A cop I met during my ten years as a crime reporter would tell the rookies, “You just bought yourself a front-row ticket to the show of life.”
A&E’s acclaimed nonfiction crime series Nightwatch, returning for a fourth season filmed entirely in Tampa, doesn’t have all the unfiltered grit that cops and firefighters see each shift — but it sure comes close.
Executive produced by Dick Wolf, creator of Chicago Med, Chicago P.D., Law & Order, and other fictional crime-and-justice series, Nightwatch follows a handful of Tampa police officers and Tampa Fire Rescue firefighter-paramedics from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m., a time when, the show says, the city fields about 850 emergency calls. The show airs 10 p.m. on Thursdays; the premiere episode is available on A&E's website.
Unlike Cops, the popular reality series that cut together footage of police action from departments around the country, Nightwatch sticks with one city for the season (previously New Orleans) and highlights a handful of first responders for viewers to grow to know.
Based on Tampa’s first episode, that means focusing on the officers—men and women, black and white—from the street-level anticrime squad called ROC, or Rapid Offender Control, in and around downtown, Ybor City, and East Tampa. The fire crews based in Ybor City and operating around Busch Gardens also appear, as does the police department’s helicopter unit, with night-vision aerial shots. The city itself, with icons like the Tampa Theater marquee, looks gorgeous in the opening and transitional segments.
I’m sure this is a numbers game: Sticking with the areas that receive a high number of calls during these hours for the likelihood of the best action. Even so, given Tampa’s diverse demographics and geography, I hope future episodes include sights that only the Big Guava can offer: shenanigans around our sports venues, universities, or Gasparilla, for example, or motorists venturing to Bayshore Boulevard to check out flooding, only to become stranded themselves.
That said, Nightwatch’s strength is in showing the heart and humor of these crews, who use only first or last names. “I wanna rock right now,” one quips, a little Rob Base after finding a small stash of crack cocaine.
One fire crew, after putting out a blaze at a mobile home where no one was inside, retrieves a charred Bible for the resident, the only belonging she dearly wanted. They visit her later with a new Bible and set up a GoFundMe campaign to help her get back on her feet, a high-tech update to the days when crews would collect clothes their kids had outgrown for families in need.
While being on camera might be new for these rescuers, some have natural charisma, such as Roni and Cooper, two cops scouting for drug activity. The burly Cooper jokes with the petite Roni about whether she’s ever seen Revenge of the Nerds, spurring her to note how her ex-military boyfriend is a video-game nerd. They’re thinking of moving to Oldsmar, “once he asks me to marry him, of course,” she says. Nothing like a hint on national television.
“I say it’s not the size of the dog but the fight in the dog,” Cooper says in an aside later. “And Roni has a lot of fight.”
“I’m five-two, a hundred and twelve pounds,” Roni tells the filmmakers. “It’s not a huge factor. I just have to be a lot smarter.”
The rapport helps them deal with tense moments, which aren’t far behind. “You’re scared, but you gotta fight through it,” says Jerry, a ROC officer whose body-camera footage shows him finding an armed robbery suspect hiding behind a Dumpster in Ybor City.
“I’d have shot you in your head,” the man, 18, says once in handcuffs.
“You say you’re gonna shoot a cop in the face with a gun, that’s an extra charge. So you might wanna keep your mouth shut,” Jerry replies.
He gets an expletive for the advice.
Nightwatch
A&E
Thursdays, 10 p.m.
