Kim Gardner, who as newly elected circuit attorney will take over St. Louis prosecutions shortly before the show starts taping, said she did not have any comment about the city’s participation. St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay also declined to comment.

“The First 48” executive producer, Alexis Robie, acknowledged to the Post-Dispatch that at first, when he was working as a cameraman on the show, he had developed a negative image of Miami’s nightlife. But, he said, he came to see the value.

“Our program is not about murder, it’s about murder investigators,” Robie said. “It’s about people who are regular human beings who have families and anxiety about paying bills and trying to make sure their kids have the support they need to have good lives and they have an extraordinary job to do, which is to bring killers to justice.

“That is a pretty positive story, especially when people may have a negative perception of police because of their personal experiences or cultural representations.”