As an experienced paramedic, Shay was the designated ambulance driver and was well-liked by the mostly male crew of 51. The Dippolito case has also been featured on ABC's 20/20, NBC's Dateline, CNBC's American Greed, and the syndicated show distributed by Warner Bros.

The low-level crime featured on the show happens every day, providing large quantities of material suitable for taping. Melissa Ponzio as Donna Boden (season 2–present): A schoolteacher whom Chief Boden falls for and eventually marries.In the season eight premiere, "Sacred Ground", he was fatally wounded (continuing from the season seven finale, "I'm Not Leaving You", cliff-hanger) and dies with Cruz by his side in the hospital. A police officer fired through a window, hitting Dion (wearing a bullet-resistant vest) once under the arm. Two episodes of the sitcom My Name Is Earl had the main characters being arrested during (fictitious) tapings of Cops. In the finale episode, which aired in February, the show teased his exit, which saw Kelly entering Molly's Pub to meet his wife, Lieutenant Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) who works there. The story of firefighters and paramedics in the city of Chicago, both on a personal and professional level.

In 1994, Pacific Gameworks created a proposal for a video game project intended for the Atari Jaguar based upon the TV show; however, production of the game never started and it was left unreleased. During the first episode of season 22, which aired on September 12, 2009, an officer with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department was tackled by a suspect. Taylor Kinney's future as Kelly Severide was previously also in doubt, after the star took a temporary leave of absence. She is promoted to Lieutenant in the ninth-season episode "What Comes Next" after passing the exams.

Pouch's name was decided by Herrmann, who suggests that she should be named after Mouch (half man, half couch) as Pouch (half pooch, half couch). D. ( University of California/Long Beach), studied a random, but non-scientific, sample of 81 anecdotes from Cops episodes—analyzing their content, subjects and characters.