EDMONTON – After just two episodes, the Edmonton Police Service has decided to cancel its web series ‘The Squad’.
“Based on some of the feedback we have received, we have decided to refocus the vision of The Squad and cancel any further episodes,” explained EPS in a written statement Friday.
“We will take what we’ve learned and keep bringing stories about policing in Edmonton to the public through new and innovative ways.”
When it was launched April 19, the web series was billed as “an inside look into policing in Edmonton… from courageous officers to dynamic calls for service.”
The EPS news release on April 19 said the goal of the series was to show Edmontonians – in a new way – what local police officers do on a daily basis. Officers hoped it would be informative and entertaining, as well as a good recruiting tool.
But the videos attracted criticism because of privacy issues and the way they depicted the subjects involved in the calls.
“Many people in the community are upset by this whole idea,” said D’Arcy DePoe, President of the Criminal Trial Lawyers Association. “It’s exploitive of vulnerable people, it evades people’s privacy, it trivializes important issues, and it shows police, in my opinion, in a negative light.”
DePoe points to the two episodes that aired – ‘Screaming Man’ and ‘Clothes Overboard’ – as examples.
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“They exploited the pain and suffering and difficulties suffered by some of the most vulnerable people in our community.
“These are not matters for infotainment. This is an invasion of privacy as well, because the individual who is not charged with anything – he made the complaint – is identified. People are going to know who this person is. You can see the location quite clearly.”
DePoe says the decision to cancel the series is a good one.
“I think the whole concept was wrong-headed from the very beginning and really, this should have happened sooner.”
The EPS clarified the decision Friday, saying it was a combination of feedback on the videos and the resources it took to produce them that led to the cancellation.
“Absolutely, feedback was part of it. We’re very sensitive to what everybody has to say,” explained Deputy Chief Brian Simpson, “but I can tell you, from my perspective, part of it was the time and energy involved in the process was more than I anticipated.
“The other concern was around the legal piece. We did run it through our legal department to make sure we were on solid footing. It’s always an opinion, it’s always a decision piece, but that was part of the decision around it. Let’s get to a spot that’s comfortable for everybody.”
Simpson said the EPS received positive feedback on the videos as well as some negative comments.
“There was some negative feedback, but actually overall, some very positive feedback, for a large part, a younger audience that really appreciated that mode of communication.”
In the end, he said, police had to look at whether this was an effective way of getting their message across.
“Are we doing an effective communication piece around where we want to go with this?”
But DePoe isn’t convinced.
“If they’d had nothing but positive feedback, they wouldn’t have cancelled it.”
He feels the EPS owes the public an explanation on top of cancelling the series.
“Why did they think this was appropriate? Why did they use these resources? Why did they think it’s OK to invade people’s privacy for infotainment?”
The police say the final product was not too far off from what they set out to create.
“I think it’s close to what the intent was,” says Simpson.
However, he admits the voiceover segments are not accurate representations of Edmonton police communications.
“That is more of a TV terminology, definitely not the way police officers speak in the real world,” he explains.
“That’s part of what we learned from it too, in terms of ‘OK, if we’re going to demonstrate this as being real, let’s keep it to the language we use,’ because that’s not what you’d normally hear form a police officer.”
The EPS says it will be looking at other innovative ways to connect with the public and will use the lessons it learned from ‘The Squad’ to help them in the future.
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