The show is real, but some of the methods used are not. The reason many cops say it's not real is because certain things happen on the show that don't normally happen because of the camera. Also, the action that you see is usually about 10% of what happens during the job. Most times it's riding around looking for stuff or getting calls to do little things that people shouldn't really be calling the cops about.
Also, the cops tend to use a lot more language than is seen on the show but of course they can't/won't curse on tv
But yes, they ride with actual police departments and those are actual cops doing their job. They spend weeks riding with one or two officers just to get one episode of cops. xd
A lot of things make people hate the 5-0. It's because it usually isn't a good thing that we are there for and often times cops make people hate the cops by the way they treat others.
Not all cops are nice, and not all cops do what they are supposed to. What happens is we (I'm new to the job) tend to see the world in a negative light after a certain point in time. It's easy for us to lose faith in humanity and to treat everyone like they are a criminal. You begin to forget that most of the people you talk to are law-abiding citizens that deserve some for of respect and compassion. You begin to treat everyone the same rather than based on what they say or do.
There's a lot of factors really, because cops can become their own type of people where they only trust other cops and begin to forget that they once had friends who weren't cops. You have to keep a lot of things in mind to be good at this job and to live a relatively happy life.
o.o