Clone Cops - Exclusive Clip (2025)

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In a future dumbed down by next-day-delivery, the conglomerate Nefaricorp dominates human existence through high tech, great deals, and free delivery. Their development of cloning technology has replaced workers around the globe with Replicants, including the police. These Clone Cops are manufactured in a lab and programmed to kill or die trying. When the leader of a gang of outlaws is shot during a struggle with a Clone Cop, the rest of the gang must decide whether to flee or to rally around their critically wounded boss and defend their besieged hideout using their unique skill sets. Clone Cops arrives on January 31, in theaters and on VOD from Freestyle Digital Media.
Danny Dones' feature directorial debut, Clone Cops, begins a week long theatrical run on January 31st. On the same day, it will be able to rent or own on Cable VOD and Digital HD, including Apple TV, Prime Video and Fandango at Home.

We have an exclusive clip to share with you today. In the clip stand up comic Steve Byrne plays 'Nefaricorp Spokesman' who outlines the importance of not messing around with The Sauce, the biometric goo that makes up the company's clones.

In a future dumbed down by next-day-delivery, the conglomerate Nefaricorp dominates human existence through high tech, great deals, and free delivery. Their development of cloning technology has replaced workers around the globe with Replicants, including the police. These Clone Cops are manufactured in a lab and programmed to kill or die trying.

When the leader of a gang of outlaws is shot during a struggle with a Clone Cop, the rest of the gang must decide whether to flee or to rally around their critically wounded their critically wounded boss and defend their besieged hideout using their unique skill sets.
“Clone Cops,” an independent comedy about outlaws combatting an endless wave of cutting-edge law enforcement on a dystopian streaming show called “CrimeTime360,” has been picked up for video on-demand and a DVD release by Freestyle Digital Media. The banner has set a Jan. 31 date for the film, directed by Danny Dones, for both physical media and digital distribution.

“Clone Cops” kicked off a roadshow theatrical run at the start of the month, with a special screening in Philadelphia. It has since played Boston and Memphis, with seven more cities to come, including weeklong runs in Los Angeles and New York City beginning Jan. 31.

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“I’m so excited to be partnering with Freestyle Digital Media for the release ‘Clone Cops,’” said Dones. “We made this movie for people who love campy sci-fi comedies, and we’ve been having a blast showing it to them at festivals and theaters across the country. Now, we can finally bring this weird little indie flick to people’s living rooms! I want to thank our incredible cast and crew for everything they’ve contributed, and the continuing support they’ve shown for ‘Clone Cops’ as we’ve worked to bring it to screens large and small. Making this movie was so much fun, and now we get to share that experience with audiences everywhere!”

Dones directed “Clone Cops” and co-wrote the screenplay with Phillip Cordell. Charles Royce, Nate Eggert and Cordell are producers, while Cordell plays the innumerable Clone Cops in the film. The cast also includes Ravi Patel, Quinnlan Ashe, Steve Byrne, Ted Welch, Allison Shrum, Laura Holloway, Schyler Tillet, Dean Shortland, Henry Haggard, Rashad Rayford, Justin Tarrents and Victoria Keum Jee.

Popular on Variety
Freestyle Digital Media, a division of Allen Media Group, negotiated the acquisition deal with Glen Reynolds and Circus Road Films.
LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, January 31, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Freestyle Digital Media, the digital film distribution division of Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group, has just released the independent sci-fi action/comedy CLONE COPS, which is now available to rent/own on all North American digital HD internet, cable, and satellite platforms, as well as on DVD, starting on January 31, 2025.

CLONE COPS is currently in the midst of a highly successful 10-city theatrical run, with upcoming special screenings scheduled for the following cities:

• Los Angeles - Weeklong Day & Date Run from Jan 31 – Feb 6 at Laemmle Glendale
• Nashville - Weeklong Day & Date Run from Jan 31 – Feb 6 at Smyrna Malco
• New York City – Feb 1, 2025 at Stuart Cinema; Weeklong Day & Date Run from Jan 31 - Feb 6 at Stuart Cinema
• Birmingham, AL - February 21, 2025 at Premiere LUX Cinema
• Atlanta - February 22, 2025 at TARA Theatre (rescheduled due to weather)

CLONE COPS tells the story of an alternate future where a gang of outlaws must defend their lives against an assault from the hottest product on the market -- a disposable police force cloned in a lab and programmed for violence. The gang battles waves of replicating security forces until they discover a shocking secret about who they are and what they're up against. They are unwitting gladiators on CrimeTime360, the highest rated combat streaming show on the net, which pits criminals against swarms of Clone Cops to advertise the capabilities of Nefaricorp’s fastest-growing product line. Now it's a race against time as they attempt to escape certain doom at the hands of the Clone Cops.

Directed by Danny Dones from a screenplay by Dones & Phillip Cordell, CLONE COPS was produced by Charles Royce, Nate Eggert, and Phillip Cordell. The cast features Phillip Cordell (‘Clone Cop’), Ravi Patel (‘Robert Nefari’), Quinnlan Ashe (‘Fera’), Steve Byrne (‘Spokesman’), Ted Welch (‘Brick’), Allison Shrum (‘Cipher’), Laura Holloway (‘Porter’), Schyler Tillet (Kinder’), Dean Shortland (‘Murphy’), Henry Haggard (‘Frank’), Rashad Rayford (‘Freddie’), Justin Tarrents (‘Thongdaddy420’), and Victoria Keum Jee (‘Persephone’).

“I’m so excited to be partnering with Freestyle Digital Media for the release of CLONE COPS” says Director and Co-Writer Danny Dones. “We made this movie for people who love campy sci-fi comedies, and we’ve been having a blast showing it to them at festivals and theaters across the country. Now, we can finally bring this weird little indie flick to people’s living rooms! I want to thank our incredible cast and crew for everything they’ve contributed, and the continuing support they’ve shown for CLONE COPS as we’ve worked to bring it to screens large and small. Making this movie was so much fun, and now we get to share that experience with audiences everywhere!"

Freestyle Digital Media negotiated the deal to acquire CLONE COPS directly with Glen Reynolds of Circus Road Films.
Freestyle Digital Media has announced the official release of the sci-fi action comedy Clone Cops. The nightmare tech-comedy is the feature directorial debut of Danny Dones. Clone Cops tells the story of an alternate future where a gang of outlaws must defend their lives against an assault from the hottest product on the market — a disposable police force cloned in a lab and programmed for violence. The gang battles waves of replicating security forces until they discover a shocking secret about who they are and what they’re up against.

Clone Cops will open theatrically in select markets Friday, January 31ST 2025, including Los Angeles, New York City and Nashville, for weeklong runs. The same day, audiences across North America will be able to rent or own Clone Cops on Cable VOD and Digital HD, including Apple TV, Prime Video and Fandango at Home.

Preorder on Apple TV

Directed by Danny Dones from a screenplay by Dones & Phillip Cordell, Clone Cops was produced in Nashville by Charles Royce, Nate Eggert, and Cordell through their HiPhi Productions banner. The cast features a number of local talent including Phillip Cordell, Ravi Patel, Quinnlan Ashe, Steve Byrne, Ted Welch, Allison Shrum, Laura Holloway, Schyler Tillet, Dean Shortland, Henry Haggard, Rashad Rayford, Justin Tarrents, and Victoria Keum Jee.

Ahead of the official release, Dones shared, “We made this movie for people who love campy sci-fi comedies, and we’ve been having a blast showing it to them at festivals and theaters across the country. Now, we can finally bring this weird little indie flick to people’s living rooms! I want to thank our incredible cast and crew for everything they’ve contributed, and the continuing support they’ve shown for Clone Cops as we’ve worked to bring it to screens large and small. Making this movie was so much fun, and now we get to share that experience with audiences everywhere!”

Co-writer and star Cordell described the passion project as “a comic book come-to-life, with heavy influences from video game culture and the vibrant energy of 80’s sci-fi/action/comedy films”.

Clone Cops January 31ST 2025 Theatrical Openings:

Los Angeles: Laemmle Glendale

New York City: Stuart Cinema & Cafe

Nashville: Malco Smyrna Cinema
Arriving at the intersection of Robocop and Idiocracy, director Danny Dones takes a bold creative swing with his directorial debut, Clone Cops. Dones envisions a future where the evil conglomerate Nafaricorp hosts the biggest television show on the planet. Why? For the same reason any massive corporation owns anything: to sell products. Like Robocop’s Omni Consumer Products, Nafaricorp is in the security business. Instead of giant murderous mechs, the company showcases its patented replicants, which have replaced most human workers, including the police. The only role still requiring human involvement is the technician who creates the replicants, but living in an on-demand society filled with violent television shows has left the average IQ of the remaining workforce on the lower side.

A police helmet that looks like a face with sunglasses and a mustache has a pink liquid coming out of it in the poster for CLONE COPS
Image Courtesy of Freestyle Digital Media | Justin Cook PR
The television program Nefaricorp produces is atypical to the sci-fi-horror gems we’re used to seeing. No Running Man style competition. No Condemned battle royale. Not even an Idiocracy-inspired rehabilitation via tricked-out monster trucks. Instead, Dones incorporates the video game mentality of a Call of Duty horde mode, where a team of proposed villains are sitting ducks for wave after wave of Clone Cops. After winning a competition, Kinder (Schyler Tillett) wakes up in the warehouse with the gang, formulating a plan to take out their replicant oppressors.

The gang is a bit archetypical. Porter (Laura Holloway) plays commander to the group and mom to hacker Cipher (The Third Saturday in October’s Allison Shrum), Badass Fera (Ozark’s Quinnlan Ashe) provides the athleticism for up-close combat, and Brick (True Blood’s Ted Welch) is the loveable but dopey weapons specialist. Dones treats these characters well but never really provides any reason for their dissonance. Kinder is dropped in the middle of this story, waking up and getting pulled to his feet by Brick just like it’s out of a video game, and in that same measure, Dones treats the situation just as generically. The only reason any antagonism is needed is in the programming.

Clone Cops builds tension as the established gang becomes self-aware of their replicant status. They realize their memories are fabricated, and they’ve been forced to die repeatedly as entertainment fodder to showcase the futility of fighting against a heavily resourceful system. The message to viewers is, “Don’t fight back; you’ll lose.” An issued challenge to a resourceful gamer. Though it takes some time to reach this point, this is where Clone Cops finally settles into itself and explodes into a cavalcade of action, comedy, and video game-style fun.

Two men looking into the camera appear shocked in CLONE COPS.
Henry Haggard as “One Tank” Frank and Rashad Rayford as Freddie Jones in the Lab. Photo Credit: Corey Allen | Image Courtesy of Freestyle Digital Media | Justin Cook PR
When I read the Clone Cops solicitation for review, its initial impressions quickly brought me on board with the film’s conceptual silliness. I hadn’t heard about the movie before that, but the little details, like the Clone Cops’ helmet and some Borderlands concept infusion, piqued my curiosity. However, the trailer I watched left something to be desired. I knew Clone Cops was full of big ideas but on the low-budget side. The trailer does a terrible job of persuading viewers to give it a chance, offering a madcap array of jokes, bizarre contraptions, and SFX-diluted violence without a lot of context. While that works to tease the film without giving much away, I don’t think many know enough about Clone Cops for that approach to work.

That same feeling swelled up again as I started the film. The first twenty minutes are a bit unorthodox. The story propels us into a training video featuring comedian Steve Byrne, then bounces to build its side characters, “One Tank” Frank (Henry Haggard) and Freddy (Rashad Rayford), before finally setting up the main story. Honestly, I felt slightly lost. Only after Kinder is already with the group does the film inform the viewer about his role with them.

Clone Cops’ setup feels inspired by Cabin in the Woods’ unique storyline featuring Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins’ characters helping Brian White’s character on his first day as a security guard. Clone Cops’ Freddy is also on his first day and helps Frank create the replicants Kinder and company will face throughout the film. The film also cuts in faux commercials, either as a side ad on the Nefari Plus broadcast or as a direct scene within the film, which can be surprisingly jarring but also extremely hilarious (spinach-flavored gin, wtf?).

A group of Clone Cops inspect an Acid Grenade.
A group of Clone Cops played by Phillip Cordell inspect an Acid Grenade. Photo Credit: Corey Allen | Image Courtesy of Freestyle Digital Media | Justin Cook PR
While the first half of the film is a little difficult to follow, Clone Cops comes together wonderfully. The film has its issues. It’s certainly rough around the edges, the acting is occasionally uneven, some one-liners could be a bit punchier, and the computer-generated effects (or at least in this early cut I viewed) are a bit limited. Still, Clone Cops is full of heart, and by the end of the film, I had managed to see beyond many of its flaws. Clone Cops is a coolly ridiculous and spirited film providing relevant social commentary and subsequent optimism for these dystopian times.

Also, Kudos to Phillip Cordell, the replicated face of the Clone Cops, for having the charisma to be perceived as equally killable and charmingly amiable. The juxtaposition of certain clones being serious while others are goofy shows the range of the talented performer.

Here’s the verdict: Give Clone Cops a chance. The film is very unpolished but ends up being a blast of chaotic, feel-good fun. It has laughs, brains, and heart—all the hallmarks of why we go to the movies in the first place.

Clone Cops releases in limited theaters, and PVOD on Friday, January 31.
Clone Cops is one of the strangest, most arresting movies in years. It is unique in its presentation, taking a familiar concept for science fiction, and turning it on its head. A classic heist film combined with a narrative of human cloning are reworked to fit the social media age, broadcasting to a reality where all eyes are on everyone at any time. With so many balls in the air, the film has to delicately balance all of these ideas with care and sensitivity. It comes close to succeeding, but is a bit confusing at times.

The story is set in the far future, where everything, including the police force, is commodified. The infamous NefariCorp controls all means of production as the nefarious mad scientist Frank (Henry Haggard) sends out his army of clone cops (all played by Phillip Cordell) to do his bidding. They come across a group of heist criminals planning one big job and shoot the leader Fara (Quinnlan Ashe). However, in the aftermath of this, the criminals discover a secret which could upend the entire NefariCorp operation, and the job now becomes about exposing the operation.

Director Danny Dones amplifies Clone Cops through his erratic style of direction. His use of pastel colors, fast editing, and wonky sets makes the whole thing feel more surreal. The jokes all land because of how exaggerated and cartoonish the scenario is already, making the laughs come even harder. Dones seems to be making a live-action cartoon, and this takes the best elements of cartooning and translates them well.

In spite of being a silly comedy, Clone Cops manages to have just a small bit of intelligence by tying its humor to modern social commentary. The whole enterprise of Nefaricorp is broadcast like a series on streaming. Every aspect of the main character’s heist is broadcast for the world to see. Social media influencers interrupt the movie like a Greek Chorus. This is a movie made for the social media generation, and it shows how distractions and interruptions can affect the viewing of a story. There are no clear good guys, which serves to highlight the disjointed, amoral nature of this futuristic world.

Four men stand with improbable weapon and clothes in Clone Cops
Clone Cops (Freestyle Digital Media)
Some problems arise from how the storytelling is presented and the disjointed narrative of its presentation. Since the film goes so far as to interrupt itself for fake commercial breaks, it can be hard to tell which parts are relevant to the broader narrative. It does feel like an Instagram Reel with how certain scenes come and go while not having any clear cohesion or narrative structure. Given how the show markets its entire premise as part of a streaming service, it is clear there is an unreliable narrator at play, but which part is unreliable will depend on the viewer.

Clone Cops is certain to be a future midnight movie staple, with many iconic lines and over the top scenes keeping you laughing. It is in many ways the ideal embodiment of an indie film, doing whatever the director wants with no regards for focus groups or studio mandates. It will make you laugh, and then make you think afterward. The story could have used a bit more polish to get its message across, but the final product is satisfactory enough to make it a worthy watch with friends. It does not re-invent action comedy as a genre, but at the same time it is not supposed to try.

Clone Cops: Movie Plot & Recap
Synopsis:
In a future dominated by instant gratification, a group of criminals must outwit an army of cloned, mass produced police officers.

Pros:
Stylized direction enhances the premise
Humor is self-aware and with witty social commentary
Familiar presence given a unique spin
Cons:
Story feels a bit scattershot
Loses dramatic tension knowing the twist before the characters
Clone Cops will be released in theaters in Los Angeles, New York City and Nashville, and on digital and on demand, on January 31, 2025.
Cops

Genre Reality
Created by John Langley
Malcolm Barbour
Developed by Stephen Chao
Directed by Dale Dimmick
Gabriel Koura
Narrated by Burt Lancaster (pilot episode)
Harry Newman
Opening theme "Bad Boys" by Inner Circle
Composers Michael Lewis (pilot)
Nathan Wang (season 1)
Country of origin United States
Original language English[a]
No. of seasons 36
No. of episodes 1,206 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers John Langley
Malcolm Barbour (1989–1994, seasons 1–6)
Producers Andy Thomas (1989, season 1)
Paul Stojanovich (1989–1990, season 2)
Bertram van Munster
(1990–1997, seasons 3–9)
Murray Jordan
(1997–2001, seasons 10–13)
Jimmy Langley
(2001–present, seasons 14–present)
Morgan Langley
(2007–present, seasons 20–present)
Running time 30 minutes (season 1–3)
30–37 minutes (season 4–present)
Production companies Barbour/Langley Productions (1989–1999, seasons 1–11)
Fox Television Stations Productions (1989–2013)
Langley Productions (1999-present, seasons 12–present)[1]
Fox Entertainment (season 33–present)
Original release
Network Fox (1989–2013)
Paramount Network (2013–2020)[2]
Fox Nation (2021–present)
Release March 11, 1989 –
present
Cops (stylized as COPS) is an American reality legal television documentary programming series that is currently in its 36th season. It is produced by Langley Productions[3] and premiered on the Fox network on March 11, 1989. The series, known for chronicling the lives of law enforcement officials, follows police officers and sheriff's deputies, sometimes backed up by state police or other state agencies, during patrol, calls for service, and other police activities including prostitution and narcotic stings, and occasionally the serving of search and arrest warrants at criminal residences. Some episodes have also featured federal agencies. The show's formula follows the cinéma vérité convention, which does not consist of any narration, scripted dialogue, incidental music or added sound effects, depending entirely on the commentary of the officers and on the actions of the people with whom they come into contact, giving the audience a fly on the wall point of view. Each episode typically consists of three self-contained segments which often end with one or more arrests.

It is one of the longest-running television shows in the United States and, in May 2011, it became the longest-running show on Fox (since then, its duration has been surpassed by the duration of The Simpsons). It also became the longest running live action series on Fox. When America's Most Wanted was canceled after 23 years, the show's host John Walsh, made numerous appearances on Cops.[4][5] In 2013, the program moved to Spike TV, now known as Paramount Network.[6]

In late 2007, during the premiere of its 20th season, episodes of Cops began broadcasting in widescreen, though not in high definition. In June 2020, Paramount Network pulled the show from its schedule in response to George Floyd protests following his murder while under arrest by the Minneapolis Police Department,[7] and announced its cancellation days later.[8] The show remains in production for its international and overseas partners, and began to film anew in Spokane County, Washington, with its sheriff's department in October 2020.[9] In September 2021, it was announced that Fox sibling Fox Nation picked up the show. The 34th season premiered in September 2022.[10][11][12][13] Season 35 premiered on April 7, 2023. Following a three month hiatus, the show returned on October 6.[14] Season 36 would premiere on April 5, 2024 with several episodes featuring beach patrol officers during spring break.[15][16]

History
Cops was created by John Langley and Malcolm Barbour, who tried unsuccessfully for several years to get a network to carry the program. When the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike forced them to find other kinds of programming, the young Fox Television network picked up the low-cost Cops, which had no union writers.[6][17]

The program premiered on Fox on March 11, 1989.[6][18] When the show went primetime in 1991, and consisted of two episodes in the 8 p.m. hour, it was called Primetime Cops in promos for several years. The program was one of only two remaining first-run prime-time programs airing on Saturday nights on the four major U.S. broadcast television networks (along with CBS's 48 Hours Mystery). Malcolm Barbour left from producing Cops in 1994.

For the first 25 seasons, Cops was broadcast by Fox with reruns of earlier seasons syndicated by local television stations and cable networks, including truTV and G4.[19] After Fox canceled the show in May 2013, Spike picked it up[6] for an additional five seasons, in addition to reruns of previous seasons.[2] The 30th season premiered on June 17, 2017.[20]

On August 21, 2017, Cops celebrated its 1,000th episode with a live special called Cops: Beyond the Bust, hosted by Terry Crews (who plays a police sergeant in the sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine), which included historical clips from the run of the program as well as reunions of officers and the suspects that they arrested.[21] The date of the 1,000th episode also marked a shift of episode premieres from Saturdays to Mondays.[22]

The show follows officers in 140 different cities in the United States, Hong Kong, London, and the Soviet Union.[23]

In the wake of the protests following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota under police custody, Paramount Network pulled the series from the air ahead of its season 33 premiere, which was scheduled for June 1, 2020. On June 9, 2020, a network spokesperson announced "Cops is not on the Paramount Network and we don't have any current or future plans for it to return".[7][8] The episode "Party in a Box" (season 28, episode 20, originally aired December 12, 2015) featured Atlanta Police Department Officer Garrett Rolfe, who in 2020 was charged with the killing of Rayshard Brooks during a driving under the influence investigation.[24]

In September 2020, Cops resumed production. The new episodes were being produced for international syndication and to fulfill contracts overseas that had not expired; Langley did not secure a domestic distributor until 2021.[25] Rocket Rights picked up the show for distribution outside the United States in early-2021, with Langley's distribution unit, Langley Television Distribution (as of 2021) handling sales in the United States.

On September 13, 2021, it was announced that Fox Nation had picked up the show. The 33rd season premiered on October 1, 2021.[26][11] Fox Nation would then premiere the show's 34th season on September 30, 2022.[12][13]

Production
Cops was created by John Langley and his producing partner Malcolm Barbour. In 1983 they were working on Cocaine Blues,[27] a television series about drugs. As part of his research Langley went on a drug raid with drug enforcement officers and was inspired to create a show focusing on real-life law enforcement. Before that, there had been only a few instances of cinéma vérité productions documenting the work of police officers, such as Roger Graef's Police in 1982.[28]

In the late 1980s, after producing the live syndicated specials American Vice: The Doping of a Nation, Murder: Live From Death Row, and Devil's Worship: Exposing Satan's Underground all with Geraldo Rivera, Langley and Barbour pitched the Cops show concept to Stephen Chao, a Fox programming executive who would one day become president of the Fox Television Stations Group and later USA Network. Chao liked the concept and pitched it to Barry Diller, then Chief Executive Officer of the Fox Network. Malcolm Barbour left from producing Cops in 1994.

A Writers Guild of America strike was occurring at the time and the network needed new material. An unscripted show that did not require writers was ideal for Fox. The first season aired in 1989 and consisted of 15 episodes featuring the Broward County Sheriff's Office. Since then, it has often been one of the highest-rated reality-TV programs, in part due to its low production cost (estimated at US$200,000 per episode in the early 1990s) and thus its capacity to show new material each week.[28]

The original concept of the show was to follow officers home and tape their home lives along with their work. After a while the idea of following officers home was deemed too artificial by Langley and was abandoned. Thereafter, the format of three self-contained unscripted segments without narration or music became the show's formula.

Since the third episode of Season 2, every episode ends with a police radio excerpt referencing the intersection of SE 132nd Ave. and SE Bush St. in the Powellhurst-Gilbert, Portland, Oregon neighborhood of Portland, Oregon.[29] A female officer says, "132 and Bush, I've got him at gunpoint", and a female dispatcher replies, "132 and Bush. Cover's Code 3." Another woman says, "Units 25, 14 can transmit on Tac 2", and the dispatcher replies, "Okay, we'll still send it Code 3." Then an instrumental version of "Bad Boys" plays over the credits.[30] On the first season of Cops, instead of "132 and Bush, I've got him at gunpoint", it was a police radio excerpt from the Broward County, Florida Sheriff's Office. In the first two episodes of the second season, a different police radio excerpt from the Portland Bureau of Police was used.

Cops aired on Fox's traditional Saturday-night lineup since its debut in 1989. As of 2012, the program retained its traditional time slot, but aired more intermittently as Fox Sports scheduled more sports programming in Saturday-night primetime, with NASCAR on Fox in the late winter and spring, Major League Baseball on Fox throughout the spring and summer, Fox College Football in the fall, and various Fox UFC throughout the year. Cops was then scheduled on weeks without any sporting events, followed by an encore presentation of a Fox drama series.

In 2013, it was announced that Fox had cancelled the program. However, it was later announced that Spike TV had picked up the program for another season.[31][32] In August 2017, Spike moved the show's time slot to Monday.

Agencies featured
US agencies[33]
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Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office
Fort Worth Police Department
Grand Prairie Police Department
Harris County Sheriff's Office
Houston Police Department
Lubbock Police Department
Montgomery County Sheriff's Office
Pasadena Police Department
Tarrant County Sheriff's Office
Travis County Sheriff's Office
Virginia Chesapeake Police Department
Newport News Police Department
Petersburg Police Department
Virginia Beach Police Department
Washington King County Police Department
King County Sheriff's Office
Lakewood Police Department
Olympia Police Department
Pierce County Sheriff's Department
Snohomish County Sheriff's Office
Spokane County Sheriff's Office
Spokane Police Department
Spokane Valley Police Department
Thurston County Sheriff's Office
West Virginia Charleston Police Department
Wisconsin Green Bay Police Department
Federal U.S. Customs and Border Protection
United States Marshals Service
Railroad Conrail Police Department
International agencies
Countries Agencies
USSR Militsiya
United Kingdom Metropolitan Police
Hong Kong Hong Kong Police Force
Camera crew involvement
In one episode, the production sound mixer for the camera crew, a former emergency medical technician, assisted a police officer in performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (season 2, episode 7).[citation needed]

In an episode in season 11 that took place in 1998 in Atlanta, Georgia, camera operator Si Davis, who was a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department reserve police officer, dropped the camera and assisted an Atlanta police officer in wrestling a suspect into custody. It turned out that the APD officer had been injured during a foot pursuit; meanwhile, mixing console Steve Kiger picked up the camera and continued recording the action, which eventually made the air (season 11, episode 5).

In another episode, a rape suspect fled and outran officers, only to have the cameraman follow him the entire time, until police caught up to the suspect and subdued him (season 10, episode 19).

In an episode of season 14 (2001–2002), during the arrest of a man after a car chase in Hillsborough County, Florida, the sound mixer held the suspect's sister away from the deputy after she tried to intervene in her brother's arrest.

During the first episode of season 22, which aired on September 12, 2009, an officer with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department was tackled by a suspect. The camera operator and Las Vegas Fire Department personnel wrestled the suspect away from the officer.[citation needed]

In episode 32 of season 22, an officer from Amarillo, Texas Police Department responded to a possible auto burglary. The suspect was found inside the car and attempted to flee from the responding officer, however the suspect was stopped by the production sound mixer that was standing in the path that the suspect intended on escaping with.[citation needed]

In episode 17 of season 26 that aired on February 1, 2014, during the arrest of a man in Sacramento, California, for battery on his girlfriend, one of the camera crew pulled one of the suspect's American pit bull terrier away from one of the arresting officers. The dog was biting the officer on the leg after being commanded to do so by the suspect.[citation needed]

During the recording of episode 7 in Season 27, the camera crew assisted in detaining the passenger of a vehicle whose operator had fled on foot from officers in Lafayette, Louisiana. As police chased the driver, who successfully evaded arrest, the camera crew secured the vehicle by giving directions to the passenger; at one point, the camera operator can be seen gesturing to the passenger to place the latter's hands on the dashboard.[citation needed]

2014 Wendy's shooting incident
On August 26, 2014, at roughly 9:20 p.m., a Cops crew was recording with the Omaha Police Department in Omaha, Nebraska, during their final week working with them since arriving in June. A police officer drove to a Wendy's restaurant during a robbery and called for backup. One of the other responding officers had a two-person Cops crew (a cameraman and audio technician Bryce Dion) present in his or her cruiser. The crew began recording the robbery inside Wendy's.[34][35]

Authorities later identified the robber as 32-year-old Cortez Washington, whom police shot several times during the shootout. A police officer fired through a window, hitting Dion (wearing a bullet-resistant vest) once under the arm. Medics transported both to the hospital, and both died, with Dion being pronounced dead shortly after arrival.[36][37][38][39]

The 38-year-old Dion had worked on Cops for seven years. Langley Productions stated that, in 25 years of video recording, this was the first incident in which a crew member was seriously injured or killed.[35] A Cops crew working in Springfield, Missouri, also wrapped following the Omaha incident.[40] In Dion's honor, the show aired an hour-long "best of" episode featuring his work on its September 20, 2014 episode.[41]

The robbery's events took only seconds to happen.[42] Detective Darren Cunningham responded to the call while the Cops crew accompanied Officer Brooks Riley and Officer Jason Wilhelm. Cunningham and Riley entered the front door and unholstered their firearms, while Wilhelm went to the restaurant's back part to cover an emergency exit door that opens only from indoors. Cunningham and Riley approached Washington, who was at the restaurant's back part and did not see the officers arrive. For unknown reasons, Washington walked to the front counter, where the officers identified him and told him to lie on the floor—but Washington immediately pointed and fired a pistol while moving toward the officers, who returned fire. Cunningham retreated into the hallway toward the restroom and kept firing at Washington, who had then turned the corner and stood where the officers had initiated contact. Riley moved around a column and into the waiting aisle at the counter. As Washington passed the uniformed police officer, he aimed his weapon toward the officer and continued firing as he moved toward the front exit. Dion was caught in the ensuing crossfire as the officer returned fire at Washington, who stumbled into the parking lot and fell from his injuries before his arrest.

After the scene was secured, authorities learned that Washington's pistol was actually an airsoft handgun that strongly resembled a real Taurus firearm.[43]

Authorities placed the three police officers on paid leave pending the result of an investigation into the shooting. A grand jury acquitted all three of misconduct.[44]

Washington had a lengthy criminal record in Wyandotte County, Kansas. At the time of the Wendy's robbery, he was on parole in Missouri, having been released in September 2013 after serving two years of a seven-year sentence as an accessory to second-degree robbery of a jewelry store, to which he pleaded guilty. In determining sentences and eligibility for parole, Missouri law does not consider criminal records in other states.[39] Approximately 20 minutes before the Wendy's robbery, his 24-year-old girlfriend, Jeneva Arias, robbed a Little Caesars pizza restaurant, using the same airsoft pistol; Washington served as her getaway driver.[45] Arias in turn was to be Washington's getaway driver in the Wendy's robbery, but fled. While in jail awaiting trial, she committed felony assault via throwing a soap mixture into a health care worker's face and fracturing a jailer's hand. Authorities gave Arias a plea bargain, and she pleaded no contest to reduced charges, and they sentenced her to a maximum of six years in jail through concurrent sentencing.[46]

Bryce Dion's brother, Trevor Dion, filed a lawsuit in February 2016 against the City of Omaha, alleging that inadequate communication and coordination between dispatchers and the officers arriving at the scene contributed to Dion's death. The suit also blames the authorities' decision to invite the Cops video crew to go with officers.[47][48] On April 24, 2018, a Douglas County District Judge refused the City of Omaha's request to bar the release of the video of the robbery-shooting at Wendy's and ordered the City of Omaha to release all materials related to the death of Bryce Dion, of which only still frames had been previously released.[49] On April 25, 2018, the video recorded by the Cops camera crew was released. The video was shown in open court and the Omaha World-Herald requested a copy, which it later released.[50] Trevor Dion's lawsuit against the city was dismissed by a judge in July 2019.[51]

Opening sequence

Inner Circle – Bad Boys
Duration: 22 seconds.0:22
Problems playing this file? See media help.
The show's theme song is "Bad Boys", performed by reggae group Inner Circle, which was played over a montage of clips.

All episodes of Cops began with a disclaimer. Beginning with later episodes of season 2, the wording was:

Cops is filmed on location with the men and women of law enforcement. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

The disclaimer in the first two seasons was slightly different: "Cops is filmed on location as it happens. All suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law." Burt Lancaster provided the following narration on the pilot episode: "Cops is about real people, and real crime. It was filmed entirely on location, with the men and women who work in law enforcement."

During at least the first season, episodes featured original scoring in a vein similar to the instrumental backing of the opening song. Some cues were short, others longer, usually over montages. Among the composers who scored episodes were Michael Lewis and Nathan Wang.[citation needed]

The Spike TV-Paramount Network version of the show added the Twitter handle and Facebook URL as its social media pages to the intro in 2013 until it was removed in 2020.

Episodes
Main articles: List of Cops episodes (seasons 1–20) and List of Cops episodes (season 21–present)
For the animated TV series COPS, see List of C. O. P. S. episodes.
Season Episodes Originally released
First released Last released Network
1
15 March 11, 1989 June 17, 1989 Fox
2
31 September 23, 1989 May 5, 1990
3
42 September 15, 1990 August 31, 1991
4
45 August 10, 1991 December 12, 1992
5
46 August 15, 1992 September 4, 1993
6
46 August 7, 1993 December 17, 1994
7
41 May 14, 1994 November 10, 1995
8
43 February 25, 1995 July 13, 1996
9
36 August 31, 1996 July 26, 1997
10
36 September 6, 1997 August 1, 1998
11
36 September 12, 1998 September 18, 1999
12
36 September 11, 1999 July 29, 2000
13
40 May 20, 2000 July 7, 2001
14
36 September 1, 2001 September 21, 2002
15
36 May 4, 2002 November 1, 2003
16
41 April 26, 2003 October 2, 2004
17
36 May 15, 2004 August 6, 2005
18
36 September 10, 2005 July 22, 2006
19
36 September 9, 2006 July 28, 2007
20
38 September 8, 2007 August 2, 2008
21
36 September 7, 2008 July 25, 2009
22
36 September 12, 2009 July 31, 2010
23
22 September 11, 2010 June 18, 2011
24
22 September 10, 2011 April 7, 2012
25
16 December 15, 2012 May 4, 2013
26
22 September 14, 2013 March 8, 2014 Spike
27
33 July 12, 2014 May 9, 2015
28
33 June 20, 2015 April 30, 2016
29
33 June 4, 2016 April 22, 2017
30
33 22 June 17, 2017 November 13, 2017
11 January 22, 2018 May 21, 2018 Paramount Network
31
33 June 4, 2018 May 20, 2019
32
33 June 3, 2019 May 11, 2020
33
33 October 1, 2021 July 8, 2022 Fox Nation
34
17 September 30, 2022 March 31, 2023
35
33 April 7, 2023 March 29, 2024
36
TBA April 5, 2024 TBA
Syndication
Domestic
In September 1992, reruns of Cops went into broadcast syndication, and like Fox's fellow series The Simpsons, it became a mainstay of the format, with its carriage being led by Fox Television Stations itself, be it Fox stations or those stations which belong to its sister network MyNetworkTV; it was also consistently included on the schedule of The CW's smaller-market chain of local cable channels and broadcast subchannels, The CW Plus. Seasons 7-24 would air on Court TV which eventually rebranded to TruTV in 2008, over the course of its syndicated run from 1998-2014 on the network, seasons 7-24 would be broadcast on the network, in 2014, it was announced the program would be pulled off the air by 2015, due to its syndicated contract expiring, the network decided not to renew the contract and by January, 2015, the network would stop airing the syndicated reruns. In the fall of 2013, it mainly began to air on Spike (now Paramount Network) on the cable side as part of that network's agreement to air new episodes, after several years on truTV. Older episodes were picked up by the now defunct Cloo in September 2014, after spending years on the now defunct G4, which was discontinued in December 2014. Local station syndication of the show was prevalent on most Fox stations and affiliates at the time, but as of 2015, older episodes were shifted into Cops Reloaded. WGN America also carried reruns of the regular version. At the start of 2016, the episodes in the now defunct Cloo/G4 package were moved into the Spike TV-Paramount Network syndicated package when the former G4-Cloo syndication agreement expired, giving that network the rights to the majority of the program. After Viacom's acquisition of Pluto TV in 2019, a 24/7 channel made up of episodes of the series directly programmed under license from Langley Productions was launched.[52]

Related to Paramount ending its carriage of Cops in June 2020, it has also relinquished its syndication rights; WGN America, which began to convert to a general news network as NewsNation under new ownership, also decided to stop carrying the show at the end of its existing carriage contract, which happened to terminate by coincidence on June 30, 2020.[53] Disney Media Distribution, which syndicates the FTSP-era episodes under its former name of 20th Television to local television stations, replaced the series for the remainder of the summer with the 2018–19 run of the defunct syndication version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire on June 15 (of which an hour of episodes were distributed, as Cops was often paired with Live PD: Police Patrol, which was also pulled from syndication at the same time new episodes of that series were cancelled).[54] Reelz began to carry Reloaded episodes again on September 3, 2021. Reelz also began to carry older episodes of the regular version from seasons 8-17. Since May, 2023, Fox Business has also began carrying syndicated reruns of seasons 32, 33. Law & Crime Network carries syndicated broadcasts of Reloaded as of 2023.

International
Cops is broadcast in the UK on CBS Drama, CBS Reality and Fox. In Portugal the show is aired on Fox Crime, in Brazil on truTV, in Colombia on truTV, in Australia on Network Ten, 10 Bold (a sub-channel of Network Ten) and Crime + Investigation, in Japan on Fox Crime, in Philippines on C/S 9, in India on Star World and FOX Crime, in Norway on V4, in Sweden Reloaded airs on TV12 while original runs on TV6 and TV10, and in Denmark on Canal 9.

In Canada, both the original and Reloaded versions of the program aired on Action (now Adult Swim). BiteTV began airing the program in December 2014 (until its relaunch as Makeful in August 2015), while sibling channel RadX (which re-branded to BBC Earth in January 2017) began airing it on Monday, August 3, 2015.[55] Since 2022, Cops now airs on 24/7 channels by LG Channels and Samsung TV Plus.

Cops 2.0
An enhanced version of the program branded as Cops 2.0 with live web chats and program facts aired on G4 from May 2007 to 2009.[56]

Cops Reloaded
In January 2013, 20th Television announced that a new syndicated version titled Cops Reloaded would begin airing on CMT as well as local stations.[57] The new format features slightly edited segments of classic Cops episodes, allowing for four segments per each half-hour episode. This version contains all new graphics and soundbites during the opening theme song, and older segments are modified and framed to a sharpened widescreen image for the high-definition format if they were originated in standard-definition television.[58] From 2016-2018, Cops Reloaded aired on the CW network.[citation needed] On January 29, 2024, season 1 of Cops Reloaded was added to Tubi.[citation needed] In February, 2024, Season 1 of Cops Reloaded was also added to Peacock TV.

Home media
The program has had several "best-of" home videos, including Cops: In Hot Pursuit, Cops: Shots Fired, Cops: Bad Girls, Cops: Caught in the Act , and Cops: Too Hot for TV which included segments containing profanity and nudity that was edited out of the network version.[59] Cops: Too Hot for TV also had a deluxe edition which had a segment containing especially graphic content, including police finding a man who had hanged himself in his garage and the aftermaths of two different shootings. Before the aforementioned segment, there was an announcement by John Langley, stating that "This next segment isn't just too hot for TV, it's also probably too hot for this video. Once you've seen it, you'll know why."[60]

A Cops: 20th Anniversary Edition two-disc DVD with viewer favorites from each season, several behind the scenes features, and the original one-hour pilot was released in the United States and Canada on February 19, 2008.[61]

Title Format Ep # Discs/tapes Region 1 (USA) Special features Distributors
Cops: In Hot Pursuit VHS - 1 - N/A Langley Productions
Cops: Shots Fired VHS - 1 - N/A Langley Productions
Cops: Bad Girls VHS - 1 - N/A Langley Productions
Cops: Caught in the Act VHS - 1 - N/A Langley Productions
Cops: Shots Fired DVD Special 1 March 23, 2004 Never-before-seen footage. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Cops: Bad Girls DVD Special 1 March 23, 2004 Never-before-seen footage. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Cops: Caught in the Act DVD Special 1 March 23, 2004 Never-before-seen footage 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Cops: The Bad Karma Collection Vol 1 and 2 DVD Special 2 August 8, 2006 None 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Cops: 20th Anniversary Edition DVD 1 2 February 19, 2008 Cops 20th Season Special
Original Pilot Episode

Parodies and tributes

Famous Fan Favorite

Scenes from all 20 Seasons

The Story of Cops

Cops on Cops

Lights! Camera! Action!

Toughest Takedowns

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Cops: Wildest Chases DVD Season 26, Episodes 8–9, 11–12, 15, 22
Season 27, Episode 03

1 May 19, 2015 None Paramount Home Entertainment
Tie-ins
In 1994, Pacific Gameworks created a proposal for a video game project intended for the Atari Jaguar based upon the TV show; however, production of the game never started and it was left unreleased.[62]

Main article: Cops (video game)
In 1995, Nova Productions and Atari Games released a LaserDisc arcade game based on the show. The game uses live-action full motion video for graphics and consists of a driving stage and a shooting stage very similar to Mad Dog McCree.[63]

In 1999, Cops associate producer and sound mixer Hank Barr published The Jump-Out Boys, a book about the show's production.[64]

Reception
Recognition
Cops has received four Primetime Emmy nominations, as of May 2017. The website of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences specifically lists four nominations of Cops for Outstanding Informational Series (in 1989, 1990, 1993, and 1994) but ultimately no Emmy awards were awarded to the show.[18][65][66]

Awards won have included:

1993: the American Television Award for Best Reality-Based Program[66]
2008: American Cinema Editors, USA Eddie (award) for Best Edited Reality Series[66]
Other nominations (not resulting in an award) have included:

2016: Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Unstructured Reality Show[66]
Criticism
Even though it is popular and long-running, Cops has drawn mixed reviews, and it has also raised ethical questions.

Positive
In Season 3 (1991-1992), Alan Bunce of The Christian Science Monitor praised the show as network television's "only true 'cinema verite' series"—declaring it "innocent of re-enactments," and "free of fancy production effects," while remaining "doggedly faithful to its format."[67] Bunce raved about its "honesty of tone" and the show's "commitment" to, in his words, "recording exactly what happens" (nothing more, nothing less)—"an implicit rebuke" to what he called "the excesses and sleight-of-hand" indulged in by most other "reality" shows. "Cops", he said, "is a stickler for authenticity."[67]

Negative
In 1999, the Los Angeles Times' Pulitzer Prize-winning, long-time, television critic Howard Rosenberg[68] chastised ride-along reality TV shows (like Cops, which he particularly named), as "uniting" police and media in ride-alongs where each party is "an extension of the other."[69] When invading "private property with their cameras rolling," said Rosenberg, these partnerships' behavior is "appallingly indifferent" to the "fundamental privacy rights" of the people whose homes they invade, and the resulting TV shows depict "social and moral crises" deceptively, "without context"—doing so in "the most narrow, emotional terms" they can.[69] In a 2009 interview, Cops executive producer John Langley admitted that his show is built around a three-segment structure, presenting an "action" piece, an "emotional" piece, and a "thought" piece[70] (an example of the rule of three).

Rosenberg further describes such a commercial police–media partnership as exceptionally prone to media corruption—yielding misleading, one-sided perspectives. "The collusion potential is enormous," says Rosenberg, because a so-called "reality" series can choose to air nothing that they fear will put their partners (the police) in a bad light (an embarrassment which, says Rosenberg, would cut off the TV show's access to the ride-alongs, resulting in "no access, no show".)[69]

A podcast called Headlong: Running from Cops[71] started in April 2019. Presented by Dan Taberski, it investigates Cops and Live PD, their alleged treatment of participants and whether scenarios are portrayed truthfully.[72][73][74]

Critics have noted the use of propaganda for cops, or copaganda, in the show Cops.[75] The civil rights group Color of Change began a campaign to cancel Cops in 2013, stating that the show's producers and advertisers had "built a profit model around distorted and dehumanizing portrayals of black Americans and the criminal justice system." Civil rights leader and president of Color of Change Rashad Robinson praised Paramount for cancelling the program, adding that shows such as Cops "that glorify police but will never show the deep level of police violence are not reality, they are P.R. arms for law enforcement. Law enforcement doesn’t need P.R. They need accountability in this country."[76]

Targeted subjects
2004 Old Dominion study
In June 2004, researchers at Old Dominion University videotaped 16 episodes of Cops and then evaluated them for crime content, and for the race and gender of characters depicted. They found prior studies statistically reinforced in their descriptions of racial misrepresentation on Cops. The study found that, on Cops, African-American men were overwhelmingly shown as perpetrators—usually of violent crimes—and Hispanic men (rarely depicted at all) were also usually depicted as violent criminals. The police officers depicted were overwhelmingly White, and the disproportionately few White offenders were more-often portrayed as involved in non-violent offenses.[77] As a response, the show's co-creator John Langley tried to include White offenders in each episode.[78]

Statistical correlations between actual crime rates and types (by race and gender, as reported by the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports) and the Old Dominion study's analysis of characters in the Cops episodes indicated that the Cops episodes (on average) sharply skewed the numbers, racially, making African-American and Hispanic men appear far more responsible for violent crime than they actually are in the U.S. population at large. At the same time, White males were shown on Cops as a far less culpable group than they actually are, statistically.[77]

The study also noted that women were almost totally ignored in Cops—seldom appearing as either officers or offenders. Finally, it noted that the show overwhelmingly depicted violent crimes, despite such crimes being a distinct minority of crime in the U.S.[77]

2004 Prosise-Johnson study
In 2004, researchers Theodore O. Prosise (University of Washington), and Ann Johnson, Ph.D. (University of California/Long Beach), studied a random, but non-scientific, sample of 81 anecdotes from Cops episodes—analyzing their content, subjects and characters. They concluded that the program was racially skewed, negatively misrepresenting African-Americans, depicted as a criminal class out of proportion to their actual percentage of U.S. crime, in particular.[79]

Moreover, the study indicated that the Cops episodes appeared to selectively edit out failed police efforts, and police-initiated actions "on a hunch" that resulted in the discovery of no grounds for an intervention or arrest—showing only those officer "hunches and suspicions" that were productive—creating the illusion that officer instincts were more reliable and valid than in actual life. The study's authors expressed concern that this provided TV viewers with implicit—and misleading—justification for police actions that amounted to "racism, discrimination or profiling."[79]

Targeting the poor
The show has been criticized for its predominant focus on criminal activities among the poor. Critics of this aspect of the show say it unfairly presents the poor as responsible for most crime in society while ignoring the "white-collar crimes" that are typical of the more wealthy. Controversial documentary filmmaker Michael Moore raises this tenet in an interview with a former associate producer of Cops, Richard Herlan, in Moore's 2002 movie Bowling for Columbine.

Herlan's response to Moore was that television is primarily a visual medium, requiring regular footage on a weekly basis to sustain a show, and police officers "busting in" on an office where identity theft papers are being created or other high-level crime rings are operating does not happen very often. It is therefore not likely to be recorded and thus not shown. The low-level crime featured on the show happens every day, providing large quantities of material suitable for taping.

Influence on viewers
A 2001 study of 117 Justice Studies[80] students at Arizona State University—a cross-section sample proportionally representative of the genders and races of all justice studies students at ASU—found various correlations between students' race and gender and their attitudes towards representative episodes of Cops. The study found that students were drawn to the violence in the program. It also found that students interpreted Cops scenes as valid and informative representations of the genders and races different from their own—eliminating the need to learn about them through direct personal contact.[81]

Rejections by police departments
In 2005 in response to a request for Cops taping, Patrick Camden, the Chicago Police Department's deputy director of news affairs stated, "police work is not entertainment. What they do trivializes policing. We've never seriously even considered taping."[82] The Fairfax County Police Department, located in Northern Virginia, has similarly refused to allow Cops taping since the show originally aired, as have the Washington, D.C. Police, St. Louis City Police, and the Honolulu Police Department. In addition, the show has rarely featured federal law enforcement agencies because such officers often work undercover and as a result, they are not inclined to have their work broadcast.

In popular culture

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Similar shows
Animal Planet aired its own version called Animal Cops, featuring animal control services and animal welfare organizations.

Several other American shows have paid homage to Cops' format, such as LAPD: Life on the Beat, Police POV, Live PD and On Patrol: Live.

A similar Canadian series called Under Arrest aired in the 1990s and 2000s.[83]

Parodies
Three Fox series parodied their own network's program. Mad TV featured a series of filmed parodies called "Clops", shot in claymation, and consisted of animated cops and criminals, commonly in exaggerated situations analogous to the real series. In Living Color did a parody called "Thugs", from the point of view of a group of criminals. In 1992, the episode "Homer's Triple Bypass" from The Simpsons featured a parody of the show entitled "COPS: In Springfield".

Seattle's sketch comedy show Almost Live! did a parody called "Librarians", and "Cops in ...".

In 1994, children's show Bill Nye the Science Guy did a parody called "Cops in Your Bloodstream", with said 'po

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