Episode 1 Neighbourhood Blues

Neighbourhood policing has come a long way since the days of Dixon of Dock Green.

Good evening, all.

From inner-city estates to suburbia,

this new generation of community police officers

are on the frontline.

-What are you doing here?

-Police!

Their aim is to develop a stronger bond with the community...

Have you had any problems, then? Over the last week.

... crack down on the crimes taking place on their doorstep...

-Have you been drinking tonight.

-No.

-Why is your speech slurred then?

... formulate fast action plans to take down the criminals.

You have to be careful.

Who do you think you are? Eh?

In this new series of Neighbourhood Blues,

we go to the Humberside police region

and get exclusive access to 24 teams of neighbourhood police officers...

You're under arrest, mate.

... as they tackle the problems blighting local people...

You're under arrest on suspicion of possession with intent to supply a controlled drug.

... and rise to the challenge of making the streets a safer place.

Coming up...

Intelligence gathered by a bobby on the beat sees the neighbourhood team

launch a major strike

to break down the doors of a drug baron's empire.

We are looking at hundreds of thousands of pounds, really.

The police mount patrols to tackle Hull's homelessness problem...

-Good evening, guys.

-Good evening.

-Hello.

Are you two new? I've not met you before.

... and a local takeaway is turned into a war zone

following a vicious attack by a gang of youths.

We were just trying to stop the fight.

We didn't know he was going to get bottled.

The police frequently come in for flak for not being tough enough

on criminals who commit the types of low-level crime

that can make everyday life a misery.

Neighbourhood policing is supposed to change that.

We're in Humberside to find out if it's really working.

Hull was once a thriving centre for shipping and manufacturing.

The decline of those industries saw widespread unemployment

and social deprivation.

Which, in turn, led to crime rates rocketing.

And it being branded one of the most lawless places in Britain.

But things have changed.

The city has undergone a major facelift and its police force

has become a nationwide leader, putting neighbourhood policing

at the heart of its fight against crime.

Police! Everyone outside!

Chief Inspector Dave Rawding heads up

Hull's four neighbourhood police teams

and believes community policing has had a major impact.

What neighbourhood policing has delivered is that consistency,

that robustness that allows communities to gain confidence

because they know the uniformed staff working in their areas

and that's delivering improvements in community confidence.

It's helping solve crime, because when the public know the people

that police their areas, they're willing to give information. It's snippets of information

that we can build together with the intelligence picture

to understand the problems in our communities and then start to deliver solutions.

Today, he's launching a new initiative called

the Neighbourhood Network which brings together concerned residents

-and business people.

-It's great to see so many people here

who're interested in keeping their community safe. That's really reassuring.

Its aim is to see everyone working alongside the police

to reduce crime and develop a good community spirit.

Many people say that's been lost over the years,

clearly you people care about your communities,

so you've got some of that spirit and that needs to be transferred to other people.

The hope is people will become more neighbourly

and look out for each other.

We hope the network will be an opportunity for people to take more ownership in this.

APPLAUSE

Complaints about drug-dealing account for over half of all calls

that the neighbourhood police team receive and across the country,

-police take swift action against such concerns.

-We did have a problem

with drug dealers. We did have that for a few months,

the summer before last, but the police soon sorted that out, as well.

As a result of a questionnaire that went out to the public

across the city, one of the things that came back

was the fact that they wanted to see more activity around

dealing with drugs problems

and they wanted police to go out and directly target the offenders.

Local residents run into youngsters taking drugs at bus shelters

-and even playgrounds.

-I've seen youths

smoking cannabis and stuff in the parks,

The age of the children that I've seen do that is quite worrying,

-because they are young teenagers or children.

-And in Humberside,

-with the problem dangerously escalating...

-So, come here.

... the team decided to formulate

a new plan to wipe out the dealers at source.

It was just another day making a beat walk

for neighbourhood officer Patrick Cook,

when he spotted something out of place

on a local industrial park.

Well, it all started in the beginning of December.

I was patrolling the area and could smell a strong smell of cannabis.

These three little chimneys on the top of the work unit there,

they appeared in the last three or four weeks.

There's been no activity at these units for the last month.

So, I thought why have these chimneys appeared? I walked into

this business yard and the smell was very pungent of cannabis.

I applied for a flyover for the helicopter

to get some sort of heat force and it came back as positive.

Which gave me reason to believe there was a cannabis factory setting up.

Over at the station, it's now a race against the clock

for Mick to assemble a search team

to execute a flash raid on the property.

Does everybody sort of know the layout of where we're going?

No. On your right-hand side, there are four units

that look relatively new compared to the rest of that estate, OK.

Mike is heading up Strike team A, who will go in

at the front of the building. Strike Team B

will be headed up by PC Lorraine Summerfield

who'll be taking care of the rear entrance.

As late as yesterday,

the smell that was coming from that property was really strong,

so, there's every suggestion that it's close to being harvested.

-We know that units...

-BLEEPED OUT

-..are sublet to a company that we think hails from...

-BLEEPED OUT

And nobody seems to know a great deal more about it,

but they've had it for about 12 weeks.

12 weeks is about spot on.

If anybody knows what they're doing,

you can grow a decent amount of cannabis in the space of 12 weeks,

so that would tie in quite nicely with it.

These sorts of jobs get booby-trapped and all sorts,

wires going from light switches and all sorts of stupid stuff,

so just be real mindful of that.

With the brief completed,

-Lorraine organises her strike unit.

-We're going around

the back of the building, just to cover the rear, really,

just in case we get any runners, just trying catch whoever's seen leaving.

With preparations complete, the whole team

of 20 officers head in convoy to the location.

On arrival, Lorraine heads to lock down

all of the back entrances.

This is kind of where we really need to be, down there,

but we can't get in so we're going through the caravan repairers.

You can smell it. Yeah.

We've got the helicopter overhead, they can keep an eye out

for any heat sources. We'll try and get around as best as we possibly can

-and see what we can keep an eye on.

-With no chance of anyone

escaping out of the back door,

Mick's team move in to break down the iron gates protecting the entrance.

With the gates smashed, the police push forward, swinging the battering ram

to break through the main doorway.

But some information on the radio comes in.

The eye in the sky spies possible fugitives,

suspects have been seen trying to flee through a side entrance of the property.

The news sends Lorraine flying into action,

looking for anybody on the run.

I'll go back this way to make sure nobody's coming back over the wall.

With information from the chopper relayed to officers on the ground,

the neighbourhood team are able to move in and make the arrests.

I'll pass them over one at a time, Chantelle.

Get somebody else to come down.

The suspects are Vietnamese and speak very little English.

They are placed under arrest and patted down.

You're both under arrest for cultivating cannabis,

or suspicion of.

Back around the rear of the building,

Lorraine gives the go-ahead for her team to force entry.

But on entering the building, the neighbourhood team

are immediately confronted by a potentially dangerous hazard.

As you can see, these are all the power packs which are providing

the electricity for the lighting, heating, extraction units.

We don't know where it's running to,

we don't know if the place is booby-trapped.

Masses of electrical wiring, illegally rigged together to provide

a power source, are strewn across the ground

and dangled from the ceiling. Electrocution is a real risk.

It's a nightmare when it comes to our safety, really.

Which is quite frightening.

With the suspects awaiting transfer to custody,

the neighbourhood team now have to wait

for the arrival of the electricity board.

The location must be made safe before they can enter.

Only then can they confirm their suspicions about the property

housing a cannabis farm.

Smashing a major drugs ring

makes the headlines for the neighbourhood team,

but it's the work they do out and about on the streets

that makes the biggest difference.

There are over half a million homeless people

sleeping rough in the UK.

Since the credit crunch struck,

the number of people living on the streets in Hull has almost doubled.

You get a few people outside the station, like, "Can I borrow 50p?"

And if you have a bit of spare change, you give it to them,

help them out a bit.

Many of those without a roof over their heads

also have drug and alcohol problems to contend with.

I was mugged by a homeless person,

and that affected my confidence a real lot.

It wasn't a very nice experience for me.

There's a lot of people drinking outside hostels,

and there's a lot of people drinking around the corner from the hostels.

Homelessness is one of the most difficult and sensitive issues

the neighbourhood team find themselves confronted with.

Every night in Hull city centre, the police perform

checks on homeless people found sleeping around the city.

Tonight, Alison Carter and Raychel Delph

are walking the south side beat,

an area often frequented by rough sleepers.

Some of them are alcohol-dependent, some of them are drug-dependent,

so they've all got their own underlying issues.

They're there not just to enforce the law,

but offer help and advice about getting off the streets.

A lot of my job is liaising with the homeless,

making sure they're all right, and pointing them

in the right direction as to where they can get help from.

And it's not long before they come across their first charges

without a roof over their head.

Alison and Raychel listen to the homeless people's story,

and offer some help and support to get them off the street.

Trinity Church do a lovely breakfast club.

It's a really nice, friendly place to go,

they'll put you some breakfast on, every Sunday morning.

Alison believes that while it is a police officer's duty

to uphold the law,

it's also important to show care and compassion...

Will you try and make sure you think about the situation...

..when confronted by people who are facing genuine social problems

that have caused their lives to hit a low point.

We're not just there to deal with them

when they're doing things wrong, we're there to offer advice,

and once they realise that, they're more willing to communicate with us.

Come on, then, let's get a move on.

The two homeless people move on

in the direction of the shelter Raychel and Alison mentioned.

Whilst they may have the prospect of a warm bed and a meal

ahead of them, on the other side of town, Sergeant Steve Lamb

and PC Alan Cowley have come across another rough sleeper

who's camped out in the doorway

of a premises within the city's no-drinking zone.

Have you got any beer on you tonight?

The man is sleeping off what looks like a very heavy hangover.

Let's have a look.

-That was your first lie.

-BLEEP!

-Blooming heck.

Because he's in an area where no street drinking is allowed,

the police confiscate the bottles of beer he is nursing.

Seeing his drink running down the drain

isn't going down so well with the homeless man.

-You

-BLEEP!

-filthy dog.

-Don't swear. You'll get locked up in a minute.

I said filthy dogs, I wasn't swearing.

All right?

Recognising that the man is drunk,

they choose to overlook his abuse this time,

but they do issue him with a caution to warn him away from the area.

The first time, I swore.

21.19.

You record that.

If you return within 48 hours from tonight, you'll be arrested

-and placed in the cell and placed before the courts, OK?

-Right.

The man complied with the police and no further action was taken.

Working in close contact with drink and drugs counsellors

and accommodation charities,

the neighbourhood police always try and find ways to encourage

homeless people off the streets, and find a way to rebuild their lives.

Back over on the south side, Alison and Raychel

are making their nightly visit to a city centre homeless centre.

60% of homeless people remain on the streets for over two years,

which means there are plenty of familiar faces

for the neighbourhood team to say hello to.

-Evening, guys.

-Evening!

-Hello!

-Are you two guys new? I've not met you before.

-No, you haven't.

I'm Raychel. You'll see me most nights. These guys know me.

Open between 10pm and 7am, the shelter offers a bed,

a shower and a warm meal to those who need it.

But with over four years' experience as a neighbourhood office,

Alison knows there is more heartache and hardship for the homeless

than there are success stories of getting clean and off the streets.

I've seen it myself, and I've only been in the job four years,

but you start off with seeing one person on the streets

who's quite young with not many issues,

maybe fallen out with their family, to getting into drugs.

They're at that crossroads that they can either go down or pull themselves out.

Unfortunately, I've seen many of them that never get out,

and just go down a very slippery slope.

-Right, we'll take a walk down. See you later.

-Bye.

Despite the neighbourhood team's best efforts,

some people refuse to be helped.

Drink and drug abuse can lead to a feeling of helplessness

and isolation, but also see tempers flare when greeted by the police.

Don't be silly.

In the north of the city, a man carrying a mass of belongings

has been reported sleeping outside a church community centre.

PC Gareth Walker heads over to see if he can help.

Is he blocking your fire exit?

-Is there any problem with him blocking your fire exit?

-Well...

-Not ideal.

-He had his feet in front of it.

-It's not ideal, is it?

-No.

The church warden is concerned that the man may frighten elderly people

using the community centre, and has asked for him to be moved on

before the group finishes their meeting and files out.

I'll make sure there's somebody here, about quarter to nine time,

-all right?

-Right. Bye.

-Thank you.

Sadly, the homeless man can't see why he may be creating a problem.

She said they don't want you here,

and they don't want more of the people coming

that sleep here in the doorway.

It's a group of people that get quite intimidated,

as you can see from the lady's face.

-I'm going to get a phone, and I'm going to phone...

-OK.

Gareth explains to the man why he must leave,

but voices quickly get raised.

I'm telling you, at quarter to nine, we will be here,

-and if they want you moving, you will be removed.

-Well, good!

And also, and also, I'm going to make sure...

No neighbourhood officer wants to be seen to be

hard against the homeless, so the hope is the man will listen

to the church warden's concerns and move on.

But experience tells Gareth this may not be the case.

They don't want people coming out of there to be faced with

drunken yobs that are sat there doing whatever they do,

they urinate in the doorways, they defecate on the doorways

and drink and give general abuse.

It's not what anybody should put up with in the town,

and it won't be tolerated.

The neighbourhood policing team

will take whatever action it sees fit,

so I'll make sure there's a patrol at the church at quarter to nine

for when the people come out so they can feel safe when they're leaving.

Find out later if the homeless man decides to put up a fight

for what he thinks is his right to live on the streets.

-We've had a complaint, so you need to move.

-Complaint from who?

Still to come: A gang of delinquent youths attack a local takeaway.

So many kids walked in, and they start kicking one of the lads.

Full of it in there.

And the raid on a suspected cannabis factory sees the team

hit the jackpot.

Looking at hundreds of thousands of pounds, really.

The economic slump may be to blame for the rise in people

ending up on the streets, but it's not the cause of a nationwide rise

in teenage antisocial behaviour, and as we're about to find out,

when teenagers get out of control, the consequences can be devastating.

All around the UK,

antisocial behaviour caused by misbehaving kids is a major concern.

A young lad actually got beaten up on my front lawn.

About eight, nine kids surrounded him

and they were filming it on their phones.

One of them karate-kicked him in the chest.

There are quite a few old people that live on my estate, as well,

so it's not great when you've got kids running about

and causing disruptions and stuff.

I don't know, they think they own the place.

I don't know, maybe it's just how they've been brought up.

Community policing is always looking for long-term solutions

to trap troublemakers

and make sure residents feel safe on the streets where they live.

Over in Marfleet, the current initiative there

is spearheaded by the PCSO Samantha Gregory.

A local resident, Sam, has used her local knowledge of the area,

and those who live there, to try and keep the kids in check.

We've got workers going out late in the night

and they're trying to engage with the kids, as well.

Is there anything specific that they'd like to do to keep them

off the streets, basically, that's what our aim is.

Today, she has set up a cop shop.

It is a drop-in point for residents to get one-on-one time

with their local neighbourhood officers

and share concerns about problem behaviour where they live.

Do you want me to make some enquiries for you and see if I can

find out if they will do a one-to-one.

These drop-ins are held on a regular basis

and provide the neighbourhood team with crucial information

that they can use to tackle crime.

-Brilliant. Well, you know where I am if you need me.

-I do. Thank you.

The current worry is about gangs of youths hanging around

a local shopping promenade.

Loads and loads of kids on the estate riding bikes

and kicking footballs against doors and shutters.

There is a problem with the empty beer bottles, definitely.

Again I witnessed last night,

a group of boys known to everybody on the estate.

I know they're at school.

They don't hang around here, they hang around in the park,

pinching people's bins to set things alight.

As well as holding surgeries,

Sam gets to know the locals even better by being seen walking

her beat around the Great Field estate, home to over 5,000 families.

-Hiya. Are you all right?

-Yes, you?

-Yes, thank you.

It was an area traditionally beset by problem youths starting fights,

intimidating locals and causing widespread acts of vandalism.

Such instances of antisocial behaviour

have decreased by 25% in the past two years.

But there is still work to be done and no-one knows this more than Sid,

the owner of a local takeaway.

Hello! Are you all right?

Sid was recently the victim

of a violent crime carried out by a gang of local kids.

With unemployment amongst youths running at over 60%,

trouble is never far away and Sid's takeaway is on the frontline.

This was the worst. Everything has happened to me here.

All the windows have been broken.

I used to get windows broken every week.

My car has been broken, shops have been set on fire on occasion.

All sorts of things happened to me.

As part of improvements to the safety of his premises,

Sid was given a grant to kit out his place with a state of the art

CCTV camera setup and it paid dividends.

With every frame of the horrific attack captured in high definition.

Scenes of violence follow that may be disturbing to some people.

It was just a normal night for Sid and his staff

when a young man enters and orders food.

But another boy shiftily follows him into the takeaway.

Another youth then opens the door and starts hurling abuse

and asking for a fight.

Sid and his boys try to clear them out of the takeaway,

but the youths have other ideas and decide to start a punch-up.

Suddenly the shop is flooded by a mob of kids who initially

break up the fighting boys.

Sid and his son try to calm everyone down and ask them

to leave again.

It looks like the situation may have been diffused

but as Sid turns his back, another boy lunges in for a fight

and the situation inside the takeaway reaches flashpoint.

About seven, eight kids walked in

and they start kicking one of the lads.

I can't see somebody just getting beaten up in front of you

and you don't do anything.

We tried to separate... Me and my son came out, he is only 16.

He helps me over the weekends and suddenly one of the lads,

he hit him with a bottle and he fell on the floor.

Sid tries to call the police but his son is cowardly attacked

whilst trying to break up the fight,

smashed over the head with a bottle and sent crashing to the floor.

I was just trying to stop the fight.

We didn't know who was going to get bottled.

I was facing the opposite way.

I didn't see it.

I got hit and it knocked me unconscious. I was knocked out.

The violent youth who attacked Sammy then goes for Sid,

slashing him with a broken bottle.

The staff try to defend themselves with a hockey stick

but even this cannot protect them from the attack.

Sid and the staff eventually manage to chase the attackers

out of the shop.

But Sid is seriously hurt.

With a large gash to his head losing blood,

he staggers to the door, locking it, and then calling 999.

Despite Sid and his son needing seven stitches each to the head,

he has managed to remain positive,

in no small part due to the support provided by Sam

and the neighbourhood team.

These kids, there are a few idiots who do cause

problems around here and they are the only ones who need to be sorted.

The rest of the community is fine.

It was Sam's local knowledge and detective work,

which after viewing the CCTV, led to all the culprits being

rounded up within 24 hours of the attack.

They're basically a group that I recognise.

So I recognise him, I recognise him, I recognise him.

When you first watch it, you're trying to write names down

to just double check that you've got everything in place.

Luckily, I could identify the two suspects for the quite nasty

assault on Sid and his son, which then obviously lead to them

being arrested.

There is Sid's son. You see he got hit, whacked in the head by a bottle.

And then what happens is, he then comes back in and glasses Sid

and starts punching him,

then he comes in to have his little bit of dig.

The only reason I knew most of these kids' names

is because I've built a database up with myself.

Most of them obviously you've dealt with for low-level ASB,

you've stopped them in the street because they're playing football,

or you've stopped them because they've been throwing stones

at somebody's house, so obviously you get to know that person's face.

It is all about knowledge.

It is going out there and finding, chatting to people, talking to people.

Even after six years on the job, Sam is still shocked

by the violent attack she witnesses unfolding on the CCTV footage.

Over the years I have been here, it is the worst I have seen.

Being smacked over the head with a glass bottle is not a very

nice thing when all you're trying to do is run a business.

But Sam knows the fast action of the neighbourhood team

in rounding up the troublemakers, combined with

the shop's having such high quality CCTV, has sent a message

to those looking to cause problems in the future.

Touch wood, that was just a one-off incident and it never happens again.

The main culprit involved in the assault received a nine-month

suspended prison sentence for affray.

In addition, he has to serve 150 hours of community service

and a six-month curfew, meaning he cannot leave home after 7pm

until 7am the following morning.

Back over in Hull city centre,

the neighbourhood team have mounted a major operation to bust

a suspected cannabis farm

they believe to be housed in an industrial unit.

An early-morning raid on the property has seen

two Vietnamese man arrested on suspicion of cultivating cannabis.

The suspects are transferred to custody where a translator

will assist the police in questioning them.

But the property had been deemed too dangerous to search

because of the exposed electrical wires that ran through it.

The electricity board has been on site

and made safe the supply to the building,

meaning the neighbourhood team can now proceed with their search.

As the officers sweep through the building...

There is a room full of it in there.

..they are confronted by an astonishing sight.

There is another room there.

An indoor cannabis plantation.

Thousands of potted plants filling room after room.

A good, substantial haul. We could be looking at hundreds of thousands of pounds, really.

The jungle trail of leaves and the overpowering stench of the plants

leads the officers upstairs, where hundreds more are discovered.

Oh, my God.

I've just had a very, very quick count

and I'm estimating there's 300 plants in this room.

It's on an industrial scale, obviously.

It's for production, it's certainly not for somebody's personal use.

It's a proper organised business, possibly to fund illegal activities.

As the search continues, not only are many more plants found,

but also evidence of the appalling conditions the Vietnamese men

working there had been living in.

Basically, what you see here is the living quarters for guys

that we found inside the property.

And this is as basic as it can get.

They're sleeping on two or three duvets, they've got a laptop each.

And a box of noodles. And that is literally all they've got.

And these guys are what we call gardeners, really.

They're put in here by somebody else.

I have no doubt, when we get to the bottom of it,

they will turn out to be illegal immigrants.

In another room,

a further health hazard is uncovered in the form of highly toxic

chemical fertiliser, meant only for use on outdoor farmland.

The crop of cannabis was close to being ready for harvest,

meaning the raid happened just in time to prevent it hitting the street.

The plants, I would say, are very close to maturity.

They're flowering and they're giving off a smell,

the flowers are a little bit sticky, as well.

In my opinion, they're close to maturity and would be harvested soon.

Scene of crime officers arrive at the building

and start cataloguing the evidence to hand over to the prosecutors

so criminal proceedings can get underway.

What's happening now is basically scenes of crime have been down.

Everything's been photographed,

all the evidence side of it is all dealt with.

Now we're just getting ourselves kitted up

so we can start seizing some of the evidence that's here,

bagging it up, exhibiting everything and then once that's been done,

all the surplus stuff will be basically destroyed, really.

The neighbourhood team will now begin the mammoth task

of removing all the paraphernalia linked to the cannabis farm.

We've now counted and confirmed 207 plants in this room,

all of the same size.

Three of the plants have been seized

and exhibited, to go into the brown bag.

All the rest will be put in the clear plastic bags,

which will be sealed up and they'll be disposed of.

The bust has all the hallmarks of being a monumental haul

and it's a major coup for the neighbourhood team.

What we found, we think around about 2,800 cannabis plants,

which potentially could have a yield somewhere around £2 million.

There's a lot of money being made through these sorts of set-ups

and it's very much organised crime.

And their good work continues over at St Andrew's primary school.

If you keep this corner clear, we're going to put all the things in there,

all the compost against that wall here.

The team have selected items from the cannabis farm

that can be put to good use in the community.

The hardware used to grow the illegal plantations

found a new legal purpose through being donated to a community garden project housed at the school.

This is absolutely fantastic.

I've been watching from the school window over there,

all the different things that have been donated.

I've seen wood going in there,

which will be perfect to develop our raised beds.

And lots of compost.

Compost is always an expensive thing that we need to buy

and obviously essential to growing seeds.

And the plant pots that I've seen, as well,

there's lots of plant pots stacked high, which again

we can use as enterprise projects, the children can grow plants

and then we can sell them when we have community open days and our fairs.

By breaking up a major criminal enterprise,

not only have the neighbourhood team kept millions of pounds worth of drugs off the streets,

but they've also found a way to turn a crime into a community plus point,

something that lies at the very heart of community policing.

Well, the thing is, this wouldn't have got spotted so early

if it hadn't have been for a PCSO on this area.

That £2 million worth of cannabis would have been on the streets.

And we just hit it right, just before Christmas.

I do feel proud. I enjoy my job.

I'm just glad that it was found just before it went onto the streets.

The men arrested during the raid

were found guilty of farming cannabis and sentenced to 30 months in prison.

Since the raid, the neighbourhood team have launched a further

series of similar strikes that has seen nearly £4 million worth

of cannabis taken off the streets.

Smashing a major drugs ring makes the headlines for the neighbourhood team,

but it's the work they do out and about on the streets that makes the biggest difference.

Back over in Hull city centre, the neighbourhood team are keeping track

of the dozens of rough sleepers who find themselves facing a long,

cold night of sub-zero temperatures on the streets of the city.

Who are you, young man?

Earlier in the evening,

PC Gareth Walker asked a homeless man to move on from the grounds

of a church community centre after the church warden expressed concern

he might frighten elderly people using the facilities that evening.

She said that they don't want you here.

The neighbourhood team have returned to see

if the homeless man has packed up his things and gone, but on arriving

back at the community centre, the team can see the man is still there...

-Hello.

-..and determined not to move.

-Hello?

-What?

-Oh, hello, is that Malcolm?

-BLEEP.

Hey, what are you swearing at me for?

-We've had a complaint so you need to move.

-What are you on about?

-A complaint from who?

-From the people who own this building.

-Malcolm, listen to me.

-Don't even do it, mate, don't even touch me.

-I'm not going to touch you.

-I ain't committed an offence.

You asked me why we're here.

The team once again ask the man to pack up his belongings.

But the call for him to move falls on deaf ears.

-You've been asked to move by the people here.

-I'm not going anywhere.

In a bid to show the man that he must really leave

the grounds of the church, the team start gathering up his possessions.

What you are going to do is move from here.

Let people sleep.

But despite the police's softly, softly approach,

the man does not take kindly to his things being touched.

BLEEP.

As the man becomes increasingly hostile and aggressive,

and mindful that a stream of pensioners will soon be

arriving to use the community centre, the neighbourhood team

are now left with little option but to arrest him.

-You piece of

-BLEEP. All right. OK, you're under arrest for public order.

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

I knew this would happen. That's what I wanted. Thank you.

-It's good for me.

-Put your hands behind your back.

Thank you very much.

The man is taken into custody, where he can sleep off his hangover.

It's a sad end to a difficult situation.

And even when upholding the law,

the neighbourhood team always tries to find ways to show solidarity

and support to those facing a difficult time in their lives.

And over at the local YMCA, Sergeant Jim Main is doing just that.

I can see it forming.

Jim is taking part in a charity sleepout to raise money and awareness about homelessness.

Obviously tonight we're having a bit of a laugh building shelters, etc,

but there is a serious element to the young homeless.

We've chosen tonight to sleep out here,

there's many people across the region that haven't got that choice

and will still be sleeping out tomorrow night

when we're back at our houses, nice and warm.

And that's why we're doing it, it's to raise awareness and it's to raise the funds, as well.

-As Jim's makeshift home takes shape...

-Supplies.

..he can't wait to keep his legion of 8,000 tweeters updated as to his progress.

It's another example of neighbourhood police teams

embracing technology to spread the word of their work.

Online, on Twitter,

in the last ten minutes, we've had 35 tweets from people,

and loads of people re-tweeting, saying, are you going to sponsor me?

So hopefully we'll get a small sponsorship, as well.

At midnight, Jim takes to his shelter

and beds down for some sleep.

Here we are, inside the tent. I managed to get into a sleeping bag.

All in all, quite cosy. The cardboard is slightly damp.

Hopefully it might stay up for the rest of the night.

But his comparatively cosy start to the night doesn't last long.

As temperatures plummet, so do his spirits,

giving him a real taste of what it's like to be living rough.

4:30am.

Absolutely frozen.

Minus five.

The roof of the house has started caving in.

I think I'm going to have to get up to get a bit of circulation going.

And get slightly warmer.

Home comforts are now a distant memory as cold and tiredness kick in

just as they do for every homeless person in the UK, night after night.

At 7am, the sleepout is over,

giving Jim a chance to reflect on his gruelling night in a cardboard house under the stars.

I think the impact for me is that I'm packing up and I'm going home.

And tonight I'll be sleeping in a nice warm bed.

There's many others out there that haven't got that option,

and it's an eye opener for me, because I wouldn't like to be living on the streets, night after night.

The homeless man was charged with using threatening words and behaviour.

He was convicted in court

and after a day's detention was bound over to keep the peace.

Since the homelessness initiative began,

one in five rough sleepers has been helped off the streets of Hull,

making this another success story for the neighbourhood team.

So as you can see, the neighbourhood team's role

is as much about being seen to be part of the community

and sharing their concerns as it is about cutting crime.

Join us next time to find out

if they're winning the battle of hearts and minds.

Coming up next time:

The police take action against some tearaway teens.

Smell your breath.

-I'm asking you all to leave the city centre and not come back here tonight.

-All right.

The team raid a suspected drug dealer's den.

-Who do you think you are?

-BLEEP.

-Hey!

And could this family be the unwitting owner of a death row dog?

DOG BARKS

Come here, lad.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd