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Officers you've thought were jerks on COPS?


The one officer I've thought was a total prick was Joe Frentess from Des Moines, IA (Season 14), he was the officer who pulled over a young male and his buddies for a minor traffic violation and while dealing with the perps he was being a total jerk the whole time yet the perps were trying to be as kind and respectful towards him, I think that was the only episode he appeared in.

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Jeff Lower from the Palm Beach County episodes was also a bit of an ass, especially in the Season 14 & 16 episodes.

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I feel like some of the North Las Vegas cops from Seasons 21 and 24 are a bit on the condescending side.

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I'm also not really too big on Officer Sean MacMichael (Officer from Palm Beach County, FL Seasons 20, 21 & 22), he seems to be a bit arrogant towards dealing with the criminals.

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I never had a problem with Officer MacMichael. He always seemed to be fairly calm in situations and never had a temper that I noticed.

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He did on the episode where a black suspect ran from him while the officer told him to take off his shoes, he tased the suspect while chasing him and then screams at him, then the suspect apologizes and Officer MacMichael says nothing.

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It seems like some departments prefer screaming in an authoritative tone to stop a chase. I did notice that MacMichael said nothing to the suspect when he apologized.

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Wasn't MacMichael the officer who appeared in a Season 21 episode where he did a traffic stop on a guy who fell asleep in his track at an intersection, he also 3 different types of pills in a pill bottle on the suspect, I remember feeling sorry for the suspect when Officer MacMichael tells him he is confiscating his vehicle because he used his vehicle in a commission of a felony (in the state of Florida if you use your vehicle in a felony it will be confiscated by the police department).

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Yes, you are correct. I think it might have been season 22.

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One officer that I thought was a jerk was Patrick Burke was Las Vegas. He stopped this older Hispanic guy in a convenience store parking lot for a taillight violation in a season 18 segment. The guy didn't know his taillight was out. Burke tells him to get out, but his cellphone rings and Burke tells him to hang up the phone and step out now. He does but starts to put his hand out of sight. It turns out, the guy had a jar of meth. When the suspect asks about his money, Burke tells him the money's now owned by Las Vegas in a smug tone. He's not nearly as bad as some of the other officers as seen, but he seemed to be a little condescending and impatient. I don't think the suspect is a good person, but even before he posed a potential risk to the officer, Officer Burke was already escalating the situation. I feel like Burke could have been slightly cooler with the guy.

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I totally remember Patrick Burke and remember not being very fond of him, I remember wishing the officer acted like he never found the drugs so the suspect can get on his way with the ticket so the suspect won't get his money confiscated by the police, I didn't think Officer Patrick Burke was the worst police officer on the show but did seem to be somewhat arrogant, I know the suspect has a lengthy criminal history, I agree the officer got a little too arrogant quickly in this situation, one officer of Season 18 I liked a lot is Ryan Cook (the blonde officer who was a secondary officer in this clip as well as the officer who dealt with the "Peacewalker" guy).

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In the segment, I remember Burke saying to the suspect "you would probably have had a ticket if you were just a little more cooperative". I honestly think the amount of money would have meant a night in jail no matter what. The suspect seemed nervous the whole time, starting from being pulled over.

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I do if the suspect tried to play it cool he would've gotten a ticket, I agree him being nervous and acting sketchy towards the police could've been the reason why the police were suspicious of him, I sometimes wonder what would happen if Burke just ran him for warrants and cut him loose if he didn't have any, I also remember the suspect claiming that his teeth hurt.

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Another officer I don't care for that much is Brian Clark from Fort Worth. He's a jerk in several segments, but the worst is from season 17 when the Hispanic suspect finishes the chase at his house. Clark follows the suspect to the bathroom. His scared wife asks politely what's going on which Clark responds by yelling loudly & rudely "Get into the living room"! The situation was pretty intense but Clark didn't have to be that nasty to that woman. The guy deserved to go to jail because he fled and flushed drugs down the toilet. This is not the only segment in which he's a jerk but his segments are uncomfortable to watch at times.

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Brian Clark was never one of my favorites either, I also hated the way he acted towards the suspect's wife and could've been more polite and professional while dealing with her, I can tolerate him in the other segments he appeared in although he can be a jerk at times, I don't feel sorry for the male suspect that he's going to jail for fleeing and flushing the drugs down the toilet, I do remember on one segment Brian claims he would watch COPS on Saturday nights back in the day

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The I used to watch COPS on Saturday nights quote was from the same segment. If he just told her calmly, "Please get in the living room" instead of how rude he yelled at her, it would have been easier to watch.

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Brian Clark strikes me as someone who doesn't know how to remain calm through tense situations.

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That's what I've always thought. He's actually a decent cop and has a little sense of humor when situations aren't tense. As soon as the situation becomes intense, he really has an attitude. The same thing goes for Patrick Burke, although he's not nearly as bad as Clark is, in my opinion.

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I remember Brian Clark appearing in multiple episodes and seemed decent in the not so tense episodes, I don't recall seeing Patrick Burke in any other episodes.

What do you think of Yariel Mata (aka "The Rock")? I thought he can have an attitude and I was never really fond of him, he appeared in some of the S27 episodes from Pinellas County, Florida.


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Burke appeared as the backup officer to Ryan Cook in the peacewalker segment. Burke noticed how crazy the peacewalker was.

Mata's not one of my favorites either. I thought he was fairly judgemental to the suspect who claimed the crack was his mother's, as soon as he pulled him over, he was giving him an attitude, and it only got worse when the suspect tried to explain the deal with the crack. I also didn't like it when the one suspect called him dude and he pulled a Jeff Lower.

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I remember being totally shocked and appalled by the suspect claiming that the crack was his mother's, I agree Mata acted worse over when the suspect tried to explain the deal with the crack, I felt he should've been more patient dealing with the suspect, I don't remember the other episode where another suspect called him a dude and he pulled a Jeff Lower.

I thought Ryan Cook did a great job handling the peacewalker suspect.

Michael Sieck from Houston, Texas (Season 3) can have an attitude at times but he only shows it when needed, he can have a sense of humor at times as well, he was the officer that dealt with a woman smacking her husband in the face during a disturbance call and Sieck tells her that she's busted, I can see some people not liking Michael Sieck but I wouldn't mind him.

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Officers as jerks? None. Perps as jerks? Too many!!!

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I remember the episode Frentess was in. I've seen it numerous times. I especially disliked it when the driver told him to calm down and Frentess accused "Him" of having an attitude when Frentess was the one that actually had the attitude. Same thing when the passenger asked why he was put into cuffs.

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I hated watching that episode because of Frentess, even my mother was shocked and appalled with what a jerk Frentess was when we both watched that episode of COPS together, there was no reason for Frentess to have an attitude towards the driver and passenger considering they were being semi cooperative towards him.

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Also what do you think of Officer Andrew ("I've been in the game too long") Fincher from Atlanta (Seasons 18, 26, 28)?

Me I thought he can be funny & good humored at times yet he can get really aggressive when needed, thankfully he knows where to draw the line when being aggressive, overall I like watching episodes with Andrew Fincher, I remember watching one episode of COPS on YouTube where a bunch of people were posting on what a jerk he was when IMO he's not really all that bad.

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I'm really not sure about Officer Fincher. I like his humor too but I feel like he could be a little more calmer in intense situations. I've noticed in some segments he goes from calm to yelling in a split segment. I think he sometimes doesn't know when to stay calm in intense situations. The season 18 segment with the man shot at the motel was a little hard to watch.

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I agree he can have a bit of a temper during intense situations to where it can be hard to watch, I prefer watching the later Andrew Fletcher segments than the one from Season 18, another episode where a lot of people were angered over was from Season 28 where he does a traffic stop on a civilian carrying his luggage, the suspect lied to Fincher about his name and it turned out he was on felony probation and had some crack cocaine in his possession, plus the suspect was sweating very heavily yet it wasn't all that hot outside, I didn't think Fincher acted out of line towards this suspect.

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Another officer I didn't like was Tom Stoll from Las Vegas. He got called to a report about a taxi fare skip from a woman and her boyfriend. I thought he was going to be a great cop. I was totally wrong. I strongly believe the woman and her boyfriend were both in the wrong. But the way Stoll presented himself ticked me off. As soon as the woman didn't follow her instructions, Stoll went ballistic, and he stayed that way until the end of the segment. One of the backup officers was much more calmer. When the woman finally tries to explain the situation, he's still a jerk and becomes dismissive because he believes she's not telling the truth. They then go into her boyfriend's apartment and he's hiding, which Stoll calls them both "Stupid". That segment was so uncomfortable to watch and Stool thankfully never appeared in another segment. This was from season 25. Stoll was an older officer.

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I don't recall the episode you mentioned with Tom Stoll but I'm definitely interested in checking it out, I barely watched COPS during Season 25.

I don't know his name (I've seen it on COPS reloaded) but I remember an episode from Houston, Texas (around Season 22 or 23) where a Hispanic police officer pulled over 2 younger males for not making a complete traffic stop, he was acting very smug, superior and arrogant towards dealing with the 2 younger males despite them being semi cooperative, the driver didn't have a driver's license because he had a felony warrant out of Florida for grand theft auto, then he immediately gets arrested, the officer also arrogantly orders the passenger to get out of the vehicle, then the officer immediately notices the suspect was walking kinda funny and makes him kick off his shoes, sure enough he was hiding pills from the officer, he then arrests the passenger and had the nerve to tell him he's gonna taze them if they come off the car, the whole time the officer was dealing with the two semi cooperative suspects he was acting very rude, arrogant and obnoxious which made me not like him.

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I think his name was Officer Guillen. He wasn't nearly as bad as some of the other officers I've seen. I do agree he was somewhat arrogant although I thought he warned the suspects about being tased because I'm sure officers worry about suspects bolting in cuffs. I didn't really have a problem with that statement.

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Officer Guillen definitely strikes me as someone who has a no nonsense attitude and wouldn't let the criminals give him the slip, I think the reason why he acted arrogant because he could tell they were gonna try to pull one off of him such as trying to avoid getting arrested, I wish I can find the episode with Tom Stoll dealing with the taxicab driver, too bad the show COPS got taken off of iTunes.

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Another officer who I was was a bit of an a-- is Johnathan Chambers from Chattanooga, TN (Season 14), he was the officer who arrested an intoxicated man for jumping out of a taxi cab after Chambers gave him a break after getting banned from the bar, he also arrested an older African American male for having stolen property and a gun in his possession.

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Definitely agree! From clearly kicking the suspect to being very rude throughout to saying the suspect was arrested "for being stupid" when he bailed out of the cab. I know the suspect was a problem but Chambers was a jerk the whole time.

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I remember being shocked and appalled the first time I saw Chambers kick the suspect close to the groin area along with him having an attitude towards the suspect, I also remember him being a jerk towards an older African American male in another Season 14 episode.

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Same with me. I'm surprised the Chattanooga Police Department wanted that segment on the air.

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Me too, I'm glad it wasn't Chambers who dealt with the suspect who'd gotten arrested for assaulting a prostitute who he let inside of his residence, I can imagine him handling the suspect a lot differently than what I saw of these two police officers.

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What was the prostitute episode? I think I saw him in the older black male segment. I didn't think he was nearly as bad with him compared to the intoxicated suspect.

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It was the prostitute episode, I thought the officers who dealt with the suspect assaulting a prostitute were professional and good humored while dealing with the suspect, looking back I do agree Chambers wasn't nearly as bad dealing with the older black male as he was with the drunken suspect although he still had a bit of an attitude.

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What season and episode number was the prostitute episode?

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Season 14, Episode 17 second clip, the suspect was a middle aged man who is balding but has shoulder length hair.

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Was that the one where the guy was shirtless and sleeping on his couch when they arrived, and as soon as they arrested him he got violent and cussed and said a bunch of nonsense words? If it is, I liked how they calmly and politely told him to wake up.

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That is indeed the episode I'm talking about, he definitely got angry and violent towards the police in that episode, I thought the officers handled the angry, hot tempered suspect very professionally, I sometimes wonder how it would've been if Johnathon Chambers was the officer instead of Kevin Willoughby.

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I'm worried he could possibly kick or use other excessive force.

Officer Willoughby has appeared in a few other segments, including the one where a driver refused to pull over on a traffic stop and had a crowd of people outside yelling as he pulled into his driveway and was taken down by him.

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I do remember the other episode Willoughby appeared in with the driver refusing to pull over on a traffic stop, I remember the driver claimed that the police shot and killed his uncle, I remember Chambers being one of the secondary officers in that episode, thankfully he seemed calm in that episode.

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