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Kiwi cops in hot pursuit!

January 16 | our TV junkies

I love Police Ten 7.

I love the fact that the New Zealand cops are just so darned nice, and that the show offers an insight into Kiwi culture and character.

But most of all, as a born-and-bred Kiwi myself, I love that it shows just how much we are NOT like the Yanks.

Police Ten 7 (Win, Tuesdays, 7.30pm) gives a behind-the-scenes look at policing in New Zealand, following officers up and down the country as they set off in hot pursuit of both serious and not-so-serious offenders.

Doom and gloom and terror-inducing? Nah, this show’s more likely to have you cracking up than cowering.

Last night, our heroes rooted out a marijuana crop growing amid a field full of corn – the plants were so big their evil heads were poking above the legal plants.

They also moved on a group of underage teens congregating on the street (“You should be off home now, mate, eh?”), interrupted a dope deal between some young people (“If my boyfriend goes to jail it’ll be yous fault!”), and broke up a fracas between two groups of girls in cars (“She threw a bottle at my car and we didn’t do nothin’ ”).

These boys and girls in blue deal with a lot of traffic offences and drunk and disorderly matters – always with a smile and an easy-going, laidback manner (“Mate, you really shouldn’t be driving this car with no tail light, a broken headlight, bald tyres, no rego and an invalid licence – eh?”).

And it’s not at all unusual for them to offer a lift home to those who have had a few too many pints at the pub … at least, when they can remember where they live. (In one episode, the young man was picked up in Dunedin but swore he was in Auckland.)

The officers in Police Ten 7 couldn’t be more different from those in the US reality show Cops (CI, Austar) if they tried. Those guys pull out the guns first, wrestle their target to the ground, handcuff them, knee them a few times in the ribs … and then start asking questions.

Its loud music, clear-cut “good guys, bad guys” approach, brash police officers and over-the-top production are just so, well, American.

Give me the New Zealand version any day. Kiwi cops rock!

— SUZANNE KEEN

> "Maori Driver's Licence" - click here for a taste of Police Ten 7