The Force: Behind the Line

The Force: Behind the Line

Company type	Television series
Industry	Television production
Founded	August 2006 (2006-08)
Headquarters	Australia
Area served	Australia
Products	Factual television series

The Force: Behind the Line is an Australian factual television series focusing on the operations of the Western Australia Police and New South Wales Police. Hosted by Simon Reeve, it has been broadcast nationwide on the Seven Network since August 2006. Comparable to programs like Border Security: Australia's Front Line and the American series Cops, each installment showcases three to four distinct police investigations.

Format

The series is recorded across urban and regional locations within Western Australia and New South Wales. Compact film crews accompany officers as they perform their routine tasks, ensuring that filming does not disrupt police activities. Some sequences are filmed inside police vehicles or from a distance, utilizing wireless microphones to capture audio.

The Western Australia Police maintain editorial control over footage that could present legal complications, including scenes involving juvenile offenders or court proceedings. To safeguard privacy, faces and identities are obscured through pixelation or blurring where necessary.

Episodes combine high-intensity incidents with everyday policing matters, covering crimes such as burglaries, drug-related offenses, traffic violations, and homicide investigations.

History

On 23 November 2005, the Seven Network announced the development of The Force, initially without a confirmed title. The show underwent several working titles—including Police Patrol and True Blue—before adopting its permanent name in June 2006.

For the first two seasons, only the Western Australia Police participated in filming. Despite facing some legal challenges, Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan endorsed the project, viewing it as a means to improve public insight into law enforcement activities. The third season premiered in February 2008, with the twelfth season debuting on 27 July 2016.

As of October 2017, seasons one through three have been accessible on Tubi TV within the United States.

Season 11

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Ratings

The Force launched with a robust metropolitan audience of approximately 2.295 million viewers across Australia, achieving the highest-rated Australian series premiere in 2006 and placing second overall for that week behind Border Security: Australia's Front Line, which attracted around 2.298 million viewers. The show surpassed Border Security in viewership figures specifically in Sydney and Perth, supported by a targeted promotional campaign highlighting crime stories from Western Australia.

Tim Worner, Seven Network's director of programming, referred to the series as one of the network’s "hit shows." The second episode maintained strong ratings, drawing an audience of about 1.956 million.

Nevertheless, after shifting to Wednesday night broadcasts, ratings declined—partly due to losing the benefit of Border Security as a lead-in program and facing competition from Network Ten's Thank God You're Here. Across metropolitan areas, the first season averaged roughly 1.453 million viewers and ranked as the nineteenth most-watched regular television program in Australia throughout 2006.

Critical reviews

Television analyst Robin Oliver of The Sydney Morning Herald commended The Force for presenting some of the finest reality TV within its category, emphasizing its genuine, unscripted sequences that catch both officers and production teams off guard. Nonetheless, he found fault with the show's pacing, describing it as "excessively rapid," with narratives transitioning in an "annoyingly swift manner."

Graeme Blundell from The Australian remarked on the series' tabloid-like approach, pointing out that topics rarely receive attention beyond the immediate incidents. He characterized the program as "refined television," yet compared it to a corporate instructional video designed for the Western Australia police department.