The Oklahoma County Commissioners gave their county sheriff permission on Monday to contract with a video production company to film a TV series. The Board of County Commissioners voted 2-1 to approve the contract.
The contract is one year long and can be renewed for another year. It allows Good Caper Content to film Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office employees doing their jobs, including making arrests.
The contract acknowledges that the sheriff’s office cannot compel private citizens or the agency’s employees to be filmed. All audio and video recordings and other materials related to the series will be the production company’s property.
The sheriff’s office will have 48 hours to review and make comments on each episode before it airs. If the agency doesn’t send feedback to the production company in that time frame, the episode will be considered approved for broadcast.
Two similar productions Cops and Live PD were abruptly canceled in the wake of wide-spread protests against police brutality last year. The programs had long been criticized as unethical.
County Commissioner Carrie Blumert was the only ‘no’ vote.
StateImpact Oklahoma is a partnership of Oklahoma’s public radio stations which relies on contributions from readers and listeners to fulfill its mission of public service to Oklahoma and beyond. Donate online.
