The abrupt decision by the A&E network and Big Fish entertainment on June 10 to cancel Live PD still doesn’t sit well with fans of the immensely popular law enforcement ride-along TV show.
Live PD gave views a glimpse of how police officers go about their business on night patrol. In the emotionalism of the moment, however, cancel-culture compliant corporate America came up small. Before it was cancelled, Live PD cameras followed police officers in real time on night patrol on Friday and Saturday evenings.
A Change.org petition for A&E to reverse its decision has about 87,000 signatures so far. A similar petition has 34,000.
Signers, among other things, noted that “the show humanized officers and brings to light issues in the communities” and “this show did more to show policing transparency than anything ever on national TV.”
Assuming A&E is out of the question, will another network or platform pick up the show or something like it? Will individual departments launch their own micro versions of Live PD? Could Live PD (or the equivalent) succeed as an online-only offering? Would Big Tech try to censor it if Live PD went in that direction?
In the meantime, Live PD Nation is making itself heard loud and clear on social media:
Still praying for the show to come back somehow. #LivePD is needed now more than ever. Don’t give up..#LivePDNation isn’t, either 🙏🏻 #BringBackLivePD #BoycottAETV #BoycottAandE
— Chris (@LibertyBella7) June 20, 2020
The important thing is not let it fade away and get lost in the other stories. A & E is hoping it blows over. We all need to keep #BoycottAandE and #BringBackLivePD
— Lisa C (@LisaFromPA) June 20, 2020
#BringBackLivePD Go to another network! You guys showed ALL sides of the situation. We miss you guys!
— D (@DanaMacDonald) June 20, 2020
Please help get this back on the air @danabrams anyway another station can pick it up? This isn’t right. I thought I’d be watching @Sean_C_Larkin @TomMorrisJr1 for the next decade. #bringbacklivepd
— The 2020 Hoax (@mediocremaddon) June 20, 2020
People have to realize that they can’t paint all cops with the same brush. You have bad cops but I think you have more good cops and you can’t punish everybody. Is there a problem, yes….. so let’s fix it, but you don’t have to cancel a show.
— JoNa (formally NaJo) (@ConnieM73393626) June 11, 2020
The #LivePD cameras increase transparency and accountability. This must stem from the death of Javier Ambler in March 2019. Hope @AETV chooses to bring the show back. @LivePdFans #LivePDNation https://t.co/fEz4pWJ2Tw
— FREDDIENUPE (@freddieNUPE) June 11, 2020
Check back for updates.
Time to bring back LivePD!
The cancellation of LivePD was a huge disappointment for me, but I can’t say it wasn’t expected. The culture of America’s police departments has been in dire need of reform for many years now and I hope that the current movement prompts that reformation to occur.
Despite the overwhelmingly positive examples displayed every week on A&E, it’s apparent that there are too many individuals employed these days as law enforcement officers who aren’t emotionally equipped to handle the stress/complications/whatever-you-want-to-call-its that their job requires on a long-term basis. Racist or not – if an individual’s actions in a public situation kills another human being, he probably wasn’t suited for that public relations job in the first place.
Fixing this problem might not be easy but in the eyes of this amateur, there are at least two distinct fronts from which to approach it. You can hike the pay scale to increase the quality of applicants, or you can try to reduce the stress/complications by eliminating some of the officer’s discretionary decisions. By the latter, I’m referring specifically to the current emphasis on traffic stops (which spawn the inevitable drug suspicion/search results), which generates most of today’s police interaction with the public. Limit their choices of how/when to act and you limit their liability.
Complicating this issue is a bloated bureaucracy developed over years of various litigation (actual and threatened) between the local departments, police unions, government of all levels and the public itself. Hundreds (thousands?) of reactive policies which shape officers’ daily actions have been enacted over the last several decades. Many of these will have to be retracted and rewritten.
None of these reforms (or any other that I surely have missed) will happen overnight. But there is hope. LivePD consistently showed us that there is a human side to this country’s police culture. On the day that culture figures out how to be more consistently human across its entire ranks, that should the day LivePD comes out of hiatus.
Apologies for the length.