Episode 7 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.

-Danny!

-Calm down!

-By engaging with people on the street...

-Me and you always get on.

-Yeah.

..the teams can indentify and crack down

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 and go somewhere else!

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

-Hold still!

-You're under arrest for assault.

..and sweep the criminals clean from our streets.

PRISONER SHOUTS ANGRILY

Hit me again and you'll get arrested.

Coming up...

the neighbourhood team tackle the growing menace

of legal highs on the streets of Somerset.

-Have you just taken something?

-I haven't done nowt!

-OVER RADIO:

-'Blue denim shorts.'

And an abusive drunk meets his match.

BLEEP, BLEEP.

-Oi, come here.

-Oi, don't swear!

Don't you swear at him, otherwise you'll get locked up.

How dare you swear at him, you rude man!

Knife crime is a blight on our communities.

One in ten hospital admissions for assault in the UK are linked

to bladed weapons, and the injuries inflicted are often horrific,

and all too frequently, fatal.

It's late afternoon on the west coast.

PC Wayne Hughes and Sergeant Mark Jenkinson are responding

to an urgent 999 call.

4-4-7-1, going to that as well.

There's a report of a stabbing involving one male,

so we're just going to make our way and see what's happened.

-OVER RADIO:

-'Saffron House, please, erm...

'Caller's been threatened by a male in a wheelchair.'

The sarge lights up the blues.

In situations like this, every second counts.

There are two major issues facing an officer

when they respond to a knife attack.

One, to ensure the safety of the victim,

and two, to find and arrest the attacker.

Wayne and Mark are going to escort the paramedic to the scene.

Police have just arrived behind me, I'm just talking to them. Over.

Details of the incident are sketchy.

with a potential knifeman still very much at large,

the paramedic is taking no chances and is looking

to the police to offer protection whilst she attends to the victim.

They're in here, are they?

With the help of a passer-by,

the officers quickly find the victim laying across the road.

Before Wayne can call in the paramedic,

he has to be certain that it's safe.

Hello, mate.

Just do us a favour... Where's the stab wounds?

-In your belly, is it?

-On his arms.

OK, have you got those? Who's done this to you?

Oh, just... I don't know.

Can you do me a favour? Just tell me what's going on.

-An hour-and-a-half ago?

-Nearly two hours now.

-OK, have you got any weapons on you?

-No.

-What about you, sir? Are you a witness at all?

-No.

SIREN WAILS

With the scene safe, the man can be examined.

There's a paramedic with us now, can she check you over? Yeah?

He has two significant wounds - a slash to his arm,

and more worryingly, a stab wound to the lower abdomen.

With no telling how deep it is, there's a real risk

that he could be bleeding internally.

He's also remaining tight-lipped about who attacked him.

He's saying he was stabbed by an unknown male,

he's not prepared to give a name.

He's not going to tell me what it's all over.

Amazingly, the victim managed to call his mate directly

after the attack.

It's been a traumatic experience for both of them.

It's not that bad, though.

That little cut, there's some fat coming out

from his belly, so it looks worse than it actually is, yeah?

I'm scared.

The paramedic has seen the victim,

but he'll need further treatment in hospital.

Before he is taken away, Wayne makes another attempt to discover

the identity of the attacker.

Yeah, you need to go to hospital.

Very briefly, are you prepared to tell me who has done this to you?

Sorry?

No?

OK. What's it over?

-WOMAN:

-You have to shut the door, you're keeping us.

OK.

The victim is staying resolutely silent

as to the identity of his attacker.

At the moment we've got one man who's gone to Weston General,

with at least one stab wound to the lower abdomen,

which is quite deep, apparently,

and he's got a slash wound to the left forearm.

He was seen by a paramedic here at the scene.

This gentleman we're with at the moment is potentially a witness

and a friend of the victim of the stabbing.

We're just trying to find out what he knows

about what's gone on this evening.

The team know that if they're going to get to the bottom

of what's happened, then they'll have to turn detective.

First to be interviewed is a man who may have seen what happened.

Where did you first see him?

-Here.

-Just here?

-Yeah.

Did you hear his conversation on the mobile phone?

I assumed that he had phoned a friend,

and then that guy on the bicycle came and got him.

Unfortunately, the man didn't see the attack.

It's possible that it took place elsewhere.

No blood, no nothing, I just thought he was drunk.

Wayne isn't having any luck with the victim's mate, either.

-And you don't know?

-No. I wish I did know.

If I'd known, I'd tell you.

I'm terrified for him.

-He's in good hands, all right?

-Yeah.

-Is he a friend of yours then?

-Yeah, he's my best mate.

Is he?

It's a confusing case.

The team have no suspect or motive.

They don't even know where the attack took place.

So, what do you reckon it is, then?

-No.

-Do you know what I mean?

-No, I know.

But if you see the wound, there's hardly any...

blood on the outside of the wound.

But they're saying now that it's possibly

-a six-inch serrated edge knife.

-Yeah, I heard that.

-So the chances are...

-It's deeper than it is...

-Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

The investigation isn't going to be a simple one, so they're

taking the victim's mate back to the station for further questioning.

Still in shock, he's struggling to come to terms with what's happened.

I'm just upset, the fact that my best mate's been stabbed.

And...I don't know what to do.

Did he phone you or did he text you?

-He phoned me.

-Have you got any texts from him?

-No.

-In relation to this?

He just phoned me and asked me to ring him back,

so I rang him back like, "What's up?"

And he's like, "I've been stabbed."

As they arrive at the station, this fella believes

that his friend wouldn't be happy if he knew he was helping the police.

He's going to hate me for this, but I don't care.

He's not going to hate you, is he?

Because all you're doing at the moment is helping us...

-help him, hopefully.

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

It just upsets me, the fact that...

It's not right that somebody goes along in the cold light of day

and stabs somebody, is it?

-No.

-Whether it's...

-I don't like violence, I hate it.

We're still trying to piece together what it's all about.

I have been told that it involves a debt of some description,

and that's as much as I know at the moment.

Because of the serious nature of the incident,

the case was passed over to CID.

As yet, the victim has refused to name his attacker,

but the file remains open.

In Britain, we have strict controls on the use of drugs

and harsh penalties for those who abuse them.

A type of drug known as "legal highs", however,

has become a source of concern for the police.

They look like illegal drugs,

they have similar effects to illegal drugs,

and are just as dangerous to use as illegal drugs -

but because they are marketed as not for human consumption,

shops can legally sell them.

In Taunton, PCSO Daryl Waddell is patrolling

one of the town's parks.

He's spotted a lad passed out on a bench.

-Up. It's the police. GROANING:

-BLEEP.

-Up you get.

-Can you

-BLEEP

-off? Seriously.

Hit me again, you get arrested, all right? Up you get, now.

Get up. Who do you think you are?

This youth has taken a legal high.

YOUTH MUTTERS INCOHERENTLY

Do you want to get arrested for assault? All right?

Sorry, officer, I didn't realise who it was.

Every day I'm on shift I have to come down and see you...

He's using this bottle as a bong -

it's a device used to inhale drug fumes.

How long have you been conked out for, then?

Only, like, a maximum of, say, five minutes.

It's been longer than five minutes.

I've had a call about you about 15 minutes ago.

This lad is just 17.

Only a maximum of 25 minutes.

What's it called, Exodus?

-I think so.

-And what's that? A legal high, is it?

POLICE RADIO CHATTER

Ensuring that he's OK, Daryl can only send the boy on his way.

I know the male through previous experience as a legal high user,

making his own home-made bongs and, erm, getting off his face.

Legal highs are becoming a serious problem across the UK.

You do feel sorry for them, there are people that genuinely

want to come off them but they can't, because they are addicted to it.

They say it's worse than legal drugs and...it's not really on.

In Britain, there are almost 250 shops

selling the psychoactive drugs.

Two have opened in Taunton.

Due to the way the law is written, these substances can be

legally bought on our high streets - sold as plant food or incense.

Officers Stuart Baird and Lisa Rigby

are checking an unoccupied house that has become

a popular haunt for the town's street drinkers and drug users.

Living like rats, basically.

We were talking about legal highs, weren't we?

Here we go. This is, er...Ching.

That's a legal high.

In the past, the government has banned some legal highs.

The best known is mephedrone,

otherwise known as "MCAT" or "meow meow."

Unfortunately, as soon as one drug is banned,

the manufacturers head back to the labs and create another one.

What is it, down that way?

Down there, by the Poundland and the Debenhams.

Right, OK. This is a classic case of a legal high user.

A man has been spotted staggering through the town's traffic.

Basically, all the problems that you associate with

the illegal drugs are now occurring

with the legal ones.

-Hello, mate.

-Hello.

What are you up to, Nick? We've had a call about you being in the road.

ADVERT PLAYS ON RADIO

Turn that down a second, will you?

Can you take that balaclava off for a minute and talk to us?

Nick is well-known to the police as a prolific drug user.

Just stay out of the road.

No-one is saying you can't cross the road,

but you've got to cross it just as you normally would, yeah?

-Yes.

-OK? All right?

-Don't be loitering in the road.

-No, I won't.

'He's always been...sketchy, if you want to call it,

'but I think he is deteriorating.'

He has told me himself that he is addicted to legal highs,

and basically he can't get through the day without it.

Whatever it is that he's taking is really affecting his mental health.

Despite being a regular user of legal highs, Nick is all too aware

of the dangers that come with using these powerful drugs.

They may be legal, but they are as dangerous,

if not...more dangerous, than any drug I know.

I've been addicted to heroin for a lot of years,

I don't take heroin any more but I've substituted

it for the legal highs, and I'm telling you now,

I have never had such a craving for anything

like I have these legal highs.

Hi Peter, it's Jim Breakwell, I'm the town centre beat...

Jim Breakwell is one of the officers spearheading the

neighbourhood team's response to the escalating problem.

It's actually a bigger problem than controlled substances

such as heroin at the moment for us.

As a town centre bobby, Jim is very familiar with Nick.

He's reviewing a recent encounter that one of his colleagues

has captured on a body-mounted camera.

What's going on, Nick? What's with the language? You all right?

Typical!

I'm asking if you're all right, Nick?

VERY QUICKLY: And I'm telling you no! I want to report a...

I can't even remember!

Have you just taken some legal? You've just taken something?

I haven't done nowt!

I haven't said you've done anything, I said have you

-just taken something?

-You said have I taken summat!

Well, yeah, because obviously you seem very...

-I'm exercising my right to the Fifth Amendment.

-OK.

Normally you can have a conversation with him

and he makes sense,

but here he clearly is making no sense whatsoever,

he doesn't have any idea what's going on.

Shall we go and have a sit down somewhere quiet out of the sun?

-You need to sit down.

-You're mental, mate.

I'd say he's got a heightened heart rate, he's hyperventilating,

so he's breathing much faster, but in five minutes' time,

when he's finished, he won't remember the effects.

-Purely...

-BLEEP. I didn't mean it.

..he's after the hit and the high, but he doesn't remember

the downsides of taking them. All he remembers is the good things.

They are very nasty and very, very dangerous.

-What have you taken, Nick?

-I truly... Do you know what I mean?

-Do you know what he's taken?

-No, I don't.

I normally know how somebody is going to react

if they have taken alcohol, if they have taken heroin or cannabis.

At this point now, dealing with Nick as he is,

I wouldn't know how he is going to react.

I wouldn't know if he was going to flee, whether he was likely

to fight, you just don't know what he is going to do,

and that is because he doesn't know what he is going to do.

Very, very dangerous things.

All right, take care. See you later.

I could stop taking it,

I don't want to because I'm in love with the feeling.

I wish that I wasn't in love with the feeling.

But that's what makes me an addict, you know?

Later, the neighbourhood team take to the streets of Taunton

in their battle to stay on top of this growing danger.

Policing a large city means that officers are faced with

a continuous stream of challenges.

We've just been informed that there's two males

down at the bus station now that is causing problems

with the restaurants and cafes.

CCTV operators have been monitoring the two lads,

and as Brian and Julie arrive,

it isn't too difficult to spot one of them.

-DISPATCHER:

-'Yeah, you have two males.

'One is wearing blue denim shorts.'

The chap on the bench matches the description on the radio

and his mate isn't far away.

BLEEP, BLEEP!

Oi, oi, don't swear at him otherwise you'll get locked up.

How dare you swear at him, you rude man!

-SLURRING:

-Go on, then.

-Do you have any ID on you?

-Yeah, I have.

-Let me see your ID, please.

There's my ID.

You've been urinating and causing a few problems, haven't you?

Don't put your back to me.

I'm sorry for that. Basically, I'm just sticking up for my friend.

You don't need to stick up for him

if you've been causing problems.

This pair of day-trippers are pushing

-Brian's patience to the limit.

-Why didn't you use a toilet?

Cos I was desperate.

How are you getting home now when we let you go?

I'm willing to get a train home.

Incredibly, this troublemaker is trying to suggest

that he's a model citizen.

You're trying to intimidate me when I've done nothing wrong.

-He's not intimidating you.

-Well, you both are!

-What, me?

-We're doing our jobs.

-Yeah, both of you!

-You're trying to intimidate me when I've done

-BLEEP.

Can you stop swearing?

One more swear and I will get an officer here to get you arrested.

You've already said you've been urinating,

so you have done something wrong, haven't you?

What? I'm sorry for urinating...

You're just not sorry, it's an offence.

Julie has clearly had enough, but Brian's giving this pair

one last chance to make themselves scarce.

You're not going to be nicked for it,

but you've got to leave this area,

because you've upset people by urinating in the street, etc.

So what you want to do is go straight along there,

get yourself on a train... Listen, I'm going to save you

a hundred quid here by not giving you a fine.

-I won't shake your hand cos you've just been weeing, haven't you?

-Yeah.

THEY TALK OVER EACH OTHER

-Right, off you go!

-She loves us. Come 'ere!

Despite his fair treatments by the officers...

BLEEP.

..this foul-mouthed lout has a final word for Brian and Julie.

-Oh, by the way, you're a

-BLEEP.

Brian's been doing this job long enough to know that this pair

probably haven't learnt their lesson.

They're playfighting now, they've basically been on the booze

all day, they've drank too much, very intoxicated.

I said to them that rather me give them the fine,

if they make their way to the train station

and get themselves home, we'll call it a day as that at the moment.

But I wouldn't be surprised if they come to light,

because they're not really taking much notice of what I said

due to how much alcohol they've drank.

To make sure they leave as they have promised,

CCTV operators are closely monitoring the two lads.

And as Brian predicted, they're still causing trouble.

'..In the vicinity, because the cocky one in the khaki top

'has actually just stopped a group of three lads.

'He's collared the smallest one of the three...'

..just join me at the bus station,

these two are just causing so many problems

with members of the public, they just need some firm hands

and some strong words of advice from an officer, I think.

Brian's already given the lad the benefit of the doubt.

This time, he's taking a harder line

and has called for a police unit to join him.

You've been grabbing people as they've been

walking down the street, which is not acceptable.

I've just seen you grab hold of that young kid.

-He's my friend.

-He's not your friend.

-He's my friend as well.

-The young kid has nothing to do with you.

-That's unacceptable, I think, mate.

-You're wrong.

-I think I'm right.

-I don't know what you're on about, mate.

Yeah, outside the train station.

With two police officers on scene, Brian brings them up to speed.

They're grabbing hold of young kids,

we had a bloke come up who said he'd been slapped in the face

but didn't want to pursue it, so he's assaulted someone, also.

And now we get here, he's grabbed hold of a young kid that was

there with a group of other young kiddies

and started marching him up here forcefully. So we get out the car,

I thought I'd had enough of them, really.

-Where's the kids gone?

-They've just cleared off, unfortunately.

It doesn't take them long to decide what to do.

You're to leave Bath for a period of so many hours,

should you not do that, you'll be arrested

-for breaching that notice.

-Yeah, that's good.

-OK?

The police have the power to order troublemakers to leave

an area for up to 48 hours,

and that's exactly what the mouthy lad in the green top

has been issued with.

Finally, he and his mate are on their way.

Yes, they've definitely gone - at last!

The one in the green shirt's been given a section 27,

a direction to leave,

so he's got to get on the next train to Bristol.

If he returns within the period, he then gets arrested.

In Taunton, the neighbourhood team are facing up to

a menacing new threat that is gripping the UK.

Legal highs - powerful drugs that are

being sold on the nation's high streets.

Had a flat, a girlfriend,

I was earning money honestly, I was proud of myself.

Someone needs to ban them,

because they're highly addictive and it's ruining my life,

it's ruining society...

But I can't stop taking them.

Whilst on a recent patrol...

About half past two in the afternoon when this happened.

..Jim Breakwell stumbled across a scene that

graphically illustrates the problem that the whole community is facing.

The incident was captured on his colleague's body-mounted camera.

So here we are, on approach into the male toilets at Castle Green.

We received a call that two people had been injecting.

And you see, they're both clearly still...completely out of it

under the effects of legal highs they've taken.

Two of our well-known legal high users, and they're both out of it.

OFFICER RAPS ON STALL DOOR

Jim has been trying to help the man on the left

find a place in a rehabilitation centre.

-What are you doing?

-I've been smoking.

-What you smoking?

-Legal.

He's been using class A drugs for 20 years.

And he often says to me whenever I see him in town

that legal highs are the most dangerous thing

out there at the moment.

Just watching this footage reminds me

how dangerous these substances are.

They don't know what they are doing

when they are under the influence, they can't possibly,

and that is going to cause problems for them

and also residents of Taunton.

Unfortunately, under current legislation, the police have

few powers to control the sale and use of these substances.

Despite this, the Taunton neighbourhood team

are determined not to let these drugs

increase their hold on the town.

What we have to do is use our powers and use our persuasive means

to talk to people that are taking these substances,

educate, work with other organisations.

Jim believes in tackling a problem from the roots up.

As part of his daily beat, he pays regular visits to the

two shops that are selling legal highs.

Generally we've got a good rapport with the staff

and I can go in there and spend time talking to them.

Morally, we think it's wrong,

but they must think that it's OK in order to work in the shop,

so I think we're always going to disagree with that.

The owners of both shops were offered the chance to respond

to the allegations made in this programme.

Both declined to comment.

Using legal highs, like any drug use,

can lead to a slippery slope of poverty.

The charity Taunton Association for the Homeless sees addicts

every day, and they are concerned about the grip that

legal highs are beginning to take on the town.

I think when you look at the negative impact that the legal high shops

are having on the area, you can see why

people are asking for these shops to be shut down.

Jim is joining Richard and Sue from nearby Lindley House,

a shelter funded by the charity.

They are visiting some of the town's rough sleepers.

I'm going to go into this place where a lot of people

used to sleep overnight. Morning.

Becca and her boyfriend recently moved to Taunton after

they had successfully stopped using illegal drugs.

I know, it's a massive problem.

The availability of the new substances

proved too tempting for the couple.

It was like a once a week kind of thing, and then once a day,

and then four times a day, and then...that's all we do.

It makes you rush for ten seconds, then nothing afterwards.

Once you do it once, it's never the same as the first time,

so you are always doing it,

continuously, to try and get the same buzz.

It's really addictive,

more addictive than anything else I've took in my life.

Stories like Becca's are far from unusual.

People up and down the country

are having their lives ripped apart by these drugs,

and it isn't just the users who want to see the shops

that sell them shut down.

Today, Nick Smith is staging a protest outside a shop

that sells legal highs.

..stop you dishing out your leaflets.

Nick feels so passionately about this issue

because his six-year-old daughter, Millie-Mae, pricked herself

with a used syringe discarded in a public toilet.

It's been a traumatic experience for the whole family.

Nick's daughter has undergone months of tests,

to see whether the syringe incident had left her with hepatitis C -

a life-changing illness.

And to get hepatitis C at the age of six

because you went to the toilet

and a careless drug user just thrown his needles away...

..what can you do, you know?

She could've gone...

I don't want to think about it, you know?

Because how would you...

you know?

My six-year-old daughter fine and happy,

and because of these people...

Nick and his family had an agonising wait

before they found out that Millie-Mae didn't have hepatitis C.

The amount of people using Taunton's public toilets to take drugs

has increased since the legal high shops appeared.

And Nick believes that the needle that pricked his daughter

had been used to inject the new drugs.

As a result of his experiences,

he's formed the South West Action Group -

an organisation dedicated to taking the dangerous drugs off the street.

Before this happened, I knew nothing about legal highs.

Um, people who I've spoken to since this happened

know nothing about legal highs, you know?

So if we can raise awareness, yeah, that's got to be a positive thing.

And overall, if we can eventually get the Government

to make the right legislation

to make them illegal, to ban them, that's got to be a right thing.

It's a horrific scenario for any parent,

but Nick is determined to use this experience

to make a real difference.

We can't sit back and do nothing

and expect the police to do everything

and expect someone else to do everything.

We have to work as a community, get off our butts, yeah,

and go out there in a community, you know, and become a community again.

Today we've seen that

not all neighbourhood issues are simple ones.

Legal highs may be a problem for a long time to come,

but the police will continue to work alongside the community

in their relentless mission

to banish these dangerous drugs from our high streets.

See you next time.