''World's Wildest Police Videos'' (shortened to ''Police Videos'' during its fourth season) is an American

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

series that ran on Fox from 1998 to 2001. In 2012, Spike announced that it had commissioned 13 new episodes with the revival of the original name and John Bunnell returning as host, which premiered on May 7, 2012, and ended on August 13, 2012. The series deals with police videos from across the world. Video footage of

car chase A car chase or vehicle pursuit is the vehicular overland chase of one party by another, involving at least one automobile or other wheeled motor vehicle, commonly hot pursuit of suspects by law enforcement. The rise of the automotive industry i ...

s, subsequent arrests, robberies,

riot A riot or mob violence is a form of civil disorder commonly characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people. Riots typically involve destruction of property, public or private. The p ...

s and other crimes appear on the show.

Production

''World's Wildest Police Videos'' began in 1998 and ran for four seasons, comprising a total of 56 episodes, before being officially canceled in 2002. In Season 4, the name was shortened to ''Police Videos''. Most of the police videos featured on the show were from various

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

departments, but footage from other nations such as

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

also appeared. Video sources included police dashcams, cameras from police and news

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

s, store security systems, news reporters, and private

citizens Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state. Though citizenship is often conflated with nationality in today's English-speaking world, international law does not usually use the term ''citizenship'' to refer to nationality; ...

from around the world. Much of the aired footage had previously only been seen by law enforcement officials before it appeared on the show. The show became popular with viewers. It had the highest ratings of any Fox network television special to that date. It was also featured on ''

Entertainment Tonight ''Entertainment Tonight'' (or simply ''ET'') is an American Broadcast syndication, first-run syndicated news broadcasting news magazine, newsmagazine program that is distributed by CBS Media Ventures throughout the United States and owned by Par ...

'' and was re-aired later that month. It was the first sweeps-month special ever to run twice during a sweeps period by Fox.

Format

The series began with a special entitled ''World's Scariest Police Chases'', which was broadcast on February 2, 1997. It was narrated by actor Peter Coyote, and featured commentary by Captain C. W. Jensen of the

Portland Police Bureau The Portland Police Bureau (PPB), officially the Portland Bureau of Police, is the law enforcement agency of the city of Portland, Oregon, Portland, the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of September 2024, the Bureau has around 800 ...

. Five more editions of ''World's Scariest Police Chases'' aired, with the second on April 27, 1997, third on November 4, 1997, fourth on February 17, 1998, fifth on April 28, 1998, and the sixth on April 29, 1999. A further two specials called ''World's Scariest Police Shootouts'' aired around this time as well. It was hosted by John Bunnell, a retired

officer and former

Sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is common ...

Multnomah County, Oregon Multnomah County is one of the Oregon counties, 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the county's population was 815,428. Multnomah County is part of the Portland metropolitan area. The stat ...

. The two specials focused on police shootouts rather than chases themselves, although some of the clips featured a car chase along with a shootout. The first edition of ''World's Scariest Police Shootouts'' aired on May 15, 1997, and the second edition entitled ''World's Scariest Police Shootouts 2'' aired on April 23, 1998. Both episodes were narrated and hosted by Bunnell. The episodes featured more well-known content, such as the North Hollywood shootout, the

murder of Darrell Lunsford On January 23, 1991, in Garrison, Texas, Garrison, Texas, police officer Constable Darrell Lunsford pulled over a suspicious vehicle. Inside the vehicle were three men transporting marijuana from Texas to Illinois. After Lunsford requested to se ...

, the 1991 Sacramento hostage crisis, White supremacist Chevie Kehoe and his shootout with police, and the 1996 Honolulu hostage crisis. Eventually, the show was broadcast weekly. Bunnell's commentary was often characterized by puns, multiple clichés, and over-dramatic descriptions of the struggle between good and evil, the police and criminals, victims and abusers, etc. Although Bunnell hosted and commented on most of the show, most police video segments were dubbed with the actual law enforcement officials acting in the situation presented. Tire screeching noises, horn beeps, automobile collision sounds and sirens are often overdubbed in these segments; this is especially noticeable in footage where vehicles are driving over dry grass or sand. It has been widely noticed that the same voice is used in almost every helicopter footage scene, regardless of the location the footage is from. This uncredited role is said to be that of Lawrence Welk III, who usually goes by "Larry Welk", and is a reporter and helicopter traffic pilot for

KCAL-TV KCAL-TV (channel 9) is an independent television station in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group alongside CBS West Coast flagship KCBS-TV (channel 2). The two stations share studios at the ...

and

KCBS-TV KCBS-TV (channel 2), branded CBS Los Angeles, is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast of the United States, West Coast flagship station of the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the n ...

in Los Angeles. He is also the grandson of famed musician

Lawrence Welk Lawrence Welk (March 11, 1903 – May 17, 1992) was an American accordionist, bandleader, and television impresario, who hosted ''The Lawrence Welk Show'' from 1951 to 1982. The program was known for its light and family-friendly style, and the ...

. Originally, a typical episode included sections entitled: " PIT Maneuver", "Car Thieves", "Rainy Chase", " Big Rig Road Block", "Jumping Off Bridge", and " Drunk Drivers". This was dropped after the first season, and replaced with a string of clips, each commentated on by Bunnell. After a few videos, a small clip of Bunnell would be shown, often describing the police mentality behind the videos that were about to appear. Occasionally, episodes were dedicated to police officers killed in the line of duty and an episode featured the footage of the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 in 1996. There were VHS releases of the first three ''World's Scariest Police Chases'' specials with additional footage in late 1997 and a

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

was released near the tail end of the series' original run in June 2001.

Series overview

Episodes

Specials (1997–2003)

Season 1 (1998)

Season 2 (1998–99)

Season 3 (1999–00)

Season 4 (2000–01)

The show's title was shortened to ''Police Videos'' for this season only.

Season 5 (2012)

Video game

based on the series was released for the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

in 2001, entitled '' World's Scariest Police Chases'', also featuring Bunnell. The game received mixed reviews, ranging from a 3.6/10 from

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

.com, to a 9/10 from Official PlayStation Magazine (UK).

In popular culture

In the ''

Family Guy ''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series premiered on January 31, 1999, following Super Bowl XXXIII, with the rest of the first season airing from April 11, 1999. Th ...

'' episode " Quagmire's Baby", there is a sequence of

Fred Flintstone Fred Flintstone is the main character of the animated sitcom '' The Flintstones'', which aired during prime-time on ABC during the original series' run from 1960 to 1966. Fred is the husband of Wilma Flintstone and father of Pebbles Flintst ...

fleeing from the police in the family car, in an episode of ''World's Wildest Police Videos''. Flintstone crashes, and attempts to flee on foot, but is delayed by the

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ; formerly known as H-B Enterprises, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. and H-B Production Co.), simply and commonly known as Hanna-Barbera, was an American animation studio and production company, which was acti ...

skidaddle running effect. A similar sequence was used in the episode " Something, Something, Something, Dark Side", when ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

TIE fighters and a Star Destroyer were chasing the '' Millennium Falcon''. These sequences were narrated by Bunnell himself. It was also parodied on ''

MADtv ''Mad TV'' (stylized as ''MADtv'') is an American sketch comedy television series created by David Salzman, Fax Bahr, and Adam Small. Loosely based on the humor magazine '' Mad'', ''Mad TVs pre-taped satirical sketches were primarily parodie ...

'' as "World's Queeniest Police Chases". Some of the '' Alarm für Cobra 11 - Die Autobahnpolizei'', '' Der Clown'' and one from '' Die Wache'' car crashing clips were used in 2 episodes in 1998. The show appears to be a source of inspiration for the in-game television show "The Underbelly of Paradise" in the video game ''

Grand Theft Auto V ''Grand Theft Auto V'' is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the seventh main entry in the Grand Theft Auto, ''Grand Theft Auto'' series, following 2008's ''Grand Theft Auto IV'', and ...

''.

Worldwide syndication

Americas

* United States: April 2, 1998 – September 7, 2001 on Fox. The series was syndicated on local stations, such as UPN, both CourtTV/TruTV from 2002 to 2011, and on Spike TV/Spike until 2015. It was also seen as ''World's Most Dramatic Police Chases'' in the early morning on TNT. Spanish language re-runs were also syndicated on

Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast. It provides content ...

under "Acción Extrema". *

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Televisa Grupo Televisa, S.A.B., simply known as Televisa, is a Mexican telecommunications and broadcasting company. A major Latin American mass media corporation, it often presents itself as the largest producer of Spanish-language content. In April ...

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

: truTV Latin America * Canada:

mentv History2 is a Canadian English language discretionary specialty channel owned by Men TV General Partnership, a subsidiary of Corus Entertainment dedicated to airing historic and non-historical programming of military, science, and technology int ...

, CourtTV Canada *

: weekly (Sunday) mash-up show consisting of 4 shows mixed together. Aired on Universal Channel.

Europe

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

: Viasat 6 *

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

: Aired and rerun on ZTV. *

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

Viasat 4 TV3+ Norway (formerly V4, Viasat4, ZTV Norway and Viasat Plus) is a television channel broadcasting to Norway owned by the Viaplay Group. The channel was launched on 8. September 2007 replacing ZTV Norway on cable, satellite and terrestrial in pr ...

* Germany: on RTL, called ''Im Einsatz, die spektakulärsten Polizei-Videos der Welt'', commentated by former American police officer Stephan T. Rose. * Ireland: TV3 *

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

: SkjárEinn (2000–2001) * United Kingdom: Bravo, ITV4, Channel 5, Men & Motors and

CBS Reality CBS Reality is a European pay television channel specializing in reality-based programming, including true crime documentaries and factual entertainment. It is operated by AMC Networks International in partnership with Paramount Networks EME ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

: Skai TV * Italy: AXN Italy * Czech Republic: TV Prima

Asia

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

: antv, NET. *

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

: MBC Action *

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

: Star TV *

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

Studio 23 Studio 23 (officially Studio 23, Inc. and stylized in all uppercase as STUDIO 23) was a Tagalog television network owned by ABS-CBN Corporation. The network was named for its flagship station in Metro Manila, DWAC-TV and carried on UHF chan ...

, Maxxx *

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

: UBC series

Malaysia

: TV3

Oceania

* Australia: Some premiere episodes were shown on the

Seven Network Seven Network (stylised 7Network, and commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is an Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, ...

and

Network Ten Network 10 (commonly known as the 10 Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Paramount Global's Paramount Networks UK & Australia, UK & Australia division and is o ...

, and re-runs of all episodes appeared on Fox8. Episodes of the 2012 series began airing on the Seven Network in 2013.

Africa

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

: DStv

Home media

There were also home video releases on VHS of the first three ''World's Scariest Police Chases'' around late 1997, which included never-before-seen footage that wasn't shown on FOX. The specials would be re-released as Deluxe Versions in the late 1990s, with minor differences. In early April 2023, it was announced that New York-based streaming provider

FilmRise FilmRise is an American media company, headquartered in New York City, that operates a film and television studio and a free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) network. As of November 2024, the FilmRise app has reported more than 31.5 milli ...

had acquired the digital distribution rights to the entire series from Pursuit Productions, it was made available on their streaming service and on iTunes/Apple TV, which included some of the additional specials that premiered during the shows original run. Between April–July 2023, FilmRise would upload the entire series to their "FilmRise True Crime"

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel, releasing full episodes of the show on a weekly basis. Between July–August 2023, some of the additional specials were also uploaded to the channel, with the specials (excluding ''World's Scariest Police Chases'') being incorrectly labeled as "Season 6". The series and its specials are also available for streaming online on

The Roku Channel The Roku Channel is an over-the-top video streaming service available in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the UK. The service was launched in 2017, and is owned and operated by Roku, Inc. It is the most popular free ad-supported streaming televisio ...

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...

Amazon Freevee Amazon Freevee (stylized as freevee and fv, also shortened as Freevee, formerly known as IMDb Freedive and IMDb TV, and sometimes spelled FV) is an American Free ad-supported streaming television, ad-supported video on demand, video-on-demand ( ...

(with the exception of fourth season),

Pluto TV Pluto TV is an American free ad-supported streaming television service owned and operated by the Paramount Streaming division of Paramount Global. Founded by Tom Ryan (business executive), Tom Ryan, Ilya Pozin and Nick Grouf in 2013 and based in ...

(United Kingdom only) and Plex (second and fifth seasons only). It will be made available on FilmRise's streaming partners Crackle,

Tubi Tubi (stylized as tubi) is an American over-the-top ad-supported streaming television service owned by Fox Corporation since 2020. The service was launched on April 1, 2014, and is based in Los Angeles, California. In 2023, Tubi, Credible L ...

Peacock Peafowl is a common name for two bird species of the genus '' Pavo'' and one species of the closely related genus '' Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae (the pheasants and their allies). Male peafowl are referred t ...

and Xumo Play in the future. It is also available to stream as a FAST channel on Amazon’s Freevee, Rakuten TV and Plex streaming services.

References

External links

* {{Spike (TV network) programming 1990s American crime television series 2000s American crime television series 1998 American television series debuts 2001 American television series endings 2010s American crime television series 2012 American television series debuts 2012 American television series endings 1990s American video clip television series 2000s American video clip television series Fox Broadcasting Company reality television shows Television series by 20th Century Fox Television Spike (TV network) original programming 2010s American reality television series 2010s American video clip television series Telemundo original programming TruTV original programming American English-language television shows American television series revived after cancellation