The series began with a special entitled '''''World's Scariest Police Chases'''
, which was broadcast on February 2, 1997. It was narrated by actor Peter Coyote, and featured commentary by Captain C. W. Jensen of the Portland Police Bureau. Five more editions of World's Scariest Police Chases'' aired, with the second on April 27, 1997, third on November 4, 1997, fourth on February 17, 1998, fifth on April 28, 1998, and the sixth on April 29, 1999. A further two specials called ''World's Scariest Police Shootouts'' aired around this time as well. It was hosted by
John Bunnell, a retired
police officer and former
Sheriff of
Multnomah County, Oregon; series creator
Paul Stojanovich had known Jensen and Bunnell through his early reality series, 1991's
American Detective, for
ABC, with Bunnell hosting that series in the last season. The two specials focused on police shootouts rather than chases themselves, although some of the clips featured a car chase along with a shootout. The first edition of ''World's Scariest Police Shootouts
aired on May 15, 1997, and the second edition entitled World's Scariest Police Shootouts 2'' aired on April 23, 1998. Both episodes were narrated and hosted by Bunnell. However, these specials were created by Nash Entertainment and they now occasionally air on the Reelz channel. The episodes featured more well-known content, such as the
North Hollywood shootout, the
murder of Darrell Lunsford, the
1991 Sacramento hostage crisis, White supremacist
Chevie Kehoe and his shootout with police, and the
1996 Honolulu hostage crisis. Eventually, the show was broadcast weekly. Bunnell's commentary was often characterized by puns, multiple clichés, and over-dramatic descriptions of the struggle between good and evil, the police and criminals, victims and abusers, etc. Although Bunnell hosted and commented on most of the show, most police video segments were dubbed with the actual law enforcement officials acting in the situation presented. Tire screeching noises, horn beeps,
automobile collision sounds and sirens are often
overdubbed in these segments; this is especially noticeable in footage where vehicles are driving over dry grass or sand. It has been widely noticed that the same voice is used in almost every helicopter footage scene, regardless of the location the footage is from. This uncredited role is said to be that of Lawrence Welk III, who usually goes by "Larry Welk", and is a reporter and helicopter traffic pilot for
KCAL-TV and
KCBS-TV in Los Angeles. He is also the grandson of famed musician
Lawrence Welk. Originally, a typical episode included sections entitled: "
PIT Maneuver", "Car Thieves", "Rainy Chase", "
Big Rig Road Block", "Jumping Off Bridge", and "
Drunk Drivers". This was dropped after the first season, and replaced with a string of clips, each commentated on by Bunnell. After a few videos, a small clip of Bunnell would be shown, often describing the police mentality behind the videos that were about to appear. Occasionally, episodes were dedicated to police officers killed in the line of duty and an episode featured the footage of the crash of
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 in 1996. There were VHS releases of the first three ''World's Scariest Police Chases'' specials with additional footage in late 1997 and a
video game was released near the tail end of the series' original run in June 2001. ==Series overview==