Tonight marks the official premiere of Busted, an MTV cop show where the punishment -- typically utter humiliation -- always fits the crime. These are not the stories of hardened criminals, rather victims of wrong time/wrong place/wrong blood alcohol levels. Below, the Busted producers who worked on tonight's three stories, Matt and Vic, blog about their experience shooting the incidents...
Story: "Gold Cadillac"
Producer: Vic
My ride along with Officer Matt Crenshaw of the Oxnard Police Dept was really great. The night started out with a call reporting a reckless driver in a gold Cadillac. Within minutes, Officer Crenshaw spotted the vehicle. Next thing I knew, we were on a high speed pursuit! I couldn't believe it. I don’t think I've ever gone that fast in a car. It was pretty insane, but at the same time I felt safe. Officer Crenshaw maneuvered in and out of traffic like a pro in order to catch up. Not only did we catch up, but we caught the suspect. Watching the whole thing go down was awesome.
After that ride, I have a whole new respect for what these officers do everyday. For me, it was a scary and exciting experience. But for Crenshaw, it was just another day on the job. It's what they do.
Story: "Munchie Run"
Producer: Matt
Lindsey was my favorite character I met while working on the show. I remember it being a slow night, and all of a sudden we see this girl just running up the street, right in front of us. Once we started talking to her, it was clear she had a pretty good buzz going. When we found out she was running out (literally) for some late night grub, I thought to myself, “cha-ching… we got a story.” The wild thing is, I figured this girl was so loud and boisterous because she was drinking, however, I’ve done a few follow-up interviews with her and Lindsey’s always like that. Definitely a wild and crazy gal!
Story: "Underage Roundup"
Producer: Matt
This story was the first “A” caliber one I worked on. We hadn’t gotten many calls that night, and then we get a complaint about an underage party that just got busted on the other end of town. Normally, by the time we get to this kind of call, everyone is long gone. But this night we got there right on time. We saw four figures running across the street so we started the chase. When we gathered up all the kids and all their car keys and IDs, I remember thinking, “This will be on TV.”