by Jessica Lussenhop

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When the A&E true crime reality television show “The First 48” comes to town, the police and sheriff’s departments that work with it do not receive financial compensation from the show. The benefits are more intangible: a chance to showcase and celebrate the work of a department’s officers, the opportunity to improve their image in the eyes of the public, and some acknowledgement for victims who might be overlooked by the media.

But the show’s two-decade history of filming in cities across the U.S. has also left a complicated trail of problems and municipal regret, as ProPublica has reported. Detectives have admitted that they’ve acted out scenes as the cameras rolled. Key developments in the investigations have sometimes not been shown or mentioned. Episodes sometimes aired before defendants went to trial, publicly disclosing information that potential jury members and witnesses would normally never hear in court.

What’s more, many law enforcement and legal experts wonder whether the mere presence of cameras changes how the police behave, twisting the truth for the sole purpose of a more engaging narrative.

“I don’t think that anyone would deny that having a camera when you’re doing a ride-along like that affects behavior,” Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm said in 2010, after a 7-year-old girl was shot and killed during a Detroit police SWAT-style raid “The First 48” was filming. “I think it’s not a good practice.”

Controversies like the one in Detroit have prompted at least a half-dozen cities to cancel their contracts or end their relationships with “The First 48.” Dallas; Memphis, Tennessee; Mobile, Alabama; Minneapolis; and New Orleans, as well as other cities, have stopped working with the show, with some municipal officials heaping criticism on the program as they severed ties with it.

The show has not been found to have engaged in any misconduct.

“I don’t want an investigator spending even a minute essentially working for the camera instead of elements of the case,” Miami police Chief Jorge Colina said in 2018, five years after the city ended its relationship with the program. “It’s not worth the tradeoff.”

Representatives from Kirkstall Road Enterprises, ITV America and ITV, the companies that produce the program, did not respond to requests for comment or to a detailed list of questions.........

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