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 airs live incidents reportedly on an approximately five-to-20 minute tape delay.

Pre-recorded segments are typically included the show content.

An On Patrol: Live recap, including studio host Dan Abrams’ puns, analysis, and banter with co-anchor Curtis Wilson (Richland County, S.C., deputy sheriff), and an analyst in the third studio chair that changes from week to week, along with the often-snarky or playful social media reaction, follows.

This weekend, Lt. Richie Maher (Daytona Beach, Fla., PD) returns the set to provide commentary in the guest chair.

[Retired Tulsa, Okla., cop Sean “Sticks” Larkin, the former member of the trio, has phased out of the OPL studio analyst role.]

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 October 27, 2023 (#OPL Episode 02-25)

  • Fullerton, Calif. — Cpl.. Brandon Ramek and Ofr. Josh Walker respond to report of a woman passed out in the driver’s seat and vehicle up on the curb against a wall. The driver initially won’t open the door, resulting in a an office smashing the driver’s side window. Paramedics summoned. Car search. Cpl. Ramek mentions that she possibly might have inhaling a “duster” (i.e., compressed-air keyboard cleaner cannister). Abrams: “She just crashed her car; that’s point number one. But now they’ve just been conducting some tests. Unclear where they are in that testing.” Lt. Maher: “They could be in the very beginning, the end. One of the things that’s conflated often with DUI is just alcohol. Could be an illicit narcotic, or as we saw, just a normal item that was misused. So you don’t know if the indicators of intoxication are starting to wax and wane a little bit…certain narcotics and then certain misused items can wear off fairly quickly….Sometimes a DRE, which is a drug recognition expert, might be a pivotal individual to have on that call.” DUI arrest after a field sobriety testing. Ofr. Walker: “You can actually ingest [duster] to get high similar to using Nos which is popular in the area…they’ll be some follow-up testing at the jail including a blood draw and whatnot.”

Berkeley County, S.C. — Cpl. Devante Smith and Dep. Hunter Rogers conduct a traffic stop for alleged erratic driving. Driver apparently wouldn’t initially get out of the vehicle has the trifecta: no license, no registration, no insurance. “I just got this car.”

  • Brookford, N.C. — Chief Will Armstrong makes contact with a young man outside a car for a routine check for any “hanky panky.”
  • Toledo, Ohio — Ofrs. Greg Long Jr. and Shade Keeney respond to a possible burglary at a home in which the residents are loudly arguing with each other. One window is busted. Caption: “Window still open.” Possible mother-son dispute. Ofr. Long: “We got dispatched for a burglary, but it was more of a situation between mom and son. He wanted to go somewhere, and she wouldn’t allow it. It seemed like she’s been drinking today. There’s nothing wrong with that. She just wants a hug from him. As long as it’s okay with his probation officer to leave for the night, that’s okay. ” Ofr. Keeney: “We spoke to the PO. The PO is fine with him leaving…we’re trying to make that work out for right now, but she’s still standing, screaming, so I don’t know what she’s yelling at us about.” Some bleeping.
  • Daytona Beach, Fla. — Ofr. Taylor Carman makes contact with two employees of a fast-food restaurant over a customer dispute. Caption: “Fit to be fried.” Carman: “Sounds like an intoxicated male kind of pushing his limits with these two women. Urinated out in public and then once they called him on it and asked him to leave, he threatened to throw business cards and apparently a donut. Sounds like a waste of a donut to me.” Abrams: “And a waste of a business opportunity.” Cops search the area for the subject.
  • Richland County, S.C. — Capt. Danny Brown, Master Dep. Braylyn Salmond, and other units search on foot for a suspect who bailed from a car after a traffic stop. Car search; weed allegedly found. The suspect also dropped his cell phone. Cops and K9 search for the suspect in a wooded area. Brown: “He’s gonna end up get warrant placed out for his arrest, multiple warrants, including failure to stop for blue lights, which is basically taking off from us, breach of peace for going over a fence, causing a disturbance out here. He’s got possession with intent to distribute marijuana, driving on a suspended license. He’s gonna have multiple charges come next week…he’s got a habit of running from the police. Tonight, he’s obviously running from a crime-ridden area we have, carrying a bunch of dope, and not supposed to be driving. So that’s why he took off…He may have gotten into a vehicle…he might have gotten away from here, but we’ll see him next week sometime.” The car, which has mismatched tags, isn’t registered to him either, Brown noted. Abrams: So they now know who that person is, and they are going to find the person.”
  • Berkeley County, S.C. — Deputies investigate a possible car theft outside a store. As Dep. Rogers surmised, the car was towed rather than stolen. Lt. Maher: “Not an uncommon thing. Happens all the time. Cars get towed. Tow company doesn’t report the tow file quick enough, and while we’re sitting there taking auto theft reports, we find out it was jus towed.’
  • Toledo, Ohio — After a foot pursuit, Ofr. Heather Smith detains a pedestrian at gunpoint after someone bailed from a vehicle spotted by another unit that was allegedly on the stolen list. Smith: “We had a crew that was looking for a guy who ran from a vehicle from them earlier. Apparently they figured out who he was. He has some assault warrants. While we had a vehicle stop for running a red light, possibly thought that was gonna be involved. Maybe someone trying to pick this guy up. Someone called in saying that there’s someone trying to burglarize a school across the street. I was able to get in the area…to try and locate him. At that time, he ended up running straight out to me. So we got him detained. He ended up having his warrants, whatever else he’s gonna have — probably obstructing and some other charges. And then he had some marijuana on him.”

Abrams: “A lot to unpack there.” Maher: “There’s a lot going on on their radio. Obviously, like she just said, there’s actually two different scenes in the same area. So some of it involved him, some of it obviously didn’t involve him…He’s definitely looking at some charges here. She’s talking about a burglary here, wanted prior for assault, and dope his pocket.”

  • Berkeley County, S.C. — Dep. Brandon Williams investigates a stolen mailbox and makes contact with a man who is arguing with homeowners. He tries to calm down the man and tells him to go home. Captions: “Trying to stamp this out,” “Return to sender.” Abrams: “It doesn’t seem that that guy is connected to the mailbox.” Dep Wilson: “It doesn’t seem that way. But it could have escalated with a domestic that was going on…you have a son with the mom concerned about her, and you have the significant other who’s agitating this guy and egging him on, which could have been really horrible. But the deputy, I think, did a great job of de-escalating. Moving this guy, separating him from that situation. And coming back and telling this guy to calm down…” Dep. Williams subsequently finds the damaged mailbox in the woods to return it to the homeowners whom he suggests may or may not have to buy a new one. “I’m not a detective. If you’re gonna steal something, you’ll probably take it with you. It looks like someone just got upset. Could be personal. I’m not a detective, but it doesn’t take rocket science to kind of look at it and say, someone probably was upset and destroyed it and threw it in the woods…but hopefully, they’re okay that we found it, and they’re happy about that.”
  • Brookford, N.C. — Chief Armstrong attempts to make a traffic stop on a motorcycle that then took off. The biker allegedly ran a red light. During the pursuit, the motorcycle gets away. Based on a tip about a man fleeing on foot, units subsequently converge in a residential neighborhood and find a bike with a hot engine outside a home. They take a man who was inside into custody. Armstrong calls “bullsh*t” on a female resident (who had told Armstrong that she lives there with her mom and her baby and didn’t know who drives a motorcycle) not knowing the man. Earlier in the segment before the man was detained, Abrams asserted that “obviously an intense situation, but also one where they have a lot of evidence which would suggest that there’s something else going on here.” Maher then opined that “she might actually be hiding him, in my opinion.” After the man is taken into custody, Armstrong admonishes the driver that “you put a lot of people at risk. You put myself at risk. You put all these other officers at here chasing you at risk. There’s no reason for it, man. We’re gonna get you at the end of the day.”

Maher: “There [are] a number of reasons why the bikes are a little hard [to track down]. They rapidly accelerate. They reach speeds that some cars cannot reach. But they also can fit in areas where you can’t fit a car. You saw him go through the dirt…certain cars don’t make that where a bike might.” Abrams: “Can’t use some of the same tools in law enforcement either — no [precision immobilization technique] maneuvers.” Wilson: “No; none of that. It could, of course, endanger the driver of the motorcycle. Not only that, but just his reckless attitude, a driver could even injure others.” Abrams: “Can’t use stop sticks obviously as you would with a car…”

Last week, Armstrong described the officer mindset during a high-speed chase.

Armstrong update: “We’re just waiting on a wrecker to get here. It turns out the motorcycle is stolen. Everything about the bike was illegal. The fictitious tag…the tag on it that doesn’t belong on the bike may also be stolen. The subject has no kind of driver’s license, motorcycle endorsement, or anything, so he’s gonna charged with ‘everything’ tonight…sometimes people look at those chases and they’re thinking it’s not necessary….but in this case, you’ve got somebody’s property here. That’s a $4-$5,000 bike that somebody’s lost out on…”

Later in the show, Abrams chimes in that “I’m getting corrected on social media about saying that motorcycles never get PITed. They almost never get PITed, except there is an occasional department — seems like there is a video from Arkansas and maybe a couple of other places…” Abrams confirms with his two studio colleagues that neither Richland County nor Daytona Beaches allow the PIT maneuver on motorcycles.

  • Daytona Beach, Fla. — Officers serve a search warrant at a residence and take a man into custody. Lt. Maher: “What he have here…it’s a little bit of controlled chaos. It looks like chaos, feels like chaos — it is not. This is preplanned. They get together. They plan it all out. What they’re doing is they’re protecting the sanctity of the evidence, getting to the evidence quickly so it can’t be destroyed, and also taking a responsible party into custody as safely as possible.” Abrams: “And remember, this is a child sex abuse case, outstanding warrant.” Maher: “These can really tug at your heartstrings, but we’re consummate professionals, and we’re gonna do the job the same way every time.”
  • Daytona Beach, Fla. (pre-recorded segment) — Ofr. Keith Foreman makes contact with man who had no lights on his bicycle. He has a friendly conservation with the bicyclist and other man about microwaving spaghetti. Abrams quips that “many of you in the OP Nation like to share your recipes online, but I’m not sure this guy…is gonna make the cut.”
  • Berkeley County, S.C. — Deputies make a traffic stop on a truck. During the vehicle search, they allegedly find a meth baggie in a coca cola can with a false top. Dep. Rogers describes the technique as “pretty creative.” Captions: “Methamphetamine found,” “Counterfeit money found.”
  • Fullerton, Calif. — Officers chase a fleeing motorcycle that didn’t pull over. The subject gets away, leaving Cpl Ramek and Ofr. Walker seemingly somewhat crestfallen. Ramek: “This is maybe the second or third time we’ve seen that he ran from us. We can’t get an ID on him. He doesn’t have a license plate so it’s hard to figure out who he is or who the bike’s registered to. I’m sure we’re gonna see him again…every single time he runs. It’s just super hard to obviously catch someone on a street bike. They’re a lot quicker than us. They can be a lot more agile than us in a police car. They can get through cars faster. So It’s just hard if we don’t keep eyes on him like that, and we get stuck in traffic, or stuck in a lane. It’s easy for him to hop on the freeway and then get away. Angel is an airship that we use. It’s Anaheim PD’s airship, but obviously they help out all of Orange County. So whenever we’re in a pursuit or whatnot, we always request for Angel. They also help us out with like burglaries in progress, robberies in progress. They help us out with critical missings. So we utilize Angel a lot. Obviously, it’s a lot easier for them to be in the sky and keep eyes on the vehicle that we lose sight of. But if they’re not up right away or already in the air…there’s no point in staying in pursuit of a guy that we can’t see with this much traffic. We don’t want to endanger the public here. We’ll cancel. Eventually, one of these days, we’ll get him.”

Abrams: “We can see the frustration on Corporal Ramek’s face there as this was going down.” Maher: “Well it is extremely frustrating. As he said, this is not the first time this guy on this bike has done this. Like we were discussing earlier, they’re faster, they’re more agile. They’re able to get in areas we can’t get in. They just sit there and they flaunt the law, and they put everyone in the road there, everyone’s in danger. It just happens over and over again.” Abrams: “And again, there are just less things that police can do in pursuing them, although they are trying to do everything that they can.” Maher: “One thing I can guarantee is eventually he will get caught, and he’s gonna pay for what he’s done. I guarantee you that.” Abrams: “Well, I hope you’re right, but I’m not sure…” Maher: “Well, I can hope.” Abrams: “I can, too.”

  • Triple Play#1 — Dorchester County, S.C.
  • Weld County, Colo. — In a traffic stop, deputies detain a passenger who allegedly has a warrant.
  • Richland County, S.C. — Deputies detain a man after a foot chase outside a gas station with a conspicuously posted no-loitering sign that Dep. Salmond repeatedly asks him to read. The man is argumentative (“I’m not doing nothing…that’s crazy, bro”); heavy bleeping. He faces loitering and other charges. Capt. Brown finds a nicotine pouch on the ground that that the subject says is not his. Dep. Salmond explains that “this area gets a lot of complaints — narcotics complaints, firearm complaints, loitering complaints. Cpt. Brown got out with a group of subjects in the front of the store loitering. This gentleman…decided to take off running…so he got caught. And he’ll be going to jail tonight for loitering…he didn’t use the crosswalk when he ran across the street. So he’s going to jail tonight. He don’t like it, but as y’all clearly saw, there’s a huge no-loitering sign. This property is under the jurisdiction of the Richland County Sheriff’s Department. And we don’t play.”
  • Daytona Beach, Fla. — #RollinWithRichie in-studio Q&A session.
  • Berkeley County, S.C. — Vehicle pursuit by cops; Dep. Rogers deploys stop sticks. Abrams: “Now it’s just a matter of time before those tires deflate.” Vehicle, which allegedly struck two other cars while fleeing, wrecks out. The driver is detained; one deputy tells him that he “damn near killed somebody tonight.” Dep. Rogers: “I don’t know if [the stop sticks] were too successful or not. We didn’t really have time to found out. But obviously, don’t run from Berkeley County.” Abrams: “They are understandably relieved that they got this guy off the street.” According to Cpl. Smith, the driver is arrested for reckless driving and failure to stop for blue lights.” Rogers adds that “everybody seems to be in pretty goods spirits. Obviously, this is not what anybody wants on their Friday night, but it was a blessing nobody was hurt, especially in the way he was driving…high rate of speed. Just careless. No excuse for it.”
  • Berkeley County, S.C. — Dep. Williams responds to a report of a fight outside a house and makes contact with two males and one female at the location.
  • Lee County, S.C. — Dep. Alex Champagne makes contact with a motorist operating a truck for allegedly rolling through a stop sign.
  • Berkeley County, S.C. — As the episode ends, Dep. Williams pulls over a vehicle in which a female passenger was hanging out of the back seat of a car while it was in motion. He tries to sort out the situation with the female and three other occupants (of the vehicle. Allegedly the female was fighting with the others. Some bleeping. Abrams: “Tough to really summarize what we’ve just seen here. Williams: “As I was driving, going to another call, I saw…the occupant trying to get out of the vehicle, sliding her legs…She almost fell out of the vehicle. She’s highly intoxicated…it seems like they were just trying to do a good deed and get her home safe. They do know her, but they are not currently friends with her. ..we’re gonna try to to see if we can get her a ride home…She’s calling someone now…” He advises the other occupants that “in the future, if that that happens, pull over, call 911.” Abrams sarcasm: “What better way to end the show tonight.”

On Patrol: Live Summary for October 28, 2023 (#OPL Episode 02-26)

CLICK HERE for the OPL 02-26 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.