OllieSuave-007 This is a reality TV series featuring true stories of law enforcement officers from various regions and departments of the United States. The television camera captures real footage of the officers in action as they serve and protect.Like cop show Real Stories of the Highway Patrol, this show covers a variety of cases from chasing down drug dealers to high-speed car chases. It is interesting seeing officers on duty in action, with a camera following their moves. At times, it can me more intense than watching a movie because the action here is real.Overall, this show has more adrenaline, action and intrigue than Real Stories of the Highway Patrol.Grade B

IcyRoses Quite easily the best reality, and realistic show ever to be shown on television."Cops" will give you a good idea of what the tough life of America is actually like. I remember one episode where a woman is falsely accused and it reminds me of how flawed this country's law is actually is.But, it's funny, dramatic, and exciting. You never know who you're going to see! So, it's not for the close-minded, but it's still a brilliant reality series that will remain a staple in pop culture.By the way, my favorite episode ever was where the cops are called when a crack dealer doesn't get her money.Incredible show!

luktan There's no doubt that COPS is the best (ever!) TV reality program.It's been around for years, and will be around for many more years to come.Forget the hype. Forget the staged drama and props- this is the real thing.If you've been hiding under a rock and have no clue what this program is about- a TV crew does "ride-alongs" with the Police from all around the USA. It give us a first person view of a day (or night!) in the life a cop.It has been interesting to see the changes in the type of events they're being called to- I'd guess that almost 99% are in some way, shape or form are related to drugs. The offenders have either just used, just purchased, just sold or have in their possession or in their car, something to do with drugs! Amazing to see how common their use is....Great program and hope to see it for years to come. :)

MisterWhiplash Cops has been on TV almost all my life. In fact, it's on right now, on TV in the background, as a police officer busts a guy driving with drugs in his car. For years watching dozens of the shows in syndication, episodes much like these, I was struck by how every episode, in essence, is the same. An officer may stop someone on the road, come up to their house, chase after them, and they always get their man or woman. Race isn't even as much an issue as it is the essential point of the show, almost to the point of redundancy- the cops, according to this show, don't lose. But the irony is, someone like myself who becomes occasionally disgusted by the antagonistic (to a point) and superiority-driven nature that underlies those who serve and protect, is constantly re-watchable. But a fact that I didn't know for quite a while was put to me about the show, an important point- the people who appear on the show getting arrested *agree* to allow their faces and likenesses put on TV. Somehow the relish is almost at times interchangeable.If anything, Cops over a decade and a half is almost like a kind of quasi-anthropology turned to ratings. It's not too surprising that if you happen to walk into a police station at a given moment they may be playing this their TV's. And despite the disclaimer at the start of the show, "those arrested are innocent until proved guilty in a court of law", if one were to incorporate the media-is-the-message idea, these people are practically all guilty in their own way by being subjected to not only the rule of the law (90% of the time in just cause) and by their own flaws under the gun (no pun intended). The fact is, Cops was and remains one of the pioneers of reality television, capturing a kind of base level of how life really is when under the lens of a professional hand-held cameraman. There is no contest or money at stake for the participants, it's capturing the suspects/arrestees at their most ashamed (or dazed, crazed, what have you) moments, and the law as the unfettered, collected, and "professional" beings on the planet. The premise of the show, and a good deal of the time its execution, is brilliant in its own way, as a real documentary-style show that is entertaining in its own willful manipulation of the reality. More often than not, even as I feel the some episodes have me cringing in my seat, it is a genuinely interesting piece of the crude side of humanity we either can't look away from or would rather not see at all. And the show becomes very subjective- how you may or may not think the law really helps you or others will effect how you see its worth in the TV landscape.