 "Photo: Illustration by Leslie Stewart")
Sophomore Lauren Cowden was on West Fifth Street on Halloween night when a camera crew jumped out of a van and started filming two of her friends getting arrested.
“It was almost as if they were just trying to spice up the TV show,” said Cowden, a construction management major. “They were extremely rude and after my friends got arrested, they just let me walk home by myself.”
After filming the first season of “Campus PD” in Chico, students and officers have mixed feelings about the show and whether the portrayal of Chico State is positive or negative.
The show follows police officers as they handle calls involving drunk and disorderly individuals, indecent exposure and other incidents that occur on college campuses, according to G4tv.com.
Though the show is titled “Campus PD,” it doesn’t involve any University Police officers, said Officer Dale Glander of the University Police.
“I think the show here and anywhere else, portrays to me that college students have a problem with alcohol,” Glander said.
As one of seven officers who are filmed on the show, Officer David Bailey, of the Chico Police Department thinks the show gives observers a good idea of what officers deal with and how they assist the student population, he said.
The producers of “Campus PD” contacted the Chico Police Department about the show prior to filming, Bailey said. The administrators thought it was a good idea, so the department agreed to participate.
“I think it was a good show,” Bailey said. “It was not to make the students or officers look stupid, but to show viewers what we face on a nightly basis.”
Not all of the episodes necessarily involved breaking up parties and arresting students for driving under the influence, he said. A lot of stories focused on students who were victims of incidents such as fights.
Most of the students filmed on the show were respectful toward the officers, Bailey said. There were only a couple of incidents in which students were too close to the camera.
The show will most likely be filming in Chico again, Bailey said.
G4 will host another season of “Campus PD” in September, according to the channel’s Web site.
Sophomore Will Boughton, a criminal justice major, enjoys watching “Campus PD” because he likes identifying with places filmed on the show, he said.
“It’s cool to watch the show and say, ‘Hey, I’ve partied at that house,’ or ‘Hey, I’ve been there,’” Boughton said. “It’s also interesting because it’s where you are and where you go to school.”
Though the university has tried to change its reputation within the last few years, Boughton thinks Chico State is a party school and will always have that status, he said.
However, Bailey thinks the show will not contribute to Chico State’s reputation as a party school, he said.
“Campus PD” is not a show that focuses on academics, Bailey said. The show doesn’t focus on the students who are inside the library studying and working hard toward their degrees.
Chico Police Department officers deal with the 10 percent of the student population who decide to drink and party irresponsibly, he said. There is still the 90 percent of students who are focused and doing what they should be doing in college.
Though some students and the Chico Police Department think “Campus PD” serves to entertain and show viewers how officers assist college students, Cowden thinks the show is giving students a bad name, she said.
“The show is offensive,” Cowden said. “Most of it is not educational in teaching students how to not drink, but is more of a joke than anything.”
People need to realize Chico State is not a commuter school and because everything is so close, people are going to party, she said.
“The show is a joke,” Cowden said, “and I’m going to be on it just because I was with people who were drunk.”
Kylie Munoz can be reached at
kmunoz@theorion.com
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