Ed Note: Police1 would like to thank the editors and publishers of the Naperville Sun. The article below first appeared in that publication and is posted here with their permission.
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By M.B. Sutherland
Special to The Naperville Sun
If you’ve ever wanted a glimpse of the wild side of this town, you might want to tune in to the Biography Channel for “Female Forces,” a new reality TV show shot entirely in Naperville.
“Forces” follows Naperville’s female police officers through five months of their lives and explores not only the work they do as officers of the Naperville Police Department, but their personal lives as well.
“The job is different for women,” says Naperville police Sgt. Betsy Brantner-Smith, who is featured in the Biography Channel’s new show “Female Forces.” “People still look at us like, ‘There’s a woman cop!’” Smith hopes the show will help change any gender prejudices society may still hold against policewomen.
“It’s not ‘COPS,’” insists Naperville police Sgt. Betsy Brantner-Smith, one of the officers featured in the show, which debuts Sunday on the Bio channel. “It shows women police officers in a community that’s really mainstream. It’s America.”
That said, Smith expects viewers will be surprised to see what Naperville police have to deal with in this typically low-crime community.
“We did lots of domestics,” Smith said. “Lots of traffic stops and DUIs. Also lots of funny stuff. You have to be able to laugh.”
‘15 minutes of fame’
In one show, police received a call about a boy throwing rocks at passing cars. When Smith confronted the boy, he claimed he was throwing cheese because he was a vegetarian. As it turned out, Smith had to arrest him on a residential burglary warrant issued in another county. According to Smith, this sort of case was tricky for the show because the boy was a juvenile with no parents involved in his life. The “Forces” crew had to film the segment so that the boy’s face could not be seen and they could never show Smith saying his name.
Even when dealing with adults, anyone shown in an episode had to sign a release. Smith and her fellow officers were very surprised to find that about 80 percent of people involved in police activity were willing to sign.
“It was a huge leap for us. We’re not big on talking to people with cameras and we assumed that everyone else is as private as we are,” Smith said. “Imagine you get pulled over and I walk up with seven other people and they put a boom mike in your face.”
Smith theorizes that people’s willingness to participate has to do with our culture.
“We’re in such a celebrity culture that everyone wants their 15 minutes or five seconds of fame on a reality show.”
Nasty weather
Of course, the calls that Smith and her fellow officers respond to on the show are not all traffic stops and cheese throwing. Smith remembers an episode in which they were running through backyards at night on a shots-fired call. Or another in which Smith and other officers were called to a domestic disturbance involving a mother, brother and sister.
On that call, the sister began to fight officers on the scene and Smith was preparing to subdue her with a Taser when she began screaming that she was pregnant, a claim that ultimately turned out to be untrue. Smith recalls that two other officers ended up scuffling with the woman on the ground.
“It was a big free-for-all” Smith said, “and it was all outside.”
Smith says that such outside footage on the show is going to remind people what a severe winter we had last year. During one of the worst snowstorms, Smith happened to spot an older dog that was about to fall into a pond behind the Police Department.
Smith ran to rescue the dog with camera crew in tow. Smith said she felt bad for some of the cameramen who were from California and Florida and were not used to running through such Arctic-like conditions. As they worked together through the months, Smith found that the crew got better at knowing when not to follow them.
“For example,” she said, “if there was a mental health issue, we can’t trail seven people with boom mikes.”
Personal lives
While the “Forces” crew spent a great deal of time on police calls, they also dealt extensively with female officers’ personal lives. Smith says the crew went home with her often. The crew also went to homes of other officers featured on the show, even accompanying one officer and her boyfriend on a dinner date.
At one point during the filming, Smith got pneumonia and said that the camera crew went with her, “all the way up to my husband tucking me in bed after urgent care.” Smith said that she felt she got to know the other women on the Naperville Police Department better by seeing their personal lives on the show.
“Forces” cameras went to events like officers’ family reunions and accompanied Smith to Las Vegas where she taught a seminar. Smith admits she was somewhat nervous about doing the show, as she is one of the few female trainers on a national level.
“What if I look like an idiot on national television?” she worried. “There goes my (training) career!”
Participating in the show forced all types of decisions.
“You see all these little different snippets of our lives,” Smith said. One of her daughters decided that she did not want to be filmed.
“This was a big deal for my family,” Smith said.
In one show, “Forces” supervising producer Mary Glynn set up an anniversary dinner for Smith and her husband at a restaurant in downtown Naperville.
“It was a really nice, romantic table for two looking out over Jefferson (Avenue) and it’s in the show. That was really us. It wasn’t contrived,” she said.
Smith felt that the episode was the most memorable for her personally.
One episode shows Smith’s oldest son, Blake, coming home on holiday leave from the Navy and even one of her daughter’s junior high basketball games.
“It was like ESPN was there,” she laughed.
Once again, anyone who sat near Smith and her husband, Dave, had to sign a waiver, and Smith found more of the same cooperation she had encountered in her working life. “Everybody was super-supportive,” she said.
‘There’s a woman cop!’
Smith said that she remains in touch with Glynn and others from the show.
“They were so not what we expected. Very normal, cool people.”
Smith and fellow officers bonded with their film crew to the point that they played practical jokes on them during filming, such as pretending that Smith was going to retire to a desk job and thus ruin the show. Another time Smith pretended to take a painful shot to the knee during baton training. Smith doesn’t think that these made the actual episodes, but says outtakes will be viewable on www.biography.com.
In one episode, Smith was called to investigate two suspicious men behind a Naperville YMCA. She arrived on the scene before her backup and had to order the men out from under a Dumpster. The men appeared to be taking drugs but were only smoking cigarettes. Smith says the episode switches from her shouting orders at the men to her dealing with her own kids at home.
“The job is different for women,” Smith said. She says police work is still very much a man’s profession, and that women make up only 10 to 12 percent of national law enforcement. Women have only been in mainstream patrol activity since the mid-1970s, she says.
“People still look at us like, ‘There’s a woman cop!’” Smith said. “If there are two together, they really look.”
‘You’re hot’
Smith says that female officers continue to receive annoying comments because of their gender, but she has occasionally found ways to turn that attitude to her advantage. Smith describes a domestic call in the show in which a man continually made comments to her like, “You’re hot, you can arrest me anytime,” while putting his hands behind his back.
When the situation reached a point at which Smith needed to arrest the man, she told him that he was funny and asked him to do it again. As he demonstrated, she slapped the cuffs on him and took him to jail.
Still, Smith is not bitter about the challenges she faces as a female police officer.
“It’s changing,” she says. “Some day it will change.”
Smith said that the male Naperville police officers were “terrific” about female officers doing the show and described one episode featuring a paintball competition between male and female officers.
Smith is particularly proud of the episodes in which they dealt with kids and teens and felt that they displayed the level of compassion that the Naperville Police Department shows.
“We do extraordinary stuff,” Smith said. “Some stuff really tugs at your heartstrings. People will be surprised at how busy we are. I think people will be proud of our NPD men and women.”
Smith says the show went all over Naperville “showing what’s cool about this town. They really highlighted the city.”
Copyright 2008 The Naperville Sun