Have you heard of it? Live PD? Six counties around the country being filmed live. Friday and Saturday nights are just not the same anymore. Three full hours each night filled with chases, nonsense, tazings, K-9’s and Officers who we have adopted into our families; most, however, don’t know they have been and like true family, we have our favorites; here’s mine.
Sgt. Leverett and Flex, his K-9 of the Jeffersonville (Indiana) Drug Investigation Unit, called the human lie detector. We all wait for Flex to get his “gifty” when he finds the drugs and he DOES find the drugs. Flex has even jumped into a vehicles open window to get the drugs. Last week these two were the in house guest, on the set of Live PD, and we all just took it in. Flex is such a great dog and Sgt. Leverett was there to answer questions taken from the Twitter feed about his and Flex’s job. What’s Flex’s biggest drug bust? Meth AND a Pistol! What does Flex do when not working? He’s just a dog, playing with Sgt. Leverett’s kiddo.
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Next dynamite duo, Senior Deputy Chris Mastrianni and Deputy Kevin Lawrence from the Richland County Sheriff’s Office, South Carolina. These two are so loved, when Dep Mastrianni went on vacation there was no end to the questions, Where is he? When is he coming back? We miss him!! These two came into a bit of a serious situation last season, which I believe affected a lot of us LivePd Nation groupies: and for what it’s worth (and this is just an assumption based on the reactions of those involved) it highly affected all the officers involved and even the crew on the set. Senior Dep Mastrianni was in pursuit (at speeds of 90+) of a vehicle: vehicle turned and rolled, coming to a stop on it’s top. Suspect rolled out of the vehicle holding a very small child (who was not placed in a car seat), started fighting with Dep Mastrianni. It should be noted, film crews are NOT to get involved in anything, during the fight, the baby was tousled back and forth as “dad” wouldn’t let her go, when the baby was finally released, (I personally believe (since no one else was on scene with Dep Mastrianni) one of the film crew grabbed the baby and got her to safety). The suspect and the Dep continued to fight for some time and all Dep Mastrianni could do was use his wrestling skills to keep the suspect under control until help arrived. The response of the hosts on the set of Live PD, says it all; three highly ticked off fathers. This earned Deputies Mastrianni and Brown a trip to New York for a weekend of filming on the set, instead of out in the field.
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The New York set is hosted weekly by chief legal affairs anchor for ABC News, Dan Abrams and analyst Tom Morris Jr. Most weeks Sean “Sticks” Larkin a 13 year veteran of the Tulsa Gang Unit, is the third host at the desk. These gentlemen explain what is happening, give expert advice and add a bit of humor when it’s called for (like, when you and your wife are still married, living in the same house and you bring your pregnant girlfriend back to said house, then wonder why the wife has issue with it).
Live PD is not scripted or filtered; the officers are followed around with camera crews wearing night vision, body cams, dash cams and hand held cameras. Bingo has been added to the “fun” on Friday and Saturday night where you are hoping for a “mouth salad”, “riding dirty” or “it’s not my…”. We have come to see most people pulled over have no license, insurance and/or registration. We have learned when the K9’s “hit” and hold our breath when our favorites are in pursuit or fight. We kindly play Monday morning quarter back and share menus for the evening. The best thing is, this is real TV, it’s happening right now (with a slight 30 second delay, for officer safety).
Check it out Friday and Saturday nights. 9 PM EST on A&E