UPDATE: “COPS” to feature Salinas Police Department

UPDATE 1/21/16 4:30 PM: The Salinas Police Department will be featured in the TV show “COPS” on Monday, Feb. 8. The show starts at 8 p.m. on Spike TV.

A total of six “COPS” segments were taped in Salinas. The next Salinas segment is scheduled for April 30, and the remaining four are planned for the show’s next season.

UPDATE 11/21/15 7:30 AM:Salinas is making the small screen as production crews from national network show “Cops” wrap up filming in town. Chief Kelly McMillin says show producers contacted him over the summer about working with Salinas Police. After giving the go-ahead, production crews rode along with officers four days a week, generally during the night shift. The upcoming episodes will begin airing in February.

He says he wants people to have a better understanding about some of the dangerous situations officers face. For many of them, these dangerous situations are just another day on the job for these officers.

“We have several foot pursuits where guys ran from us from stolen vehicles,” Chief McMillin explained, “A guy with a gun, we have some people under the influence of narcotics that out officers were contacting.”

However certain material, deemed inappropriate will not air. Such material includes homicide investigations and SWAT calls. Chief McMillin says he doesn’t think this will put the city in a bad light, since residents are aware there is crime in Salinas like there is crime every where else.

Officer Anthony Garcia will be featured in upcoming episodes. He says he was amazed by it all.

“It was a unique experience,” Officer Garcia said. “Growing up watching the TV show, then now they are riding with me in my patrol vehicle.”

Chief McMillin says the show has two major benefits – boost morale in the department and attract new talent.

“It does show the excitement of law enforcement and the excitement of law enforcement in Salinas,” Chief McMillin said. “So we do anticipate young men and women who are interested in serving the community start to see these shows will consider to come to work for us.”

The department needs the manpower, about 20 officers. But the strict requirements make it difficult, not to mention, competition from other law enforcement agencies in the Bay Area.

“One of the problems we have uniquely in Salinas is a fairly high cost of living and we have to compete in the labor market with agencies in Santa Clara County,” Chief McMillin said. “It’s close by, it’s close to commute and they make a lot of more money than we do so part of the problem too is the work load we put on our police officers and you will see on the Cops show. It’s difficult to be a police officer. It’s very challenging, very stressful and because we’re so short, these officers are working incredibly long and difficult hours so we are seeing a lot of burnout and we are losing officers because of that.”

A workload that could one day lessen with new recruits.

Chief McMillin says his ideal officer is someone born and raised in Salinas because they are invested in this community. They’re also looking for bilingual candidates and female officers.

ORIGINAL POST:

The popular TV show “COPS” is set to air new episodes filmed recently in Salinas, according to the Salinas Police Department.

Police Chief Kelly McMillin said COPS reached out to the department and ended up following officers four nights a week for two months.

McMillin said he’s hoping the TV show will help to recruit new talent to Salinas. Episodes filmed in Salinas will air in February.

NewsChannel 5’s Mariana Hicks will have more at 5 and 6.