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When the A&E True Crime Reality Television Show “The First 48” arrives in town, the police and the sheriff’s departments involved will not receive financial compensation from the show. The benefits are more intangible. The opportunity to showcase and celebrate the work of departmental executives, the opportunity to improve their image with the public, and the approval of victims who may be overlooked by the media.
But as ProPublica reports, the show’s second and second year filming history also remains a complicated trajectory of problems and city regret. The detective admits that he played the scene as the camera rolled. Important developments of the research are sometimes not shown or mentioned. The episodes are aired from time to time before the accused go to trial, publicly revealing information that potential ju apprentices and witnesses will not hear in the regular court.
Furthermore, many law enforcement and legal experts wonder whether the mere presence of cameras will change police behavior, twisting the truth for the sole purpose of a more enchanting story.
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm said in 2010 that Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm “I don’t think anyone would deny having a camera when it affects their behavior,” after the seven-year-old girl was shot dead in Detroit police’s SWAT-style attack, “The First 48.” “I don’t think that’s a good habit.”
Controversies like Detroit have prompted at least half a dozen cities to cancel contracts or end their relationship with the “first 48.” Dallas; Memphis, Tennessee. Mobile, Alabama. Minneapolis; And like New Orleans and other cities, it has halted its cooperation with the show, and some city officials have stolen criticism of the program as it cut ties with it.
The show is not known to be engaged in cheating.
Miami Police Chief Jorge Corina said in 2018, five years after the city ended its relationship with the program, “I don’t want to spend a minute when investigators are essentially working for cameras.” “It’s not worth the trade-off.”
Representatives from Kirkstall Road Enterprises, ITV America and ITV are the companies creating the program and did not respond to a detailed list of comments requests or questions. A&E, the television network that broadcasts “The First 48,” declined to comment through a spokesman.
The show’s most recent season was filmed in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Gwinnett County, Georgia. and mobile.
When problems arise, these once enthusiastic and mutually beneficial partnerships can turn the partnership between police and reality television into a nasty breakup. It may also take some time for the issues involved in the “first 48” to be revealed. Only after the trial passes the courthouse a few years after the episode aired.
Here’s how it unfolds in the three cities:
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In 2022, in Alabama’s Gulf Coast court, the judge was trying to help defense attorneys determine whether there were “first 48” fans in the ju apprentice pool. The defendant in this case was featured in an episode of the show that aired before his trial, so lawyer Chase Diaman was concerned that fans were likely to find his client guilty.
“It’s a very popular show, especially in the South,” Diaman said in an interview.
The judge directed the gathered future ju-degrees to stand if they are regular viewers of shows such as “60 minutes”, “20/20”, or “True Crime”. Three ju umpires, two and two ju umpires each stood once more. He then mentioned “the first 48.” Fourteen potential ju umpires rose.
“This is a more popular show. It’s fine,” the judge said, according to the trial transcript.
Diaman said the show’s disclaimer was not sufficient to contest human prejudice, as “all suspects shown are presumed innocent until proven guilty.” “What do you think those ju umpires will do when they go home at night?” Diaman said. “They’re going to look into it and see it.”
Dearman’s client was acquitted after two erroneous statements.
Mobile defense attorney Domingo Soto was also concerned when one of his clients was sent to the show before trial. “The officers decided on a version of the truth from the beginning, sold it to the ‘first 48’ and, more importantly, to themselves,” he said.
A mobile police department spokesperson declined to comment on the involvement in the “first 48” and the incident involving the man represented by Dearman and Soto.
In 2023, the city did not renew its “first 48” contract. James Barber, former police chief and former director of the Urban Public Safety at Mobile and now the mayor’s chief of staff, said the show helped shed a positive light on “the dedication and professionalism of our murder investigators.”
“But we have always been public safety, our most important focus, and we have seen that pre-trial coverage of criminal cases led to litigation and legal challenges in other jurisdictions,” Barber said in a statement. “We didn’t want to work with our media partners to affect criminal issues or create legal issues for the city.”
Dallas
While small stories sometimes touch on “first 48” episodes that are probably not important to the viewer, they have a major impact on real life. In 2013, a man named Arking Jones was interviewed by Dallas police about the murder of a suspected drug dealer in an investigation filmed in the episode “Safe House.”
Jones told Propublica he didn’t know he was being recorded for the show and he didn’t sign an agreement to appear in the program. He said he only learned he was in the “first 48” after the episode aired. Jones said it was clear to those who knew he was in the episode.
“I start to get all sorts of threats. They start to come near my mother’s house,” Jones said.
The worst part, according to Jones, was that the episode was edited in a way that suggested it became a police informant. Jones denied that he voluntarily spoke to police or that he was an informant. The threat to his life has become very bad, he said, he had to quit his job. Court records show that Dallas police have filed retaliation charges against several people because they allegedly pose a threat to Jones and his family. According to Jones, these charges never led to convictions.
In 2015, Jones was shot several times at the barbershop in an attack that injured a bystander. He hit his chest and hips, and he said he now has a metal rod on his thigh. The man who shot Jones pleaded guilty to aggravating the attack with a deadly weapon in retaliation and was sentenced to 24 years in prison.
Dallas police report said the shooting was motivated by Jones’ appearance in “the first 48.” Jones filed a lawsuit against Kirkstall Road Enterprises, claiming it acted in negligence. In his response, Shaw’s lawyers implied that Jones’ criminal history was the root cause of the attack, and that his “single claim of negligence is prohibited by the First Amendment.”
The judge dismissed the case, and the Court of Appeals upheld the decision.
“If we put a burden on this case to prevent unexpected injuries that violate Jones in the media, the consequences will be a serious violation of constitutional protections when reporting issues of public interest,” the appeals court wrote.
A&E has removed the Jones episode from the catalog. However, in the decade after the shooting, Jones said his reputation never recovered. He said he was attacked and taken, and last year his truck was shot. He sent a photo of the truck to the Propublica reporter.
“You watch it just for all TV. You know, you don’t care about an innocent life,” Jones said of the show. “My life is in a situation where I am dead. That’s how I see it. I am dead, because I can’t live my life.”
The Dallas Police Department declined to comment. In 2021, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed the law to ban real-life television shows from partnerships with law enforcement. The law is named after Javier Ambler II, a Texan man who died after high-speed pursuits and violent arrests. “Live PD” was cancelled in 2020.
Memphis
The aftermath of one of the worst mass murders in Memphis history was captured by the producers of The First 48, an episode called “Leister Street.” On March 3, 2008, police found the bodies of four adults and two children in a small brick house. The other three children survived the attack with serious injuries.
The investigation gathered on one of the victims’ brother Jesse Dotson. He confessed to a camera detective that he committed murder after a drunken fight. This episode aired before his trial. The concerns were raised by District Attorney General Bill Gibbons in a letter to the police chief.
“Several judges have expressed concern to the prosecutors in this office that events in the pending criminal case will be edited, taken out of their turn and aired nationwide,” Gibbons wrote. “We hope we don’t renew our Memphis Police Department’s contract with The First 48. This is a show that clearly airs potential evidence and information about pending criminal cases. ”
The judge in the case did not allow the ju-describers to see the edited footage of Dotson’s confession in “the first 48” as the show representative said they had already destroyed the raw footage. Dotson was convicted and sentenced to death. The city of Memphis ended its relationship with the “first 48” in 2008.
But the show cast a long shadow on the case. In January 2024, Kelly Henry, the federal government’s public defense attorney who represents Dotson, who “has neurocognitive impairment,” was pressured to confession, which he retracted shortly after, but filed an appeal in the original investigation pointing to dozens of issues. She said she believes the “first 48” had an impact on the “first 48” to put that pressure on the FBI before taking over the case.
The Memphis Police Department did not respond to requests for comment. Dotson’s appeal is pending.
“It really crystallized for me. How dangerous these people are and put pressure on the city, the prosecutors and the police to come up with stories,” Henry said. “They don’t necessarily have malicious intentions, but their objectivity is undermined by the presence of those cameras.”
Mariam Elba contributed to his research.
