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). 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 season 13, episode 18, a cameraman caught up to a suspect and pushed them to the ground before the officer arrived to arrest them. 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. 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. 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. 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.
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. 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. In Dion's honor, the show aired an hour-long "best of" episode featuring his work on its September 20, 2014 episode. The robbery's events took only seconds to happen. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Trevor Dion's lawsuit against the city was dismissed by a judge in July 2019. == Opening sequence ==