Former Greene County Deputy Weighs in on “LivePD” Cancellation

The A&E Cable Network recently cancelled their hit show "LivePD", following Paramount Network's cancellation of the long running "Cops". Ozarksfirst.com reached out to former Greene County Deputy James Craigmyle who had some thoughts on the show's cancellation.

Craigmyle told Ozarksfirst.com:

I think you’re going to be missing part of the transparency there. This was live. This wasn’t something that was recorded on a body cam, or on a dash cam. This was actually live footage that was broadcasted worldwide. That’s something that is going to be missing out now is the transparency that was broadcasted live to everybody.

Craigmyle went on to tell the website that some of the transparency shown also gave viewers an opportunity to learn about how officers go about their job and even see the caring, compassionate side of police work and the desire of officers to help people.

Upon the cancellation of "LivePD" host and Executive Producer Dan Abrams was shocked.

Especially since the day before he had tweeted the following:

Abrams tweet on the tenth was intriguing as it hinted that the show could experience changes. USA Today reports that Abrams talked more about these possible changes  on his satellite radio show. "I thought we were going to have a discussion about how to make the show better. And we were going to … figure out how to deal with some of the positive change that people are implementing and figure out how to incorporate that into the show. But lo and behold, the show got canceled."

As a longtime viewer of "LivePD", one criticism I have about the program is there wasn't a really good avenue to discuss, even in a general sense, how race and racism does play into police work. How George Floyd, Laquan McDonald, Freddie Gray and countless others wound up murdered by the police. Not to mention other issues like police brutality, use of force, militarization of police forces. Or how better social and mental health services might benefit police departments.

My wife Kathy and I had those discussions in our house. As well as discussions on individual interactions officers featured on the show had with the public. And the different styles of police work presented on the show as it followed different police departments. I suspect we weren't the only viewers having some of these discussions.

It looks like "LivePD" was looking to do more of that moving forward. With a huge audience "LivePD" was the perfect forum to explore the racial inequality faced by Blacks and Hispanics when it comes to the police and our criminal justice system. It's a shame that won't happen. It's also a shame, as Officer Craigmyle pointed out, that we won't get to see how cops do their job and how service and helping others are traits most officers possess.