By Aya Miller
mlive.com
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to follow and signup for notifications!
KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Drunk driving, violent altercations and a tactical team response are all calls police officers may face in the line of duty.
A new series called “The Shift,” from Red Watch Productions documents all of those calls and more from Michigan law enforcement agencies. The series is available to watch on YouTube.
| DOWNLOAD:The patrol car checklist: A veteran-to-rookie field guide
Zach Hamelton, founder of Red Watch Productions, said he wanted to show the realities Michigan law enforcement and fire departments encounter daily.
“We’re losing the reality of policing,” Hamelton said.
Hamelton’s day job is in law enforcement as well — he’s the public information officer for the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety. He also served as the PIO of a public safety department in Florida before moving to Kalamazoo.
Filming for Red Watch is done separately from Hamelton’s work with KDPS. For KDPS, he has produced shows like “Riding with Roddie” and “Rolling Sixes.”
Hamelton believes negative stories about law enforcement are creating a negative reputation that bleeds into civilian interactions with officers. He hopes documenting the day-to-day operations of officers and firefighters will change that.
“It’s making it increasingly challenging for departments to recruit and increasingly challenging for those that wear the uniform already because it’s just creating unnecessary animosity,” Hamelton said.
Before becoming a PIO, Hamelton was an award-winning VFX artist who worked on Hollywood projects like “Mulan” and “Fifty Shades Freed.”
Hamelton grew up in the Kalamazoo area and his uncle worked for the Oshtemo Township Fire Department. He also has family who worked in law enforcement and the military.
He’s seen firsthand the emotional toll of working in law enforcement and thinks others may not consider the struggles officers face.
They navigate significant emotional trauma because of the high-stress, dangerous situations they encounter on a daily basis, Hamelton said.
“It’s so easy to see the uniform and not the person that’s wearing the uniform,” Hamelton said.
That perception can lead interactions to start on a negative tone. On one episode of “The Shift,” Hamelton filmed a deputy with the St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Office stopping a man walking near traffic on the wrong side of the road.
After a few remarks, the man told deputies, “Sir, all I want to do is go home. I don’t want to die.” The man held his arms out as if he was at gunpoint and began to cry in fear.
The deputy offered the man a ride home. After the man declined, the deputy asked him to walk on the correct side of the road as far from traffic as possible.
“No one gets into law enforcement or fire for the money,” Hamelton said. “They do it because they care. Either they care about their community or they care about people in general … And I feel like that gets lost.”
Hamelton’s company primarily produces documentary-style original series’ for YouTube. They reach out to departments to pitch the shows. If approached by Red Watch, departments don’t pay for the project, since Red Watch generates revenue through sponsors and YouTube ad revenue.
Sponsors like Armor Express have also helped fund production gear Hamelton needs when he’s in the field with officers.
Departments can also reach out to Red Watch to create six- to 12-episode client projects, Hamelton said. Red Watch charges around $24,000 for client projects and departments also have to pay for additional expenses like travel costs.
Hamelton understands some may be critical of the company’s inherent “pro-police” and “pro-fire” stance. But he also intends to be “pro-truth.” He said he edits the shows to reflect what events actually happened and Red Watch has final say on what’s released in its content.
“I’m not a spin doctor,” Hamelton said. “If I feel like there’s something disingenuous in an episode … I have that right to just not air the episode.”
Red Watch Productions is currently working on “Animal Outlaws,” a show featuring body-cam footage of law-enforcement encounters with wild animals.
They also hope to partner with larger police and fire departments in Michigan and other states for documentary-style productions in the future, Hamelton said.
Trending
©2026 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit mlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Company News
