Sgt. Chad Payne of the Powder Springs Police Department was in a supporting role when rap star T.I. brought his reality show to the city jail.
Payne was waiting when T.I., whose real name is Clifford Harris Jr., arrived at the Powder Springs jail with a self-professed street hustler named Pee Wee.
Payne said the filming cost the city nothing and took about an hour of his time. It was the first stop during taping last October of MTV’s “T.I.’s Road to Redemption.”
“I told him to get out [of the car] or I’d pull him out,” Payne said of the moment when Harris and Pee Wee pulled up at the jail. “[Pee Wee] was stunned. He was speechless. I told him to be quiet.”
The show is not part of Harris’ effort to complete 1,000 hours of community service before he is sentenced next month.
Harris wants to give troubled teens a dose of reality before beginning a federal prison sentence for gun violations.
The city’s police department has two holding cells. On that day, they were empty except for the 16-year-old. Pee Wee stayed locked up for an hour with instructions to read the dictionary. Meanwhile, Harris took off for lunch.
It’s unclear why Powder Springs was chosen, Payne said. The department agreed to participate in the filming because, “we felt if he was trying to help a troubled person, we would do our best to help. We didn’t help out T.I. We helped out a troubled kid who has never been arrested.”
If Harris is successful in completing his community service, he will be sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison for trying to buy three machine guns and two silencers from an undercover federal agent in October of 2007.
In 2004, Harris was in the Cobb County jail for violating probation on a drug charge when he was allowed to film a rap video in a maximum security unit at the Fulton County Jail while on work release. That incident sparked criticism and resulted in the firing of Fulton County Jail supervisor Robert Sullivan.
The latest taping was more low-key, Payne said.
“I talked to [Pee Wee] face to face about the stuff we deal with here,” Payne said. “You want to feel like [you got through to him] but you never know.”
There will be six more episodes of “T.I.’s Road To Redemption” before Harris is sentenced to prison. The second one airs Tuesday. It was filmed in Newnan.
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