Comic Relief. How many times do you get to see a crackhead call the COPS because they've been robbed.
And just the stupid stuff people say when they've been caught.
It also gave me a different perspective on law enforcement. A few of my friends are COPS.
Well, by my count, at least once every COPS episode!
As for comic relief, I share Jay Leno's amusement at news stories about stupid criminals (I never miss "Headlines" night, I wish they'd do more of that, and less "Jaywalking"), but the news stories Leno reads only take a half a minute, and COPS gives us ten long excruciating minutes of the same bozo. Then, they follow up with another story of another bozo, doing pretty much the same thing. It gets tedious after awhile.
Not meaning to take anything away from LEO's, but COPS makes them seem more like babysitters in an insane asylum rather than people who are on the front lines of a dangerous social breakdown.