Unbalanced Scale
When COPS launched in 1989, it quickly came under criticism for its intentional focus on Black and Latino neighborhoods and its highly selective portrayal of race. Content analysis performed in the mid-nineties revealed that “reality” crime programs like COPS tend to over-represent whites as police officers and under-represent Blacks and Latinos as authority figures, while also under-representing whites and over-representing people of color as criminals. In addition, with producers dependent upon the voluntary cooperation and approval of police departments, footage that casts officers in a negative light” including recorded portrayals of overtly racist behavior” never air.8
Instead, viewers tune in weekly to “ride along” with police and root against a rotating cast of nameless” sometimes faceless” street crime suspects.9 With such a narrow range of Black characters and personalities in primetime, the negative perceptions and distorted images presented by shows like COPS create an atmosphere of suspicion that desensitizes and conditions audiences to view harsher punishments and police misconduct” including police brutality and unconstitutional searches” as acceptable.10 Research shows that these images linger in the subconscious of viewers, creating “unconscious attitudes” and “implicit biases” about both race and class.