Capturing a Probation Agency's Successes

"Is there practice?" Tosha Trotter, a supervisory community supervision officer, blurts out as things begin picking up on the set.

Not really, says Sipes, who does his best to calm her nerves.

"It's a conversation at a bar on a Friday night, except it's being filmed," he says. And except that there's no booze.

In fact, aside from Sipes's closely guarded bottle of water, there's nothing in the way of refreshments. And there's no green room for the guests to relax in before taping.

Like many television programs looking to keep costs down, "D.C. Public Safety" isn't shot where it is set. Production takes place in the University of Maryland Baltimore County's New Media Studio, which charges $3,000 an episode to put everything together.

Henrietta Meeks and Beverly Pollard, former convicts, are up first, talking about how drugs landed them in prison, how they intend to stay out and how others can avoid the traps they fell into.

Seated across from them, Sipes asks about the next generation, the ones who have yet to tire of the fast life.

"So what do we do with the younger offenders?"

"You really got me on that," Meeks replies. "They've got to unlearn and relearn," she belatedly offers.

As time runs out on the first segment, Sipes is too engrossed to see cameraman Aaron Weidele trying to signal Sipes to wrap up. Finally, someone catches his eye and the interview comes to a close.

"I'm a star!" Meeks shouts while sauntering off the stage.

Trotter and another supervisory officer, Elizabeth Powell, are Sipes's next guests, and when Sipes signals that he's ready to roll, Trotter lets it be known that she is not.

"He's ready," she says, feigning a touch of testiness. "Is anybody else ready?"

But before she knows it, Trotter is on stage, under the Klieg lights, answering Sipes's questions with aplomb.

It wasn't all that bad, she says afterward. It was just talking about her job.

"It's what we do for a living, and it's what we love to do," she says. "So once we started talking, it came naturally."

Sipes can only hope his next show -- on sex offenders -- goes as smoothly.