 |
John Bunnell | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 25, 1944 Pendleton, Oregon, U.S. |
| Other names | Sheriff John Bunnell |
| Relatives | Mary Lee Host |
| Police career | |
| Department | Multnomah County Sheriff's Office |
| Service years | 1969–1995 |
| Status | Retired |
| Rank | Sheriff |
| Other work | Actor, Host of World's Wildest Police Videos |
John Edwin Bunnell (born May 25, 1944) is a former American sheriff of Multnomah County, Oregon. Bunnell is best known for presenting World's Wildest Police Videos between 1998 and 2001 and its revival briefly in 2012.
Bunnell was born in Pendleton, Oregon. He obtained a degree in social sciences before joining the Multnomah County Sheriff's Department in January 1969. Bunnell managed the drugs and vice unit in the 1980s. Between 1989 and 1990, Multnomah County's Sheriff's Office was featured in 15 episodes of COPS and in 1991, 13 episodes of American Detective , which he also hosted. He was appointed Sheriff of Multnomah County when the previous sheriff, Robert G. Skipper, retired in 1994 before the end of his term. Bunnell took the oath of office on November 30, 1994 and served until May 1995. In the spring of 1995, Bunnell ran against Dan Noelle for Multnomah County Sheriff, losing the election to Noelle, who assumed office in June, 1995. [1]
He is usually referred to as "Sheriff John Bunnell" despite no longer being active in law enforcement; this is occasionally shown as "Sheriff John Bunnell [Ret]".
His son, Mark, is a corrections deputy with the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office and was first seen with his father on an episode of COPS as a teenager back in 1989. His COPS segments involved drug crimes as seen in this video. [2]
His appearances on several early episodes of COPS conducting drug stings led to him hosting World's Wildest Police Videos. Bunnell attained a cult following due to his over-the-top commentary style. Bunnell hosted the show, which originally ran from 1998 to 2001 and again since 2012, describing situations featured on the program as they developed and offering personal opinions about the criminals and the police that pursued them using clichés, innuendos, and double meanings such as "This man decided to rob a bank. Now he'll learn crime doesn't pay". Bunnell's hosting of World's Wildest Police Videos led to him hosting a similar show, Train Wrecks, as well as many other police related specials, such as World's Scariest Police Stings and World's Craziest Police Chases. He also appeared on America's Most Wanted . Bunnell lends his voice to the Sony PlayStation game World's Scariest Police Chases, warning, "Due to the graphic nature of this game, player discretion is advised," similar to the warning at the beginning of the counterpart television program. He has also had minor acting roles in Ghost World and Bad Santa , both directed by Terry Zwigoff. In "Quagmire's Baby" and "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side", both 2009 episodes of Family Guy , Bunnell provided the voice of himself during gags that referenced World's Wildest Police Videos. In 2010, Bunnell appeared on commercials for the Adult Swim Block Party.
World's Wildest Police Videos is an American reality TV series that ran on Fox from 1998 to 2001. In 2012, Spike announced that it had commissioned 13 new episodes with the revival of the original name and John Bunnell returning as host, which premiered on May 7, 2012, and ended on August 13, 2012. The series deals with police videos from across the world. Video footage of car chases, subsequent arrests, robberies, riots and other crimes appear on the show.
Paul John Stojanovich was an American television producer who created reality television police shows. His notable creations include Cops (1989–2009), American Detective (1991–1993) and World's Wildest Police Videos (1998–2001).
Cops is an American reality legal television documentary programming series that is currently in its 35th season. It is produced by Langley Productions and premiered on the Fox network on March 11, 1989. The series, known for chronicling the lives of law enforcement officials, follows police officers and sheriff's deputies, sometimes backed up by state police or other state agencies, during patrol, calls for service, and other police activities including prostitution and narcotic stings, and occasionally the serving of search/arrest warrants at criminal residences. Some episodes have also featured federal agencies. The show's formula follows the cinéma vérité convention, which does not consist of any narration, scripted dialogue or incidental music/added sound effects, depending entirely on the commentary of the officers and on the actions of the people with whom they come into contact, giving the audience a fly on the wall point of view. Each episode typically consists of three self-contained segments which often end with one or more arrests.
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Charles W. Jensen is a retired captain of the Portland Police Bureau in the U.S. state of Oregon. Jensen was also a regular on the Fox television series World's Wildest Police Videos. He also appeared on other police-related programs, including American Detective and World's Scariest Police Chases, which first aired in 1991 and 1997 respectively.
American Detective was a police documentary television series broadcast by ABC in the United States from 1991 to 1993.
The Denver Police Department (DPD) is the full service police department jointly for the City and County of Denver, Colorado, which provides police services to the entire county, including Denver International Airport, and may provide contractual security police service to special districts within the county. The police department is within the Denver Department of Public Safety, which also includes the Denver Sheriff Department and Denver Fire Department. The DPD was established in 1859.
James Michael Francke was a New Mexico judge and director of the state's Corrections Department, the governmental bureau which manages prisons, inmates and parolees. He was later appointed by then-Oregon governor Neil Goldschmidt to oversee a plan to double the state's inmate capacity as director of Oregon's Department of Corrections. On January 18, 1989, his body was discovered outside the department's office building in Salem; an autopsy determined he had been murdered the night before. A local petty criminal was eventually tried and convicted for the crime, and sentenced to life in prison without parole. However, the convicted killer maintains his innocence, and several conspiracy theories have been advocated, claiming that the killing was a murder for hire conducted by corrupt state prison officials threatened by an investigation Francke was conducting into prison mismanagement.
Multnomah County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) serves the close to 700,000 residents of Multnomah County, Oregon, United States. Multnomah County Sheriff's Office is a County Law Enforcement agency that handles 9-1-1 calls and assists other city agencies such as Portland Police Bureau. The current Sheriff is Nicole Morrisey O'Donnell. The cities of Maywood Park, Wood Village, Fairview, and Troutdale contract out the law enforcement services of Multnomah County Sheriff's Office.
Terrence Doyle Schrunk was an American politician who served as the mayor for the city of Portland, Oregon, 1957–1973, a length tying with George Luis Baker, who also served 16 years (1917–1933).
Smile...You're Under Arrest! is a reality television series on the Fox Reality Channel. On the show, individuals with outstanding felony warrants are lured into police custody using various fake scenarios.
To Catch a Predator is an American reality television series in the television news magazine program Dateline NBC featuring confrontations with host Chris Hansen, partly filmed with a hidden camera, of adult men arriving at a sting house to have sex with a minor and typically being arrested as a result. The minors are adults impersonating underage persons in online chats.
Faces of Meth is a drug prevention project, run by the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office in the U.S. state of Oregon. The project uses mug shots of repeat offenders to demonstrate the harmful and damaging effects of methamphetamine on its users. The idea for Faces of Meth began in 2004, when deputy Bret King of the Corrections Division Classification Unit used mug shots to identify individuals with a history of using methamphetamine. King and his co-workers collected images of people charged with crimes related to methamphetamine addiction to document the change in physical appearance over time due to the use of the drug. The project uses before and after mug shot photos to show the physical deterioration of the user as a result of using methamphetamine. The images were originally used in educational slideshow and video presentations delivered to students in Oregon high schools. This Faces of Meth drug prevention strategy has since become popular across the United States.
On April 2, 2015, 43-year-old African-American Eric Courtney Harris was fatally shot during an undercover sting in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as Harris ran from authorities unarmed. While Harris was being subdued, Tulsa County Reserve Deputy Robert Charles Bates, 73, claims he confused his personal weapon, a Smith & Wesson .357 revolver, for a Model X26 Taser. Bates shot Harris in the back when he was on the ground. According to the Tulsa County Sheriff's office, he immediately said afterwards, "Oh, I shot him! I'm sorry." Bates was found guilty of second-degree manslaughter and sentenced to four years in prison, and was released after serving 18 months.
World's Scariest Police Chases is an action driving video game developed by Swedish company Unique Development Studios and published by Activision for the PlayStation in June 2001. Work on the Dreamcast, PlayStation 2 and PC versions of the game was cancelled, as well as its sequel, titled World's Scariest Police Chases 2: Code Red.
The 2003 Ennis shootings occurred on June 14, 2003, when 44-year-old George Harold Davis opened fire on a group of people outside a bar in downtown Ennis, in Madison County, Montana, then engaged police officers in a high-speed chase and shootout. Davis killed one man and injured six other bystanders at the bar. He was then chased by a sheriff's deputy and highway patrol officer. The chase terminated on the Idaho/Montana state border. Davis was arrested and sentenced to eleven life terms, the longest prison sentence in Montana state history. The chase and shootout were captured on dashboard cameras installed within the two pursuing patrol vehicles.
Live PD was an American television program that aired on the A&E Network from 2016 to 2020. It followed police officers in the course of their patrols live, broadcasting interactions with the public. The show was hosted by Dan Abrams with analysis provided by Tom Morris Jr. and Sgt. Sean "Sticks" Larkin.
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Michael Schmidt is an American attorney and prosecutor. He has served as the Multnomah County District Attorney since August 2020. Originally set to begin his term on January 1, 2021, Governor Kate Brown appointed him to the job early, in August of 2020, to replace Rod Underhill, who retired in July.
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