Mall Cops TV Show

[CorpSec]

The hour long special they did on the Mall of America Security Department a few months ago got such good ratings, they ordered up 12 half hour episodes.

The first two episodes aired on Thursday night. Anyone besides me watch? What did you think?

My thoughts are varied. They are without a doubt the best trained outfit around. That isn't saying much since all the state mandates is something like 12 hours of pre-assignment training. But, they get 300 hours of training in their first year.

My main issue isn't with the security officers themselves as it is with an age old problem with the industry. That problem is when your authority and equipment are not up to the level they need to be to accomplish the mission.

They are expected to do things that they are not properly equipped or authorized to do. That puts them in an unenviable position.

They came across as very strict, maybe to the point of being too strict and inviting lawsuits.

A guy that was minding his own business and dancing in place was told to knock it off.
A male that was wearing a little make-up was sent packing. Also, a guy in a dress was told that his attire was inappropriate and was told to change or get kicked out.

I have seen dancers, dudes wearing make-up, and cross dressers in my security career and I never thought of kicking them out. It makes me wonder where they would draw the line? Would they kick out two guys for holding hands? Would they kick out a lesbian woman wearing a man's suit?

I understand the arguement that it is private property and they can set up the rules as they see fit. But, that only goes so far IMO.

[BurnsSecurity]

I've only saw the show once but I did enjoy it.
Shows that when it comes to crazy people, We deal with it about as much as the police.

[waldosaw]

I've seen the show and enjoyed it as well; however I can' remember the channel and am glad that they are going to bring some more epidsodes. I do agree that it suprises me they would do such things and I'm sure they have lawsuits out the ying yang. It's been awhile since I've seen it but don't they have their own police department?

[HotelSecurity]

Owners of private property can set up rules but the rules can not break anti-discrimination or other laws.

[CorpSec]

I've seen the show and enjoyed it as well; however I can' remember the channel and am glad that they are going to bring some more epidsodes. I do agree that it suprises me they would do such things and I'm sure they have lawsuits out the ying yang. It's been awhile since I've seen it but don't they have their own police department?

It is on TLC. The mall is located in Bloomington, Minnesota. The Bloomington Police staff a substation at the mall. However, the mall does not have it's own police department.

[bigshotceo]

I saw it and I liked it. However, I have a few overall notes:

1) I see that they're using a "Day in the Life of.." format, where they do all of their shooting (except for b-roll stuff and mini-interviews) in one day. The problem is, though, that if can make the MOA guards' jobs look rather trivial, since like many other jobs there isn't really a whole lot of interesting stuff going on in any particular day. There's a reason why even shows that follow police officers around tend to follow them for days or weeks and then only show the "interesting stuff".

2) They seemed to demonstate a strong, positive relationship with the police.

3) I don't like their uniforms.

Firstly, they are wearing white and I don't think that white is a good choice of colours outside of a formal setting such as an office building. There are other colours, such as light grey, that they could use without looking like law enforcement, looking too aggressive or potentially offending anyone's delicate sensibilities.

Secondly, their shoulder patches look odd. While I understand the need to avoid looking like law enforcement patches and to maintain the mall's branding, I'm sure they could find something better looking.

Thirdly, I think that if they are going to wear white, they should be wearing white undershirts instead of black ones. In their case it really looks bad since the shirts appear to be riding high on their necks, almost like turlenecks.

[LPCap]

They also appear to be wearing vests...

[Lawson]

I agree that the black undershirts look like crap with white uniform shirts. However, I have never been in a mall where mall security wore anything but white uniform tops. The closest I have seen would be at a Target in Jefferson Parish LA where Target Security wore hard blue uniforms.

[Sam Lincoln 12]

I thought that it was a very good show. Its nice to see how other departments operate. My only complaint is that the episodes are only 24 mins long each I believe. I thought Black Friday was bad where I am now was bad....... I cant imagine their Black Friday. Their Black Friday episode was nice to see but it did not show much.

[CorpSec]

I actually like the black dickies under the white shirt more than the tie look. I am hard pressed to think of a mall around here that wears anything but white shirts as well.

They taped for several weeks, so it really isn't day in the life totally. You can see that the female Sgt. that was going to the medicals was in khakis and a black polo shirt when she brought the bell ringer the band aid and was in her hard uniform when she responded to the seizure in the food court.

The officers there are provided with vests. An officer did have a gun pulled on him and the bad guy pulled the trigger, but thankfully the gun misfired.

They should be armed for their mission and what they are expected to do.

[IPC 332]

I actually like the black dickies under the white shirt more than the tie look. I am hard pressed to think of a mall around here that wears anything but white shirts as well.

I second this, it gives them a rather unique presence in image, and overall they look well groomed and clean. Not all there uniforms are created equal either, bike guys wear different outfits and so do the supervisors depending on there assigned function or duty. Granted once your train in something your more apt to respond even if your in a different uniform.

I think the show has help the image of what security officers go threw on a day to day basis, you guys forget that there petty or what seems like stupid rules that they choose to enforce are handed down to them by there security director and mall management. Just because of the nature of the size of the mall or massive amount of tenants does not stop it from still being private property. And it would not be discrimination unless they selectivity choose certain races or groups of people to throw out on a regular basis. That did not appear to be the case and it seem that it was across the board in enforcement actions. If you notice from the show the police and security teams are almost hand in hand on a lot of there incidents. How many companies or places do you see that happening at? Maybe that because of the 300 hours or the well establish fact that there held much more accountable for there actions under certain circumstances.

Overall it the first two shows and its off to a good start. I do like the fact they empathize the very nature of how things can go to the crapper fast on such rather small incidents. And the nice part about all of it is management actually seems to show in active interest on what takes place. Maybe that's because there staffing numbers are so high and the value of the asset.

I'll keep watching, maybe it will show some enlightenment to the wise men that need to actually see what security is really supposed to be about instead of this complete and utter BS PR crap to the level that there exercising it too. Sometimes to much PR gets in the way of actually completing the job that needs to be done, it should be a equal balance based on the situation encountered.

[Simmo]

I live in Australia, Are there any sites I can watch or download this from?

[CorpSec]

Here you go:

http://tlc.discovery.com/videos/mall-cops-mall-of-america-black-friday.html

http://tlc.discovery.com/videos/mall-cops-mall-of-america-vikings-fever.html

[Arrowslinger]

Having moved back into Mall security this past month, I feel this could be a great public relations tool. Most of the public only see mall security and have no interaction with us, this may be just the thing to show the public we do provide a necessary function.

[Patriot1871]

I saw it too while flipping channels, I love it! As for I'm cocerned it shows the general public that we actuallly preform a public service then just being cigar store indian statutes.