SEATTLE — On a warm July night, Sgt. Steve Ross saunters up to a half-dressed couple in a white Ford pickup, startling them near Everett's East Marine View Drive.

As the pair scrambles to pull on clothes, Ross informs them they're on camera. He doesn't mention their faces are being broadcast unblurred to over 800,000 live viewers of "On Patrol: Live," through an arrangement with the Everett Police Department.

"I hate to imply something," Ross tells the woman, noting the cash in her hand. "But it kind of looks like prostitution."

The scene resembles many others since "On Patrol: Live" began riding along with Everett police this past summer on Friday and Saturday nights. The show mirrors the long-running police reality show "Cops," except it's a raw feed on a 10-minute tape delay.

The camera rolls as Ross interrogates the woman, handcuffs her and instructs another officer to identify the man, neither of whom were named on the show. Once the action lags, producers whisk the audience to a live "domestic incident" in California.

"We will come back to this investigation of loving," the show's host Dan Abrams playfully tells viewers, over chuckling from his in-studio guests, who are both off-duty police officers.

Police departments are not directly paid to participate in "Cops" or "On Patrol: Live." Many agencies see the shows as tools to boost recruitment and offer a look at how cops do their jobs. Critics say the exposure causes more harm than good by humiliating people, stereotyping marginalized groups and making crime rates appear worse than they are.

At least 10 agencies around the state have been featured in past seasons of "Cops," including sheriff's offices in King, Pierce and Spokane counties. After a break of several years, Pierce and Spokane counties agreed to take part in the next season.

Everett became the first and only Washington police agency to join "On Patrol: Live" in June. The city went on hiatus from the show in November but may welcome the cameras back after winter.

"Where it benefits us"

Abrams used to host "Live PD." During its four-year run on A&E, about 1.9 million people tuned in on Friday and Saturday nights, according to Forbes. After the murder of George Floyd, networks faced a reckoning over the ethics of police reality TV. The shining example of the genre, "Cops," enjoyed a 31-year run before Fox canceled it in 2020.

But it didn't take long for the shows to make a comeback. "Cops" moved to Fox Nation in 2021. "Live PD" rebranded as "On Patrol: Live" in 2022.

Accounting for on-demand and DVR viewership, the July episode featuring the Everett pair garnered 1.04 million viewers total, said Lauren Pabst, a spokesperson for Nielsen. That doesn't include streaming services.

Police Capt. Robert Goetz, who has overseen Everett's part in "On Patrol: Live," said it gives people a glimpse into a patrol cop's day-to-day duties. He believes the show helps with recruiting at a time when there's a departmental shortage of 20 to 25 officers.

"Where it benefits us," Goetz said, "is people who had never heard of the Everett Police Department, or never seen the city of Everett and our community, they may say, 'Hey, I'm going to go check that out.' "

Everett police brass didn't have major concerns about being on the reality show, but discussed it with Mayor Cassie Franklin's office leading up to the decision, Goetz said.

"We believe that we have a department that embraces our values, the chief's values of honor, integrity and professionalism," he said. "And we hoped as part of participating in 'On Patrol: Live,' that would show."

A research paper published in 1998 mentions anecdotal evidence that "Cops" inspired some cadets to enter law enforcement. Andrea Hill, a criminal justice professor at the University of Washington's Tacoma campus, said she has not seen reliable evidence of this.

"The research that I'm familiar with," she said, "has not indicated that it's an effective recruiting mechanism."

So far at least one Everett recruit has cited "On Patrol: Live" as a reason for applying, Goetz said. Goetz said the show's payoff on recruitment will take time. Pierce and Spokane counties do not have hard data to suggest "Cops" helped recruit new officers.

Creative control

Around the time "On Patrol: Live" launched in 2022, an arts writer for The Guardian compared the show's format and color commentary to NFL RedZone. The "On Patrol: Live" Facebook page posts weekly lineups of officers for each airing, like a roster on a pregame show.

But instead of RedZone's host Scott Hanson chronicling which teams around the league are close to scoring, Abrams narrates as officers respond to crimes in progress.

Kathleen Kyle, executive director of the Snohomish County Public Defender Association, thinks the show preys upon Everett's most vulnerable people for entertainment.

"I just cannot fathom that in 2024 filming people having law enforcement contact is entertainment," she said. "Oftentimes this is not a proud moment. Oftentimes it's embarrassing and shaming. And I don't understand what bucket this fills for the city."

It's not money.

Everett gets a $1,700 licensing fee when its branding is used in a live episode, according to a contract between the mayor's office and the production company. In June, Half Moon Pictures, the production company that drafted the agreement with the city, paid about $5,000 in licensing fees, according to an email obtained in a public records request. The fee is meant to offset police labor costs from being on the show, Goetz said.

REELZ, the company behind "On Patrol: Live," equates the show to journalism, saying the access it gets is "identical to that offered to news media crews for their (ride-a-longs) and adheres to the same stringent standards."

However, in reality television, editing policies blur the lines. Newsrooms generally prohibit reporters from allowing sources to preview stories or TV segments before publication. Half Moon Pictures allows police to request edits to protect the safety of officers.

"We don't anticipate ever having to call the producer and say, 'Hey, take this off the show, or don't air this on the show,' " Goetz said. "But we certainly are viewing it in advance of it actually being on your television set, but only for a very, very short period in advance of that."

Pierce County then-Sheriff Ed Troyer told The News Tribune of Tacoma in July that the department will have editing power over what's aired on "Cops."

Langley Productions "agrees to abide by the determination" of the Pierce County Sheriff's Department and to "remove or revise portions" as the department deems necessary, according to the contract.

"On Patrol: Live" also airs prerecorded segments, interspersed with the live broadcast. The producers "shall in their sole discretion" choose what ends up in each episode, the contract with Everett says. Departments have 48 hours to screen the footage.

People filmed on "Cops" must sign a waiver or their faces are blurred once the show airs. Most people on "On Patrol: Live" don't have their faces blurred. Goetz said if crews are filming prerecorded segments, waivers are required.

REELZ did not respond to a reporter's emails, phone calls or questions sent through the U.S. mail. Abrams Media also did not respond. Langley Productions, the company behind "Cops," declined to comment for this story. Half Moon Pictures, the production company, also declined.

"Dehumanized"

When the July broadcast zooms in again on Everett, cameras follow officers as they search the Ford truck.

Police question the shirtless man about when he met the woman in the pickup.

"Last night," he answers.

He says he smoked crystal meth in the truck. Sgt. Ross tells him it's "not the end of the world," and the man details his past legal issues in Arkansas. He confides about 15 years of struggles with drug abuse. He says he spent "maybe a year" in prison.

"If I give you a citation for a court date, are you going to show up?" the sergeant asks the man. "Or will you be back in Arkansas and not our problem anymore?"

The handcuffed man says he'll show up to court. An officer escorts him off-screen to get a citation. Ross recaps the situation for viewers.

"She's going to go to jail and he's going to get a citation and get released," Ross says.

The woman was charged with loitering with the intent of drug use. Although she'd been accused of prostitution on air, she was not arrested for that offense. Her public defender declined to talk about the specifics of the case.

Goetz said Ross' line of questioning was by the book.

That's "something that we might ask in any kind of scenario, but at no point is the intent to ever humiliate anybody," he said in an interview. "It's part of the question-and-answer that we do with folks that are involved in what appears to be illegal activity."

Being on this kind of show leads to a presumption of guilt, despite disclaimers that the people arrested are innocent until proven guilty in court, said Hill, the professor at UW Tacoma.

"We get to know the police officers," Hill said. "They talk a little bit about who they are, why they got into it. But then the community members? We don't get to know them at all. Their faces are blurred out. They're in the worst possible moments of their lives. And so they're demonized. ... They're dehumanized."

Rumsha Sajid, a specialist at the advocacy organization MediaJustice, said these shows "pose police as the only solution to harm."

"I think shows such as 'Cops' or 'On Patrol: Live' favor police departments because they ultimately get the last review of the show," she said. "Because their filming relies on being in relationship with the police departments."

In text messages obtained in a records request, Goetz chatted casually with producer Casey Goldberg about which officers had good on-camera personalities. At one point, Goldberg asked if he could get Everett police swag for Abrams' son.

"Are you getting good stuff this week?" Goetz asked in August.

"Got a great apprehension of the guy from the shooting last week with the (Violent Crime Unit) guys!" Goldberg replied. "Turns out he may actually be a victim, or at least have a self-defense case, so we will probably hold off on airing that until the case is resolved."

"Our focus on humanity"

Calls to pull shows like "Cops" off the air predate calls for legal system reform in the wake of George Floyd's murder in 2020.

In 2013, the civil rights organization Color of Change began a campaign pressing Fox to cancel the show. The petition cited the killings of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Russell Davis as evidence of racial biases against Black men and boys that shows like "Cops" perpetuate.

A 2020 article from the Austin American-Statesman found deputies' use of force increased when officers were being filmed on the show in Williamson County, Texas.

Critics, like Sajid, argue shows like "Cops" and "On Patrol: Live" use people of color as "scapegoats."

"I think the inaccurate representation of Black and brown folks being criminalized on these shows is definitely a form of racialized disinformation," Sajid said. "And it's an intentional sewing of a narrative that is harmful to Black and brown people."

Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels doesn't "buy into the narrative."

"I really don't believe that the risks and the negative perceptions that some believe are coming with it really outweigh the benefit to the community," he said in an interview.

"I mean you've got to understand that I think the public's attitude toward policing has changed," Nowels added. "There was a recent Gallup poll put out where the trust in policing is rebounding to before the George Floyd incident levels."

Ken Cruz, another criminal justice professor at UW Tacoma, said police reality shows are edited to prioritize entertainment value over realism, which leads to misrepresentations of crime rates.

"I think that (the shows) sort of perpetuate this myth that aggressive styles of policing are effective in terms of crime prevention," Cruz said. "In fact, what we know about how policing works is that the vast majority of policing is in response to crime."

In an email obtained through a records request, Everett's police chief told Goetz and producers about a conversation with Cammy Hart-Anderson, who oversees the crisis responders in the Snohomish County Human Services Department. She made it clear her staff would not respond to involuntary mental health treatment calls where "On Patrol: Live" units were filming.

"She is not supportive of the filming of people at their most vulnerable moments," wrote John DeRousse, the police chief.

He told his staff to do their best to honor the request.

Asked how Everett had weighed the controversy surrounding police reality TV, Capt. Goetz said being on the show has allowed the department to lionize the "right kind of policing."

"Our focus on humanity should be glorified," Goetz said. "So if we start the conversation from that perspective, we remind all of our officers routinely, and they remind each other, why they're here."

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