You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy.™
Cops and video.
I’ve been broadcasting since I was 16 years old.
I was a sophomore in high school.
I started as a DJ at KSPB Radio.
“Rocking the Forest” as I remember.
It was a 100 watt radio station. The transmitter was high on a hill over looking the Monterey Bay. We broadcast into Monterey and Carmel and Santa Cruz.
I had a rock and roll radio show for 2 hours on Tuesday night. Ted Nugent and Def Lepard and Blue Oyster Cult.
You know what’s crazy? After my rock show, a Korean kid who went to the school came in and he transitioned like a brick dropping on your toes.
Bam.
Welcome to Korean Folk Music everyone.
I had almost a 1000 hours on air before I even went to college.
I’ve been doing this a long long time.
I learned a fundamental truth 3 decades ago when I was a cub reporter in Idaho.
Video is the key to my business and video can be the key to law enforcement agencies wishing to solve crimes.
The thing I also learned is that cops don’t look at video the same as reporters look at video.
Cops like video that shows a license number on a get a way car. Cops like video that shows the face of an armed robber. Cops want to solve crimes. To solve crimes, video need to yield clues. Cops like calm, clear, often pedestrian video that is not wild, not loud.
Reporters like video that rocks, video that is jazzy and exciting and energized.
Monday morning a deputy is writing a ticket on the side of I-65. The man being ticketed is out of his car, leaning on the guard rail. The two deputies are in the vehicle talking. It’s an average day on an average traffic stop.
Suddenly, BAM!
An Alabama woman smashes into the squad car at 70 mph. She crushes the sheriff’s driver side, peeling it back like a sardine can. The car explodes forward crashing into the other stopped vehicle at the same time, launching the man violently over the guard rail.
The woman that caused the chaos is suddenly on her side spinning around the middle of the interstate.
I stare at this video and say to myself. Holy Crap.
What’s funny?
I called the Captain over patrols after the wreck.
“Was there Dash Cam?”
“I’ll check,” he says.
He calls me back and says the video is not that great.
“It’s facing forward,” He says. “it doesn’t show much.”
25 years ago, I’d have said OK, and taken that at face value.
But over a quarter century, I’ve learned that cops look at video differently.
“I’ll be down in the morning to take a look,” I laugh.
I show up at 7:30 am and the Captain pushes play on the dash cam video.
It shows the car and the guy and the calm, pedestrian traffic stop.
Then…
BAM. CRASH. BOOM.
In the blink of an eye, the car explodes forward knocking the man over the rail. He disappears from sight. Is he dead? Did his legs get severed?
The deputies in the car are stunned, moaning. They are hurt.
In the distance the woman’s car is spinning, round and round and round.
I laugh out loud.
“Are you F***ing kidding me? This is no good?”
He looks at me and smiles.
And there it is. A lesson learned.
The video is gold. It will lead the 5pm newscast.
The producers want Cold opens of the crash and the frantic response of motorists as they stop to help.
No good?
The only thing not good is how cops and reporters often view the same thing.
Ha ha.
And that is crazy.™