Second City Cop TV, a New Contender in the Video News Business!

Chicago, IL—Chicago’s FOP got smart when they hired Pat Camden after his career as a cop and department spokesman.  Camden can now actually say what Chicago cops can’t without facing discipline.  His retired status gives him a First Amendment right that is now controlled by the FOP.  Okay he does not get to tell us how he really feels but at least the department cannot muzzle him. If they were a little smarter the FOP would make a real reporter out of him.

Of course the FOP and the City of Chicago politicians seem to get along entirely too well.   Seemingly they have little in common but when it comes to voicing what’s on the minds of their membership the FOP fails big time.  I can’t help but fault the FOP for the CPD’s manpower shortages, failures to demand better in-service survival training and firearms needed to challenge the thousands of organized and armed street thugs.      

Technology has given the FOP or anyone the ability to reach their membership with inexpensive but superior video communication tools.  The effectiveness of the FOP’s YouTube reach can be seen in the paltry amount of views their videos have received. They have only double-digit views on most of their videos and their most viewed posting is just past the 400 mark.  The production value of the videos seems to be okay but they’re completely void of any passion for the working cop or for that matter anyone.  They all fail. 

Here I have to ring the bell of Second City Cop and True News for sharing the candor, concerns and needs of the working cops via their blogs.  They each get at minimum 10,000 hits per day.  Frankly these bloggers represent the membership of the FOP far better then their actual union representatives.  This seems terribly wrong.  Actually the taxpayers are being well served by SCC’s existence too. However, something’s missing here. 

If the person behind Second City Cop were on a Union ballot there’d be no question who’d win the membership’s votes.  SCC has no funding, no TV production skills or equipment.  SCC does not have a YouTube Channel. If SCC had a video reporter or two to cover events near and dear to cops they’d get better viewership than most of Chicago’s local TV news organizations.  The reporters and producers of SCC would have to be retired cops or civilians.  I can’t help but see a serious potential for profit here.

I’m taking the liberty to create a fictitious new contender for TV news about crime, cops, courts and corruption in the Windy City.  It will be of course, web based.

The local media has been pandering to Chicago’s politicians since there was media.   News provided to Chicagoans is first put through a filter that protects political corruption and every opportunity.  Unfortunately through extortion city officials threaten businesses that would sponsor real news.  Chicago’s news organizations are all too aware and pull their punches as a result.  SCC on the other hand has only one master, the men and women of the department.   

Let’s say that SCC-TV is born.  It would have a single purpose to report crime, courts and corruption news. Weather and sports are sometimes important to cover as they impact crime and cops.

One thing for sure such a media organization would get zero cooperation from the CPD management.  Of course the street cops would pour in information along with lots of smartphone video shot in the field.  

The SCC-TV reporters and producers must be pros that understand television, promotion, story telling, production and beating the local news competition.  Journalistic standards and credibility must be part of such an endeavor.  

Chicago has a real need for a SCC style TV news on the web startup.   Rather than to rely on business sponsors this could be offered to views via paid subscriptions of perhaps $10.00 per month.  The website would have some free postings and tease stories that require a subscription to watch. Frankly subscribed 10,000 viewers would float this boat in a hurry.  But depending on the quality of the content that audience could grow exponentially.

Here’s a video I put up about simple TV production for the Internet.  You need to know all my great equipment only cost me around $7,000.00 :

Here is a report I did for WND when Conservative blogger Andrew Brietbart died: