We chat with Live PD Creator and Executive Producer Dan Cesareo

Dan Cesareo in the “Live PD” control booth (image via Big Fish Entertainment)

Since Live PD’s premiere on A&E in October 2016, the hybrid unscripted-live/news program has been a ratings juggernaut. Often the most-watched television program the night it airs on cable, Live PD scored a monstrous 150-episode renewal in September of last year. If you haven’t seen the program, it’s best described as NFL RedZone meets Cops; each Friday and Saturday night, camera crews follow police officers on patrol from seven or eight departments that are on-air each week; we watch from a control booth as the show cuts among footage from the different departments. The show is packed with moments that are intense, dynamic, and/or humorous. I include links to clips throughout this piece, but they don’t do the show justice. Live PD is a technological feat best appreciated as its name suggests: live. Using cellular technology, camera crews send footage from police departments to A&E’s New York City headquarters, where it is broadcast to millions of homes almost instantaneously. I had the opportunity to interview Live PD’s creator and executive producer Dan Cesareo to discuss his hit TV program’s origin and its future.

A “Live PD” best-of compilation from the Gwinnett County, Georgia, Police Department

“We saw how the trend was going with linear television and DVRs and playback feeds and realized finding shows that were live could be an incredible solution in the unscripted space,” Cesareo said. “We spent a lot of time in the office space sitting around sharing lots of bad ideas and mixed ideas and then we came across this article about officers live-tweeting from patrol, and we were fascinated. That was the genesis: ‘If officers will live tweet from patrol, will departments allow us to live broadcast on patrol?’”

Viewership for the three-hour program has tripled since its premiere. The hashtag #LivePDWatchParty is active every weekend night, especially among the Law Enforcement Officer (LEO) community. But Cesareo says, “The show is neutral on police. We put our cameras up and what happens happens. There are always one or two things that happen in an evening that are a bit of a Rorschach test. You might watch it and feel one way about it; I might watch it and feel a different way about it.”

An intimate, behind-the-scenes shot of a cameraman and a police officer

More so, the show provides a level of accountability that Cops, the granddaddy of the genre, did not. Cameras will follow interactions between officers and civilians from beginning to end and document the officers explaining what is happening in real time. Additional analysis is provided in studio by the host and panel; like it or hate it, the program is honest. Even with the added accountability, the show has faced its share of controversy; individual cops have been accused of behaving badly, using excessive force during arrests, and some departments have ended their cooperation with the program altogether. The Greenville County Sheriff’s Office in South Carolina ended its run on the show in August 2018, saying deputies needed a break from the cameras. The Williamson County Police Department in Texas also cut ties with the show, earlier this year, after a dispute with A&E and Big Fish Entertainment over a dispute related to turning over footage from broadcast to aide prosecutors in criminal cases (currently, the footage is destroyed by Big Fish within thirty days of broadcast). Despite these complexities, the show continues to find new departments and grow in popularity. It faces no legal challenges nationally, and it can be argued that the added accountability outweighs any negatives.

A “Live PD” cameraman records an officer from the Bridgeport, Connecticut, Police Department, which later ended its relationship with the show (image via Hearst Connecticut Media).

‘We stepped back and looked at the show as a math problem. . . . What sort of volume do we need to guarantee we can make interesting television for a few hours a night?’

“When [A&E] picked the show up for development, there were two big questions: could we get departments to give us access and could we pull it off on a technological level at a price point that makes sense for cable television?” Cesareo continued. He described a dual-track development process, focusing on both furthering preexisting relationships with law enforcement and jumping technological hurdles. “There were concerns. Aren’t there just going to be officers driving around? What if there’s nothing happening? We stepped back and looked at the show as a math problem. How many departments do we have to be in? How many officers do we need to be riding with? What sort of volume do we need to guarantee we can make interesting television for a few hours a night? You could have made the show pre-cellular technology, but it would have been cost-prohibitive to be with more than a couple of police departments.”

Live PD’s camerawork is one of the best parts of the program. Just by cutting among a few cameramen, dash cams, and body cams, the creative teams make everyday police work feel like narrative film and television.

A clip, lighter in tone, from ‘Live PD’

Every Friday and Saturday night, Live PD is hosted by Dan Abrams, former NBC and now ABC legal correspondent, who leads a panel with Sgt. Sean “Sticks” Larkin, a Tulsa police veteran, and crime reporter Tom Morris Jr., former senior correspondent for America’s Most Wanted. The show commands a massive crew of over forty people in the studio and well over a hundred total, including camera operators and producers riding along with the officers.

“We’re in the control room, we’re in the eye of the storm,” Cesareo says. “There’s a massive wall with all the feeds coming in and you’re just scanning. It’s incredibly thrilling to lead the show. It kicks your ass some nights, others you feel like every decision you make is perfect. I think that’s what makes Live PD special. You never know what’s going to happen, and we don’t know either. Part of the challenge of Live PD is we show up in a control room and there’s no rundown. We’re probably the only show on television that shows up without a rundown. We show up and have three hours of content to fill and you don’t know what’s going to happen and when it’s going to happen. There’s a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants feeling as we chase eight live breaking stories simultaneously across the country.”

A behind-the-scenes video with police officers from St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, and ‘Live PD’ producers.

To date, twenty-four suspects have been captured due to ‘Live PD’ viewer tips in response to the ‘Wanted’ segments, and ‘Live PD Nation’ has helped recover eight missing children.

“We were also blown away by Live PD Nation and the response to the show. How do we engage this community? How do we speak back to them? How do we deputize them for good?” Cesareo and Live PD’s answer to this problem is the show’s “Wanted” and “Missing” segments, in partnership with the National Association of Missing and Exploited Children. To date, twenty-four suspects have been captured due to Live PD viewer tips in response to the “Wanted” segments, and the “Missing” segments have helped lead to the recovery of eight missing children.

Cesareo used his addictive cop show to reunite children with their families and create the largest neighborhood watch program in the country, one perfect for the twenty-first century

Cesareo also fully understands his responsibility as a television producer making a show about law enforcement during a time in the country when the public perception of police is fraught. “We have a slight delay in the case of extraordinary circumstances. We have a responsibility to the viewers at home. We can’t show people that have been victims of sex crimes. We don’t want to show kids that are victims. We can’t have someone die on your screen on a Friday or Saturday night.”

The ‘Live PD cast’: (left to right) Dan Abrams, Sgt. Sean ‘Sticks’ Larkin, and Tom Morris Jr.

With over 740 hours of Live PD aired as of this writing, the program shows no signs of slowing down. “We’re constantly meeting week after week. We look at minute-by-minute ratings to see real-time feedback to see how people are viewing the show. We’re always trying to make it better, bringing in new departments, guest appearances, new segments” says Cesareo.

Live PD airs on A&E every Friday and Saturday from 9 PM to 12 AM EST.

Paley Matters is a publication of The Paley Center for Media.