"Live PD" Tulsa really didnt want to see

[patric]

And here I was, starting to think that maybe Bynum had a brain and kinda knew what he was doing...
Just shows how wrong even I can be!
Bad TV.   (Won't say what I really think - would get me censored.)

A question you probably should be asking is how did the mayor and police chief flip-flop from having legitimate concerns about the risks to officers and citizens posed by collaborating with "reality TV," to speaking fervently in its defense?
Somewhere between the two could exist a juicy story you might likely find in The Frontier, Oklahoma Watch or the Tulsa World long before anyone on TV shows some backbone.

But hey, its doing wonders for our economic development and attracting new business...  

City councilors split on whether Tulsa police officers should be on 'Live PD'
https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/city-councilors-split-on-whether-tulsa-police-officers-should-be/article_0b315491-10c4-5923-aebe-1936bdde6a69.html

Policing isn't entertainment; Tulsa should pull the plug on 'Live PD'
https://www.tulsaworld.com/opinion/editorials/policing-isn-t-entertainment-tulsa-should-pull-the-plug-on/article_f73a392a-771f-5fe1-a6ba-8507e6e0bb18.html

Is it really transparency you want?  Try this:
Each and every police bodycam or dashcam recording should be indexed and available on a police media-only portal within 24 hours, allowing credentialed reporters access to view and report on what they contain (but not immediately publish the video). That addresses the privacy and defamation concerns as well as "tactical secrecy."  
There should never be a future incident where authorities stall for weeks or months on applying transparency to a controversial incident, only to later claim that a recording was damaged or never existed.

[patric]

Innocent Tulsans featured on 'Live PD' lament becoming entertainment fodder in name of police transparency


Maurice Morrison felt an anger rise inside him when he saw the cameras.

Neither he nor his friend had committed any crimes, yet there they were, in a fast-food restaurant parking lot near Pine Street and Lewis Avenue, being broadcast live to a national television audience as suspects in an allegedly stolen vehicle.

"I don't know who dropped the ball, but it was a hell of a drop," he later told the World.

Morrison was one of the latest Tulsans to meet camera crews for A&E's documentary series "Live PD," which follows multiple law enforcement agencies across the country to depict officers' day-to-day work. The show is filmed live on Fridays and Saturdays, sometimes with a brief delay for censorship, but episodes also show filler footage shot throughout the week, i.e., "earlier in Tulsa."

The segment with Morrison and his friend was about 2½ minutes, live on a Saturday in January.

"Live in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Officer Joshua Hyman is assisting another officer who's chasing a stolen vehicle," host Dan Abrams said on the Jan. 18 episode.

Morrison didn't describe a chase. He said an officer flipped on his lights as his friend, who was driving, pulled into the Church's Chicken parking lot.

When Hyman arrived, several patrol cars were already in the parking lot.

An officer was shown talking with the handcuffed driver: "We run the tag, it comes back stolen. We don't know the story behind it. That's our standard procedure on how we take stolen cars down. It's the safest way for us to do it, the safest way for y'all."

"OK, but that's my mom's car," the driver started to say.

"We're gonna figure everything out," the officer says.

The camera moves to Morrison, handcuffed and talking with another officer who asked him about any prior arrests. Reluctant, he eventually answers.

The driver can be heard in the background: "That's my mama's car. It's not stolen. She just passed. I buried her on Friday."

In front of another patrol car, a couple of officers admire a pistol they found in the car's trunk: "That's a big boy right there," one says.

With the investigation ongoing, the show jumped to footage from three other states and a commercial break. When Abrams returned to the Tulsa segment, he said: "Well, it turns out that the car was not stolen — it was a clerical error."

Hyman explained more for the camera from his patrol car: "At one point in time, that vehicle was essentially used without the authorization of the owner. ... It was returned to the owner by that subject who took it. And as such, it should've been taken out of the system.

"But it wasn't. So it still shows that it was unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, so he wasn't, you know, he wasn't arrested."

Morrison said the officers' demeanor changed when they found funeral programs in the car's trunk and began to realize his friend was telling the truth.

"All of them had their two cents to put in when they thought we were doing something wrong, but once they found out we weren't, nobody had any money," Morrison said.

He has nothing against police, he said, and he even watched an earlier season of the show, which is why he knew the cameras were for "Live PD." But he was angry because he knew he and his friend would be seen as criminals before officers figured out they were doing nothing illegal, he said.

Viewers had to sit through several minutes of footage from other cities and a commercial break before hearing Hyman explain that Morrison and his friend never should have been stopped.

His friend legally owns the gun officers found, and they gave it back to him, he said, but that didn't make the air.

"I just kept saying, 'Thank you, thank you so much for inviting me to this lawsuit,' " Morrison recounted. "I was so mad."

An A&E spokeswoman told the Tulsa World that transparency is "the impetus" of the show.

Morrison said it's a fallacy that police transparency is a good reason for "Live PD" to film in Tulsa, where officers have their own body cameras, dash cameras and in-car cameras.

"(The show) is entertainment. It's not to try to show footage of what the police did. That's what body cameras and dash cams are for," he said. "A TV camera is for entertainment purposes and entertainment purposes only. Entertainment should not be in the justice system."

"I know we don't have to watch 'Live PD,'" he continued. "But don't bring that camera in my face when I didn't ask for it."

Morrison isn't alone in his complaints.

Mayor G.T. Bynum has firmly rejected community calls to cancel the city's contract with "Live PD."

"No, I will not," he stated at a public meeting in January. "Because I think it is important for the people to see what our officers actually deal with out in the field."

An attendee yelled back: "Let them come to your house."

Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin has acknowledged the entertainment aspect of the show but says it's beneficial for transparency.

"I understand people's reservations about 'Live PD,' " he said in early February. "But I think that when people call for transparency, and we want to be transparent, we want to show what we are doing, and ('Live PD') is a good way to showcase the work that we are doing."

Tulsa Police officials renewed a season contract with the series, produced by Big Fish Entertainment, in September after a two-year hiatus following the former police chief's decision that it was "not in the best interest of the department" to continue the show after camera crews followed only the Gang Unit in 2016.

They announced this season's return the day before it began, and said this time is different: "Live PD" camera crews rotate through patrol officers in all three TPD divisions — Gilcrease, Riverside and Mingo Valley — every two weeks, filming all across the city.

But some residents, like Carlotta Chaplin, aren't buying it. She does not watch the show, but she says she believes it focuses on the north-side community.

A stolen vehicle pursuit featured on the show as "earlier in Tulsa" ended in her driveway, and the suspects, one of whom she knew, ran into her north Tulsa home. She wasn't home, but her adult son and his friend were, and they told the intruders to get out, she said.

They were soon all walking out, ordered to do so at gunpoint by police.

Their faces blurred, Chaplin's son and his friend were handcuffed while officers determined who was involved, but they were eventually released, as "Live PD" host Dan Abrams noted on air.

Even so, Chaplin said the situation degraded her son and scared him "half to death," while the attention on her home caused her great embarrassment.

"All my neighbors were all outside, coming down the street," Chaplin said. "They thought somebody had killed somebody, there were so many police."

Chaplin estimated 30 officers flooded the area, and she thinks the large response was due to those who want a chance to be on camera and "get famous."

TPD Communications Unit Lt. Richard Meulenberg said Chaplin's account is taken out of context.

Meulenberg said he appreciates and understands her sensitivity to being on the show, but the police response on the pursuit that led to her house was typical.

Anytime a stolen vehicle pursuit with multiple suspects spans the city, involves the police helicopter and ends in a residential area, dozens of officers are likely to join the effort, he said.

He also disputed Chaplin's claims that officers sought out camera crews. That segment was filmed throughout the week, not live, so patrol officers didn't necessarily know where the camera crews were, he said.

Tulsa isn't the only city in which the presence of "Live PD" has generated controversy.

East Providence, Rhode Island, canceled its contract in December after a resident demanded $1 million in damages on claims she was aired wearing a towel at her home, local news station WPRI reported.

In September, a Greenville County, South Carolina, man featured on the show was handed a $9,000 settlement to close his case against the Sheriff's Office, which ended its contract with the show in 2017, Greenville News reported.

And officials in other places, such as Williamson County, Texas; Spokane, Washington; and Missoula County, Montana, have stepped away from the show for reasons that don't apply to Tulsa. But for every department that leaves, it seems many more are clamoring for its spot.

Dan Cesareo, creator and executive producer of "Live PD" and president of Big Fish Entertainment, told the Associated Press in 2018 that the feedback from viewers and participating departments is largely positive.

"Our only goal is to document policing across America," Cesareo said then.

https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/innocent-tulsans-featured-on-live-pd-lament-becoming-entertainment-fodder/article_4b70e30b-d3b7-502d-bb30-53f05b7bb312.html

[heironymouspasparagus]

"Our only goal is to document policing across America," Cesareo said then. [/font]

https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/innocent-tulsans-featured-on-live-pd-lament-becoming-entertainment-fodder/article_4b70e30b-d3b7-502d-bb30-53f05b7bb312.html

Disgusting crock of carp.

But then, look at who watches that garbage.   Hint: not thinking people with any brains or a life.

[patric]

Disgusting crock of carp.
But then, look at who watches that garbage.   Hint: not thinking people with any brains or a life.

The Tulsa Police Department on Tuesday responded to a social media post that alleged racial profiling led to a woman being filmed for "Live PD" while interacting with officers.

In response, TPD posted a video of the responding officers' body camera footage edited together and said it shows a more complete picture of what transpired.

The Tulsa World has requested the unedited body camera footage depicting the interaction. A TPD spokesman said its release could take a few weeks due to other media requests.

https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/debate-surrounding-live-pd-continues-as-tulsa-police-respond-to/article_8de04a27-2f2f-5646-8f5c-52073662470e.html

[swake]

The Tulsa Police Department on Tuesday responded to a social media post that alleged racial profiling led to a woman being filmed for "Live PD" while interacting with officers.

In response, TPD posted a video of the responding officers' body camera footage edited together and said it shows a more complete picture of what transpired.

The Tulsa World has requested the unedited body camera footage depicting the interaction. A TPD spokesman said its release could take a few weeks due to other media requests.

https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/debate-surrounding-live-pd-continues-as-tulsa-police-respond-to/article_8de04a27-2f2f-5646-8f5c-52073662470e.html

A few weeks?

[patric]

Disgusting crock of carp.

But then, look at who watches that garbage.   Hint: not thinking people with any brains or a life.

The mayor said the contract with the Live PD television show will not be renewed.

https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/watch-now-mayor-agrees-to-work-with-community-activists-announces-live-pd-contract-will-not/article_72d4df20-9efa-5023-8e83-bc91c45d75d2.html

[patric]

Texas police chase ends in death as 'Live PD' cameras roll. 'I can't breathe,' the man cries

Javier Ambler was driving home from a friendly poker game in the early hours of March 28, 2019, when a Williamson County sheriff's deputy noticed that he failed to dim the headlights of his SUV to oncoming traffic.
Twenty-eight minutes later, the black father of two sons lay dying on a north Austin street after deputies held him down and used Tasers on him four times while a crew from A&E's reality show "Live PD" filmed.
Ambler, a 40-year-old former postal worker, repeatedly pleaded for mercy, telling deputies he had congestive heart failure and couldn't breathe. He cried, "Save me," before deputies deployed a final shock.

Critics of Williamson County Sheriff Robert Chody, a lottery-made millionaire, say he has chosen cable show stardom over public safety. They also worry that the presence of TV cameras leads deputies to forsake prudent policing for dramatic television.

The deputies' decisions to chase and repeatedly use their Tasers on a man who simply failed to dim his lights prompts questions about the agency's practice of pursuing drivers for minor crimes.
"It is of very serious concern to any of us who are in law enforcement that the decision to engage in that chase was driven by more of a need to provide entertainment than to keep Williamson County citizens safe," said Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore.

Investigators say Chody and "Live PD" producers have repeatedly stonewalled their efforts to obtain evidence or interviews with the officers involved.

As Deputy J.J. Johnson, who is regularly featured on "Live PD," patrolled the quiet suburban roads just north of Austin last March, a film crew rode along with him.
When Ambler passed with his brights on at 1:23 a.m., the deputy turned his car around and flipped on the flashing lights.
As he drove, Johnson narrated for the TV crew, telling them what he thought was going on in Ambler's mind.

Backup Deputy Zachary Camden, who is white and was also accompanied by a "Live PD" crew, arrived and shoved his Taser into Ambler's upper back "in a drive-stun motion."
As the struggle continued, deputies used a Taser on Ambler a third time, though the report said it was unclear which  man deployed his weapon.

An Austin police officer arrived on the scene as the deputies struggled to put handcuffs on Ambler. Body camera video from that officer captured the final minutes of Ambler's life.
Deputies yell at Ambler to lay on his stomach and put his hands behind his back. One presses a Taser into his upper back.
"I have congestive heart failure," Ambler says. "I have congestive heart failure. I can't breathe."
As the deputies scream orders, Ambler, between gasps, tells them he's trying to follow their commands. Another four times he tells the deputies he can't breathe.

"I am not resisting," Ambler cries. "Sir, I can't breathe. ... Please. ... Please."
The deputies, who are on top of Ambler, continue yelling at him to put his arms behind his back.
"Save me," Ambler cries.
"Do what we're asking you to do!" a deputy yells.
"I can't," Ambler says, the last words the video captures from him just before one of the deputies deploys his Taser a fourth and final time at 1:47 a.m.
Moments later, they realized he was unconscious and his pulse had stopped.

The Statesman began looking into the case in February after investigators said they were troubled about what they were learning and frustrated that they felt stymied by Williamson County's failure to cooperate.
But it is unclear how aggressively investigators acted with the information they did have, including what steps they took to obtain video from "Live PD" and how quickly they took them. Moore said she is troubled that the show so far has produced no video.

Investigators say they are troubled that deputies went to such extraordinary lengths to capture Ambler for a minor offense. They also have grave concerns about the consequences of having "Live PD" camera crews at the scene.

The case adds fuel to a year-long fight between Chody and Williamson County commissioners about his department's participation in "Live PD." Chody has said the show offers viewers a first-hand experience of policing, has raised the profile of his agency and is a valuable recruiting tool.
But Williamson County District Attorney Shawn Dick has said he's concerned that "Live PD" refuses to provide prosecutors with video footage it collects while on patrol with deputies.

"It is getting very difficult for my prosecutors to uphold their statutory and Constitutional obligations to disclose evidence when prosecuting sheriff's department cases," Dick said.

Days after Dick raised those concerns in 2019, Williamson County commissioners ended a contract with the show.
In March of this year, however, filming resumed when Chody signed his own agreement with producers, prompting commissioners to issue a "cease and desist" order to the sheriff's office.
Chody refused to comply, and in May, the county sued him.
"Sheriff Chody can perform the core duties of sheriff without the live TV show," the lawsuit said. "But he doesn't want to.
Instead, Sheriff Chody seeks social media and TV exposure like a moth to a light bulb – and he's flown out of his job description to get back on TV."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2020/06/08/texas-police-chase-ends-death-i-cant-breathe-man-cries/3137476001/