This Saturday night at 8 p.m., Spike TV will premiere the long-awaited episode of ‘COPS’ that was shot in Chelsea.
Last summer, film crews spent several weeks documenting Chelsea Police officers at work. The production also captured footage in Revere and Lynn. The episode bears the title ‘One in the Bush.’
According to the show’s synopsis: “An offender placed in cuffs tries to rewrite the rules; an unlicensed driver speeds away from a checkpoint; officers seek the truth from two evasive suspects.”
Most officers welcomed the production warmly to the city. During filming, a cameraman played an unexpected role in an incident at a Broadway bar when a man bit off another person’s finger below the knuckle. The cameraman spotted the severed finger in the street and alerted medical personnel, enabling them to locate and retrieve it for reattachment efforts.
Chief Brian Kyes reflected on how such incidents will likely appear on the broadcast, portraying Chelsea Police performing their duties with professionalism. He stated: “wp-caption alignright” “We were very excited and honored to learn that the Spike TV COPS Show was interested in filming here in Chelsea based on the positive reputation that our police department enjoys in local law enforcement circles around that state,” he explained. “We looked at this as an opportunity to showcase the hard work and diligent efforts that our personnel exhibit on a daily basis as they take to the streets to keep our residents safe. The crew was extremely impressed with the professionalism displayed by all of our Officer”wp-caption-text”s and Supervisors that they had occasion to work with during their month or so here in Chelsea. Certainly being a duly sworn Police Officer in a thickly settled urban inner city environment like Chelsea has its occasional challenges, but to perform at extremely high levels despite these obstacles speaks volumes of the caliber of Officers that the City is lucky to have as their ‘agents of protection.'”
The longest-running reality television program in the medium, COPS originally premiered on Fox in 1989 and is now in its 28th season, having recently moved to Spike TV.