Syndicated (Tues., Aug. 15, check local listings)
C
Here's the lineup: Cops, Cop Talk, America's Most Wanted, and now, Crimebeat. Only the most discerning eyewitnesses could tell these shows about the inner workings of our police departments from one another.
This 60-minute special, anchored by New York newscaster Carol Martin, takes us, in her words, "behind the closed doors of crime." Nosy folks will have a ball. We go, cinema-verité style, with a squad of U.S. marshals in search of a parole violator, whose apartment we break into in the wee hours of the morning (boy, does his family look unprepared for guests!); we go to New Jersey, where forensic experts show us how to reconstruct fragments from a mutilated body to see whom it might have been; we visit Arthur Kill prison on New York's Staten Island to talk with a convict about the horrors of being behind bars. If you're thinking about committing a crime, this realistic, gritty show could easily change your mind. That, or persuade you to have your hair done in case a camera crew comes barging in.
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