World's Wildest Police Videos

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World's Wildest Police Videos is a reality crime TV series which shows video footage including chases involving police cars, store theft/breaking and entering incidents, and riots. Most of the videos are from U.S. police departments, but many are from other nations as well. Video sources include cameras from police cars, helicopters, store security systems, news reporters, and private citizens around the world. American and British videos of car chases and subsequent arrests predominate, followed by thefts from American stores, though various continental European car crimes have been included as well as riots in Brazil. One episode showed members of PAGAD lynching a South African drug dealer.

Most of the videos begin with a display of the origin of the video at the bottom left of the screen, though there was one well-known video where the origin was never displayed. This video was taken in Des Moines and Pleasant Hill, Iowa, and it shows two teenagers running from police in a pickup truck carrying $500 worth of stolen lawn equipment in the bed. The teens blow through stop signs and roadblocks, refusing to stop for anything. As they approach a busy intersection at the four-lane Iowa Highway 163, they attempt to run the light and are mowed down by a semi-truck speeding toward the intersection from the left. Both teenagers were killed instantly.

The series began with the special World's Scariest Police Chases. In the final season, the title of the series was shortened to Police Videos.

It is hosted by John Bunnell, a retired police officer and sheriff (Multnomah County, Oregon), with a degree in social science. Each episode opens with Bunnell warning viewers "Due to the graphic nature of this program, viewer discretion is advised."

A typical episode, "Pit Maneuver", includes sections entitled: "Pit Maneuver", "Car Thieves", "Rainy Chase", "Big Rig Road Block", "Jumping Off Bridge", and "Drunk Drivers." This was soon dropped, and replaced with just clips with segues into each of them by Bunnell.

The series ran on Fox from 1998-2002. Reruns currently air on Spike TV in America, in Canada on mentv, and on five and Bravo in the United Kingdom. Certain episodes aired on ITV in the UK under the title Police in Action, not to be confused with the ITV-made programme Police, Camera, Action!, hosted by Alastair Stewart.

A video game based on the series was released for the PlayStation in 2001, entitled World's Scariest Police Chases. It featured the voice of Bunnell. The game begins in the same way as the show, with Bunnell warning "Due to the graphic nature of this game, player discretion is advised."

Bunnell's commentary is characterized by dramatic descriptions of the struggle between good and evil, the police and criminals, victims and abusers, etc. Although Bunnell hosts the show and makes commentary, several police video segments are sometimes dubbed with either voice actors or the actual law enforcement officials acting in the situation presented. For example, in several California highway car chases filmed from a police helicopter perspective, a voice actor recorded in a studio is commonly heard narrating, under the guise that he's actually in the chopper. For ground based chases and confrontations, the officers themselves can be heard conversing with suspects, motorists and their dispatchers via a division radio.

The original show was taped in Los Angeles in the fall of 1996, and broadcast in February 1997. It was narrated by actor Peter Coyote, and featured commentary by Portland, Oregon Police Captain C.W. Jensen. [1]

The show was a huge hit with viewers, and had the highest ratings of any FOX network television special to that date. It was featured on Entertainment Tonight and was re-aired later in the month. It was the first sweeps-month special ever run twice during a sweeps period by FOX.

Captain C.W. Jensen continued in his commentary role in subsequent specials and also during the run of the World's Wildest Police Videos series on FOX. He is now retired.

Sheriff John Bunnell joined the show on the special WWPC 2.

Due to the popularity of the specials, Police Chases became Police Videos as a weekly series on FOX on Thursday nights.

Police Chases and Police Videos were developed by the late Paul Stojanovich. [2]

Stojanovich was an Emmy award winning producer who had previously been involved as a partner in COPS and as the executive producer of American Detective, a series that ran on ABC in the early 1990s. He also produced two spinoff specials called Surviving the Moment of Impact. These featured dramatic events caught on tape beyond police chases and the like.

Police Videos ended production in 2001.

As of 2006, World's Wildest Police Videos are broadcast in the U.S.A. on Spike TV cable, and is very popular in the UK and other international markets.