do NOT believe the user ratings

This show is solid, one of the best of its kind I've ever seen. Speaking as someone from a family full of cops, this is remarkably free of the usual reality-show drama enhancement; the narration is generally well-written and sparse enough to be nonintrusive; the job is depicted accurately; and the issues that come up are those that face real cops. If that's not your thing, fine. Avoid it. Keep your illusions, or whatever you need to do. But if you're interested in a show that gets into cop life better than any show I can remember, this is it.

As for the detractors...what a bunch of whining haters. Seriously.

Of course there's stuff about family and personal life. That's part of the TV gig anytime, because it's of interest to a good portion of the audience. It's also completely in line with actual cop life. For instance, whoever it was that complained about the female officer talking about her sister's problems with the law and with getting her life together is just being abysmally ridiculous. What's the problem? You don't think cops have real lives? You have twin sisters. One is a disciplined cop trying to do some good in the world. The other one has been into prostitution and drugs (you do realize releases have to be signed, don't you? so nobody dimed her out of anything?), and she has a toddler son living with a foster family. Cop has to do investigative work even to find this sister. The cop is the only one visiting the little boy at the foster family's house, and this woman -- because she's an identical twin -- unmistakably looks just like the kid herself. He probably already knows it himself. He may even think of her as mom. That is real life whether you like it or not, and many officers have something going just like this off the job. You think that's not weirdly and tragically compelling, that there's no value in an audience seeing this?

You may not realize it, because of your Internet snark or whatever, but there are people who get into this profession because they believe in what it is and what it does. It's who they are, whether they're on duty or not. Who that woman is as a responsible, disciplined adult trying to have a good influence on those around her is just as evident when she goes to see the kid as it is when she makes a drug bust out of a traffic stop.

Maybe people who sit around and pound out lame negative reviews on a keyboard think all this stuff happens by itself, or that there aren't really people out there like this officer, or that all cops are crooked, or some mass-media-driven horsesh$% along those lines. I'd suggest to the rest of you that that is not where you want to count on getting an accurate and fair opinion of this kind of show from.

Speculation about "setting up shots" doesn't really cut it as worthwhile criticism either. If you have proof that the shots were set up, post it. Otherwise, why is anybody supposed to take this kind of sniffling seriously?

Then we have the featured user reviewer who says he (she? don't care) hates reality shows in general -- and shockingly gives the show a mediocre rating.

Hey, I've got an idea: How about I find somebody who really hates sports to go review ESPN Sportscenter? That'd be informative. There would be a review you could trust, for sure.

If you're interested in the subject at all, give it half an hour and see for yourself.