Just less than a year after producers of the unscripted A&E true-crime series "The First 48" found themselves accused of "complicating" a New Orleans triple murder case, the city has ended its contract with show and will soon follow suit with its sister series "Nightwatch," according to an NOPD spokesman.

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The city's deal with "The First 48" -- which for 15 seasons has embedded with police departments conducting real-life homicide investigations in various major cities including Dallas, Cleveland, Memphis, Tulsa and Atlanta -- ended in April. NOPD spokesman Tyler Gamble said the city decided not to renew the contract "to ensure that all of our available time and resources are focused on fighting crime."

In the show's most recent 15th season, no fewer than seven episodes featured New Orleans investigations. That followed some 10 locally shot episodes in the previous season.

The city's contract with "Nightwatch," which also airs on A&E and which for two seasons has seen camera crews embedded with New Orleans first-responders, ends this fall and will not be renewed, Gamble said.

Earlier this year, A&E announced it was renewing "Nightwatch" for a third season. It is unclear if those plans have since been scratched or if the show plans a move to another city.

A&E representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the ending of the New Orleans contracts.

Gamble said the city has no other television production agreements in place involving the Police Department.

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NOPD Capt. Michael Glasser, the president of the Police Association of New Orleans, said he was sorry to see the contracts end. The medium allowed the public to put names and faces to the "otherwise anonymous" investigators and first responders as they "risk(ed) their lives to protect perfect strangers," he said.

"At a time when community relations are so fragile, locally and nationally, it was of enormous benefit to everyone to have an avenue open for the public to see what we do and how we do it," Glasser said.

In June 2015, "The First 48" made local headlines when attorneys for a New Orleans murder suspect accused the show's producers of withholding footage they said could have benefited their client.

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While New Orleans Criminal District Court Judge Laurie White eventually shot down what lawyers representing the show called "a total diversion," she acknowledged that the city's contract with the show complicated the prosecution's case. That was especially true since it was a capital murder case, which opened it up to added scrutiny.

"I wish that the city would never contract with 'The First 48,' and I hope in the future they would think through that," she said at the time. "I now have a death penalty case in which three people were alleged to have been murdered. It causes the court great concern to have to deal with the additional problems."

In December, the defendant in that case, Shawn Peterson -- who was accused of killing his son, estranged girlfriend and her daughter in a 2013 Gentilly triple homicide -- was sentenced to 80 years in prison as part of a plea deal with prosecutors.