Barry Cooper is an expert at hiding drugs, evading police, and raising hell. But once upon a time he was a highly decorated Texas Narcotics Officer. After a raid goes wrong, destroying a family not unlike his own, Barry’s conscious gets the better of him and he quits the force. Using stolen police tapes, he creates a DVD series teaching drug users how to hide their stash and becomes an instant media sensation.
Never Get Busted! is, without exaggeration, one of the most compelling and urgent documentaries to emerge in recent years. At its centre is Barry Cooper — a former Texan narcotics officer turned activist — whose radical transformation from celebrated drug buster to outspoken critic of the War on Drugs creates a story almost too surreal to be fiction.
This is a film about seeing both sides of a broken system. It holds a mirror up to law enforcement, not through abstract critique, but through the raw experience of a man who once embodied its values and now stands firmly against them. Cooper’s journey is not only extraordinary; it is disturbingly relevant in a world where state overreach and unchecked authority are increasingly normalised.
Directed by David Anthony Ngo, Never Get Busted! refuses to take a conventional path. Rather than a simple chronological biography, the documentary embraces the chaos and contradiction of its subject. It uses a patchwork of interviews, grainy police tapes, courtroom footage, and surreal animations to convey Cooper’s evolving mindset and the increasingly dangerous territory he ventures into.
For context, Cooper was once hailed as one of the most effective narcotics officers in Texas. His dedication was such that he even trained his own drug-sniffing dog. Yet somewhere along the way, the cracks began to show. He saw homes torn apart, children removed, and families destroyed — often for the possession of small amounts of cannabis. Eventually, Cooper began to question not just the ethics of his work, but the entire framework that allowed such devastation to be considered justice.
The shift was not a quiet one. Cooper didn’t simply walk away from policing. He flipped the script entirely — producing a controversial video series under the same name as this documentary, Never Get Busted!, in which he offered tips on how to avoid police detection. He also began exposing what he saw as widespread corruption and misconduct among his former peers. It was a bold, risky, and, some believed, reckless move.
Unsurprisingly, his change of allegiance drew suspicion. Those in the cannabis community were wary — was he genuine, or was this all part of a sting? Meanwhile, his former colleagues viewed him as a traitor. The documentary doesn’t shy away from this tension. It leans into the murky, uncomfortable in-between space that Cooper now inhabits — too radical for law enforcement, too tainted for activist circles.
But it is this ambiguity that makes the film so powerful. Cooper is neither hero nor villain; he is a man reckoning with the consequences of his past while throwing everything he has into a better future. He’s not just helping people avoid arrest — he’s fighting a battle against institutionalised power, with everything from his personal freedom to his reputation on the line.
What makes Never Get Busted! truly exceptional, however, is not just the story it tells, but the way it resonates with the world we’re living in right now. The documentary may centre on events in the United States, but the issues it highlights — police overreach, systemic injustice, and the erosion of civil liberties — are increasingly familiar here in Aotearoa.
We’re watching deportations rise, surveillance increase, and state powers grow unchecked under the guise of public safety. We’ve seen peaceful protests met with disproportionate force and marginalised communities targeted with little recourse. The sense of turmoil that the film captures is not confined to the American South — it is creeping across borders and embedding itself in institutions closer to home.
This is where Never Get Busted! becomes more than just an engaging film — it becomes a warning, and a wake-up call. It asks not only what justice is, but who it serves. It invites us to think critically about power: who holds it, how it’s used, and what happens when people challenge it.
At the same time, it offers something rare — hope. Cooper’s doggedness, his willingness to stand alone, and his refusal to back down suggest that change is not only possible but achievable. He may not be a perfect figure, and the documentary is honest about that. But his commitment to fighting injustice, even at great personal cost, is something worth celebrating.
There’s also an important broader message here. The antidote to discrimination — whether it’s racism, fascism, sexism, or classism — isn’t passive neutrality. It’s active resistance. It’s standing up, speaking out, and taking risks. Cooper does all of those things, and in doing so, he reminds us that we don’t have to wait for institutions to do what’s right. We can start ourselves.
With its raw energy, charismatic central figure, and urgent message, Never Get Busted! is more than a documentary — it’s a movement in motion. It challenges, provokes, and, most importantly, inspires. And in times like these, that’s exactly what we need.
Directed by David Anthony Ngo, Stephen McCallum | 105 mins | Australia, Philippines, United States | English | International Premiere – In Truth We Trust Category
Screening at the Doc Edge documentary festival, in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and online from 25 June.