Cop Reality TV Show Hit With Another Lawsuit

As most of you know, Naperville (Wikipedia) is a fast-growing, wealthy Chicago suburb known for its technology sector and highly rated public schools. And while it's not necessarily known as a hotbed of street crime, the Biography Channel's "Female Forces" (Biography Channel) reality series seems to take pleasure in showing the city's wealthy residents in compromising positions.

This is the tagline for what sounds like an incredibly tacky show, even by reality television standards:

"Brains, beauty and a badge ... In each episode of 'Female Forces,' viewers ride shotgun with the female officers from the Naperville, Illinois Police Department as they fight a full gamut of big city crime in the suburbs of Chicago."

We all know that unflattering camera angles and lighting, crafty editing and other manipulations can make anyone look bad on so-called reality TV shows. But 25-year-old Eran Best is suing the producers and the City of Naperville (Courthouse News Service) for allegedly taking it too far, and without her consent.

A male officer detained Best after stopping her for an expired license plate sticker, made her wait for the camera-ready female officer and the show's crew to show up, and then subjected her to a field sobriety test. Best, who was proven to be perfectly sober, was arrested for driving on a suspended license.

She alleges that the officers conducted the sobriety test solely for the show and showed private information in a close-up of a squad car's computer. Then, as could be seen in the final airing of the show, the officers made demeaning comments about Best and said she had been drinking a little bit (even though that was not determined by the test).

It would be one thing if Best had given consent to use the footage in an upcoming show. But Best refused, despite repeated attempts to obtain her consent.

She's claiming damages for negligence, including intentional infliction of emotional distress. The video of the episode might be available online, but it just doesn't seem right to include a link here.