This Weekend’s On Patrol: Live Highlights, Quotes, Social Media Activity, and Puns

The docuseries On Patrol: Live — i.e., Live PD 2.0 — premiered on the Reelz channel on July 22, 2022 and generally follows the same basic format as its A&E network predecessor in which videographers accompany cops on night patrol in real time.

About 50 On Patrol: Live cameras go into the field with the law enforcement officers usually from eight different U.S. departments during the ride-along on Friday and Saturday evenings. Pre-recorded segments are usually part of the show as well.

An On Patrol: Live recap, including studio host Dan Abrams’ puns, analysis, and banter with co-anchors Sean Larkin and Curtis Wilson (retired Tulsa, Okla., cop and Richland County, S.C., deputy sheriff, respectively), along with the often-snarky or playful social media reaction, follows. 

“Sticks” Larkin is gradually phasing out of the show. Cpt. Kory Flowers of the Greensboro, N.C., PD is making his second OPL appearance as a substitute in Larkin’s chair or former chair.

The Peacock and FreeCast streaming services carry the Reelz Channel, which is the home of OPL.

Please review this important DISCLAIMER.

On Patrol: Live Summary for August 4, 2023 (#OPL Episode 02-05)

  • Richland County, S.C. — Cpt. Danny Brown and other deputies respond to the scene where an alleged stolen car crashed into a house.
  • Daytona Beach, Fla. — Officers and K9 converge on house to serve a felony warrant for alleged sexual assault reportedly on a minor. Cops repeatedly call upon the subject to come out of a room. They finally conclude he’s not there before they find him in an adjacent room and take him into custody. Ofr. Roger Lawson: “This is the subject they were looking for. It sounds like he might have been hiding a little bit better than maybe originally anticipated, but he was taken into custody…” Abrams: “Remember, that despite what we’ re just seeing here, this is a very serious crime that he is charged with…”
  • Wilkes-Barre, Pa. — Ofr. Linsay Zarick makes traffic stop for an open trunk.
  • Berkeley County, S.C. (pre-recorded segment)– Abrams: “Deputies got some extra help while attempting to track down a driver who fled after a traffic stop.” Dep. Brandon Williams, Cpl. Devonte Smith, and other units respond. Foot pursuit in residential neighborhood. A homeowner apparently encountered the driver in his home and allegedly held him at gunpoint for deputies. Cpl. Smith: “The kid came outside and stated that the subject ran into the house. So I was able to lock the house down until more units got there, and I was able to go in and get the subject and take him into custody. Successful chase; we got the bad guy, and he’s going to jail.”

Cpt. Flowers comments on the importance of dispatchers: “They don’t get a lot of press, but honestly, the interchange between the officers and the dispatchers — they’re giving them information. It’s kind of like a dance. They’re role is irreplaceable, but we don’t talk about it a lot. That was impressive to me.” Dep. Wilson: “Absolutely. And especially when you get the community involved, who also is giving that information to the call-taker, who gives it to the dispatcher, which in turn, of course, law enforcement gets it. The normal data that we use as well, they get real time from that too. So if they’re missing something, they just can look to that computer that we have inside the vehicle, and that also assists.” Abrams: “And a lot of the time, you don’t get that help from the community that is so badly needed by law enforcement.”

  • Hazen, Ark. — Chief Bradley Taylor conducts traffic stop for speeding. The chief says he smells marijuana coming from the car. The driver admits to having weed in the vehicle. Car search. Chief Taylor: “Just issued a misdemeanor marijuana citation…you feel for him a little bit. He’s going through a rough time. Kids like that start pulling on your heartstrings, but we got a job to do. It’s nothing personal.”
  • Berkeley County, S.C. — First responders locate and rescue a boater in distress before a local storm hits.
  • Volusia County, S.C. — Dep. Kletus Stubblefield and other units respond to report of a fight at a gentleman’s club. Abrams: “some not so gentlemanly behavior.” The make contact with two men in the back parking lot, one of whom has a a bloody lip ho declines medical treatment. After an investigation, the man is taken into custody. Dep. Stubblefield on the allegations: “He’s going to jail for simple battery for punching the club owner and then for the aggravated assault with the firearm for threatening to shoot him and then came back out to his truck where his concealed shotgun was and making a threat. The club owner was in fear; he went back inside and closed the door behind him so he couldn’t get back in the building to protect himself and the staff inside.”
  • Toledo, Ohio — Traffic stop for window-tint violation. Sgt. Ray Espinosa was apparently going to send the driver on her way with a warning, but she becomes argumentative. No ID. He decides to run a check and turns out that she has warrants. Abrams: “That’s a twist.” Espinosa: “I just pulled her over, and I was just gonna explain to her why I stopped her, but apparently it’s turned into this big circus, and ‘we’re bothering her,’ and now half her family is here…” She is temporarily detained; citations issued and driver is released. Abrams: “Obviously, not particularly serious charges.”
  • Toledo, Ohio — Sgt. Geoff McLendon and Ofr. Greg Long Jr. respond to a 911 hang-up call and interact with a male and female in a park. McLendon. “It seemed like they were arguing for a minute, but he’s gonna take care of her for the rest of the night. She’s pretty intoxicated. She can’t be out her by herself, so hopefully they get along so we don’t take them to jail for…intox. But they can sit down and enjoy the concert that’s going on across the street.”
  • Daytona Beach, Fla. — Ofr. Lawson and other units respond to an office-in-distress call and encounter a group of females arguing outside. Lawson: “Sounds like something domestic related. When the female officer got on scene, a lot of commotion. That’s what we heard, yelling wise. But apparently somebody had a wrench on scene at some point in her hands and was getting ready to swing on somebody, so we have to figure out what’s going on here. I think we have everybody involved, but we’ll go from there.”
  • Richland County, S.C. — Capt. Brown, Cpl. Kenny Fitzsimmons, and other units and pursue two drag racing vehicles, a Durango and a Charger. They pull over and detain one of the motorists. Stop sticks deployed for the other fleeing vehicle. Wilson: “The communication between the deputies is so important as to who saw that vehicle, what direction they were going to. So what they did was they all got in that same vicinity, in that area, just in case they came that way…” Wilson also emphasizes radio-traffic brevity during a chase. “Whatever you need to say, get in and get out. It has to be important.”

Cpt. Brown on the charges: “The driver is going for reckless driving, drag racing…possession of a controlled substance…He also gonna be going for possession of marijuana…His passenger is going for possession with intent to distribute marijuana…” He added that “all the cash is gonna get seized, the weapons are gonna get seized based on the narcotics as well, and the vehicle is gonna get towed.” Abrams: “Turned out to be a rough night for those two.” A female passenger is released with a ticket.

  • Hazen, Ark. — Traffic stop for driving too slowly. Car apparently has no tags. The female driver has “a ton of tickets here lately,” according to Chief Taylor, including one written by Taylor’s state trooper son. He makes a friendly recommendation to her that “you need to quit driving this car until you get it straight, okay?” She is released with a warning that, in addition to more tickets, the car could get towed in a future traffic stop, and she would also have to pay the impound fee until she gets tags. Abrams: “It seems that the more significant issue here was the tag on the vehicle, and obviously it’s something that some other folks, including his own son who is a state trooper, pulled her over for as well.”
  • Fullerton, Calif. (pre-recorded segment) — SWAT and K9 deployed to take into custody a barricaded subject who allegedly threatened his family. Wilson provides commentary on flash-bang grenades: “These flashbangs are notoriously loud. So when they go off, what it’s supposed to do is distracts you, it startles you. It gives law enforcement an opportunity to get in and get you before you realize exactly what’s going on. They’re really loud.” Flowers commends the officers for “how professional these guys were. The guy came out with no clothes, which should shake you, and they stayed right on task. It didn’t even shake them. They went through with their mission. That’s impressive.”
  • Toledo, Ohio — Caption: “Investigating a man with a gun.” Cops detain a subject sitting in a chair outside who is allegedly intoxicated and also gather information from family members. Ofr. Long: “He seemed like he had a little argument with someone else and they called the police on him.. It’s unfortunate for him, but he was drinking and had a gun, so he can’t do that here.”
  • Fullerton, Calif. — Cpl. Brandon Ramek and other cops converge on home upon a report of two women fighting and that someone there has an AK-47 (which apparently turns out just to be an air gun of some kind). K9 and drone deployed. Officers set up a perimeter and subsequently detain the people in the backyard at gunpoint. Investigation into the altercation ensues. A woman on the scene declines to press charges.

Flowers on the initial report of an AK-47: “It turned out not to be, but the AR-15 is talked about so much now in the media. Everybody knowns what an AR-15 looks like, so any long gun that’s not an AR-15, people will assume, they’ll say, AK-47…but it was an air rifle in this case.”

In reference to the signage, Abrams quips that “I had said that they had defused the danger — it seems they’re going into a different kind of danger zone here”

  • Berkeley County, S.C. — Deputies and fire department respond to an accident scene. One of the involved vehicles has extensive front-end damage.
  • Daytona Beach, Fla. — Traffic stop. Ofr. Lawson: “She continued to drive. It wasn’t until the lieutenant put his red-and-blue lights on and sirens that she pulled over. When they passed her, she was obviously chewing something. It’s pretty obvious to tell that it was some type of narcotics. She wants to play the games and lie about chewing on a cigarette filter…she’d give us consent to search the vehicle, but that’s only the result of the fact that she she probably chewed up whatever illegal narcotics she had…just to wrap it up…looks like she had maybe some marijuana on her, but they’ll go ahead and run her medical marijuana card to see if she has it. But like I said, it’s believed pretty well, based on all the the training and experience that the officers on the scene have, she probably ate the narcotics.” The driver is released with no charges.
  • Daytona Beach, Fla. — Sgt. Mike Bryant makes contact with a pedestrian “to see what’s going on.”
  • BOLO segment — Be on the lookout for three alleged Tampa jewel thieves.
  • Hazen, Ark. — Traffic stop at gas station. Abrams: “It turns out that this guy had outstanding warrants and that car was apparently stolen.” Car search.
  • Daytona Beach, Fla. — Officers alerted to the possibility that a suspect involved in the shooting of Orlando cops might be headed to their area. The suspect vehicle is located in the Orlando area; the suspect is at large.
  • Toledo, Ohio — Officers make contact with a group of minibike drivers.
  • Nye County, Nev. — Sgt. Joe Marshall and colleagues investigate alleged domestic incident between a man in a woman. The male is taken into custody; Sgt. Marshall is able to calm him down after the man starts banging his head in the police car and starts crying. Cpt. Flowers points out that deputies could use additional restraints if he continued to try to bang his head. Abrams: “Obviously, they’ve now investigated and determined that he was the responsible party.” Wilson: “And also, the deputy did a great job talking him down, so that therefore he doesn’t continue to try to injure himself, which was a good thing right now.”

Sgt. Marshall: “We made a decision to arrest him. He was definitely the primary based on his statements, based on her statements, based on the way that the room looked. And I guess the four year old said that he saw him hit his mom first. So all that together kind of puts him as the primary. When we got him into the car, he started banging his head. I don’t think he’s trying to hurt himself. I think he’s really frustrated. He mentioned he’s coming down off of meth, and he’s been trying to get clean. So I’m sure all of those things, and then going to jail for domestic, just kind of everything is probably a little bit of an emotional overload for him. Once I talked to him, he started crying. He just wants her to know that he loves her…he’ll go down to detention. He’ll be able to make bail and released in 12 hours, if he can make bail. Otherwise, he’ll have to go to see a judge…and we’ll see how it goes from there.”

  • Volusia County, Fla. — Dep. Andrew Nelson makes traffic stop for speeding and a headlight out.

On Patrol: Live Summary for August 5, 2023 (#OPL Episode 02-06)

CLICK HERE for the OPL 02-06 recap.

The A&E vs. OPL Lawsuit Is Moving Forward

This may explain the new set design and changes to the logo and music, etc.

Whether related or not, OPL seems to have dialed back the on-screen puns, too.