To Serve and Protect, also known as Under Arrest on streaming services, is a Canadian reality crime television series that shadows city police in Edmonton, Alberta, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Vancouver, Penticton, New Westminster, Summerland, and Surrey, British Columbia. A few episodes venture to Las Vegas, and Memphis. The program premiered on KVOS-TV in 1993 using footage shot in 1991 and 1992. It is based on the American television series Cops.
History
The program was created by Dwayne Mitchell and Dan Forrer for KF Media Inc., debuting in 1993 on KVOS-TV in Bellingham, Washington. Most viewers of the hour-long program were located in the Vancouver, British Columbia region. Mitchell filmed five hundred "ride alongs" with the police in the program's first two years. KVOS aired the program on Sunday nights in the 1990s and weeknights at midnight in the early 2000s. Among those featured on the program were future Edmonton Police whistleblower Derek Huff. With a new audience on Netflix, the program is today considered something of a camp classic for its dramatic characters and 1990s aesthetic. As of 2023, 26 episodes are available for streaming on Peacock.
After the first season, the Vancouver Police Department refused to allow the production company on ride alongs after they refused to blur the faces of suspects. Vancouver police constable Anne Drenan said Forrer's "negative attitude after police requested the show black out faces led to the police board deciding ... not to participate further." Drennan said police wanted to protect the identities of people who were arrested but not charged. The provincial government ruled that broadcasting a suspect's face without their consent was illegal.
thumb|Dan Forrer, creator of the Netflix series Under Arrest, originally known as To Serve and Protect.
The original version of To Serve and Protect was cancelled in 1995. Executive producer Dan Forrer blamed "senior officers in the Vancouver police department and RCMP." The final episode featured footage that, according to Forrer, "Vancouver police Chief Ray Canuel did want the public to see." Forrer was outraged. "We are not going to acquiesce to the suggestion that we not show something – that's ludicrous. If they are putting the screws to the police on To Serve and Protect, then what else are they telling them to do?"
Alternate Versions
Dwayne Mitchell sold a syndicated, half-hour version of the program to American markets in 1997 under the title Mounties: True Stories of the Royal Canadian Police. It reportedly aired in eighty regional markets including Elko, Nevada, St. Joseph, Missouri, Salina, Kansas, Tucson, Arizona, West Palm Beach, Florida, and Agana, Guam. It generally aired around two in the morning. Forrer referred to his show as "filler" for the American market.
Episodes on Netflix
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