Winter Haven, Florida - The top cop of Polk County, Sheriff Grady Judd, says he will not star in a television show.
Sheriff Judd has made national headlines for how far he and his department will go to fight crime. They've hunted down suspects in Maryland, Colorado, even Australia.
Judd has always been a straight shooter when it comes to explaining his no-nonsense approach to locking up the bad guys and protecting citizens, especially children.
The co-owners of NFocus, a Bay area production company, believed that a national audience would have been captivated by the sheriff and they were hoping he would agree over the weekend to allow cameras to document his every move.
Tim Register is one of the the co-owners of the company and would have been the creator of the show. He says, "[Judd's] a colorful character and for some people he's polarizing and that makes for interesting television."
Sheriff Judd said on Monday morning that after consulting with colleagues, family members and friends he declined the offer.
Judd says, "While I appreciate the concept behind the documentary series, I have determined that it is not in the best interest of our agency or Polk County's citizens to do the project. From the beginning, our view of this idea was that if it helped us to do our job - to prevent crime, fight crime, put bad people in jail and maintain and improve the great quality of life in Polk County - then we would consider it. At this point, though, I think it would distract us from the important job of protecting citizens from criminals."
Register says the project would not have been a reality show, but a documentary series showing Judd and his department fighting crime in a proactive way.
It would not have been modeled after COPS either, since the Sheriff says he is dead-set against anything that shows Polk County in a negative light or takes away from his work.
Register had hoped the show could have been aired on the History Channel, A & E, or Discovery. He said on Sunday, "One working title is Grady Judd: The Law - but I don't know if that will stick."
Register says the sheriff has been approached with similar opportunities from production companies out of Los Angeles, Chicago and even New York but says the sheriff liked NFocus because they're local.
NFocus put in a proposal to the sheriff's office back in June and then met with Judd in July.
Register said, "Polk County is one of the better places in the country to live and raise a family and since Sheriff Judd has been in office crime is down and he's made it a better place to live. He wants to keep it that way so this show would show him making those decisions - delegating to his chiefs - his chiefs delegating to the deputies."