that the county had a pursuit going. A police scanner in his car gave him an idea of the direction the chase was headed, from state Route 512 to Pacific Avenue and eventually to 162nd Street in Spanaway, where Washam caught up with the action.
There, two men with a camera and a microphone grabbed Washam's attention. They were right next to a patrol car while deputies appeared to interview a suspect in the back seat.
"I did my thing, they did their thing, things are now winding down," Washam said. "The guy's transferred to the back of a patrol car. Asked a deputy, is that 'Cops'? And he said yes."
Washam, 64, has always been a fan of "Cops", he says. He said he knows people complain it's not fair to the people arrested on the show, but the way he looks at it, they wouldn't be on the show if they didn't do what they did. He also feels like it shows real life and what deputies deal with.
"And it's not pretty," Washam said.
That was part of the reason Lakewood, a mainstay on "Cops" in the 1990s and early 2000s, decided to cut ties with the program in 2005, a year after its Police Department was formed. According to The News Tribune's archives, then-police chief Larry Saunders said the show created the perception that the city wasn't a safe place to live, and it didn't reflect the new department's mission of community policing and conducting outreach with citizens.
The same year, a 34-year-old Roy man sued Pierce County, Lakewood, Tacoma and three law enforcement officers in U.S. District Court after his arrest in July 2004 was filmed by "Cops." The suit alleged, according to the AP, that officers were looking for an armed suspect in a car break-in when they came upon the plaintiff passed out in a sleeping bag.
He was woken up, shocked with a Taser and bitten by a police dog from Tacoma. Another man ended up being arrested that night who later pleaded guilty in the case. According to federal court records, Judge Robert J. Bryan, who is based in Tacoma, dismissed the plaintiffs' lawsuit in August 2006.
Lakewood still hasn't welcomed "Cops" back to its patrols. A producer for the series tried to persuade the City Council to reconsider in 2013, but it didn't budge.
Mayor Jason Whalen was a Lakewood City Council member at the time, and in his recollection of that discussion, they just weren't willing to revisit a show that would portray criminal activity. He said the series did portray a professional public safety approach to issues on the street. But in his opinion, he said, shows like "Cops" gain ratings by occasionally showing people in distress or "salacious" contacts.
"It just paints a bad picture," Whalen said. "And I think a lot of people declined to move to Lakewood or consider relocating their businesses to Lakewood because they saw Lakewood was on 'Cops,' and that's the reality. The perception started to wag the reality dog."
Sheriff defends decision to welcome 'Cops'
Troyer told The News Tribune he's heard the arguments about "Cops" making an area look bad.
"You know what my answer is to that? The 470 fentanyl overdoses make our area look bad," Troyer said. "The rising 90 percent in car theft make our area look bad. It's definitely not the 'Cops' TV show. It's the lack of laws, the decriminalization and everybody has an excuse for everything. That's what makes our area look bad."
Since 2020, when fentanyl overdoses began to sharply rise in Pierce County, to the third quarter of 2023, nearly 700 deaths have been attributed to synthetic opioids, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department. The University of Washington's Addictions, Drug and Alcohol Institute reports that synthetic opioids are almost entirely fentanyl and fentanyl analogues. Opioid-related overdose is the most common cause of accidental death in the county.
As for vehicle thefts, stats have been similarly bleak. One study found that Washington had the second-highest rate of auto thefts in the country in 2022, and according to the Puget Sound Auto Theft Task Force, the problem in Pierce County was then second only to King County. The task force said in May that it has seen a steady decline in auto thefts, which it partially attributed to some key arrests.
Troyer said being able to make the decision to bring "Cops" back to Pierce County shows the strength of having an elected sheriff. He said he spoke to county Executive Bruce Dammeier about the agreement with Langley Productions. In a statement to The News Tribune, Dammeier expressed support for Troyer's decision.
"The men and women in law enforcement have a difficult job to do and, just like body cam footage, a window into how they do their work is helpful for people to see," Dammeier said.
The Spokane County Sheriff's Office recently entered into a similar agreement with Langley Productions to allow "Cops" to film there, the Spokesman-Review reported in June.
Lyle Quasim is chairperson of the Tacoma-Pierce County Black Collective, a group that advocates for issues affecting the Black community. Quasim said he's seen a few episodes of "Cops," and he feels it portrays policing in a way that is contrary to the training officers receive at the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission. He said the police academy stresses de-escalating situations, and that's not something he's seen on "Cops."
Quasim didn't see value in using the show as a recruitment tool. He said if that's how recruiting is done, the Sheriff's Department would be hiring the wrong people for the job.
"I cannot appreciate what part of any episode that I have seen of 'Cops' that would attract a person whose primary responsibility would be to protect and serve," Quasim said.
Quasim also said he thinks there's "no way" that having a camera in a deputy's patrol car wouldn't have an effect on how they interact with the public.
Troyer disagreed with the idea that having a camera crew embedded with deputies would change how they do their work. He pointed to the department's implementation of body cameras, which he said had led to a significant drop in reports of use of force and misconduct.
"I think departments that would worry about this would be the ones that aren't, don't have trust in their people," Troyer said. "Well, we have full trust."
Another frequent criticism of "Cops" is that the show over-represents people of color in arrests for violent crimes. Dan Taberski, the host of "Running from Cops," an investigative podcast that dug into hundreds of episodes, wrote in a 2019 opinion piece in The New York Times that their data analysis found that it front-loads crimes allegedly committed by minorities. Before the first commercial break, arrests of Black people for violent crimes appear 46 percent of the time, arrests of Latinos show up 50 percent of the time, and arrests of white people appear 29 percent of the time.
Troyer briefly described how Pierce County might not have had the same issue in their "Cops" appearances.
"The big joke used to be years ago when you watch the Pierce County Sheriff's Department, they take crazy white people to jail, you know, and because our population is our population," Troyer said.
He touted the diversity of the Sheriff's Department. According to Pierce County data on the makeup of the local government's workforce, the Sheriff's Department is 76 percent white, 7 percent Black, 7 percent Hispanic, 4 percent Asian, 1 percent Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 1 percent American Indian or Alaska native, and 2 percent people who are two or more races. Two percent decline to identify their race.
Black people and Native Americans are equally represented in the Sheriff's Department's workforce as they are in the county's population, according to the data, but the department lags on people who are two or more races by 7 percent, Hispanic employees by 5 percent, Asian employees by 2 percent and Pacific Islander employees by 1 percent.
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