Episode 11 Neighbourhood Blues

Neighbourhood policing has come a long way

-since the days of Dixon of Dock Green.

-Good evening, all.

The new generation of community police officers

-have the power to strike hard...

-Police! Search warrant!

You're under arrest.

-..and tackle crime, head-on.

-Calm down!

By engaging with people on the street...

-You and me always get on.

-Yeah.

..the teams can identify and crackdown on the crimes

that are crippling our communities.

They are clearly violent individuals.

-In this series of Neighbourhood Blues...

-Happy Birthday.

..we're given unprecedented access

to Somerset's neighbourhood teams...

I'm asking you not to street-drink, go somewhere else.

-..as they battle to clear up crime...

-Stand still!

Right, you're under arrest for assault.

..and sweep the criminals clean from our streets.

Coming up, as the temperature rises, tensions reach boiling point

-as officers respond to a heated disturbance.

-Anti-social!

And a hit-and-run driver flees the scene of a serious road incident.

I just can't believe someone would hit and run off

and leave someone. Shocking.

We all want to live in safe communities

where everybody gets along and we feel secure in our homes.

So when the neighbourhood teams hear about a property

that has become a hub for anti-social behaviour,

they act fast to flush out the problem.

In Weston-super-Mare, Neighbourhood Inspector Sharon Bennett

has discovered some worrying news

about the occupants of a local house.

The community have raised concerns

that there's been anti-social behaviour from an address,

and it's really important to us that we take some robust action

against that so the community trust us and that we raise confidence

with them that we're about to take action and are able to do something

about the concerns that they raise.

From my personal point of view, I wouldn't want to live in a street

where there's anti-social behaviour going on.

I don't think it's right that residents

should have to put up with that.

The people who live at the property are causing so many problems

that even the landlord wants them out,

but he's too afraid to evict them himself.

So the plan is a simple one -

raid the property and evict all of the current tenants.

Heading up today's operation is Sergeant Mark Jenkinson.

Today we're going to be executing a warrant.

He's not very pleasant at all towards the police,

but he won't be too much of a problem to deal with.

This is the address. We've got Nicky and Chris, we'll ask you guys to go

-to the back of the address. Myself and

-BLEEP,

I'll be looking to force entry into the address

so we'll be going in first.

Let's go. We'll meet in the back yard.

With everyone briefed, the team make their way to the address

and park up around the corner, so as not to alert the suspects

to their presence.

The individuals that we know are tenants at that address

have been known previously to cause us a few problems

and be pretty anti-police.

But we're trying to cater for pretty much every eventuality.

Other officers are watching the entrance to the address

and, as word comes through that the suspects

-are thought to be inside...

-Yep, we're off, off, off.

..Mark and his team spring into action.

The key elements to a raid's success are speed and surprise,

so the team won't be ringing the doorbell.

Police! Search warrant! Stay where you are! Police!

Upstairs, they find three men in one of the bedrooms.

There ain't no drugs here.

There ain't no-one else in here.

Right, swap places with me.

The suspects are claiming to be alone,

but, just to be sure, Mark lets himself into the other rooms.

Secure!

Although not all of the doors are as easy to open as the others.

-There's no-one in there.

-Clear?

After a frenetic couple of minutes,

Mark and his team can now take stock of the situation.

Clear.

All the officers are safe, the premises are secure,

so now it's just a case of a slow time methodical search

and just see what we turn up.

Still to come...

the team carry out a full search

and make a shocking discovery.

They are all pretty nasty bits of kit.

CCTV has become a powerful weapon in the police's war on crime,

enabling officers to spend less time identifying criminals

and more time arresting them.

CCTV is sort of everywhere.

It's quite a scary thought really.

It could be a kind of Big Brother scenario.

I don't think it's a bad thing or an intrusion of privacy

when it's on public streets.

I think people understand that it's there for their own safety.

In Somerset, the council have installed CCTV cameras

in some of their residential areas,

including the Bournville Estate in Weston-super-Mare.

Any camera that we install, we've had to have a reason to put it there.

The reason why we put cameras onto this particular estate

was because the anti-social behaviour statistics

showed that there was more of it there than in other areas,

so therefore it was disproportionate, so that needed to be tackled.

The decision to install CCTV on this particular estate

has already paid off after a situation flared up

between some of the residents and the neighbourhood team.

Well, one of the operators was just generally watching the area

when he received a call from one of the residents there,

and they reported that these group of people were kicking a rugby ball,

which was bouncing off cars, people's windows and so forth.

A patrol car was dispatched to the estate to investigate further.

Two officers attended.

On arrival, the rugby ball was kicked at their vehicle.

It wasn't the reception the PCSOs were expecting.

Throwing a ball at a police car is a blatant disregard for authority.

Undeterred, the two PCSOs approached the group

and tried to defuse the situation,

but, outnumbered by an increasing number of intimidating youths,

their words had little effect.

They subsequently called for backup.

There was about 30 people there at that stage

and tensions got very, very high.

PC Chris Weekes was one of the officers

who responded to the PCSOs' call for help.

When we arrived at the location, you could see males

had been there drinking for some time,

quite angry and hostile towards us.

A rugby ball hitting the windscreen is one thing,

but now some of the group started throwing other projectiles,

including stones and coins.

It was time for the officers to intervene,

although this was easier said than done.

A coin hit our police vehicle on the windscreen.

Due to the amount of people there, we couldn't pick out who...

Identify the person responsible for it.

As the officers on the ground had a comm-link to the control centre,

the effectiveness of CCTV became apparent.

We could describe what we could see.

We could pass any information that they needed,

so it would help them immensely when they questioned,

you know, whoever they thought might have carried out any of the problems.

Identifying the person responsible was easily done,

however, arresting him was a different matter altogether.

As we were trying to remove him from the crowd,

one other male, who's now also been arrested,

was trying to hold him back and obstructing us in our duty,

and, as we then tried to drive off from the location,

he was opening the car doors.

By now, there were even more rowdy bystanders,

so the officers called for further assistance.

It got quite heated, they were crowded around us.

Refusing to move, the group swamped the police car.

The only way out was to use the vehicle

to nudge their way free from the crowd.

Although throwing a coin at a police vehicle

seems quite a trivial and small offence,

in the wider scale of things, it's important to deal

with that situation positively to nip it in the bud, so to speak.

More units had arrived

and were trying to separate the main troublemakers,

but with an ever-increasing crowd gathering,

this was rapidly descending into a heated and hostile situation.

10 to 15 people crowded around you.

It only takes one person to say something

and then you could be set upon by a group of drunk, angry people.

Very, very... It's scary, I'm not going to lie.

To be honest, it's a very scary experience.

Find out later how the neighbourhood team managed to restore order.

That's how the Bournville roll!

In Weston-super-Mare,

the neighbourhood team are carrying out a raid on a house,

known to be a hub of anti-social behaviour.

Police! Search warrant! Stay where you are!

Sergeant Mark Jenkinson is leading the team that went in.

The premises are secure,

so now it's just a case of a slow time methodical search

and just see what we turn up.

Because the tenants here are known drug users,

the team bring in a sniffer dog...

..although he could have a tough time searching this property.

This isn't the ideal scenario for a dog to search.

You've got another dog at the address,

which is a massive distraction.

As you can see, there's food left around,

and all these distractions make it very difficult

for a dog to search effectively.

Give us a hand in here then?

His dog has basically done a cursory search, which enables us then

to now do a physical search, just to make sure there's nothing here

that would be of any particular interest to us.

As the team crack on, they find dozens of used syringes

and prescribed bottles of Methadone,

which is a legal heroin substitute given to recovering drug users.

But that isn't all.

I mean, you can see around the room,

we've got a knife down on the floor there.

You see up here, you've got another knife on the wall there.

Drug paraphernalia all over the place

and, obviously, this is just the start of it.

This frightening arsenal of weapons was stashed around the house.

It's little wonder the landlord and the community

want the tenants to be evicted.

As you can see, it's pretty significant

and they are all pretty nasty bits of kit.

Unsurprisingly, today's raid

has generated a lot of concern from the neighbours.

PCSO Nicola Barton is on hand to assure worried residents.

We've got officers in there at the moment doing some searching,

-and we've got the police dog here as well.

-Tip-off?

-Sorry?

-Tip-off, was it?

Well, it's intelligence from the community, which is what we rely on.

-So if you have any information that you want to give us...

-Oh, yep, yep.

Back inside, officers are leaving no stone unturned

as they search for other evidence of anti-social behaviour.

I've just found this one here, possible heroin powder.

All right, so I'm going to seize that.

We found a quantity of white powder.

We believe that to be controlled drugs.

The powders will need to be tested

to determine whether they are in fact illegal drugs.

While the occupants of the house make their way to custody

to explain their grizzly passion for kitchenware,

the council can begin the process of making sure

the suspects can't ever come back.

A member of the local authority is here with us today -

we've pre-arranged that prior to our warrant today.

We'll help the local authority

today by closing this place down today.

We'll board it up to stop the anti-social behaviour

that has been linked to the address and, most importantly,

put up a visual reminder to the public

that we have taken action today

in conjunction with the local authority.

The chilling collection of weapons found at the property were seized

and the powders were later identified as not controlled drugs.

The three suspects were released,

although another tenant was subsequently arrested

and sentenced to 18 weeks in prison for linked offences.

Most importantly for the community, however,

is that all of the occupants were evicted,

bringing an end to the wave of anti-social behaviour

that was plaguing this neighbourhood.

In Weston-super-Mare, the neighbourhood team

are dealing with a volatile situation

on one of the town's estates.

It began when two PCSOs responded to a call from locals

who were complaining about some lads throwing a ball at cars.

When the PSCOs arrived, the ball was thrown at their car

and they were quickly surrounded by a group of youths.

Fearing for their safety, they called for backup,

but, when it arrived, the youths continued to obstruct the officers,

which culminated in one of the lads being arrested

for throwing a coin at a police car.

So with a growing crowd of rowdy bystanders,

the neighbourhood team have called in reinforcements.

Sergeant Colin Batchelor is one of the many officers

who have been drafted in.

We've recently arrested a female from the address

who has been subsequently imprisoned for drug offences.

The address, unfortunately, then has been occupied by a number of youths

with a minimum amount of supervision.

It's been a hot day.

I suggest, as you can see, there's quite a large group there.

They've probably been drinking.

Some kind of disturbance has happened.

I've just arrived, so I'm going to go and speak to them

and find out whether we can calm the situation down,

take out the main protagonists

and let things get back to normal if we can.

This is far from an average day for the team.

That's how the Bournville roll!

With spirits high and many of the locals drinking,

-one wrong move could mean that Colin...

-Anti-social!

..has a serious situation on his hands.

Such a large police presence may be aggravating the growing crowds,

but they have to stand their ground.

The man who's been causing the most problems has been identified,

arrested and taken to a waiting van.

With the van carrying their prisoner safely away,

some of the other units can begin to move out,

much to the delight of the locals.

Yay!

This is Colin's beat.

He's a familiar face on the estate, so he's trying to calm things down

by explaining exactly why the police have arrested the man,

but spirits and tensions are still running high.

Go on, Jack!

The cameraman is ordered into a patrol car.

Sometimes the best thing to do is to pull away from the situation.

With the primary troublemakers identified and arrested,

the neighbourhood team moves out,

leaving a small unit to keep an eye on the boisterous crowd.

The boss has just said, you know, I think he thinks

we're making the situation worse which, with all of us there,

there's some truth in that.

I think, initially, the reception was quite hostile

in terms of our response to an item or items

being thrown at a police car.

We've turned up with quite a lot of units there,

simply because of the amount of people that's out on the street.

So sometimes the best thing to do is to pull away from the situation.

We have got CCTV down there. We will continue to monitor.

The CCTV control centre continued to monitor the situation,

which eventually died down as the night closed in.

The lad who threw the coin at the police car

was released without charge,

while the young man who thought it would be fun

to make a nuisance of himself was charged with obstructing the police.

He pleaded guilty and had to pay over £175 in fines and costs.

If you are unfortunate enough to be involved in a serious road accident,

you have to remain at the scene until the police

have taken their statements and ensured that everyone is OK.

Unfortunately, some unscrupulous drivers don't hang around

to answer the police's questions.

In Bath, officers John Witts and Adam Gale have just received a call

about a suspected hit-and-run incident on their patch.

There seems to have been some form of fail to stop RTC.

Not fully sure whether someone has been struck or another vehicle,

or an exact extent, and so we'll head over and see what we've got.

At the moment the details are sketchy,

but, as John and Adam arrive, it's immediately clear

that they are dealing with a serious incident.

A casualty is laying in the road.

The female appears to have come off a scooter.

There's no sign of another vehicle.

She is awake and conscious.

She's remaining in the position she was located for safety purposes.

One of the vehicles that stopped to help

was a hospital transport ambulance.

Unfortunately, the crew are not trained

to deal with this sort of incident.

Paramedics are on their way, but are stuck in rush hour traffic.

In trauma cases, the first hour is the most crucial

when it comes to saving a patient's life.

With the clock ticking,

all everyone can do is keep the lady as still as possible.

Her husband was called earlier and is now by her side.

If we keep everyone as they're doing.

If people need a rest or a break,

just let us know and we'll swap people around, OK?

After speaking to eyewitnesses, John has pieced together

a clear picture of how the collision happened.

The car has just come out in front of her,

they've had a coming together, she's fallen off.

Luckily, she doesn't appear too seriously injured.

We're still waiting for the ambulance.

The event occurred in broad daylight

and the woman was wearing a hi-vis jacket.

The car that hit her is nowhere to be seen.

Basically, I was in a Transit van a bit further behind

and this lady was on her motorbike and a vehicle...

She was going up on the inside and a vehicle

just quite abruptly turned right, took the lady off.

The car then reversed and then shot off and drove off.

I just can't believe someone would hit and run off

and leave someone so...

Shocking.

I know someone got a registration,

so, hopefully, they'll be able to catch him.

It's hard to comprehend how someone can drive away

from a sickening incident like this.

Armed with a description of the suspected hit-and-run vehicle,

other neighbourhood teams have already started to search

for the missing driver.

Some units have gone to what we think is the registered keeper's address

and it's been circulated,

so, hopefully, people will keep their eyes open

and we'll pick up the driver sooner rather than later.

The woman has been lying in the road for over half an hour,

so it's a relief for everyone when the ambulance arrives.

It's looking good. Obviously, they're just going to check her over

and make sure everything's fine.

Slow time now, because, obviously, she's been knocked off,

don't know what injuries fully, so they'll assess her nice and slow

and we'll get the right result.

If she's suffered spinal injuries,

then she needs to be moved extremely carefully.

The paramedics use all of their expertise to ease the woman

onto a special carrying board.

It's been an agonising wait for everyone,

but the paramedics' initial assessment looks good.

I can confirm she has not got any life threatening injuries.

Hopefully it just remains as bruising and muscular.

With the lady now in safe hands,

John turns his attention to finding the suspected hit-and-run driver

who collided with the scooter.

From witnesses we've got a rough idea of what's gone on,

and we believe the offending vehicle has gone off down this road.

The good news is that, despite her ordeal,

the motorcyclist escaped spinal injury,

although she did suffer bruising and injuries to her ribs.

The car that witnesses believed was involved in the incident

has been tracked down and the investigation is currently ongoing.

The neighbourhood teams are focused on dealing with community issues

and usually leave matters like speeding and dangerous driving

to the specialist Traffic Police units.

But if they suspect a driver

is endangering members of the community,

then they have no choice but to take action.

The police take a hard line when it comes to young people

racing cars round residential areas.

These drivers aren't just being anti-social -

they are also potentially lethal.

Every day, four people are killed or seriously injured

in collisions involving young drivers.

It's early evening back on the Bournville Estate.

Marc Stephens and his colleague are on patrol.

It's not long before they spot a car

that appears to have been awkwardly parked on a grass verge.

-Whose car is it?

-I'm getting a tow truck now.

-I lost control of it.

-Hang on a minute.

-Let me just go and get my missus.

-No, just wait there, just wait there.

The officers' suspicions are instantly raised

-as one of the lads appears to make a run for it.

-Get the keys.

Oi! oi! Come here, come here! Don't go anywhere.

-Can I go and get my missus quick?

-Are they the keys, are they?

Guys, it just looks a bit dubious

if you're all just legging it off, doesn't it?

-I weren't going to run off, mate.

-No, no, that's fine.

The BMW has had a one-on-one with a lamppost and come out worse.

Just sorted the engine out, took it for a spin, come round here,

-hit the brakes and it just failed.

-That's fine.

The driver, Ashley, is claiming that he was taking the car

for a test drive following some maintenance on the engine.

Perhaps he would have been better off checking the brakes.

-Come and sit in here, mate, if you're driving.

-Marc wants more details,

so he takes him to the back of the van for a chat.

I'm not going to lie to you, I am a disqualified driver.

I've only just worked on it

because it weren't running, so I took it round the block,

-come round here...

-You're a disqual driver, are you?

The brakes weren't working. I've just gone round the block though.

The lad has just confessed to driving whilst disqualified.

This is a serious offence

that carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail.

Because of what you've told me, the fact that you're disqual, all right?

-Don't nick me, please.

-I've got to, mate. I ain't got no option.

You told me that you're driving...

Right, just let me deal with it.

I've got to get someone down here to look at the car,

we'll whizz you back, all right, and then we'll go from there.

-Do you want to ring her?

-I ain't got her number. Hang on.

-BLEEP,

-just give me

-BLEEP's

-number. Can I have a look at it, please?

You can have a look at it. I'll give you a chance, don't take the mick.

Yeah, I'm not going to. I'm not stupid, mate, all right?

-This man's partner is obviously very important to him...

-Ring her.

-FRIEND:

-I ain't got no credit.

-Text her to come here.

..even if he doesn't know her phone number.

-BLEEP,

-just run round and get her.

-Just go and get her.

-Just go and get her.

-Just go and get her, man.

Come and sit in the car with me.

The driver seems oblivious to the amount of trouble he's in.

He seems more concerned by the damage to his car

than the fact that he's committed a serious offence.

The estate is a very close community,

and it appears his reckless driving

in an area with so many children has ruffled a few feathers.

The way you all drive through here, with children,

you all want locking up.

-BLEEP.

-Lock him away and throw away the key.

I doubt they'll throw away the key,

but this chap will definitely be facing charges,

and an update from control has plunged the driver

into even deeper hot water.

No insurance.

The driver's partner has finally appeared.

-Hiya.

-Hi.

Is it this car in relation...

It's not my car, it's my boyfriend's car.

He's claiming that the BMW is insured.

Perhaps she will be able to shed some light on the matter.

-There's no insurance on that car?

-On that one,

there's no insurance on that at the moment, no.

Just my fully comp as a driver, which I haven't...

Because the car has got no insurance we'll probably end up seizing it.

You can't have a fag at the moment, mate,

because you've got to get breathalysed, haven't you?

Can you get all his bits that he needs out and just chuck it back on?

Don't forget the tools in the boot.

As the car's next destination is the police pound...

Make sure she comes down the police station to pick me up, yeah?

You're under arrest for disqual driving obviously.

You've told me you're driving that car when you've had an accident,

it's pretty simple stuff.

You're also under arrest for driving without insurance.

Understand all that? He's been stupid.

He's just saying he's taken the car out for a spin.

He knows that he shouldn't be driving it

and he'll have to pay the consequences now, won't he?

-So there we are.

-And now that another officer is on scene

to wait for the recovery truck,

Marc can take the driver back to the police station.

Let's go.

When a man went in front of the magistrates,

he pleaded guilty to the charges of driving whilst disqualified

and with no insurance.

He received 18 weeks behind bars

and a further 36 months' ban from driving.

As we've seen today, whether it's tracking down shoplifters

or seizing dangerous weapons, the neighbourhood police teams

are dedicated to making our streets safer and more peaceful places.

Join us again next time.