Worse for Wear Traffic Cops

All across the country,

the thin blue line is being stretched to the limit.

-Get on the floor.

-What are you doing, man?

-Get down on the floor!

Now with big cuts in police budgets looming...

If you can put it back by that grit salt.

..Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire's Traffic Cops have joined forces...

The capability we've got as a combined unit is even greater.

..to keep a lid on the growing numbers

of road users that are desperate...

Persons have made off, they've gone across the fields.

..out of control...

I wouldn't want to be in the passenger seat of that.

..or worse for wear.

And she's drunk.

I'm lost for words.

It's Friday night in Hertfordshire,

a time when the Traffic Cops are on particularly high alert.

A time when accidents and incidents are all too common.

Whisky One, I've heard you're looking for a car in a field.

Already, a report is coming in of a bad smash along a dark

country lane on the outskirts of Watford.

Decamp and the vehicle's crashed.

If you hit a telegraph pole or a tree,

90% of the time, the car's going to lose.

Those telegraph poles go some meters down into the ground

so they're absolutely solid, and for you to hit one of those

is likely to have some quite serious consequences.

The crash is in the middle of nowhere.

Luckily, someone not too far away in a nearby farm

was woken by the noise.

But apart from a trail of blood,

there's no sign at all of whoever was in the car.

Ooh. Oh, dear.

We need to find that driver.

As I approached, I could see that there was quite significant

damage to the vehicle and that we needed to try

and trace the occupants of that vehicle as soon as possible.

Our priority, at that point, is the welfare of those people.

Ben suspects they can't have gone far.

Anybody surviving the crash must be in a bad way.

And blood inside the car means there's no time to waste.

You see there's marks on the road going back down there,

where he's probably already been pointing in the wrong direction.

-You can see there's another mark.

-Over there.

-Yeah.

Obviously, he spun out and woken the gentleman in the nearby house

by crashing into his telegraph pole.

But there's no-one left to actually tell us

what's gone on at the moment.

So not only do we have the problem

of why they're not there any more, but where are they?

Cos they could be lying in a field

with a serious head injury, unconscious.

The damage to the Peugeot is extensive.

If you looked at it from the front it almost looked as

if it was only half a car.

There was massive intrusion on the passenger side which had

pushed the passenger seat up.

Anyone that had been in the passenger side, if there'd

been a passenger, would have sustained quite serious injuries.

He'll be drunk cos there's Fosters cans all over the floor.

-Is there?

-And there's a pack in the back.

A 12 pack in the back and the front passenger's got lagers.

Empty beer cans are a pretty good clue as to what's gone on.

Could smell alcohol inside the vehicle,

so I would say that the driver was most definitely under

the influence of alcohol at the time that he crashed into that lamppost.

There could be somebody hiding in the nearby field, so the police

helicopter, X-ray Alpha 99, has been called in to help with the search.

Meanwhile, something else that might be to blame for the crash

has been discovered. A space saver wheel.

It's a small wheel, it affords you less grip, less braking,

so it's not as safe

and that's why it's got a speed limit, a lower speed limit.

You shouldn't drive quickly on a space saver

cos it's not designed to take the same stresses as a normal tyre.

Well, you see the problem is, the guy who phoned up said

he saw two people.

So he said as he's woken up with a bang,

he's looked out of his window, which is pretty much just overlooking this

and he said he'd seen two people get out, but he can't be sure whether

they're males or females and he says after that, he just phoned us.

He doesn't know which way they've gone

but I wouldn't want to be in the passenger seat of that.

That's bad.

But if they're thrown over slightly,

if they're not wearing a seatbelt, you know, you can be lucky.

We only had blood specifically in the driver's

side of the vehicle.

Anyone in the passenger side of the vehicle would have been

seriously injured, because there was basically no passenger

compartment left in that vehicle.

There was a blood trail leading from the car down the hill,

which we followed to a point where it then appeared to disappear.

Despite the trail having gone cold

and no-one found by the helicopter, the cops aren't giving up

hope of tracking down any of the occupants from the car tonight.

We deal with this a lot.

People will drive their car, having had a drink,

something will go wrong and then they'll think, "I can solve this.

"If I go home and say to the police,

"'I don't know anything about it,

"'I left my car at the pub'",

they think it'll just go away.

But it doesn't go away quite that easily

when their car's wrapped round a telegraph pole.

In Dunstable in Bedfordshire, Friday nights are much like any

other town across the country.

Its pubs and clubs are packed with revellers

out partying at the end of the working week.

And as usual, some of them are worse for wear.

In one of the town's nightclubs, someone's picked a fight

with a bouncer.

Some door staff have detained a male outside a nightclub in Dunstable.

Um, but unfortunately we've got no available Dunstable units at all.

It's a sign of the times that traffic cops are now often

called in to help deal with public disorder.

It's literally a question of who can you pull out of the hat.

And generally, it's Traffic and then it's Firearms

and then the Dog Team come out as well.

-Got a doorman here waving us down.

-Shona's going to take command.

I've got it. I'll go and sort him out.

You're kind of thinking, here we go, we're going to end up having

to sort of go to loggerheads with drunk people.

You can't communicate with them,

you can't negotiate with them and they always have to be right.

-But it's Shona that might not be right this time.

-Go.

Put your arm around.

I naturally just thought, that's the person.

I didn't do it on purpose. Baby, babe, I didn't do it on purpose.

The lad swears he hasn't done anything wrong.

Move away, please, watch your backs!

I haven't done anything on purpose, mate.

But a cab driver is alleging he's just vandalised his taxi.

I mean, it was only when I was walking my guy

away from the door staff and away from the nightclub itself,

that I realised that Ian had also got somebody handcuffed that was

on the floor and I started to think, well, what else have we got here?

Put your hand behind your back, chap.

Ian's got the man that smacked the bouncer.

Speaking to the door staff they've confirmed, yes,

this was the male that's assaulted one of them.

But while Ian's got his hands full, Shona is still on her own.

-And now there's a problem.

-Why am I in BLEEP handcuffs for?!

There were some guys behind us in the queue

that were winding him up...

Look how much stronger she is than you! Seriously!

..and saying, "Oh, she's stronger than you",

and really giving him a load of grief

and I think he clicked on and he felt a bit, um, upset about that.

We need another unit, here, please, over.

-Get down on the floor.

-What are you doing, man?

-Get down on the floor!

-I ain't

-BLEEP

-done anything wrong, mate!

And he's not going to be put down by a woman.

Just get him on the floor for me, please.

-I ain't done nothing wrong, mate!

-Down on the floor now.

Oi, what you doing, man?

The doorman came over, picked matey up for me

and helped put him to the floor.

Right, walk this way. Keep your head down.

It's difficult, because your natural instinct is to run over there

and try and help.

But I was conscious of the fact that I've got quite a well built

lad on the floor in handcuffs.

I believe if I got up and went over to help Shona, he'd have

been on his feet and on his toes - straight down the road.

Back-up has arrived at last.

Those people egging him on and making him

feel really small didn't help my cause in any way shape or form.

-I ain't done nothing! Argh! My

-BLEEP

-wrists!

The high-spirited man hasn't been fighting,

but he has damaged the taxi.

-He's really ripped that off, ain't he?

-Yeah.

-He's very drunk.

Want him for ABH against the door staff

and then for criminal damage, but he's completely kicking up

in the van, so going to have to go back to custody and sort him out.

Let's go.

Back at the scene of the single vehicle crash, there's been

a breakthrough.

We received a call on the radio to say that the guy that we

believe was the driver had been traced at an address just

literally probably about a ten minute walk away.

Muddied and blooded, the man says he wasn't the driver,

but he isn't denying he was in the car.

We believe that was his ex girlfriend's address that he's

managed to make his way to and she obviously wasn't overly impressed

because her and her family had been woken up by him banging on the door.

Have you consumed any alcohol in the last 20 minutes?

-Yes, I have, yeah.

-The man's not denying he's been drinking, either.

-OK, what have you had?

-I've had two cans of Fosters.

Well I've been here probably about 20 minutes,

last half an hour, 40 minutes here.

Right, so your last drink was half an hour ago.

Something like that, yeah.

In case he was driving, he's going to be breathalysed.

Right, and keep blowing until I tell you to stop.

Keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going.

That's lovely, thank you.

He's almost double the limit of 35 micrograms of alcohol

per 100 millilitres of breath.

The crashed car hasn't been stolen, it belongs to the man's father

and he'd been in it with a friend.

He claimed that he hadn't been driving the vehicle

and that he'd been sat in the back seat of the vehicle.

That his friend had been driving.

Unfortunately, he was unable to name his friend and that's how he'd come

to be involved in the accident and sustained the injuries that he had.

He's got Peugeot keys in his pocket, which

we will have matched to the car to make it so it will fit.

Even though the keys were in his pocket, the police still

can't disprove the man's story, nor will a DNA test help their cause.

On PNC, what's the previous?

He's given a story involving him being in the back seat.

Now, to get himself out of that vehicle,

cos it's a two door vehicle, with the passenger side smashed in,

it's then necessary for him to climb through the front seat,

through the console, out the driver's door.

Yeah, we can do DNA tests on the airbag and on the blood found

in the centre console and on the dashboard and wherever else and that

will prove that he was in the car, but we can't prove who was driving.

Whoever was driving has escaped justice this time.

But that's not the case for the two men arrested

outside the nightclub in Dunstable.

They're being hauled into custody to give their stories.

I'm not fighting.

I'm not fighting anyone, please be careful.

He was very up and down, very hyperactive.

I think he was more misunderstood. Yeah.

He hadn't done anything wrong, he was saying.

We were left alone, initially, in the interview room

and he started to get a little bit more resistant towards me,

so I had to get another unit to come in.

But he was searched, and a small amount of cannabis was found on him.

-It's for medicinal purposes, he says.

-Prescribed for it.

-I can't get to sleep without.

-Super.

You get these at chemists, do you?

-I'm obviously going to the wrong chemist.

-Right, don't take the piss.

OK, we're going to take these cuffs off slowly.

Outside, Ian's taking no chances with his prisoner.

That's called the step that I warned you about.

-All right, go in round that way.

-I'm not going nowhere.

-I know.

-Not gripping you hard, am I?

-You don't need to hold my arms up.

-I do need to hold your arms. Hey, do that again.

-Yeah?

All right, if you're going to play it like that,

then you're coming straight in.

You've got to control him and for your safety, primarily,

but then also for his safety,

because what you don't want to do is suddenly let him go.

He tries to turn round, run away

and he falls flat on his face with his hands cuffed to the rear.

If they've got an opportunity to go at you

and they want to go at you, they'll try and do it.

HE LAUGHS

-BLEEP

-find the whole things a little bit hilarious.

No, that's all right.

Right, back up in the bending down position.

Swing his legs round that way.

-All right, Derek.

-Yeah.

Purely because of what you said out there in terms of your little reaction,

I don't want any more of that, all right?

That's a similar thing to what I was just talking about.

What difference does it make...?

As soon as you arrest somebody, you're responsible for them

and even though they might be giving you all the abuse

under the sun, you still have to look after them.

-Stay like that, don't move.

-Oh, shut up.

-Nice. Thank you very much.

14% of road deaths involve drivers over the drink drive limit.

Frighteningly, more than a third of all drivers admit to driving

the morning after a heavy night before.

Hello.

Er, kind of, Paul.

What they don't often realise is that they can still be

well over the limit.

Yeah.

However it's a problem the traffic cops are all too well aware of.

We were on our way to Luton and got a call from the Inspector.

I've stopped a car, have you got a breath kit, can you come

and just assist me, please? I haven't got anything with me.

Yeah, we'll be with you in about three minutes.

It's the morning rush hour in Kempston, near Bedford.

There's two, two or three schools within that area.

At that time of day, there's a lot of people,

a lot of pedestrian traffic. There's a lot of cars as well.

There he is.

The suspected early morning drink driver

pulled over by Chris and Keith's boss is a female.

It's a lady.

I can't seem to put me finger on it,

but women are quite bad for drink driving.

In my dad's day, it used to be working men, knock off early

on a Friday and still - builders still do it now, don't they?

They call it POETS day.

They go to the pub, but more and more women are doing it.

Cos you pulled out, I caused you to stop.

Because you're driving's so hesitant when I pulled you over, you hit...

you hit the kerb and I'm required to do a breath test

because your eyes are glazed. I've got a feeling you're impaired.

The constable's going to do a breath test.

When I just got near the window of the car, I could smell what

I would class as stale alcohol.

Being stopped by the police has taken the woman's breath away.

That, that's not blowing, is it?

All that will do is get yourself arrested.

Give yourself a chance, all right, hold on, look. Watch me.

It's to their advantage to blow,

although she probably didn't think so.

Deep breath and blow. Keep blowing, keep blowing, keep blowing.

OK, that's all right, it's taken it. It's just analysing it.

The reading has taken Keith's breath away.

She scored 149, which was a very high score. It says fail, OK?

So I will tell you now that you are under arrest

on suspicion of driving with excess alcohol in your body.

You don't have to say anything,

but it may harm your defence if you don't mention,

when questioned, something which you later rely on in court.

And anything you do say may be given in evidence. OK?

So what will happen now is we'll go back to the police station

at Greyfriars, you'll get the chance then to blow on another

machine and it'll be the analysing of that sample that will decide

whether you're over or under the legal limit.

It's not only the woman that's worse for wear. So were her tyres.

This one's really, really low, so it's below the minimum depth.

Minimum depth is 1.6 millimetres and look, the tyre's actually starting

to split where she's used it so much and she's not replaced it.

I was just shocked. I've not seen tyres like that for a long time.

And she's drunk. I'm lost for words.

I can't believe how stupid and irresponsible she is.

Drink driving has gone down, I believe, but there are still

people who ignore the law and the fact is, you know, 2,500...

2,500 people die on our roads every year

and it's too many, and drink driving's a massive factor in that.

That was in the foot well, so that might explain a lot of it.

She's probably called at the shop where she'd pulled out in front of

the Inspector having just purchased a half bottle of scotch that she

had with her and then perhaps had a top up for her breakfast.

Having blown 149,

it's going to be a while before the woman is sober enough to be charged.

She might be needing her toothbrush at the nick.

She's going to be in all day and most of the night.

Your emotions cloud your judgement,

so you try to remain calm all the time.

But inside, I was really angry with her for having

the audacity to be that drunk.

OK, do you want to put your seatbelt on for me?

When it comes to getting behind the wheel,

having consumed alcohol, my sympathy soon wears out

because actually my wife got hit

by a drink driver and he slammed straight into her at speed.

He wrote both cars off and her shoulder's never recovered properly.

As I came down, there were two mums with red buggies with toddlers in.

Now, I've got a police car which is Battenburged up with blue lights,

bright white, yellow and blue, she didn't even see my car,

pulled out causing me to stop.

Now, if that car had gone further forward and hit those kiddies

and those prams, then we're not looking at drink drive,

we're looking at fatality, so actually, I'm really happy.

-It was a good result. One unsafe driver off the road.

-Hello, sir.

All right, boss.

She was arrested and taken in our patrol car down to the police

station cos the Inspector had a meeting to go to,

so we actually dealt with her and processed her

and then Chris put her onto the breath machine.

Go. Keep going, keep going. Watch the little bar.

Try and see if you can trip it over.

MACHINE BEEPS Yep, you're done.

-Right, do you need to sit down now?

-No, I'm all right.

Well, you can do, because that's it, it's all over. All right. Well done.

It'll go through a check sequence

and then it will all flash

and then it will show you two readings, all right?

Basically, the legal limit is 35, but they don't take any action

till it gets to 40, OK?

-So you're hoping that one of those readings will show 39.

-OK.

-Do you think it will show that low?

-Hopefully, yeah.

-Yeah?

Fingers crossed.

Yeah. It's just there.

-If you want to just shut the door behind you.

-Oh, thank you.

-That's going up.

-159, 166.

That's a very high reading.

Well over four times over the legal drink drive limit.

She actually blew higher at the station, which suggests that

she'd probably had a drink from that bottle before she'd pulled off.

-That's the most I've ever seen. You?

-I've seen, yeah, about that before.

HE GASPS That's...

How she's walking, I don't know.

The first time you come across things, you always are aghast

and just can't believe people are that irresponsible.

-You're joking!

-No, no.

The woman is going to have to spend at least eight hours locked up

before she's sober enough to be charged.

-If you think that what could have happened...

-Yeah, all right. Yeah.

She went out and drove like that!

She's...she's a walking death machine.

Do you want a cup of tea?

-No, a glass of water, please.

-A glass of water.

All right, we'll get some water. All right, cheerio.

In Luton, the police have a little extra help to fight crime.

A network of over 120 CCTV cameras

that rather than just gather evidence,

are monitored around the clock with a direct link

to the police, so offenders can be caught in the act.

These people caught on camera with the green van haven't come

to Sainsbury's to do their shopping.

They're helping themselves to clothes left for charities.

The control room operator is in direct contact with PC Ian Leeson.

-And is directing him in.

-Yes, yes, that's a left towards the town.

It's a green Ford Transit, P reg.

It's believed to be involved in theft of charity boxes

from Sainsbury's.

Eastern Europeans possibly onboard.

Ian's not taking the call lightly.

It's one of those incidents where you hear the nature of it

come over and you think, no, I'm going to that because at the

end of the day, somebody's taken the time to give up their possessions.

They've given them to a charity and taken their time to do it

and the charity are doing something good for people at the very

far end of it who are expecting these goods.

It's not affecting just one person,

it's affecting the person who had the good will to hand it over

in the first place, the charity that's trying to organise it

and fundamentally, the person at the end of the line.

There's no mistaking the suspect's bright green van.

SIREN BLARES

What I want you to do is go down that road and pull in, all right?

RADIO OFFICER: Turning left now across the traffic going...

Juliet 12, I'm with it now.

-How are you doing? How many people are in your van?

-Sorry?

-How many people?

-People?

-You, phone, down, please. Yeah, end of call.

No, stop, oi, stop back in your van, wait there for me.

-Just give me your keys.

-Yes, boss.

-I'll explain why in a second.

It's something to do with an allegation that you might

have taken something that doesn't belong to you.

-What?

-Yes. Charity bags. OK.

-Bags?

-Charity bags.

So if you just step out for me for a second.

I'm going to pop these on you.

No, don't put your hands up there, pop them down by your side,

I'm not going to shoot you.

It's one of the more surreal moments

when you ask a driver to get out the vehicle and he turns round

and puts his hands in the air and you just think, no, not in England.

Just put them down by your side, I'll be happy with that.

-No, round the front.

-Sorry.

-That's all right.

Come over here for a second.

-I'm only handcuffing you cos I want to search your vehicle.

-What?

Right. You just sit in there for a minute while I look in your vehicle.

OK, yes, sir.

The men are from Romania and don't appear to speak much English.

The language barrier became apparent quite quickly

and it makes it very difficult then to obviously get the message across.

The man in the green van's been caught red handed.

That'll be the charity bags.

And you never know with jobs like this

whether or not there's more to it.

And it's PC Knight's passed the details over the air

and it came back that the gentleman he'd detained was actually wanted.

Sorry boss, what happened? You tell me now.

-Where did you get those bags from, the clothes?

-The house, coming...

-The house?

-Yes, collect.

-Are you being honest with me?

-No.

-Not lying?

-No lie. I coming.

-Promise?

-Promise to God.

-Promise you're not lying.

Coming lot to people. OK.

I'll speak to somebody that will tell me

whether you're lying or you're being honest.

-Yes, boss, no problem. No problem.

-Don't panic.

-Yes, boss.

The man's got no idea he was seen by a CCTV operator.

What information have we got regarding these charity bags?

We were watching them on CCTV, remember?

HE LAUGHS

-Copied, and where were they?

-Sainsbury's, down the road.

Are we sure that they are charity bags, because he's stating

that they're clothing belonging to somebody that he knows.

Yeah, we just confirmed the CCTV.

-They're definitely taking them out of the charity thing.

-Copied.

-So we have got footage of them removing it from the bin?

-Yes.

Wonderful. That will be two in, then.

You could say it's a minor thing,

it's some clothes which somebody's thrown away.

But they haven't thrown them away.

They've given them away for a specific reason

and that's to help somebody else out and I don't believe

they had the right to take that person's clothes away.

Stealing from charities is not a laughing matter,

although it seems to be to the Romanian.

-What's your name?

-Angelo, sir.

-Right.

You weren't honest with me. They don't belong to you.

-They got - coming - coming in the car, too.

-OK.

Do you want to know something? Before you dig yourself a hole

and say anything else, I'm going to caution you.

HE RECITES THE CAUTION

I'm cautioning you because at this moment in time you're now

under arrest for theft of those charity bags.

-You're telling me that they've come from a house. Correct?

-No.

I don't need to because in this wonderful day and age

we've got things called CCTV cameras, right?

-Which have just seen you.

-Yes.

-What do you mean yes?

I haven't told you what they've seen yet.

The problem getting the clothes there, possible tell me what.

Those clothes were out of a charity bin.

-Yes, boss.

-So they didn't belong to you.

Sorry. Me no...

This...the clothes. No, no...

-The house, the door please possible take this one. Yes.

-No.

You've gone down to Sainsbury's

and you've been seen to take those bags out of the charity bin.

-No, possible.

-Yes.

-No, sorry.

Possible they come...something... the doors.

Next to the charity bin. OK. As I say, that's what's been seen,

that's what you're under arrest for so we're going to get you to the police station now

and you'll be dealt with for it, OK?

Just watch your legs.

'He's denying it, stating that they're actually

clothes from his house or belonging to a friend of his.

There's a slight language barrier but he gets the gist of obviously why he's under arrest.

I don't think he's been entirely truthful with me

and he probably won't be when he gets back to the station.

But if the CCTV's as good as they say, he's banged to rights.

It's another sign of the times, perhaps,

that people are turning to scavenging for a living.

There are the two gentlemen I've stopped as well as several of the ladies, some children

and it was almost like a family outing down there,

or a group of friends.

They've obviously gone along with the intention

of gaining or grabbing as many clothes and items as they could that day.

And he's smiling away quite happy in the back of his car.

No remorse whatsoever at this moment in time.

We'll see if we can have his vehicle off him as well,

but he has got insurance, we'll have to have a quick look round

and see if it meets the requirements to actually be on the road

or whether it's in a dangerous and unsuitable condition.

It's going to be interesting, especially if this footage is as clear as they say.

I'll just move this slightly down here, mate, if you can just keep an eye on it.

Just the high performance vehicle I thought it was.

The passenger, wanted for another offence, and the driver

are both going to be questioned back at the police station.

Twenty miles north of Luton in Bedford, Chris is out with PC Tanveer Hussain.

Mondeos everywhere, but not the one that we want.

They're on the prowl with ANPR.

Automatic Number Plate Recognition equipment

that's built into their unmarked patrol car.

Tan noticed this white van and it activated our ANPR.

The reader is linked to the Police National Computer

and flags up any suspicious vehicle.

Slow down. It's just turned right. See what he's doing.

Just go into the forecourt as if we're filling up. Here he is, look.

Burglaries. The van was linked to thefts in the Bedford area.

The man's a modern-day rag-and-bone man

who's also taken to scavenging for junk to make a bob or two.

His high-vis top gives him an air of officialdom

and a cover for committing petty crime in broad daylight.

If you put out road signs and cones

and close a road off, nobody asks any questions

and you walk around in a fluorescent jacket

and you've got a van with a yellow light on, they think you're official.

And they go down the road and they take all the drain covers.

-What is it?

-It's a cone.

It's not actually a cone, but an old post for cats to scratch on.

There you are, let's go and throw a few Fs at him

and get him to put it back.

Let's just see what he does, just for a couple of minutes.

-He's going to come out now.

-No, no, he's looking for more stuff.

See, him wearing that, I just don't want him to knock on someone's door.

Quite a few elderly people living in that block of flats.

He's looking for scrap metal to sell it on.

Get it weighed and get some money for it.

That's what they're really looking for.

-He's got something else, hasn't he?

-Yeah, that's what he was carrying.

It's mine now. We'll just get him to put it back. End of.

Chris and Tan are going to have a stern word.

It doesn't belong to him.

Whether somebody's thrown it out is irrelevant.

It doesn't belong to him.

Most probably his dad.

I decided that he was going to put it back.

-Hello, sir.

-Hello, sir.

-Jump out.

If you'd just take out what you'd put back in here

and put it back where you found it, because it doesn't belong to you.

-And then we can have a chat, please.

-What is it?

-Come on, I'll show you.

Right, for a start, put that back. That doesn't belong to you, OK?

-It was just left...

-Irrelevant, it doesn't belong to you.

So if you can put it back, please. Thank you very much, sir.

Do I have to do that?

If you can put it back by that gritter salt

to start off with, then we can go from there. Please.

When Tan told him to put what turned out...

we thought it was a battered cone...

to be a cat scratching post, back, he couldn't believe it.

While the man returns the cat scratching post,

Chris is scratching around with the lady's bingo cards.

-Did you win anything?

-Don't think so.

Three in a row. Pound, is it?

Have you asked anybody that you could take it?

I shouted up to the old boy and he said it's nothing, you know.

No, you didn't. I've been watching you from there.

You didn't shout up at no-one, sir.

-I did, if you watched me you'd have seen it.

-No, no.

Absolutely not, sir. I'm sorry.

You go through all the grief for a bit of plastic stuff like that?

It's put back. I'm happy. End of.

At no time did he speak to anybody,

so the fact that he was lying straightaway

didn't go down too well.

They leave them outside for the scrap man.

It's a case of one man's trash is another's treasure.

If you've got permission to have it, I haven't got a problem with it, sir.

It might be stuff that people have thrown out, but having said that,

you still need a licence to collect items from the road

or from gardens, so I'm fairly confident he didn't have a licence.

I can smell alcohol, sir,

so because of that I require you to provide

a sample of breath for roadside analysis.

I must remind you that failing to do so or refusing to do so

could lead to your arrest.

-Do you agree to do this, sir?

-Of course I'll do that.

Thank you very much. Have you done one of these before?

-I have, long...many years ago.

-OK, did you pass it, no problems?

I wouldn't mind, we don't even drink.

Bite down hard and blow until I tell you to stop. Big breaths. Go.

Keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going. Thank you.

There you go. That's something you can have.

Zero.

-You can smell alcohol off of me?

-I can smell alcohol.

I think you want to blow into one of them, mate.

-Excuse me, he's taken these, he's a diabetic.

-Right, OK.

-If I can smell alcohol, then I can request it.

-He got a heart attack.

So I don't think he'll drink.

Some people tell me that they don't drink and they have had a drink,

so my job is to believe nobody...

-These are to keep his sugar level up.

-..and be suspicious.

The couple are free to go.

Having looked in the back of his van,

he'd clearly been to a lot of places before we caught up with him.

So anything with a bit of metal in it, he'll have it

and he'll put it in the back of the van.

Sorry, I just wanted to... I just wanted him to put it back,

-just out of principle, that's all it was.

-No, I understand.

Back in Luton,

the Romanian rag rustlers have arrived at the police station.

He wasn't bothered.

It's just that he didn't want to admit to me

that he knew he'd done wrong and he knew he shouldn't have taken them.

Possible no look at that camera.

Listen, I have to look at the camera.

I don't just arrest people for driving clapped-out green transit vans.

-I don't know, possible look. Stolen.

-Give me your hands.

Let's start with this.

The cops have an answer to the language barrier.

-It's a dial-up service called the Language Line.

-Thank you.

-Which language are you requesting?

-Romanian.

Translators fluent in any chosen language

are available 24 hours a day.

All custody suites, any officer that's out on patrol as well, can use it.

'It's invaluable. Especially in roads policing.'

Hello? Hello? Hello.

Hello, interpreter, we've got the second person here now.

Ask him how much he's had to drink tonight, please.

TRANSLATOR ASKS THE MAN

BLEEP.

Something's gotten a little lost in translation.

What's...what's he saying?

OK. Thank you for your services.

I'm going to terminate this call and put him straight into a cell,

because obviously you don't need to take this kind of abuse, OK.

The custody sergeant dealt with that quite swiftly, I think.

-Take this one to ME level.

-Yeah.

-Hello?

-Angelo. This way.

He was taken straight to his cell after that,

because if he's not going to treat the operator with respect,

then she's not paid to deal with that sort of thing.

Shoes.

It's not been quite the rags-to-riches story

the Romanian had been hoping for.

OK, if you need anything there's a buzzer just there, all right?

Press the buzzer.

-Ah...

-HE SPEAKS INCOHERENTLY

Thank you.

Most people who drive over the prescribed limit do so after dark.

Most traffic cops regard them as the biggest danger on the roads.

For Chris and Tan, catching them

is just about the most important part of their job.

We're known as the OPL disqualified driver boys.

Because that's all we target. We arrest practically every shift.

It just... It's our passion to go and get those people.

RADIO CHATTER

-A report is coming in of an accident.

-Yes, positive, over.

Thank you, over.

SIREN BLARES

It involves a single vehicle on a fast dual carriageway.

Whenever that happens, thoughts turn to wheels falling off,

or more likely, drivers that have been drinking.

Between the BP and the Marsh Leys roundabout.

Move over! There's another lane!

A whole lane!

Thank you!

Chris is quite new to traffic and getting to the scene of accident

as fast as possible is still one of the best bits about the job.

He can get excited, bless him. It'll soon wear off.

Any better location reference for the RTC, is it east or westbound?

No, it's up there.

It's about three miles from the M1, it's a new stretch

of carriageway which has only been up about...about a year now.

It's not far from the Wootton junction

-and I think we've come across it.

-Oh, it's hit the ditch.

It's hit that and it's bounced off and it's hit everything else and bounced off.

OK.

There's an ambulance here already,

but there aren't any casualties to be found.

By the time we turned up, the occupants had left the vehicle

and had run off across the field.

We've had a decamp...

It's a familiar situation for the cops.

A smashed vehicle, and for whatever reason,

the people in it have not wanted to hang about.

I'll try and you get you a description shortly.

You can see where he's hit it.

Oh, yeah, he saw it up there, he swerved, he's hit the barrier,

spun around and hit this and ended up here.

The car's a mess.

The car had just veered to the left, hit the ditch,

and then veered sharply to the right and then hit the concrete barrier.

And then gone smack, back into the barrier on the left

and then spun around.

Severe front end damage. If you can arrange immediate recovery, please.

Fortunately some road workers are able to point out which way

the two men went.

-Over there and over that way, yeah.

-Towards Milton Keynes.

One of them's got tattoos all over his arms.

Basically they wanted a lift and they've jumped over the fence

and headed over that way, so... and we said, you know,

you should ring the police and wait till someone turns up.

-They weren't really interested about that, so.

-Yeah.

So it's either not their car or there's something amiss.

Yeah, roughly which way did you see them go off?

Over there, onto the road.

-Can you see anybody over there at the moment?

-No, mate. They've gone.

-That's where they've gone.

-Did you actually see the accident happen?

-No. No, no. We just must have missed it. Just missed it. Just missed it.

-All right.

With fields stretching into the distance,

this is clearly a job for X-ray Alpha 99.

We were lucky. The helicopter was available and the dog was nearby.

So he was on the scene within minutes.

So we've been here about five, so ten in total.

Yeah, that's what I was going to say.

Hang on, mate, I've got a passenger that's just arrived.

Where is the best place for him to be?

The canine is called Paolo.

He's a Hertfordshire dog, but he hails from Liverpool.

As soon as the dog started to track and the helicopter was there,

I looked behind me, we had Highways there,

we had the ambulance on the scene, we had our car with the flashing lights.

Tan was in the field with dog and they were starting to go.

I thought, "I'm not hanging around here, I'm going to get myself a baddie!"

That's only if Paolo and his handler, PC Chris Conneely,

don't get them first.

Casting across the area between the two roads,

which was sort of rough ground, he picked up the track.

But there's a complication. The field is full of cows.

His head come up and he thought, "About 20 cows to chase here."

But in all fairness to the dog, he carried on with his track.

-HELICOPTER OFFICER

-: At the next hedgerow ahead of you,

you then want to turn left

and follow that down to the corner of the field.

There's a small bush there

and we've got two heat sources under the bush.

The offenders were hiding in a ditch in amongst the undergrowth,

to make it a bit more difficult

for the thermal imager camera equipment to find,

but not impossible.

We need to be this side.

Once you get through the gap, there's another hedgerow on your right,

you need to get through that hedgerow as well.

-It's an electric fence, Chris.

-Eh?

-It's an electric fence, that one.

Yeah, to the right. Pull that up, will you?

He's tracked their general route because he's going towards them.

The dog, despite being electrocuted, which made it very cross,

was onto a track.

A good direction of travel at the moment for you, Delta Six.

You've still got about a good 75-100 metres to go.

The thermal imaging camera has picked out two people

and they're hiding up to their necks in a drainage ditch.

But despite that, Paolo is onto their scent.

He was born to be a police dog. He loves coming to work.

That sector's about four yards ahead of the dog.

He loves tracking and searching and chasing people. Don't get too close.

Sorry, apologise.

'I got a bit close. It's that adrenalin rush.

'You know, you want to be with the dog man should he find these individuals'

so you can detain them.

But at the same time you've just got to hold back

and let the dog do its job.

The undergrowth at the end of the field is extremely dense.

-OVER RADIO:

-They're lying down just slightly to your right, about half a metre.

'There was an electric intensity in the air,

'the sense of the hunt was palpable.

You knew we were going to catch them.

I understood what a bloodhound felt when it was on a hunt.

-ROARING

-Stay there! Get up! Police officer!

Paolo's got his teeth into something.

I just heard this almighty scream and thought, "OK, that is them."

-Stay there. Where's your mate?

-BLEEP.

-Where's your mate?

Stay still. Stay still.

SCREAMING

Come up, come up, come out there, mate. Come on.

I weigh a bit more than the dog, so when I went down the bank,

I went headfirst, landed flat on my face, covered in water.

Well, as I'm basically picking myself up out of the water,

the dog's already gone through now to where it has actually

located one of these fellas.

Unfortunately for the men, his bite is worse than his bark.

-Hand! Leave! Leave!

-Where are you, mate?

Come this way. Come this way.

Come this way, or else you'll get bitten. Come on. Come on.

Come on, we'll look at these wounds for you.

Well, you could have at least moved out of the way,

-you were going to fall down.

-They got one, stand by.

-Where are you bitten?

-My arm.

-OK.

-Am I BLEEP kidding you?

-OK.

-I ain't BLEEP kidding you.

-Right,

-OK. Leave him, leave him! Leave!

-SCREAMING

The second man's also proving to be quite tasty.

We're having a tussle trying to get him out and the dog was pulling him back in.

Hello, number two's got his hands up.

Took a chunk out of one of his legs

and the other one caught him in the arm and the leg as well.

I'll get you some paramedic help. Listen.

-I ain't BLEEP going anywhere.

-Yes, you are.

If you want some help or any medical assistance, they're coming this way.

-Oh, my God.

-You sit here longer, you're going to get hypothermia.

-Oh, my God, man.

-Wake up and listen to me.

You're going to get hypothermia if you stay here.

Stand up and let's get to the road now.

And the thermal imaging camera on the helicopter will pick out

an ant's body heat, so there was no way they were going to get away from it.

And the dog did its job beautifully.

-Sorry, what's your name?

-BLEEP!

-Dan.

-Dan. Leave him. OK.

DOG BARKS

People say, "If you can't do the time, don't do the crime."

If you don't want to get bitten, then don't, you know,

try and escape from a police dog.

There's nothing stopping you going in handcuffs at the moment.

And you are under arrest on suspicion of TWOC.

You're under arrest on suspicion of taking a vehicle without consent, OK.

HE RECITES THE CAUTION

Right, Tanny, I'm with you.

Trying to get to work, mate, that's all.

-You're trying to get to work?

-Yeah.

-OK.

-We're not criminals, mate.

Running away from an accident

and hiding in a ditch would seem to suggest otherwise to the cops.

Who's got a torch?

40 miles away in Hertfordshire, there's been another car crash.

Ben Harper is racing there with PC Jackie Miles.

She's been in the force for 21 years, and seen a few changes.

When I joined, I had to wear a skirt all the time,

other than on nights between October and April.

It did inhibit you, if you needed to climb over a fence after somebody,

it wasn't always a pretty view.

Let's go.

It's go, go, go.

Two vehicles have collided head-on in the leafy town of Radlett.

I don't tend to deal with many incidents

within the Radlett area.

It's a very affluent and quite a quiet area.

Reports are suggesting one of the drivers, a woman,

is still in her car and legless.

Hello.

They were right.

-How are you?

-Listen, I completely admit this.

I was over the... I'm over the limit driving.

My mum lives round the corner and I was going to go and park my car.

-OK. And I'm...I admit it totally.

-OK, all right, no problem at all.

-I admit it. I'm sorry.

-I appreciate you being honest with me.

-I am totally over the limit. OK.

-All right, brilliant.

It's a first, for someone to be that candid towards me

about what they've actually done.

We need to do a breath test.

-I appreciate you've said you'd had a drink.

-I have.

But we need to have an idea of how much you've had to drink, OK?

-Yeah, that's fine.

-First of all, my main concern,

-are you injured at all?

-No, not at all.

-No, and you're absolutely fine?

-Fine, fine, fine.

-Were you the only person in the car?

-Absolutely.

-And you own the car, do you?

-I do.

-You do.

-Yes.

OK, no worries at all.

-Do you want to step out and come with me over to the car, then?

-Yes.

And we'll do a breath test with you.

'She'd already admitted that she was under the influence of alcohol.

'I could smell it on her

'and I could see from the way that she was walking and from her eyes,

'her eyes were quite glazed, that she'd had a few drinks.'

Have you, erm... When was the last time you had an alcoholic drink?

-Probably about half an hour ago.

-Half an hour ago?

-Yeah.

OK, I can smell it on you at the moment, so...

Yes, I've had a couple of glasses of wine.

OK, so it's half an hour ago you've last had a drink?

-And what was it you had to drink?

-Wine.

I like to try and get a breath sample from the side of the road

to give us an indication as to how much alcohol they've got.

'Because it sometimes negates the need to take them to custody.'

Keep going, keep going, keep going. Right, you're not blowing.

I am blowing. I'm blowing as hard as I can.

I need you to blow, OK, as if you're blowing a balloon up. OK.

-It's not difficult to do this. OK.

-OK. I'm sorry, I'm trying.

All right, OK. Nice big deep breath. Keep going.

-Right, you're...you're not blowing.

-I AM blowing.

-You're not.

-I am.

-You're not.

-I can hear you sucking.

-You're sucking it. The machine tells me you're sucking, OK.

-Oh.

'She definitely was sucking up the tube rather than blowing into it.'

I'm not so sure it was a deliberate act.

I just think she wasn't listening to what she was being told.

I don't know how to do this. I've never done this before.

-Have you blown a balloon up before?

-Yes. Of Course.

OK, that's all I'm asking you to do, OK, is take a nice big deep breath,

just like a straw and just keep blowing into the machine.

-Keep going, keep... No, you're sucking.

-OK. I'm not.

-MACHINE BEEPS

You're under arrest for failing to provide, OK,

a breath sample to me.

-I'm sorry, I've never done this before.

-And also driving a motor vehicle

whilst unfit through drink or drugs.

HE RECITES THE CAUTION

-Do you understand that?

-Yeah.

-OK, no problem at all.

-My colleague is just going to give you quick search.

-Amber.

Amber's getting a red card.

What happened is pretty much black and white.

So she's been coming down this way

as the Peugeot's been going up that way, and they've just...

this one's on the wrong side of the road...

crossed over and they've collided, unfortunately.

'The lady who's been drink driving

'in the 4x4 has been on the wrong side of the road,'

and therefore they've hit offside to offside.

The woman driving in the other car is shaken up,

but luckily not seriously hurt.

OK, are you aware that we've now got her arrested for drink drive?

I'm not surprised.

She'll be taken to Hatfield custody,

where we'll put her onto a bigger machine.

But we'll be in contact with you to let you know what happened.

'We had local officers that were on the scene.'

They remained with the other lady from the other vehicle

to allow us to be able to get to custody as soon as possible.

Back in Bedfordshire, Chris can barely contain his excitement.

Got them, chaps.

There's always a sense of jubilation when a good job comes together.

Yeah, they're over there, about three fields over.

-Laying in the river.

-Seriously?!

Yeah. Yeah, they were shattered.

Yeah, they were in the river and the helicopter got them,

and then the dog came in and they didn't move

so the dog decided to let them know it was there.

But we got them. Thanks for your help, chaps.

They're over by the double roundabouts on the old road.

They've both got dog bites.

Both to the legs, and one guy's got a bicep injury.

Dog's bit him a couple of times. Wouldn't let go. Shame.

-So...

-Do you need us to go and have a look at him?

-Please, because we're going to...

-If you take him to hospital, we'll follow you.

-Right.

Just to make sure they're all right, and then we'll sort our business out.

-We've got to go up to the Marsden to come off, haven't we?

-Yes.

After the thrill of the chase, there's time to clear up

a few of the finer points.

Good track. Why didn't they get up?

Shame about the electric fence.

-I mean, he's has a few zaps off that.

-That made me jump.

Yeah, gave me a few shocks as well. Good job it wasn't at that point.

Yeah, quite. Are you OK or are you soaking?

-Soaking, went headfirst in that.

-Oh, bless you!

Head to toe, everything is. So very satisfying to catch them.

-Do you get extra training for diving?!

-Yeah!

-THEY LAUGH

I should get extra money for it.

A chase is not normally that far.

I've only ever had a chase of a mile-and-a-half run after somebody.

But not that, three acres in a ditch across fields

and fields and electric fences and dodging cattle.

One of the best jobs I've ever done.

The two men are off to hospital to have their various bite wounds looked at.

Yeah, that's nice.

-Thank you for that, mate.

-Right, come on.

Had they come quietly,

Paolo would have restrained himself from having a little nibble.

Been bitten myself and it does hurt, to it's one good reason

not really to ever challenge or run from a police dog.

Certainly give up when you're told to give up.

-The dog was on the money.

-Nearly had go at me.

Oh, is that dog that close?! Nearly took a chunk out me arse.

That would have hurt.

I had visions of him letting go of that dog

and it just sort of coming after all of us.

I would have been the first one home.

I don't do dogs at all. I'm absolutely scared of them.

Once again, proving who exactly was at the wheel is a forlorn hope.

They both had come from Cambridge Hospital,

both plumbers doing some work there.

The chap that I was with admitted to being the driver.

However, we couldn't prove at the time who the driver was,

so they were both arrested on suspicion of taking without consent.

They were both breathalysed, they were both over.

One of them was a disqualified driver

and the other one had no licence and no insurance.

So they were both dealt with and taken to the hospital.

Amber, who did come clean about being drunk after she crashed her car,

is going to have another go at providing a sample of breath.

She was booked in. She was then taken to the intoximeter room.

Up you come.

Keep going, keep going, keep going, that's it, stop, that's it.

-It's done, it's done.

-Sorry.

-Take a seat for me.

This time she's managed it.

OK.

You've given two readings.

The first one was 72, OK, the second reading was 69.

The legal limit is obviously 35, so you're double the drink-drive limit.

She'd certainly never been in trouble with the police before

and she seemed quite daunted by everything that was going on.

It's just not like me to do this. It's just one of those silly things.

I'm so responsible and...

She did seem sorry for what she'd done,

but only because it was going to affect her and her job.

Well, it's a bit bizarre to me,

because I made a silly mistake today.

Never, ever, ever been in trouble with the police before

and this a bit alien to me, the whole lot.

I'm not an alcoholic, I don't drink in the pub every day,

I don't... You know, I do a job.

I do a job of work and I'm totally civil

and, you know, sensible.

I don't think she's a bad person.

I just think, you know, she's a drink driver

and she shouldn't have done it.

Amber's silly mistake was an expensive one.

She's had her driving licence taken away from her for 17 months

and was given a £100 fine.

The other woman drink driver

who was more than four times the legal limit

was banned from driving for three years

and ordered to do 150 hours community work.

The two men caught bagging charity bags from outside Sainsbury's

were released without charge because it couldn't be

determined that the clothes were actually owned by anybody.

Both the men arrested outside the night club in Dunstable

were given police cautions.

One for the assault on a door supervisor

and the other for possession of cannabis.

The man who was in the car that smashed into a telegraph pole

but was only the back-seat passenger was not charged with any offences.

His friend he said was driving was never found.

And one of the two men found hidden in a ditch

after crashing their car, admitted being the driver

and was banned for 12 months for drinking and driving.

But it was woof justice for his unfortunate passenger

who wasn't charged but was bitten by the police dog.

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