Watch Live PD’s 200th episode and hang with Mastrianni, Lawrence and other Richland faves

“Live PD” will celebrate a big milestone next weekend — and they’re doing it in Richland County with help from some of the people who helped make it great.

The A&E documentary series that follows law enforcement officers around the country with live TV cameras while they’re on patrol will air its 200th episode April 13. To celebrate, A&E and the Richland County Sheriff’s Department — the show’s longest-tenured agency — will hold a watch party in Columbia featuring some of the show’s most beloved Richland County deputies.

For Investigator Chris Mastrianni, who was among the first Richland deputies on the show, it’s a chance to revisit one of his favorite parts about being a road deputy and appearing on the show regularly.

“The interactions with kids is one of the things I miss quite a bit,” he told The State this week. “In this profession, putting a positive impact on a child’s life, to me, is very important. And when you’re a road deputy and being on the show ... they saw law enforcement as their heroes again. And for a long time, it wasn’t that way in law enforcement.”

Mastrianni was promoted to the investigations division last year, ending his time on the show. A few months later, Investigator Kevin Lawrence followed. They regularly hear from people who wish they were back on the show and, while Mastrianni is flattered, he said it was time to take the next step in his career.

“The show is not about one or two deputies; it’s about our department,” he said. “We want to show that all of us work this way, all of us are here to have that positive feedback and show what every deputy does.”

While many agencies have come and gone in nearly 200 episodes, Richland County has been there for the entire run so far, and is the only remaining agency from the show’s original eight-episode run. Mastrianni thinks fans and network officials like how their deputies interact with people, and said the show helps provide a more complete picture of how officers handle calls.

“We try to treat everybody with respect, no matter if you’ve just committed the most heinous crime or you’re a victim of a crime,” he said. “You have to always try to treat people as people. Don’t talk at them; talk to them.”

Mastrianni is perhaps most well known on the show for a July 2017 episode, during which a car he was pursuing crashed and the driver crawled out with a toddler girl tucked under his arm. The driver flung the little girl around as he fought and struggled with Mastrianni, who repeatedly yelled, “That’s your baby! That’s your baby!”

“It happens every day though,” Mastrianni said, referring to criminal cases involving children. “And, unfortunately, it’s situations like that (on ‘Live PD’) that get the most attention. But officers on a daily basis deal with things with children involved. We never want to do it, but it’s a part of what we have to do as officers.”

The Columbia watch party to celebrate the show’s 200th episode will give attendees the opportunity to meet and get autographs from Mastrianni and Lawrence along with some of the newer faces on the show from Richland County. And when the show starts, select super fans will be chosen to sit in the VIP section and watch the show with Mastrianni and Lawrence.

Mastrianni, who has become a dad himself since he last appeared on “Live PD,” knows there will be children with requests for autographs and selfies at next weekend’s watch party, and he welcomes it.

“This day and age, to me, it’s a positive thing,” he said. “To me, it means they’re not out here, trying to throw stuff at us.”

The sheriff’s department hosted a meet-and-greet with “Live PD” fans in 2017. They expected a few hundred people, but more than 3,000 lined up outside the building, officials said. At a viewing party at A.C. Flora High School to celebrate the 100th episode last year, fans drove from as far away as Oregon.

The watch party on April 13 will be at Plex HiWire in the Village at Sandhill, 741 Fashion Drive, Columbia, and is free to the public. The event begins at 6 p.m. but attendees can start showing up at 5 p.m.