By Police1 Staff
TULSA, Okla. — The Tulsa Police Department has terminated their contract with a television show that follows police on patrol.
Police Chief Chuck Jordan told The Frontier the department decided about a month ago to not renew its contract with A&E’s “Live PD.” The show follows various police departments on patrol capturing the issues they face on camera.
“We just didn’t feel it was in the best interest to continue,” Jordan said. “We vetted it as best we could. It was a new concept, it was something we were interested in. We just didn’t like the way it represented Tulsa and the police department.”
Mayor G.T. Bynum said he is “not a fan of a TV show that is trying to feed off the difficulties our police officers face.”
In one clip, the Tulsa Gang Unit encountered an armed man. Bynum said he was concerned the film crew was standing around while the officers were in danger. The suspect was taken into custody and no shots were fired.
“My concerns about the show are that our police officers have a complicated enough job without worrying about a television crew that’s standing around them while they’re carrying out their responsibilities in what may be the toughest time in history to be a police officer,” Bynum said.
Jordan told the publication the production team understood and have “been very amicable about it.”