Paramount+ has announced the June 18 launch of CHOPPER COPS, an all-new docuseries that takes viewers into the cockpit of an elite Florida police team of helicopter pilots as they attack crime from the skies. The logline: They’re just north of Disney World, but to the men and women of the Marion County Sheriff’s Department, the 1,600 square-mile area they patrol is no fantasy. Marion County’s highways, forests and suburban neighborhoods are crime scenes to more than 7,000 felonies a year. But with a jurisdiction larger than the state of Rhode Island, ground units find it impossible to have eyes everywhere.
With 10 half-hour episodes, CHOPPER COPS showcases Marion County Sheriff’s Department’s secret weapon: state-of-the-art helicopters manned by elite police pilots. Known as Air One, these chopper cops, who operate 24 hours a day and seven days a week, are equipped with high-tech infrared cameras and augmented-reality mapping capabilities that allow police on the ground to see in the dark and locate the bad guys. As Sheriff Billy Woods’ “eye in the sky,” they detect where perpetrators are running and hiding and whether they’re armed; they essentially guide the SWAT team with vital, instantaneous information that could separate life from death.
Air One’s heart-pounding stories are brought to vivid life through in-chopper cameras, radio transmissions and gripping first-person interviews with law enforcement. The series also includes high-octane footage of the elite team’s response to an officer being shot and the efforts to arrest the suspected shooter.
“If you want to know fear, and if you want to know whether these brave cops are going to come home at night, you’re about to see it in CHOPPER COPS says Sheriff Woods. “To us, failure is never an option.”
CHOPPER COPS is produced by See It Now Studios and V1 Productions. W. Hulsey Smith, David Karabinas, Brad Bernstein, Rick Cikowski, James Macnab, Chip Rives and Olive Chinarian Smith are the executive producers for V1 Productions. Susan Zirinsky and Terence Wrong are the executive producers for See It Now Studios.
Chopper Cops | Official Trailer | Paramount+ (youtube.com)