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 show producers and 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 or nine different U.S. departments during the ride-along on Friday and Saturday evenings. For legal and other reasons, the show broadcasts live incidents reportedly on an approximately five-to-20 minute tape delay.

OPL does not always update what happened after airing the initial contact/ investigation in each incident; sometimes, however, it provides further information during the On Patrol: First Shift pre-show.

Pre-recorded segments are also typically included in show content.

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

With retired Tulsa, Okla., cop Sean “Sticks” Larkin, the original member of the trio, phasing out of the show, one or two guest analysts usually join Abrams and Wilson each weekend in the studio.

This weekend, national police trainer Capt. Tom Rizzo from the Howell Township, N.J. PD, provides commentary alongside Abrams and Dep. Wilson.

Note: 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 December 15, 2023 (#OPL Episode 02-39)

  • Richland County, S.C. — Capt. Danny Brown conducts a traffic stop for expired plates. According to Brown, there is a strong odor of weed coming from the car. The driver is detained. Car search. Cpt. Brown: “So he’s carrying a gun unlawfully without a permit. It’s got to be in the center console or the glove box. It definitely can’t be around drugs…when I asked him about the weapon, he said no. There’s no guns. And then when I told him I was gonna search, he told me there was a gun…right now, he is being arrested, but right now it’s just for the unlawful carry unless we find something else.” Boxes of candy also found in car that apparently were being discarded by a dollar store. Abrams: “And it’s not illegal to have a sweet tooth.”
  • Daytona Beach, Fla. — Ofr. Taylor Carman conducts a traffic stop on a pick-up truck for speeding. “What is the rush?” The driver is released with a warning.
  • Toledo, Ohio — Ofrs. Heather Smith and Austin Bly respond to a report of a residential burglary in progress. They make contact with a woman who claims that there were prowlers with flashlights at a nearby boarded-up house. Ofr. Bly: “She’s just a little scared and upset. Apparently, this seems to be a problem house. She saw a flashlight flashing in her window. She didn’t see anybody make entry. However, there’s a few small holes where someone could have went into, but they’d have to be a very small person. But we’re not gonna risk that and go inside for now. She’ll call back if there’s any other issues.”
  • Berkeley County, S.C. (pre-recorded segment) — Deputies, including Cpl. Ronnie Russell, pursue a vehicle through the woods that fled from a traffic stop. The driver is detained after a foot bail. K9 Prima is deployed to search for two occupants who are also located and detained. Dep. Wilson: “Prima is like one of those single-purpose dogs. Their job is basically to scent, track, to get the scent of an individual and track and find them…” Cpt. Rizzo: “I think that officer was part bloodhound the way that he tracked. He’s calling out roads — that doesn’t look like a road to me. That looks like a path. And he’s tracking those subjects regardless of debris being thrown in his way almost as if it was a video game. Incredible job.”
  • Fullerton, Calif. (pre-recorded segment) — Cops respond to an incident in which a car crashed into the wall of a house or what Abrams describes as an “unexpected detour through someone’s bedroom.” Officer at the scene: “The occupant of the residence that she crashed into got extremely lucky because the car actually went through the wall and hit his bed, but slowed just enough to not do too much more damage or actually like hit him. So he got super lucky. So now we’re gonna be doing like a DUI investigation, and we’ll also be taking a traffic collision report…she was placed under arrest for suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and her vehicle’s towed. And now we have Anaheim police department, one of our neighboring agencies, actually has a team that comes out and shores up the building when there is structural damage just to make sure that the building is gonna be okay for people to still inhabit. So they’re doing that right now. Once they clear up, that will be it.”

Abrams: “You got to have a pretty good explanation for why you run your vehicle into a building; Cpt. Rizzo: “Buildings certainly don’t jump out at you, right? So short of a medical episode that could happen, sure…and that’s one heck of an alarm clock as well, right?” Wilson confirms that agencies like in Anaheim “have a specialized unit now that comes to check to make sure it’s structurally safe…”

  • Daytona Beach, Fla. — Ofr. Carman conducts a traffic stop for a well-being check after multiple calls about erratic driving. Ofr. Carman: “With cars that are low like this, I understand where she’s coming from. It seems like some concerned drivers thought that she was driving while intoxicated. I have no suspicion that she is. Her eyes are dilated. She’s not slurring her speech. She’s not all over the place. I am inclined to believe that she was just avoiding potholes, and concerned citizens were just worried about her.”
  • Richland County, S.C. — Cpl. Rebekah Smith and other units investigate a report of a disturbance at Chuck E. Cheese and make contact with subjects at the scene. A review of surveillance video appears to show a woman allegedly assaulting a man outside the store. Abrams: “Not a particularly good video for the woman there who said she did not hit the guy.” Cpt. Rizzo: “Videos don’t lie, right? And what really ‘kills me’ on that is that the child is sitting there in the middle of the altercation. It just goes to show you, right: Emotions raging, and there it is.” Wilson: “I’m glad that the guy didn’t retaliate.” Abrams: “Yes. He also had a child in his hands, but this makes it tough for her to argue otherwise…remember, the question was what happened as they came out the door, right? He said she hit him, she said she didn’t. Sure looked like she did.”

After watching the footage again, Abrams mentions “She said she was trying to grab him. He’s got a baby in his hand. That’s gonna be a tough one for her to explain. He went and got some help because he’s got a kid in his hand. And I have to say, considering — and this is a point Curtis made — even the other people arriving on the scene dealing with it in a pretty calm way all things considered. This is the kind of scene that could totally get out of hand. Wilson: “Into a melee with everybody now involved. But no, it didn’t happen that way. So that’s a good thing for sure.” Abrams: “We’ll have to see now what will happen. And I guess it’ll, in part, determine whether he wants to move forward and press charges, right? ” Capt. Rizzo: “Oh, a hundred percent, right?…it’s caught on tape, so now they’re gonna yield to whatever his choice will be. But thankfully the kid wasn’t hurt as well.”

Cpl. Smith advises the woman she will be charged with domestic violence in the third degree. She also implies that without the video, it might just be a ‘he said, she said,’ situation. “I don’t think your actions had anything to do with the baby, but I will say in the video footage, you swung at him…but it’s one of those things, I can’t just leave here after seeing that footage…” Abrams: “The surveillance video made this one kind of open and shut from the officer’s perspective.”

Abrams update: “Remember the Chuckie Cheese incident — the guy with the baby who got hit by the woman as he’s coming out the door. He decided not to press charges, so no arrest ended up being made there.”

  • Coweta County, Ga. — Dep. Anthony Bufano and other units conduct a traffic stop. Open container allegedly spotted. Car search. MDMA (a.k.a. ecstasy) allegedly found. Field sobriety testing. The driver allegedly refuses to take a breathalyzer and is arrested for alleged suspicion of DUI.
  • Berkeley County, S.C. — Sgt. Paul Yacobozzi makes contact with a good Samaritan at her home who found a lost dog. He originally asked her to keep the dog overnight and that animal control will come out the next morning. Yacobozzi: “I would take him home but my wife will kill me if I bring another dog home.” Abrams: “Good for her; she’s gonna take the dog home for the night. And remember, it’s not just that; she actually stopped her car, got out, saw something, and did something. Bravo to a good Samaritan right there.” It turns out, however, that the animal control officer was still available; he takes charge of the dog, and he and Sgt. Yacobozzi reunite with its owner at the latter’s residence. Caption: “Canine Christmas miracle.”
  • Toledo, Ohio — Officers and the fire department respond to a fire at a residence. Abrams: “So obviously the good news is that it appears someone is not trapped. That was the women clearly they were concerned about who appears to be okay.” Ofr. Bly: “So from here, we really don’t now how the fire started. We’re gonna conduct a fire investigation report, and then we’re gonna send that report to the battalion chief here. He’ll do that investigation from there.”
  • Triple Play #1 — Canadian County, Okla.
  • Indian River, Fla. — Det. Christian Castano conducts a traffic stop. The driver says she only had a couple of beers, i.e., three. Open container allegedly spotted. Alcohol smell from vehicle allegedly detected. Another deputy conducts field sobriety testing. The driver is arrested for alleged DUI.

Abrams: “We were all talking in the studio about the kinds of tests that they were administering here.” Rizzo: “Sure. It’s divided attention for a reason, right? Motor skills look different for everybody. Intoxication looks different for everybody. So those fine details in terms of the sequences what the officers paying attention to to see if they’re followed and how they’re followed to pick up on indicators of intoxication., right?” Wilson: “Right– absolutely. Talking about specific instructions. If you’re impaired, you’re not going to be able to do exactly that.” Abrams; “Some say a game of Simon Says. You got to follow it; you got to make sure you can do it.” He then quips that “and you got to make sure you can do it after at least three beers.”

  • Coweta County, Ga. –Dep. James Konger pulls over a truck pulling a flat-bed trailer that allegedly may be involved in a supposed kidnapping of a passenger, but the occupants/vehicle aren’t involved, and the whole thing could also be a false alarm. Before sending them on their way after the friendly contact, Dep. Konger mentions that the tail light on the passenger side of the trailer is out.
  • Richland County, S.C. — Capt. Brown investigates an alleged domestic incident at a residence and after making contact with an older male and a female there, he takes the male into custody for alleged domestic violence. Capt. Brown tells the man that he allegedly “entered her room and swung a wooden dowel at her. You don’t have to make contact; that still counts as an assault…I can not in all good conscience allow you to stay here tonight.” The man denies the allegation. Capt. Brown explains that “we’re gonna talk with the victim a little bit more. We’re getting a victim statement just so — I got it on video anyway — but we go a victim statement on the domestic. If we leave him here tonight, even though she’s locked in her room, he’s obviously irate enough to where the upstairs neighbors were calling. She doesn’t have to press charges. We can do it in good faith because he was attacking her with a wooden dowel, and I’m gonna ask her to show me where it’s at.”

Abrams: “Very interesting that the woman there saying she’s gonna bail him out.” Wilson: “Very typical situation that goes on. Women are attacked by significant other. What happens then is when that person gets arrested, now they don’t want this to happen. They don’t want him to get charged; they don’t want him to go to jail…” Abrams: “But unlike the other scene we saw in Richland County where you needed a victim to press charges, here you don’t.” Capt. Rizzo: “No, they can enter them on behalf of the victim. Because often, as Curtis alluded to, that’s what’ll happen, right? People are reluctant; it’s gonna disrupt their fear of security, and unfortunately, it’s something that we see. It’s a pattern for sure.” Abrams: “And increasingly, more departments around the country have empowered the police to be able to bring these exactly domestic incident charges because people are reluctant.” Wilson: “Based on what they see here, they will go ahead and enact those charges.” Abrams: “Always tough situations”

  • Daytona Beach, Fla. — Ofr. Carman makes a traffic stop on a bicyclist for some infraction. The subject uses cell phone translate app to communicate with the officer.
  • Toledo, Ohio (pre-recorded segment) — Officers respond to the scene of a drive-by shooting that may have caused a car crash. Paramedics arrive and place the victim on a stretcher for transport to the hospital. Investigation ongoing. Ofr. Bly mentions that the vehicle “got lit up.” He adds that “the vehicle that the victim was driving has got multiple bullet holes inside of it. And the one in the front seat that appears the one that shot the victim in the back.” Shell casings were also found “just down the street.” He noted that “there apparently is a vehicle involved, there is an SUV, unknown direction of flight, so we got crews in the area looking for that as well.” Bly goes on to say that cops recovered 13 shell casings: “Looks like 9 millimeter. We were actually alerted from OnStar that there was also an accident in the area that shots were fired…” Detectives to take over the investigation. In the meantime, cops will try to get a better description of the vehicle from surveillance cameras.

Capt. Rizzo: “You’re talking about chaos, right? You have several scenes at once. You have criminal. You have EMS mindset of ‘where is my victim? That many shell casings. Now we have several different things to consider in terms of people first, property second, naturally, right? And that’s where the technology comes in, right? How do we use technology to help us find the source of those gunshots in order to target our efforts accordingly.” Wilson: “…talking about the video, gunshot detection, also sound as well. It all helps to solve these crimes.”

  • Berkeley County, S.C. — Cpl. Devonte Carr gives a friendly warning to a motorist in her driveway, the owner of a “chunky cat,” that her tag light is out and that the car window tint is a little dark.
  • Toledo, Ohio — Ofrs. Greg Long Jr. and Shade Keeney respond to calls some odd activity outside a school and make contact with a man who appears to be behaving erratically. Ofr. Long: “You’re sweating like crazy, man.” Long claims that the subject is allegedly tugging on door handles and trying to get into the school. “So for his safety…he’s gonna go to jail tonight for being disorderly.” The subject is arrested for alleged disorderly conduct. “Am I on Cops?” Abrams; “And it’s 36 degrees. Just another little nugget of information to add to the total picture here.”
  • Triple Play #2 — Arkansas.
  • Coweta County, Ga. — Officers converge on a residence for possible burglary in progress. With K9 Titan deployed first, they enter the basement and clear the residence. Apparently it was a false alarm. Abrams: “I guess that’s the only downside to having a really big, nice house is that sometimes a door somewhere in the house may blow open, and people might not know exactly what happened.”

Abrams: “We were just talking about the value of a K9 in a situation like this.” Capt. Rizzo: “Industry almost agreed upon throughout the country is that one dog is the equivalent of 10 police officers in terms of the resources and what they offer, right? So, many people will wonder why we would go ahead and deploy a dog prior to a police officer. Well simply because a dog can do what we can’t. And they will go straight to the source instead of putting an officer at risk of missing a room, missing a corner, missing a door. And if you notice there, key is the warnings that are given: several repetitive warnings. ‘Hey listen, we’re going to deploy a dog so show us yourself.'”

Abrams: “It seems that no one saw anyone come into the house, right? It was just the circumstances surrounding what they came home to.” Rizzo: “Sure –were abnormal that would indicate, what, ‘it’s not us that did it, so who did do it?’ And then it lies on the responsibility of responding officers to naturally go in, clear, and make sure it was left maybe by accident, lights kick on, motion sensors, who knows.” Wilson: “Tedious task, but they have to go through every single room.’

  • Berkeley County, S.C. — Sgt. Yacobozzi and other units respond to a noise complaint. Caption: “He said, he shed?”
  • Richland County, S.C. — Capt. Brown and other units search in a residential area for two passengers that fled on foot from a traffic stop. Deputes had detained the driver. The search continues for the subjects. Abrams: “Obviously, very frustrating for officers. What do they do now?’ Rizzo: “So again, a human being can only go so far. The have it cordoned off to somewhat of a loose perimeter at this point. They now have minimal options to just use what they have to to rely upon…he asking about people if they saw him. They’ll listen to neighborhood dogs starting to bark. The person is going to be flushed out, so they’re trying to set up coordinates so that they don’t miss a corner of their perimeter…when he does come out. Pretty good tactic.”
  • Missing segment — Dodge City, Kans.
  • Toledo, Ohio — Ofr. Smith and Bly investigate a report of a fight at a fast-food restaurant. They make contact with two occupants in a car at th drive-thru window who claim they were just playfighting. A bystander shows the cops a cell phone video that purports to depict the duo actually fighting. Ofr. Smith: “We’re trying to figure out what’s going on. We made contact with the driver and the passenger. They’re both claiming that it’s a playfight, but we have people that are saying otherwise right now.”
  • Indian River, Fla. — Cops allegedly spot a motorist tossing something in the course of a traffic stop. Dep. Jon Lozado: “As he was being stopped, he threw a bag out the window or the door of the vehicle. Deputies were able to locate it, and it appears to be some illegal narcotics.” Dep. Castano deploys K9 Dingo to sniff around the car; the dog alerts at the passenger door, which prompts a probable cause search.
  • Berkeley County, S.C. — Cpl. Carr makes a traffic stop on car and reminds the driver to yield to a police vehicle with flashing lights. Cpl. Carr: “The reason I’m stopping you — when you see blue lights like in the median, switch lanes or reduce your speed.”
  • Berkeley County, S.C. — As the episode ends, Cpl. Carr and Sgt. Yacobozzi pursue a fleeing pick-up truck apparently after an attempted traffic stop for defective equipment and failure to maintain lane.

On Patrol: Live Summary for December 16, 2023 (#OPL Episode 02-40)

CLICK HERE for the OPL 02-40 recap.

The A&E vs. OPL Lawsuit Is Moving Forward

The pending litigation may explain the new OPL set design and changes to the logo, music, and names of the recurring segments. That also may be why the clever incident captions have or had tapered off.