Anyone who enjoys watching a televised police chase would get a kick out of “On Patrol: Live.”
The show follows eight different law enforcement agencies from around the country as they tackle every day/night crime in their area; Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office is one of the featured agencies.
The show is similar to “Cops”, except the episodes air live on Fridays and Saturdays on REELZ for three hours from 9 p.m. to midnight.
A couple of the deputies who “star” on the show swung by Hanahan Middle on Monday to talk to students about the show – and, more importantly, their jobs – during a recent “Lunch and Learn” event at the school.
“Lunch and Learn” is regularly organized by the school’s career specialist, Jessica Galati, who invites guest speakers to come and speak with Hanahan students during a working lunch in hopes to get them interested in possible career opportunities. Monday’s session was geared toward helping students learn about what it means to be in law enforcement – the fact that these deputies are on “On Patrol: Live” was a bonus, as a few students were familiar show.
Students have already met with members of Highway Patrol and the SC Governor’s School, and Galati said the school is currently booked up through January with more visitors to talk about careers; the Naval Information Warfare Center, the U.S. Air Force, DHEC and some professional photographers are currently on the schedule for upcoming events.
Galati said the reception has been overall positive with Hanahan Middle’s community partners.
“It’s really never hard for me to find anybody to come out – everybody is pretty receptive to it and they enjoy coming and doing the ‘Lunch and Learn’ events,” Galati said.
Following a question and answer session, students went outside to check out the BCSO vehicles parked in front of the building and also watched a demonstration with Kai (and got to pet him).
Yacobozzi said shooting the show consists of a camera operator and producer who join on ride-alongs to film regular patrol duties, giving the viewers at home the chance to “sit in the front seat” with members of law enforcement and see what they deal with while on the job – traffic stops, foot chases and more.
Yacobozzi said the sheriff’s office has been filming since July – and his favorite thing about it is he has two young children who love watching their dad at work via the show.
He added it is also a chance for viewers to see firsthand how difficult the job is.
“We’re out here trying to keep the community safe,” he said.
The students asked a lot of questions (most of them were about police chases) – one that really stood out to Yacobozzi was when a sixth-grader asked him to think back to when he was a sixth-grader himself, and if he envisioned growing up to work in law enforcement and be on a television show about his job.
“That blew my mind,” he said. “I told her I wanted to be a professional hockey player or a fireman…Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever imagined I’d be on T.V. and stuff like that.”
Yacobozzi said he hopes students will see members of law enforcement as “normal” people who still have a job to do.
“This is a job that’s very rewarding. It’s gratifying,” he said. “You also have to…put others before you, and that’s something that we’re trying to promote so that way they see what we do in law enforcement.”
Zubkoff said speaking to the students about the show and his job was a lot of fun; he said he heard a lot of questions about some of the more intense things they have seen while on the job, but said he and his teammates got into the job to make a positive impact.
“We like talking about the best things we’ve done – the opportunities that we’ve had to actually help somebody,” he said.
Zubkoff said they enjoyed the chance to show students that members of law enforcement are here to keep them safe.
“We’re supposed to protect them from anything they may deal with,” he said. “The more time that we get to spend talking to them and answering their questions, I feel like that better equips them for their future, hopefully.”