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Chases by police are reality TV in its purest form, draw large ratings
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More from Other NewsThey cluster around office televisions or kick back on a living room sofa as news helicopters monitor roadway dramas.
"It's reality TV at the most pure form," said Bob Meadows, a criminal justice professor at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. "I think people are drawn to that -- crime, violence and what's going to happen when they catch the person."
Some police officials worry that moment-by-moment television coverage of police chases gives away the tactics used to stop fleeing motorists. Others are convinced that coverage motivates people to run from police, citing examples in which suspects wave at cameras.
About three years ago, county and city police leaders in Los Angeles asked television news teams to stop live coverage of chases. KTLA-TV Channel 5 News Director Jeff Wald perceived the request as almost an attempt at grandstanding but added that policies have changed over the past several years. Regular programming is interrupted only when a pursuit endangers so many people that it's undeniably news.
"I think there was a time when stations wanted to show off their ability to cover some of these things," Wald said, acknowledging that when chases are televised, the ratings are very good. "It's very popular to say, 'Oh gosh, I don't watch these things.' We know by the measurements from Nielsen that people watch."
-- Staff writer Tom Kisken
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