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Sheriff's Office Reality TV Show Approved By Oklahoma County Commissioners

Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office

The Oklahoma County Commissioners gave their county sheriff permission on Monday to contract with a video production company to film a television series.

The Board of County Commissioners voted 2-1 to approve the contract, with Kevin Calvey and Brian Maughan voting 'yes' and Carrie Blumert voting 'no.'

The contract is one year long and can be renewed for another year. It allows Good Caper Content — producer of the A&E series Marcia Clark Investigates the First 48 and Discovery’s Killing Fields — 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, Copsand 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.

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Quinton Chandler worked at StateImpact Oklahoma from January 2018 to August 2021, focusing on criminal justice reporting.
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