Episode 1 The Wanted

Top panel, top panel, top panel. Get back from the door!

Go, go, go!

Contain that door for us.

-What's your name?

-MAN CRIES OUT

-What's your name?!

-Philip! Philip Stevenson!

Right.

Put your hands behind your back.

Is this back room clear?

You're under arrest for escaping from lawful custody.

Every day in the UK, the police are on the hunt for known

and suspected criminals.

Police with a warrant! Come to the door!

They're armed with warrants and big red keys.

The Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire forces

have granted exclusive access to their raids.

-Police!

-SHOUTING

Their officers are wearing special equipment

to give you a cop's-eye view

and bring you closer to the action than ever before.

Wait, wait, wait.

Police!

Britain's streets are a battleground.

-Stay back!

-Stay out of the way.

-Come on, stay back!

On one side are the men and women fighting to keep us safe

and on the other are The Wanted.

Police are hunting for two men

who escaped from Kirkham Prison yesterday.

34-year-old Philip Stevenson

is serving a sentence for firearms offences,

while Gareth Robinson, who's 24 years old, is a convicted burglar.

Both men are from Oldham

and are believed to be in the Greater Manchester area.

With two dangerous criminals on the run and on their patch,

Greater Manchester Police must track them down

and put them back behind bars...

..but it won't be easy.

This is a county of 2.7 million people,

spread across nearly 500 square miles.

In relation to Operation Tribute,

er, it's the manhunt for the two lads

who've absconded from HMP Kirkham.

-Is that right, Rick?

-Correct, yeah.

-Erm, the purpose really now is...

Leading the operation to recapture the prisoners is

Detective Inspector Robert Cousen.

Right, so, phones.

We've got a couple of key people there to go and visit,

-we need the cell searching at the prison.

-Yeah.

DI Cousen leads a team that are on round-the-clock standby

for just this type of incident.

One of the departments that I run is Critical Wanted Unit.

In essence, that's a unit that deals with anybody

who is considered a risk to the community,

who has either escaped or is wanted for a serious offence and the...

It's a small unit, but they have some very specialised skills

in terms of tracking down people who don't particularly want to be found.

The two inmates have been at large for over ten hours,

so the clock is ticking loudly for the Critical Wanted Unit.

The local press are onto the story.

The public will be worried and with good reason.

In essence, what they've done...

It's an open prison, they've walked out,

they should've been returning to the prison

and they've not returned.

Stevenson was locked up in relation to a loaded firearm

that he was in possession of when he was arrested,

so he received a five-year sentence back in 2012

and Robinson was in custody

for a burglary and he'd received 42 months.

So our objective is to take them back into custody.

The trail starts with a thorough search

of both escapees' cell belongings,

which have been sent over from Kirkham Prison.

Each bag is a potential gold mine of information.

We'll be going through letters, etc, anything that might give us

some lines of inquiry to be able to track these lads down.

Alongside the letters, the names of friends and addresses of contacts,

there's an even more valuable source of information -

the suspects' mobile phone records.

-He's put some subscribers in...

-Yeah.

..for the numbers that he thinks are of use.

-Is this the four ones that he said, the kind of...

-Yeah.

..the four prominent numbers?

And, ironically, the only one that hasn't come back is

-the most important one, which is this 3037 number, I think.

-Yeah.

-That's the one that's been trying to ring him today.

-All right, catch you in a bit.

When you make a phone call, your phone has to connect

to a mast to send a signal,

so that you can connect to whoever it is that you're ringing.

What we do is we use specialism from the telecommunications world.

They look at where the mast said it's connected to

and then they look at a central point and they give us

a really clear indication of where that phone is likely to be

and then that gives us some really good lines of inquiry

and hopefully that's a way that

we're going to be able to locate them.

Prison escapes are rare.

Much more common are the petty, low-level crimes

committed by everyone, from novice lawbreakers to serial offenders.

With more than 100 arrest warrants outstanding in Manchester,

it's down to the uniformed officers to mop up the wanted list.

-Somebody get the...

-Ladders?

-..the ladders and that.

PC Phil Cross has over 20 years on the job.

It's the early hours of the morning.

We've had information that a lad we're looking for

is one of four that's committed an aggravated vehicle taking

where they've stole a car, pushed it down the road

and overturned it, causing substantial damage.

He's only a young lad,

but he's an up-and-coming problem in this area.

He's caused a lot of grief to the residents.

We need to nip him in the bud

and get him in Young Offenders, I think, to rehabilitate him.

In an attempt to track the youth down,

the officers visit his last known address.

The front's there.

-Do you want to do back or front?

-I'll go to the front.

They don't expect him to be there,

nor do they expect a warm 4:30am welcome.

Just as well.

Hello, sorry to trouble you this time in the morning.

-Are you here on your own?

-No, my son's here.

-Oh, is he?

Can we just come in and have a very quick word with you?

All it is...

-Is Eliott in? Is Eliott here?

-No! Like I'd let him come here?

-He's on the run, in't he?

-Yeah, we've had some information

-he's staying here with you.

-He has not!

-That'll be a no, then?

'It does upset people, it's not nice on the children

'that have to go to school the next day and stuff,

'so, you know, we have to look at the community impact.'

But unfortunately, that's what we have to do.

You know, you can't make an omelette without cracking a few eggs

and, unfortunately, we're after our target.

He's committing crime in the area, upsetting lots of people,

and creating victims every day of the week,

robbing what they've got and it won't be tolerated

and, unfortunately, we have to upset a few people

to get that person in custody.

The team follow their next tip-off.

OK, it's the first floor.

They have a new address

and higher hopes that their wanted youth will be inside.

It's the police, come and open the door, please.

-FROM INSIDE:

-Yeah?

-It's the police.

-INAUDIBLE RESPONSE

-Yeah.

Contact, mate, contact.

-Morning.

-You all right?

-You all right?

-What's up, pal?

-Who's here with you, mate?

-Just me and my girlfriend.

-No-one else?

-No.

-Is Elliott here?

-No, not at all.

The young man claims that he and his girlfriend are the only occupants.

But the officers are suspicious.

We were asleep in the bed.

What you doing in there? Get out!

And, sure enough, in the darkness of the kitchen,

hunched up behind the fridge...

-You'll have to pull the fridge out. I can't move!

-You idiot.

-Why have you gone in there?

-Hiding.

-Why?

-UNCLEAR RESPONSE

-Cos you're on the run, aren't you?

Right, come on out, quietly.

Have you been in there all night?

OVERLAPPING CHATTER

He's still an offender.

Who else is here? Eh?

-That were a bit stupid, weren't it?

-Yeah.

Right, come on. Where's your...where's your shoes?

Put your hands on your head for me.

-HANDCUFFS CLICK

-Right.

-You're under arrest, OK?

-Yeah.

For aggravated vehicle taking at the moment. I must caution you

-and tell you that you do not have to say anything...

-I've got him.

..but it may harm your defence if you do not mention

when questioned something you later rely on in court.

Anything you do say may be given in evidence. Do you understand that?

HE MUMBLES

It's not what you expect in your kitchen cupboard, is it?

'It's a bit of a cat-and-mouse game.'

You know, you go in, you get your usual hiding places,

inside the bed, in the base of the bed,

in the wardrobes, in the cupboards,

small kitchen units, in the TV cabinet, erm...so you expect

'the unexpecteds very often,

'so finding someone behind a fridge, it's quite funny, really, you know?'

He doesn't even look like a fridge, does he?

But, you know, he's not like a piece of furniture.

It's a young lad hidden behind a fridge trying to get away.

Bearing in mind the fridge was pushed out three or four foot,

it's quite easy, really.

He's not the hide-and-seek champion of Oldham, is he, this lad?

-NEWS REPORTER:

-'Two men who went on the run

'from Kirkham Prison in Lancashire are still missing.

'They are believed to have travelled to the Oldham area on Saturday.'

The search for the two escaped prisoners is now five hours old

and the Critical Wanted Unit gather for an update briefing.

Operation Tribute - it's the manhunt, really,

for Philip Stevenson and Gareth Robinson,

who've absconded from HMP Kirkham on Saturday.

Do you want to go through the actions as they are at the moment

-and we'll get some updates?

-Right.

The operation is young, but the progress is promising.

They've managed to build a clear picture

of who Philip Stevenson's been in contact with since his escape.

-Probably the more prevalent number is a 3073 number.

-OK, that's good.

That appears to be the only number

that has tried to contact our target number today.

Hi, mate, we're just...

With that information, the team start to track the phone.

'We've got a number'

that we believe Stevenson to be using and he's been contacting

a partner or ex-partner, erm...

46 times within a very short period of time,

so that's a really good line of inquiry for us to follow now.

Stevenson's ex-girlfriend has called 999

to complain about the menacing phone calls.

He's rung her up - basically, he's threatening her all day today

and then he's threatening to break, er, the lad's legs

that he thinks she's seeing. He said he's going to terrorise her.

No-one else will have her and, basically, he's threatening her

and he's threatening who he believes to be her current partner.

'As a police officer,'

you take a personal responsibility. If you think there's somebody

out there who may be out to cause danger to somebody else,

every person in that team takes on the responsibility,

so when you get that, the adrenaline goes,

everybody kicks into action and you pull out all the stops

to do whatever it is you need to do to find that person.

Hi, Kev, will you ask Richard to put 492 on, mate, to update us?

Having established that one of the escapees

presents a danger to others, the hunt takes on a new urgency.

A covert detective sergeant is despatched to find him.

No, but it is, er... It's not a small area to search, this.

We've got near the Curzon football side of the estate so far.

But the phone data is proving unreliable

in the attempt to track him down.

All right, bye-bye.

-What are we up to?

-No further update, because there's been

no other calls or, you know, nothing, so it's still in that...

Yeah, that's the last data.

Right, so are we saying it could be anywhere from here, up there?

-700 metres.

-Yeah.

It's probably three or four addresses within there, then.

Yeah, yeah, that's the problem.

-And that's just the ones that we know of, in't it?

-Yeah, yeah.

The trail is going cold fast.

-'Go ahead.'

-Yeah, it's moved out of the area again now, mate.

It's showing over near Broadway at Failsworth.

We're just chasing our tails here, aren't we?

The team need just one definitive location

in order to make their move on the target.

Phil, just hang fire for a minute, mate, just while we're...

Cos, at the minute, we're kind of chasing the phone.

It's not settled. If it settles, then we can do it, but...

..we don't want to just be kind of chasing shadows.

Yeah, received.

Disappointment all round as, for now, the team are stood down.

-Why have you gone in there?

-Hiding.

-Cos you're on the run, aren't you?

In Oldham, the Divisional Tasking Team

has found the youth they were hunting, crouched behind a fridge.

Now it's time to question the friends

who were helping him to hide.

When my colleague asked you specifically at the door,

"Is there anybody else in here?" you said, "No."

Lo and behold, we've got this lad hiding in your fridge.

So is there any reason why you shouldn't be coming now,

putting your shoes on and coming and sitting in a cell?

-Don't be stupid!

-What?!

You've just hidden him behind a fridge!

What's he done? Pulled the fridge out and got in there himself?

Don't be silly. Don't take us for mugs, all right?

Right, you, sit down there.

Is there anything stolen or prohibited in this address?

Definitely?

Right, you two, jump off there, please,

while we pull this settee out.

Who normally acts as an appropriate adult?

Pardon?

WALKIE-TALKIE BEEPS

Have either of you been in trouble with us before?

WOMAN REPLIES:

What for?

Can you name one, please?

And what?

Right, how long ago was that?

Having arrested their teenage offender,

the police now have the authority to search the flat.

That's what you keep on the side of your bed, in't it?

Most people have an alarm clock, don't they?

Most people have an alarm clock. This lad keeps a knife there.

So that's what he's up against, you know.

If somebody was to come into the address

and that knife's accessible to him, the chances are he'll use it

to defend himself and end up doing something very serious,

but...he's only a kid as well.

DOORS OPEN AND CLOSE

-Why have you got a kitchen knife in there, by the side of the bed?

-Why?

What do you need that for?

What are you going to do, cook them a meal?

Well, what do you need a knife by the side of the bed for?

For protection?

Well, it is scary, but the chances are that

you're going to escalate, aren't you?

You're going to end up using it

-and probably going to jail for a long time.

-Yeah.

You need to think about your actions.

The search switches to the lounge.

A sofa usually harbours just dust and a few old coins,

but not this one.

Who are you expecting here, you?

-THIRD OFFICER:

-Baton, knuckle-duster, machete.

You're obviously expecting a bit of trouble, you boys, aren't you?

-Do you run round the estate thinking you're wannabe gangsters?

-No.

You've got the police round at your house,

you've got offensive weapons all over the place

just in case someone comes knocking on the door.

It's not good, is it?

Right, well, we're on your case now, aren't we? Big time.

The officers take the young offender into custody.

He faces questioning about an aggravated vehicle theft

and a suspected burglary.

'It's very sad, you know, the mums and dads probably were the same.

'They've got used to'

stolen property coming in their house on a regular basis,

maybe sometimes drugs, lack of food, lack of whatever, you know,

and they don't know any different, so, as they grow up,

they're the same and, you know, in 22 years of policing,

I'm locking people up now that were

the children of the people I was locking up, you know, in year one.

It's sad, really.

-You're armed to the teeth!

-Gangs of New York!

-OFFICER LAUGHS

-Gangs of Littlemoor, isn't it?

CRACKLING AND FEEDBACK, OVERLAPPING VOICES

16 hours into their investigation

and the Serious Organised Crime group have a major breakthrough

in the manhunt for the dangerous escaped fugitive Philip Stevenson.

Right, yeah, 22:39 on the 6th of the 7th, yesterday,

-Stevenson rings Village Cars.

-Yeah.

Mobile monitoring shows that he's been in regular contact

with a woman called Toni Shipman.

-Toni Shipman, who rang him seconds before he got in a taxi.

-Yeah.

-Whilst he's in the taxi, he's on the phone to Toni Shipman.

-Yeah.

And, bearing in mind, she's one of his top callers,

at that point, after that, 22:50...55,

he doesn't speak to her again

-until 14:50 the next day.

-Right.

And, all that time, is his cell sited in the Drake area?

-Looking promising, innit?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, very much so, mate.

-He's got a taxi to hers.

-Yeah, definitely, yeah.

'We think we can put Stevenson to

a girl's address in the Oldham area.

His pattern of movement yesterday evening would suggest

that he's possibly gone to this female's

after an exchange of text messages.

We suspect he's got a taxi to that location last night

and, from the call data we have,

it would appear he's potentially gone back to the same address,

so we're just doing some work around that now.

This is roughly where the taxi driver dropped off

the male yesterday that says is similar in appearance to Stevenson,

albeit he had his baseball cap pulled down.

That looks really good, that he got a taxi there at the last minute.

If he follows a similar pattern,

-then he's going to be there now, potentially.

-Yeah, absolutely, yeah.

This new information means the team are even more confident

they're about to capture their escaped prisoner.

We think we've got Stevenson at an address now in Oldham,

so staff are going to make their way up there.

We'll look to secure an entry to the premises

and hopefully locking him up.

One of the unit's covert detectives

takes charge of the operation on the ground.

Yeah?

He'll be co-ordinating teams from other departments

to ensure everything goes to plan.

Yes, yes, if you have got any patrols in that area,

can you just ask them to stay clear of that address

for the next 30 minutes or so, please?

SIRENS WAIL

Now, we're just going to meet a couple of officers now -

a dog handler, a couple of staff from the Q division

that are going to support us to make up the numbers.

We'll just have a quick briefing about the address

and how we're going to access it and then, as soon as we've done that,

we roll on and contain the address before knocking on.

-All right, pal? All right?

-Yeah.

We've been told he might be quite aggressive, this lad,

and possibly off his head on steroids and whatever else,

-so when we get there, then, you cover the back for us.

-Yeah.

You at the back as well, supporting.

If we don't get a response in a minute, we'll put the door in.

-Staying accessible?

-Yeah, stay on 492, mate, yeah.

-Will do.

'We're expecting that he could be quite volatile.'

He has been in the past and he likes a good scrap with the police,

so we'll see what we get when we knock on the door,

what kind of gentleman he's going to be tonight.

Over in Oldham, the Divisional Tasking Team are on day duty.

It's their job to detain the area's most wanted suspects.

We're just knocking on the address, Chris.

Can I get back to you in a minute?

Today, PC Kev Rawcliffe and his colleagues are calling at a house

that's well-known to them, for a man wanted on a recall to prison.

-Yeah?

-Barry?

It's the police!

And it seems the suspect is at home.

Barry, come to the door, mate.

INAUDIBLE RESPONSE

-Right, just come to the door.

-Open the door!

At the back of the property,

another officer keeps an eye on potential escape routes.

Kev! Kev!

Front door now! Police! Front door now!

SHOUTING

-Calm down!

-Drop your stuff!

Where is he?

-Down!

-I ain't done nothing wrong.

Drop 'em! Drop 'em! Drop 'em!

Drop the bags! Drop the bags! Drop the bags!

-Drop the bags, Barry. Drop the bags.

-It's my clothes.

-Let go of them!

-Drop the bags!

-Can't I take my clothes with me?

-Drop the bags!

Just drop the bags for a minute!

What am I arrested for this time?

HANDCUFFS CLICK

Why were you trying to run out the back door?

I weren't running out of no back door.

-Right, you just stay there...

-Yeah.

-..and chill.

-Right, I've not done nothing ... wrong, me.

-Right.

-Just chill your boots a minute.

-You're not listening to me.

Right, I've got a ... dislocated shoulder, I've got a broken jaw.

-Me sick note's in the police station, in probation now.

-Right.

-Yeah? Me sick note...me sick note is in probation right now.

-Right.

-They can't do nothing.

-Well, can I just say that, right now,

probation have breached you and therefore you're recalled?

You don't have to say anything, but it may harm your defence

if you don't mention something which you rely on in court.

-Anything you do say may be given in evidence. Understand?

-Right.

-Right.

Can you just stand up a second?

Search me. I've got cash in me pockets.

-You've got no pins on you, have you?

-No, no.

I'll get my coat, because I've got a sick note.

There's nothing they can do about it.

I've got a sick note, a sick note covers me.

I'll get...I'll get re-released from Crown Court.

I know for a fact I will.

Right, come on, Baz.

See you later. I like what you've done with the place(!)

-Cheers.

-Thank you.

It's not the first time Officer Rawcliffe has arrested Barry.

Watch your head.

He's known him for two decades.

-Where we...? Where we going?

-I don't know yet.

-Are we're going to Chadderton? Amy?

-Yeah?

-Chadderton?

-Chadderton.

-Right, see you later.

-'He's been arrested for recall to prison.'

Yeah, so he's all loaded up with bags, er,

hopefully to go back for a while.

As you can see, he's just a raging drug addict.

You know, he needs to get his next fix.

Off to custody again.

Barry is all too familiar with the criminal justice system.

They've not locked me up for no reason.

It's just that, er... I've got, er, injuries, er,

that a sick...that the doctor has given me a sick note for.

Now, the sick note has, erm, actually been lost in transit

or something, because this wouldn't have happened upper...otherwise.

I mean, I've done over 20... over 25 years here and I...

and I've personally known him all that time,

you know, for varied offences.

So, yeah, he is very well-known.

It's just inconvenience, because I'm devastated about it.

Come on, Baz.

Sadly for Barry,

the sick note didn't spare him from another jail term.

He was sentenced to 28 days for breaching his bail conditions.

To the east of Oldham lie the Pennines

and, across the Pennines, is West Yorkshire.

Its beautiful country landscapes attract hoards of tourists.

But its big towns and cities

also have their fair share of urban crime.

In Leeds, members of the Operation Quartz team

are starting their daily shift.

Right, guys, this morning,

live-time intelligence came in last night

that the address is in Bath Road, which is in the city.

The lease is a garage premises

and it's a large live-time cannabis grow.

Detective Sergeant Stuart Jewell leads the Quartz Specialist Unit.

The team target Leed's most wanted -

those involved with drugs and firearms.

The officers' reputation for results precedes them.

It was set up to deal with the rise in gun crime and drug crime

within the area, a specialist team that will learn and use the skills

to target it more in-depth than neighbourhood policing can

on a day-to-day basis.

The plan is to go down there, sense it out,

arrest the occupant and search the premises.

Just be advised everybody, erm,

that we don't know what we're going into, so body armour is a must.

Let's go, then.

The crack team was assembled six years ago.

In that time, it's put 160 criminals behind bars

and taken countless weapons off the streets.

We basically deal with any threats to life in Leeds -

mainly functioning around the firearms offences

and, generally, firearms comes with drugs, so we do a lot of drugs.

A lot of protection for cannabis grows,

because intelligence comes in to say they are going to be attacked

by other criminals, so we need to go in there and basically protect,

shall we say, the criminals who are growing the cannabis.

It's one of these here, innit?

The team have received a tip-off

that there's a cannabis factory hidden in a garage warehouse.

If true, it's a potential target for so-called bad-on-bad crime,

where gangs steal drugs from other criminals,

often using extreme violence.

Right, we've got 79 to 81,

-but it's all even numbers on that side.

-Want us to go and look?

Right, these are the pictures that have been obtained

by the force helicopter there

and you can see the highlighting of the...the glowing premises.

That's the rear of it, which backs onto residential housing,

so that's obviously a leak they've got that they can't hold.

That's the closer picture of the front, so, as you can see,

it's a lot cleaner than the other houses, or a lot brighter.

'It's an infra red fly-over

that's done by either the plane or the helicopters now

and they will respond to intelligence that we provide

and other people provide them and fire an infrared camera

and it will generate heat sources.

For example, if your car's driven a long way from London up to here

and you fly over with this infrared camera,

it will show your engine as red hot,

a black-and-white picture highlights it.

It's exactly the same as a cannabis grow,

cos cannabis grows have to be on 24/7.

Yeah, we're ready, mate, we're going down.

It's that one with the sign, 74-75 South Leeds,

so you want to be parking...

See that one with the white sign above it? Park on your right, mate.

Yeah, door's open.

With the door open, it's a simple walk-in job,

but all's not as it seems.

The team discover a hidden door

and a ladder leading to a loft area.

Yeah, bingo!

The team have uncovered a significant cannabis factory

powered by deathtrap electrics.

A little one in there.

Just waiting for the electrician to come

and basically put off the power.

We've got to wait for a large skip to be delivered as well

and our Scenes of Crime Officers

to come photograph for fingerprints, so, erm,

it's a long process, a number are waiting around a number of hours.

So, yeah, might as well see if you can make a tea,

although I wouldn't use one of those cups.

HE LAUGHS

In Oldham, it's 2am

and members of the Critical Wanted Unit

have been on duty since the previous morning.

The aim of their round-the-clock shift has been simple -

track down and arrest firearms offender Philip Stevenson

and take him back to jail following his escape.

But it hasn't been easy.

The team have spent 48 hours

researching and analysing every piece of evidence available

and it all points to this one address.

They're about to find out if they've got it right.

BANGING ON DOOR

Police! Open the door, please! Open the door, it's the police!

-Open the door now!

-SHOUTING FROM INSIDE

-Now! Quickly!

-Hold on, I'll put something on!

Open the door now!

-Ready?

-Yeah, go.

Top panel, top panel, top panel.

Get back from the door!

Go, go, go!

Contain that door for us.

Put your hands behind your back, right!

-Put your hands behind your back.

-Is this back room clear?

You're under arrest for escaping from lawful custody.

Put your legs out straight.

'When you go into an address,

'you don't know if the person will be there or won't be there.

There's a lot of adrenaline going,

cos you don't know what risks you'll come up against,

er, and then, obviously, when you get to an address

and somebody doesn't open the door, it does heighten, er,

the fact that you think that person is possibly there

and the door's not being opened because they want to try and hide

and, on this occasion, that's something we had to do -

to force a door very quickly and then, obviously,

he was detained once we got within the address.

You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence

if you do not mention now something which you later rely on in court.

Anything that you do say may be given in evidence. Understand?

OFFICER PANTS

Philip Stevenson walked out of Kirkham Prison in Lancashire

just two days ago,

with six months of a firearms sentence still to serve.

Get him dressed.

Got a wanted male, arrested for absconding from lawful custody.

It's, er, Philip Stevenson.

'It's a fantastic result.

'Staff were working long hours, but the reward at the end of it

was that we took a dangerous person back out of circulation

and back into the prison system.

We've also got a female adult arrested.

Suspicion of, er, assisting an offender.

-Is it Toni? Toni, have you got a phone?

-In my pocket.

-Just take it out for me, please.

-Why?

-Because I'm asking you to.

'She was harbouring him, er, keeping him at liberty,

'when he should've been in prison.

Obviously, she needed to be arrested and taken into custody,

so that she could be questioned in relation to what assistance

she'd afforded him whilst he was out on the run.

The team have been on duty for 20 hours.

'I started work at about seven o'clock this morning.

'And now, half past two the following morning,

'so it's been a gruel of a shift.

'When you get somebody that you wanted so badly

'and everybody puts the effort into their work, it's always good

'to get your hands on them and everybody will sleep well tonight.'

It's not a 9-5 job - it's 24/7, 365 days of the year.

'You get called out all times of day and night and, as a team,

'we very much work together and everybody loves their job,

'everybody's passionate about it

'and everybody wants to make the people of Greater Manchester

'a lot safer and that's what we're there to do.'

Another wanted criminal tracked down and back in police custody.

In Leeds, the Quartz team have uncovered a cannabis farm

with a street value of £15,000.

Yeah, bingo.

Detective Sergeant Jewell will have to arrest the owner of the garage.

-Is it your place?

-Yeah.

-Is it... Are you Ian?

-No.

-No. Do you own it?

-Yeah, I rent it.

-You rent it off Ian, is it?

-No, I rent.

-Oh?

-I've just got Ian as living here. No?

-No.

-What's your name anyway?

-Mark.

-Mark? Stuart.

-Right.

-Yeah.

'You deal with the arrest of the guy as you see fit at the time

and he seemed to be a generally a nice guy,

so I treated him as I would be expected to be treated myself.

He wasn't causing me any problem, so I just...

I can't remember how I did it now,

but it was quite low key, so, erm... From memory!

'I don't know too much about him. I know his name is Mark.

'He's never been arrested before.'

He owns the garage and he's admitted he has a cannabis grow in his loft.

-Mitch?

-Yeah?

-Bypassed, mate.

-Sorry?

-It's bypassed, the electrics.

-Just be wary...

-Right, OK.

-..of any booby traps.

-OK.

'He's admitted to bypassing the meter,'

so we've got the electric board coming down to sort that out

and then we're just going to start clearing it once it's safe.

The way in which some people bypass the meter is primitive, er,

people without the best, er, electrical skills and knowledge

have done that, so they're getting free electric and,

depending on how they've done it, sometimes we've had to close off,

if it's been in houses, neighbouring houses, streets,

shut down all areas, because the bypass has been so dangerous,

we've literally had the electric people say to us,

"This could go up in flames any second."

Finally, an electrician arrives to make the site safe.

Has this been done a while, then?

-It looks it, don't it? Because... It's all...

-Cobwebbed?

-..cobwebbed.

The team can now gather the evidence.

Basically, from each room, there's two rooms, obviously, erm,

we have to take, seize two plants from each room with the roots,

so, basically, all we do is just pull it out.

So that's one.

Them two are seized from one room, so they'll go in one paper bag,

then we'll do the same in the next room.

All right, come on, then, Mark, we'll go to the car.

The garage owner is taken into custody for further questioning.

So far, he's co-operated fully.

I would suspect he's not the main guy behind it.

I would strongly suspect they've just... He's a bit short of money

and they've used him to grow a plant in his loft.

He will grow it, he will sell it to who he needs to sell it to,

they will pay him however much they pay him and then he does it again.

Different cycles. So it wouldn't be him.

He's just probably low on his luck and needs to raise some money.

The officers had received intelligence that the man was

about to be attacked by a criminal gang intent on stealing the drugs.

'Without him knowing, we've sort of protected him

'from any further harm that may have come to him from other criminals.

'He would've been what we would call'

"taxed for his cannabis". It's quite a problematic

national problem at the moment in which, because cannabis smells,

it's easily identifiable and criminal groups go around

taxing people's cannabis grows - go in, commit burglaries, basically,

and seize all their cannabis and do a run.

Some of them are very violent, some of them are not so violent

and the intelligence was that this was going to happen

to this location, so we went in to react, to clear the cannabis,

make sure that everybody knew that the police had been there

and so everyone knew, so it wouldn't have happened to him.

-NEWS REPORTER:

-'Police have captured one of the men

'who escaped from Kirkham Prison near Blackpool on Saturday.

'Philip Stevenson, who's serving a sentence for firearms offences,

'was arrested this morning.

'A 24-year-old woman was also arrested

'on suspicion of harbouring an escaped prisoner.'

Now, gents, tell me what's gone on last night in relation to...

In Manchester, the Serious Organised Crime group

are briefing their bosses on their latest successful operation.

We arrested Stevenson last night at an address up in Oldham.

He's been arrested in company with a female, who's also been arrested

in relation to assisting or harbouring an offender.

With firearms offender Philip Stevenson now safely

in police custody, the unit suddenly gets more good news.

Gareth Robinson, the other prison escapee,

has also been captured by another team.

-PC:

-Right, got your charge back from the CPS, OK, mate?

-Just listen in to what this officer's got to say.

-Go on.

Gaz Robinson, you're charged with the following offence.

You don't have to say anything, but it may harm your defence

if you do not mention something you later rely on in court.

-Anything you do say may be given in evidence.

-Yeah.

You're charged, on the 5th of July 2014,

at Preston in the county of Lancashire,

being in lawful custody, escaped from said custody,

-contrary to common law.

-Yeah.

-Do you wish to make a reply to that at all?

-No.

-No reply.

Although we found them fairly quickly,

having been given the task of finding them,

there was a huge amount of work.

It's a big machine and there's lots of cogs

whirling round in the background, so there's lots of people.

It's not just the people who might be the ones who turn up at location

and arrest that person, it's all the people who work in the background.

Grab that pen. Let's get you to sign these.

-These are copies of your charges and you get a copy, all right?

-Yeah.

Just sign where I put the cross,

the fact you've made no reply to your charge.

'It's not a personal thing. We're not going looking for a person

'as if there's any kind of vendetta. At the end of the day, we've got

a responsibility - somebody who should be in prison who isn't.

We've got a risk to members of the public

and we've got to safeguard them, absolutely,

so you do feel a sense of relief.

"Right, I've got them,

"that person is now safe,"

and that's always one of the nice parts of it, is that you can send

that message and say, "Look, you was really faithful, you dialled 999,

"you was at your worst ebb and we've found that person now

"and they're going back into the prison system and you are safe,"

and the sense of relief on those people is palpable.

Both escapees were tracked down and arrested within 48 hours.

Both were returned to prison.

If you can go home at the end of every shift thinking,

"Well, I've helped one person," and, if everybody did that, then,

it might sound a bit cheesy, but actually, you know, that you're

actually, erm... You're doing good and you're helping people's lives.

-All right?

-Yeah, all right.

It's just what we do, yeah, it's what we do - deal with bad guys.