He Played a Cop on TV. Now He’s One in Real Life.
Movieguide® Contributor
Erik Estrada played highway patrol officer “Ponch” in CHiPs, but now, he fights crime in real life as a policeman in the Internet Crimes Against Children task force.
“I got so upset when I saw what I saw because my daughter was 7 at the time,” the actor told Fox News about joining the unit. “It really upset me. And then I got angry. [It] made me mad.”
Estrada works under the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia. Part of his job is to pose as a child online, and predators take the bait.
“While they’re talking to you, they think they’re talking to Kimmy, 13-and-a-half [years-old],” he told Fox News. “Once you tell them your age, if they don’t sign off — just a matter of time before they make that move and cross that line and give you probable cause to go get them. And then once we go to your house or you come to get us thinking it’s a go, then we take you down.”
Estrada wanted to serve because of the father-figure example he had as a kid.
“At the age of four my mother fired my dad because he was stuck on the needle,” Estrada said in a past interview. “And she started dating a cop, so that’s where my love of cops come from. That’s why I’m a real cop today.”
Movieguide ® reported on Dean Cain, another actor who became a police officer:
“Police officers are real heroes, all the time. For someone who played a hero on TV to come and become one of these officers, and I would never call myself a hero, but to be alongside some of these real heroes is important,” Cain told TodayExtra.
The 54-year-old became a reserve officer two years ago and encouraged the public to “understand and respect law enforcement.”
“I felt the way I could serve others was to step in myself, stand with the men and women in blue, and try and sort of bridge that gap that has started to exist here in the United States and elsewhere,” Cain said.
Though he’s an officer, Estrada still makes time for his other passion—acting.
He recently played Adam in Prime’s new show FALLOUT and currently stars as the host of DIVINE RENOVATION, a charitable home improvement show in its second season. The tagline for the show reads, “What happens when home enhancements, a spiritual uplift, and Erik Estrada show that kindness matters?”
OK fnf's I'm now a police officer with the ST ANTHONY POLICE DEPT. pic.twitter.com/aAvG4l7SSf
— ERIK ESTRADA (@ErikEstrada) July 2, 2016
