The gearhead’s guilty pleasure, "World's Wildest Police Videos,” is back. It made its high-speed return to TV this week on Spike, thanks to the son of the man who created the show that originally ran on Fox between 1998 and 2001.
Paul Stojanovich, Jr. says watching videos of people running from the cops, bad guys assaulting good guys, and bank robbers proving why bank robbery is such a low-yield enterprise gives him a nostalgic feeling. His dad, Paul Sr., was a pioneer of reality TV, and won Emmys for his work on show like “WWPV,” “COPS,” and “American Detective.”
Paul Jr., who says he practically grew up in patrol cars, says technology has changed a lot in the 11 years since the show was last aired, mostly because of smart phones that provide video footage of a far better quality than the old VHS tapes used on the show in its early years.
With the rise of the smartphone comes an increase in the number of videos showing how cops interact with the public, something cops are not always happy about. But Stojanovich says the police shouldn’t worry about being observed every minute of every shift because, as he says, good cops don’t have anything to hide.
The new "World's Wildest Police Videos” features video shot all over the world, but good old homegrown footage prevails. Stojanovich says Texas, California, and especially Florida are the most frequent sources of material.
Here's the latest in case you missed it. Watch it to the end.