Episode 2 Neighbourhood Blues

The friendly, caring bobby pounding the beat

has always been the hallmark of British policing...

Fantastic. Pleasure's been all mine, my friend.

..and has even been immortalised on film

by the fictional Dixon Of Dock Green.

Good evening, all.

SIREN WAILS

Today's neighbourhood police teams continue that tradition,

but also tackle the root causes of crime head on,

by targeting known hotspots...

Unlucky.

..stamping down on antisocial behaviour...

I'm arresting you for a public order offence.

..and waging war on illegal drugs.

I can smell cannabis already.

In this new series of Neighbourhood Blues,

we follow the policemen and women of Somerset

as they continue their quest to make our streets a safer place.

Coming up...

..a stabbing rocks a seaside town.

If they've come back that way, they can get straight down and out.

Yeah, could be anywhere now.

Caught on camera, a brazen shoplifter.

At this moment in time, all right,

I'm arresting you on suspicion of shoplifting.

And one of the largest cannabis farms ever found in Somerset.

I probably haven't seen a haul like this for probably eight, nine years.

After years of falling,

figures for knife crime in England and Wales

are, worryingly, on the rise again.

Whilst the majority of knife incidents

occur in Britain's largest cities,

the recent rise in the numbers is affecting all parts of the country.

This is Weston-Super-Mare, a popular seaside resort in North Somerset.

A town that holiday-makers flock to,

to take in its traditional attractions,

like its beach donkeys, and the world-famous Grand Pier.

It's not the sort of place you would expect to have a knife problem.

We identified, quite early on,

a rise in knife crime in Weston-Super-Mare.

But it was very much in relation to the drug dealing that was going on.

It wasn't members of the public

walking down the street and being attacked.

We want to protect the public, we want to keep them safe,

so if people are carrying knives then we'll do something about it.

At Weston's main police station,

an emergency report has come in

of another stabbing in the town, in broad daylight.

A 21-year-old man has suffered a knife wound to his arm.

Witnesses have given a description of two males who ran from the scene.

20 minutes later, they've been spotted across town

by a police officer entering the Bourneville estate.

If you shut the road off for the time being then,

and then we'll work out where we're going to go from there.

Neighbourhood Sergeant Colin Batchelor is leading the hunt.

When were they last seen, going where?

And he's trying to put a ring of officers around the area

so the suspected knifemen can't escape.

But there's a problem.

We haven't get a containment on here, have we?

The suspects could easily have come this way

and jumped over the wall at the far end of the alleyway,

much to Colin's frustration.

I'm just trying to piece it all together, it's all...

If they've come back that way, they can get straight down and out.

Yeah, could be anywhere now.

Before deciding whether to call his troops off,

Colin follows up the story

with the officer who spotted the two suspects.

Katie?

They started running, they've looked behind,

and then I've chased them all the way down to here

as they've got to the corner. Where, where exactly?

That corner. That corner?

Coming down from Baildon Crescent. Right.

I was on that corner and I've lost them.

CCTV said they've gone straight into there.

Right. From here. Yes.

Ten seconds behind him.

This is the fourth Weston stabbing in a month,

so the cops are determined to catch those responsible

and put an end to the violence.

Whenever a knife is used, even if it's a minor incident,

the police will pursue those involved ruthlessly.

The whole estate is now under watch, from the ground and from up above.

Just waiting now, keeping containment on, and just seeing

whether or not anyone pops out of the undergrowth, really.

It's quite dense round here in terms of housing and foliage, etc.

And not an easy task for us to search.

Even before today,

Colin's neighbourhood team had stepped up their patrols

to reassure the estate's residents

that everything possible was being done to calm their fears.

This whole incident is part of an ongoing issue

that we've got here on the estate,

with a small minority causing misery

with their dealing, with their associated violent behaviour, etc.

Which, as I say, is a small part of a bigger picture, really.

It's been an hour since the two men

suspected of stabbing a 21-year-old were last seen.

They must either have found refuge in a house

or have slipped through the police's cordon.

RADIO: 'We're fairly happy that it's clear as best we can,

'there's no signs of anyone hiding.'

The helicopter's quite satisfied there's nobody

actually gone to ground or hiding in this immediate vicinity.

actually gone to ground or hiding in this immediate vicinity.

Of course, it brings out the members of the public as well.

Luckily today they're all remaining calm but, to be fair, I think

over the last few weeks, with the extra reassurance patrols,

with the visibility that we've been putting in to the estate,

they know why we're here.

And I think quietly they're probably quite glad that we are here.

Certainly on this street,

which tends to be one of the most problematic.

Colin has decided to call it a day and lift the cordon.

Chris!

But, just as he does, news comes in of a sighting.

ON RADIO:

Ooh, right, they're just over there then.

Two males matching the description of those suspected

of being involved in the stabbing were spotted getting into a taxi.

Before it could leave, cops who were still in the area boxed it in,

stopping the suspects from escaping.

They're both taken into custody.

It was a close-run thing.

As I came down, my colleague, Pete Aldridge,

was running towards that taxi. So I accelerated and cut the vehicle off.

Quite a bold move, just trying to get in a taxi. Very nonchalantly.

But in the end, yeah, we got them.

The arrest was a bolt from the blue for the taxi driver.

They actually sent me down the phone number

so I could ring the customer direct. Because the address was wrong,

on the screen, it doesn't go up to 142. I know.

Just got in the car and they went "Let's go, mate. Drive to town."

And literally as I engaged gear, this car pulled in front of me.

OK.

Colin's got some enquiries to do at the house the men came out of.

He's looking for any evidence

to help link them to the earlier stabbing.

But first he's arresting an old friend.

I'm innocent, I didn't do it.

You always say that, don't you? Get in the back of the car, come on.

You all right?

THEY CHUCKLE

Hiya, you all right? All right if we come in?

Yeah. Yeah?

Frighteningly,

the suspected knifemen ran into the house in desperation

and demanded the startled occupant call them a getaway taxi.

More officers and a dog will do a thorough search of the property

and its surroundings, in case

the uninvited men discarded anything before they left.

We've just got the dog here at the minute,

just searching to make sure that we've not missed anything, etc.

They've come from being spotted by the officers,

just over the fence over here.

They've come through the back gardens

and they've come over the wall into this gentleman's property.

He doesn't know them. They've burst in,

saying, "Can we stay here? Can we stay here?

"We're going to be stabbed, we're going to be stabbed," etc.

What with the helicopter up, police all round,

he's kind of worked out, "Hang on, this is not quite right."

He's asked them to leave, they've said, "Can you ring a taxi?"

Police car pulls up, boxes them in, and we've arrested the pair of them.

The 21-year-old who was stabbed in the arm

was treated overnight in hospital for his injuries.

There was ultimately no evidence in the case

against the suspected attackers,

so both were released without charge.

Despite the absence of any convictions,

Colin believes the response from his neighbourhood team

still sends out an encouraging message to the residents.

I think it's a real positive step,

I think it shows us being extremely active in the area.

And, again, reassurance -

there's not been any of the usual heckles or wind-ups, shall we say.

Cos a lot of them are tongue-in-cheek.

And I think they realise that we're here to support them

and take these people out of the community.

In recent years, the quality

and popularity of camera phones has increased massively.

Film shot by witnesses on their smartphones

is regularly featured on news programmes

and, increasingly, phone footage has become invaluable

as a source of evidence for the police.

In Bath's normally tranquil city centre,

a report is coming in of a very nasty assault.

The city's CCTV cameras

have picked up the suspect making his getaway,

and his description is being circulated over the radio.

ON RADIO:

Yeah, noted. Sorry, can you confirm from your cameras

whether 2791 is in attendance now?

The PCSOs' colleague is in attendance

and has apprehended the suspect.

Can I have a car to Lower Borough Walls, by the Lamb Lion, please?

The man is arrested and will be taken into custody

while the police investigate exactly what happened.

It's often down to the PCSOs like Howie Wilton

to gather evidence at the scene of a crime.

He's found a number of witnesses who saw what happened.

They say it was a vicious attack by the man on a woman with a baby.

Have you all witnessed it, then?

ALL: Yeah. Right.

All four of them sort of intervened, tried to stop it from happening,

one of them has rung us and, as a result, we've turned up.

Speaking to the witnesses, Howie's got a breakthrough.

The incident was filmed on someone's cameraphone.

A gentleman from a nearby store has actually managed to capture

the whole offence on his mobile phone.

So that's going to be first-hand evidence,

along with the statements we've got and any possible CCTV.

Excellent evidence for us to use.

Thank you. Is it the phone shop on the corner? Yeah? Lovely, thanks.

The assault took place right in the middle of this busy shopping area.

The store manager at this shop, Charles Parsons,

was alerted by the noise outside as the incident unfolded,

and started filming on his smartphone.

Get away from him!

CHILD CRIES

Let go of my son!

Let...

OFFICERS GASP

Crikey hell, that's dreadful, isn't it?

After sickeningly launching his head at the woman,

the man then aims a car baby seat at her.

We rely on members of the public

because quite often they can be our first-hand witnesses.

Sometimes, we couldn't put jobs together without them, basically.

The attack started just up at the pub,

and they argued all the way down the street

and the attack happened just outside the front of the bank here.

Never seen anything like it.

Charles has not only captured vital evidence,

he was also a have-a-go hero.

Charles is so incensed by what he's just seen

that he's not going to let the attacker get away.

You're on video. No, I'm sorry.

Luckily, the woman's injuries are not as bad as they could have been.

Are you all right? You can come and sit in my shop if you want to.

She had a lot of blood coming from her mouth, she was shaken up,

pretty scared, and the child was still crying as well.

Oi, keep hold of him!

'There's no excuse for it.'

I don't think he'll be around here again, to be honest.

It's a particularly nasty assault.

We've relied on members of the public to help us out

that have reacted very, very quickly.

Not only have they detained him or helped to detain him,

but they've also sort of managed to obtain

really good first-hand evidence which is indisputable.

So when that goes before the court, I'm sure that it'll be sort of a...

He'll be hung, drawn and quartered for it, basically.

Thanks to Charles' footage,

the cowardly attacker was successfully prosecuted.

He was sentenced to 16 weeks in prison,

suspended for a year and a half, and fined a total of ?665.

Whether it's an opportunist thief or a professional,

to make money out of shoplifting,

an outlet is needed for the stolen goods.

But bartering them into hard cash isn't as simple as it seems.

The high street pawn shops and money converters

are not quite the easy touch some people think they are.

They're certainly not easy.

The checks and tests that they would do

when you try and sort of sell an item,

a second-hand piece of equipment, are quite thorough.

You need identification, you need to prove the ownership is yours,

and you don't always get the money back straight away.

Bridgewater has a large and busy shopping centre,

where the neighbourhood police

work in partnership with local retailers,

and the town's CCTV network, to discourage shoplifters.

This morning, Jim Murray is patrolling in the area,

when he's approached by a man wearing a beanie hat

who's just witnessed a theft in a shop.

That is where he's shoplifted from, Wilkinson's, SD cards or something?

When was this? Just now? Just now, watched him do it.

The suspect is pointed out to Jim outside a store

where he's attempted to sell the items he was seen stealing

from nearby Wilko's.

Hello, mate. How you doing?

Is it you I need to speak to?

Have you just been in CeX, have you?

Yeah. Yeah? Yeah.

Have you taken something in there to sell? No, why?

Cos I think they said you took something in there to sell.

Only, er... Only, um.. What?

Er, video card.

All right, mate, just put your hands out in front of you a minute.

At this moment in time, I'm arresting you on suspicion of shoplifting.

Moments ago, the man was caught on the shop's CCTV system,

brazenly walking in and attempting to pass off

a handful of computer memory cards and sticks as his to sell.

Unknown to him, he was followed by the man in the beanie

all the way from Wilko's,

where he was seen stealing the cards and sticks.

He signs for the items and takes a receipt.

Importantly, no cash is given to him on the spot.

This is a safeguard for the shop.

They'll also make sure any times they buy

are not on any stolen property checklists

before handing over any money.

All right, mate. Just jump in there for me. All right.

Thanks, buddy.

Jim's not sure what the man may have stolen from Wilko's,

but, based on the vigilant shopper's evidence,

he's going to be questioned at the police station.

What you fiddling with?

All right, mate, just keep your hands out in front of you,

where I can see them, that's all, buddy. All right?

Shoplifting is one of the most common crimes,

and one which is very high on the neighbourhood police's

list of priorities.

It is a problem that we have to deal with on a daily basis.

It can lead on to bigger things, can't it?

He might be shoplifting this time but next time he might think

he can get more money doing a burglary,

or perhaps stealing somebody's wallet with a robbery.

All right, bud.

Jim's colleague, Ian, is here to sit beside the prisoner

on the journey to the nick -

Bridgewater's new multimillion-pound police facility,

where processing can be done in minutes.

Hello. Hi.

For the suspected offence of? Theft from shop and handling stolen goods.

Detention's authorised so we can obtain evidence by questioning you.

Also that we can secure and observe evidence,

get CCTV and statements from the persons at the store,

witnesses, in relation to the allegation.

Do you understand? Mm-hm.

Before being banged up, he's being searched.

Jim's found something.

Do you mind if I have a look at this?

It's the receipt for the memory sticks he was given at CeX.

With the receipt in hand...

Thank you very much. Cheers for that.

..Jim's next task is to head back to the shopping centre

to gather some more evidence.

And coming up later, he pieces together what actually happened

before he arrested the suspect.

Living next door to loud, rude and abusive neighbours

is an unremitting nightmare for a great many people.

And getting something done about the problem

can seem like an almost impossible task.

I think the police should get involved in all neighbourly disputes

because, if they get involved sooner, then it doesn't come down

to fisticuffs and everything else that it normally ends up with.

I've been a police officer for 27 years and I've dealt with

many neighbourhood disputes, and they are wide and varied.

And sometimes they are the most difficult disputes to deal with

because of the very nature of people living next door to each other.

But some just can't and that's when, as a last resort,

the police get called in.

They have experienced troubleshooters,

like Adge Secker from the neighbourhood police team,

to get to the bottom of disputes.

I think he thrives on them, actually.

But it is, it does take years of experience

to be able to resolve them.

This morning, Adge is in Bath to see a lady

who lives next door to a neighbour from hell.

He's been working on her case for a while

and is here to update her on his progress.

She is the victim of this antisocial behaviour

and she's quite keen to tell me, in some detail,

about what's been happening

and, more importantly, how it's affecting her life.

DOORBELL RINGS

Hi, Toni, it's Adge from the police. Oh, hello. Can I come in?

Yes, that's fine. Thanks very much.

This affects your quality of life, doesn't it?

Well, no... Well, of course it does,

cos I am actually sick to the back teeth.

The lady has a nine-year-old daughter

and they've both suffered from excessive noise

and other abuse from their next-door neighbour, day and night, for years.

I think it must have been about five or six in the morning,

and she was jumping and banging and running up and down,

I said, "I think it's unacceptable you're playing music this loud."

She said "Oh, come on then, bring it on."

Just got somebody who's quite vindictive and spiteful

and quite awful, really, and actually that is what I've

had to be living with since I don't know when.

I saw your neighbour earlier on today, actually. Right, OK.

She had an appointment with another agency.

It was here, at the local Probation Services office,

where Adge met the nightmare neighbour to issue her

with a formal written warning about her behaviour.

But she doesn't think she's done anything wrong.

She is in total denial of everything, frankly.

So all the allegations that have been made to her,

or made about her, by a number of different sources,

not just one individual, she totally denies them.

The warning was part of a brand-new Community Protection Notice,

a piece of legislation brought in

to help safeguard people's quality of life.

Now then, this is where you come into this process. Right.

And it's really, really important, OK?

Because you live here and I don't.

If she starts playing her music at stupid o'clock in the morning,

or whatever it may well be, and it's unacceptable,

I want you to ring us. Right, OK.

By doing that, then we should hopefully evidence that she

would breach the conditions that she's under, that she's signed.

We can then potentially go to the next stage,

which is then to issue her with a Community Protection Notice.

Right, OK. Right, so what's happened today is she's had this warning.

Warning, right. The next one is the actual notice itself,

it'll have exactly the same conditions.

If she breaches those again, then that becomes a criminal matter.

That's fine, because I was just thinking to myself

something needs to be done.

All right then, well, thank you very much. Cheers, Toni. Take care.

She's fed up to the eyeballs of the selfish, unwarranted,

unnecessary and unacceptable behaviour

of an individual that is seriously affecting her quality of life.

And why on earth should she put up with it?

So I'm going to do everything I can

to make sure that her and her daughter's life,

and everybody else for this matter, in this street here,

is made a little bit more bearable by challenging the behaviour

that has caused all of this trouble.

A day later, and the beleaguered woman

has already been in touch with Adge again.

Her neighbour has been out in the garden, shouting and swearing,

in violation of the warning she received.

Now, Adge is going to serve her

with the official Community Protection Notice.

If she breaks the terms of this,

she will be committing a criminal offence and will be arrested.

I wasn't expecting, less than 24 hours later,

to be now going to her house again

to issue her with a Community Protection Notice,

which is the next stage up.

It's disappointing

but, I have to confess, not particularly surprising.

The difference between this one and the one that I served on her

yesterday was this had Community Protection Notice - Warning.

So, it does what it says on the tin, you know. So she breached that.

HE KNOCKS LOUDLY

Think she heard that?

Carla, it's PC Secker, could you open the door for me?

LETTERBOX CLANKS

Could have sworn I heard something in there then.

HE SIGHS

So bloody frustrating, has to say.

Adge is convinced that the woman is inside

but, unable to get her to show her face, he goes next door.

Hello. Hello. Is she in?

I can hear the banging. That's me knocking on the door.

Oh, no, this was other banging that I could hear,

which is coming from that side.

But she is, she is in there.

Well, I'll keep banging on her door then.

Yeah, cos she was... Cos when I came in earlier,

I could hear her in there and I was just...

All right. I've got to do that statement from you anyway, OK?

Yeah, I know. So, two things - shut the door.

Second thing, get the kettle on, I'll be round shortly.

THEY LAUGH All right?

Right, Carla, I just need to speak to you, please.

But ignoring me and not answering the door

is making yourself look a bit silly.

So come and open the door, I know you're in there.

There's still no answer, so it's time to take a statement

and get a cup of tea instead.

I'm absolutely convinced

that when I was taking a statement from her,

I could hear some banging and noise coming from there,

so I'm sure that she's in there.

HE KNOCKS

It's a lost cause,

so Adge serves the paperwork through the letterbox instead.

This is a Community Protection Notice

and that is for you to stop your behaviour.

If you breach any of the conditions on here,

and it's very, very plain, similar to our meeting yesterday,

you commit a criminal offence, you will be arrested.

Carla, you've been warned, my love.

Later, Adge finally catches up with the elusive nightmare neighbour.

Stay away from me.

CCTV systems have come a long way

since they first became common in the 1980s.

Back then, the cameras,

with their grainy black and white pictures,

were mostly used as a deterrent.

Nowadays, with high definition,

they're a vital tool in identifying criminals.

Earlier, in Bridgewater,

thanks to a member of the public alerting the police

about someone trying to sell stolen items in CeX,

a suspected shoplifter was arrested

and taken to the police station for questioning.

Jim Murray now needs some hard evidence

to back up the witness's story and strengthen his case.

We could have got him coming out of the shopping centre.

Within a couple of minutes,

he could have hidden them somewhere and we'd never have found them.

So, yeah, they're invaluable, aren't they,

for assisting us with jobs like this?

Wilko's is a large nationwide chain store

and it has its own security department.

There are many different types of people who shoplift,

but they often share some basic characteristics.

Just people not behaving normally.

So not coming in, doing your shopping, leaving.

Coming in, wandering around and not really having a focus.

Jim's now able to see for the first time what happened.

The thief has chosen some small but high-value items to steal -

some 32-gigabyte memory sticks.

But he's discovered that they are all fitted with security tags,

which will set off the store's alarm if taken out of the exit,

and require special tools to remove.

Unaware of the CCTV cameras, he's not going to be beaten.

And, undeterred even by some other shoppers,

he goes off to find something to cut the security tags off with.

He looks for the tool department

and there decides on an expensive set of pliers for the job.

Still totally oblivious of the cameras pointing at him,

he gets out his newly-acquired pliers...

..and proceeds to cut the memory sticks' tags off...

..hiding the discarded tags and packaging as he goes,

while pocketing the valuable sticks.

He's then picked up, calmly walking out of the front doors.

Ten minutes later, after a short walk across town,

he saunters into CeX and tries to off-load his pickings.

This is the aisle the goods were taken from.

As you can see, these are all tagged. Yeah.

These are the ones I believe he's had. Right. 32 gig, tags.

So he's come here,

he's realised that he can't get the product easily,

so he's then scouted around the shop, he's gone to DIY. Got down...

He's using your... Used your tools to untag them, has he?

The pliers and the discarded tags have all been recovered.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Right.

Seven tags and one soft tag.

The neighbourhood police are continually grateful

for any help they get from the public.

Here, it was this alert shopper that first noticed the thief.

What he did next was extraordinary.

Having seen the man take the memory sticks,

he followed him across town to CeX

and warned the staff there about what he'd seen,

before running into Jim outside.

Yeah, today, the individual has stolen

in excess of ?100 worth of stock.

And, yeah, damaging, very damaging.

It's theft, it's taking away our employer's opportunities

to offer work to young people, to old people, to everyone.

It is a scourge of modern-day society.

People think it has no consequences, it does.

If they don't get the product, they'll destroy it trying to.

It is all money thrown in the wind.

So we'll take those back to the station,

we'll get them booked in, along with the statement,

and then we can hopefully put it all together

and interview the suspect, see what he's got to say about the matter.

Thanks very much, Andrew. No worries, thank you.

All right, I'll see you again. Appreciate your help. Take care.

The shoplifter was found guilty in court

of the theft of the USB sticks and memory cards from Wilko's

and fined a total of ?293.

Earlier, we saw neighbour dispute specialist Adge Secker

serve a new Community Protection Notice to a woman in Bath.

Carla, you've been warned, my love.

The woman has persistently been causing a nuisance to her neighbour

and had already been formally warned, which she ignored.

Failure to comply with the notice this time is an offence.

It's been a week since he posted the paperwork through her letterbox.

Today, Adge has returned to make sure she received it

and to get her signature to say she has read

and understands the conditions in it.

I'm going to go round the back first of all.

See if she's there, try and surprise her, I suppose.

Oh! Cool.

Oh, no, no... What you doing? Stay away from me.

What you got to film for?

All right, OK. Carla, come here, I just need you to sign this.

At last, Adge has found the woman

but she's still being evasive, as well as a bit camera-shy.

I am the police, you silly thing, come here a minute.

Carla, just sign this for me and I'll be gone.

That's interesting. That was Carla.

I think by... You saw her reaction there,

the type of person that I'm dealing with.

She's just refused to sign this form.

That's fine, she doesn't have to sign it at all.

So I'm going to put on here "refused to sign".

Apparently she's going to make a phone call to the police,

saying a policeman was following her.

Must be a Monday.

Two days later, a Wednesday, and Adge has discovered that the woman

has breached the conditions of her Community Protection Notice.

She has verbally attacked her neighbour

with a tirade of foul-mouthed abuse.

We've given her a chance. In fact, we've given her a couple of chances.

And she's completely and utterly stuck two fingers up at the system.

"Don't care about that, don't care about my neighbour."

Well, tough, she's going to have to care about it

because she's now going to come and see where I work for a living.

Now she'll be arrested. Adge calls the victim to let her know.

Toni, hi, it's Adge from the police station.

'Oh, hi, Adge.'

I've seen the statement.

I'm absolutely disgusted with that kind of behaviour

and more importantly language, so Carla is going to be arrested.

'OK, brilliant. Thank you, Adge.' Bye. 'Bye.'

Having a real negative impact on the quality of her life,

but also that of her nine-year-old daughter as well.

It's just not fair,

so for me to be able to take some real positive action,

and maybe change that situation for this lady...

that's a great thing to be able to achieve.

Adge can only hope the woman is at home

when he goes round there this time.

But he doesn't have to worry.

He's had a lucky break. She's walking on the pavement.

I've done nothing wrong, I phoned them up and...

Carla, Carla, listen, listen a minute.

He keeps coming round my house when I'm in the shower.

Right, so you're arrested

for breaching the Community Protection Notice.

You are all liars. You are all liars.

Get that man away from me.

Well, you've still got to come in the car. Get away from me, no way.

You are all BLEEP liars.

I don't think she likes me very much, there you are.

Good news, excellent. That is a great result.

At last, Adge can deliver some good news to the victim.

So, what's happening is...

Because the woman has breached the Community Protection Notice,

and is still denying the accusations,

her case will now be heard in court.

You are undoubtedly going to be called as a witness.

Well, of course, at the end of the day

I don't have a problem with that,

because I'm more than happy to stand up in court and say,

"Actually, this is what I heard her saying."

Well, hopefully, then the actions that we've taken then, with this...

Using this new legislation and everything else,

and getting her before a court...

As you say, that may be the catalyst,

you know, the beginning of the end, maybe.

Cheers, Toni. Thank you, take care.

When she appeared in court, the nightmare neighbour was taken ill.

In her absence, she was found guilty

of breaching her Community Protection Notice

by using abusive, intimidating and racial language.

She received a criminal record and the housing association evicted her.

Adge's persistence in this case shows that,

when people with nightmare neighbours

reach the end of their tether, something can be done.

Cannabis farming is big business for criminals,

and a big problem for the police.

The neighbourhood teams rely on local intelligence and tip-offs

to find the farms set up in people's houses.

But, increasingly, new technology is being used.

Thermal imaging cameras in helicopters and special heat guns

can see the intense heat radiated by the lamps used to grow the plants.

The obvious answer for the growers

is to find somewhere outdoors to cultivate their crop,

but there's still a major problem for them to overcome -

the smell.

Near Bridgewater, the hot weather has triggered an odd aroma,

which the neighbourhood team have been alerted to.

And it's not newly-mown fields.

Two people have called the smell in,

but were only able to give a rough location.

However, PCSO Dan Weller, using his nose,

has discovered the source of the pong.

Crossed over and then walked down through,

and followed the sort of embankment side if you like,

which is where we found it all hidden away.

What Dan has sniffed out with his colleague, Tex Freeman,

is a huge crop of thriving cannabis plants,

neatly hidden between a farmer's field and the A39.

Due to the location,

there's no public footpaths or anything like that,

directly on to a road, I think the thought process was

it's not going to be noticed by members of the public

and also the smell, with passing vehicles, maybe won't travel.

But clearly it did.

The plot has been expertly fashioned and disguised.

We think this is just a strip, a wasteland,

which they've sectioned off the bottom, covered it over,

as you see, with the dead branches, to stop it being seen from the road.

A crop this size has got a potential street value

of many thousands of pounds.

I probably haven't seen a haul like this for probably eight, nine years.

With a huge haul of marijuana to harvest,

Dan and Tex call up their neighbourhood colleagues

in Bridgewater to come and help.

Lovely, yes, all the equipment that we need to trim them

and bag them up.

The plan is now, we need to get three plants out

with the roots in, and some soil,

put that in one bag as the sample bag for testing

and then we need to basically pull all the others out,

cut off the roots, and then bag those up.

Yeah, if we take these ones, three of the bigger ones.

The plants will be tested to determine their yield.

Records of seized crops have been kept for the last 20 years,

during which time large increases in yield and potency have been noticed.

The rest of the bumper crop will be destroyed

by removing the roots before later being incinerated.

Yes, I love gardening. I don't think I'm Alan Titchmarsh by any means.

They certainly know how to grow the plants.

It's clear this is an extremely professional job.

Whoever was responsible

even installed a nutrient-rich irrigation system.

They've added all the fertiliser to the water

to obviously give the plants a helping hand.

So that when they water them, already treated with this

and try and speed up the growing process.

The latest member of the public phoned up and narrowed it down,

the search, so we were able to find it.

So you know, again, our eyes and ears a lot of the time

are the public and it just shows what can be achieved

when people do take the time to phone these things in.

Yeah, I like a bit of gardening,

but this is taking it to another level, isn't it, really?

I shall smell wonderful once the haul has been bagged up.

Yes, it's not a very nice smell, really,

but off the streets, that's the main thing.

The crop's been discovered just in time.

Another three weeks and the plants would have been fully mature

and ready to be sold on the streets.

Unfortunately, catching those responsible is very unlikely.

It's difficult to locate who's done this.

Enquiries will be made, as always, to see if we can follow up.

We've seized it so, either way, we've stopped it in its process.

We've stopped it from going on the streets, so it's a good result.

Hoo.

I'd love to see the face of the person when they come back.

Oh, you imagine that,

how good that will be when they come round here, thinking,

"Oh, I'll see how me cannabis is doing,

"maybe give it a bit of water."

Ooh, unlucky.

Altogether, the team have gathered up more than 200 cannabis plants.

203, get in.

It'll be interesting, I just can't wait for them to do their stuff

and find out what the value of it is.

Tex just has time to call the person

who originally phoned in with the information.

It's just to give you an update.

We've been out on foot, myself and a colleague,

and we've managed to find, there was a stash growing on wasteland,

which had all been properly prepared and grown, fenced off,

and we've recovered 203 plants.

So just wanted to thank you for your call, sir.

When the plants were tested at the labs for potential yield,

it was estimated the haul would have had a street value of up to ?85,000.

Those behind the operation were never found.

Having the public's trust and confidence

is a key element of neighbourhood policing,

and a great way to forge a positive relationship

is to go into local schools to teach children at an early age

all about crime and good citizenship.

We're very closely linked to the police and they talk

and tackle the issues that are quite current at the moment.

Things around the community where there's vandalism or things

that have happened, and also with everything there's an action

and a consequence as well, because that is life.

So, we're here together to try and make sure these kids go and succeed.

PCSO Kim Tanner, from the Bath neighbourhood policing team,

is here at a junior school in Twerton to give a talk about the law

to Year Six pupils.

It's a really important time in their year.

Obviously, they're 10 going on 11 and going off to secondary school.

Hopefully, they're not going to get in trouble with the police,

but if they do, how they'll be dealt with,

and the children talk to us about what they think is right and wrong.

Come on in and sit down.

Oh, you've sat right in front of me, aren't I lucky?

Class 6RM are also known as the Dolphins.

Good afternoon, Dolphins.

ALL: Good afternoon, PCSO Tanner.

What we're going to talk about

is something called crime and consequences.

It's anything to do with crime, OK,

and how that can affect the person that's committed that crime.

Kim's got some question and answer books

designed to test the children

on their knowledge of the most common laws and regulations.

It's about understanding the rules our society runs by

that we all have to abide by.

"How old must you be to buy alcohol legally

"from an off-licence or a pub?"

18.

18, do you think it's 18?

Do you know what we can do if we find young people with alcohol?

Sometimes we'll take them home to their parents

and we will also take that young person's details.

And that goes on to our system, but it tells us that that young person

is out and about in a public place,

drinking alcohol when they shouldn't be.

Understanding the difference between right and wrong

is vital for all children.

And lessons like these are invaluable.

It's about the bigger picture with young people,

it's how it can affect their families,

how it can affect their friendships with people.

And how word spreads, if someone's involved with criminal acts,

how it's going to affect them in the future.

You've all been brilliant today, OK,

and enjoy going off to your secondary schools in September.

And if you see me out and about, or Lou out and about in the summer,

say hello and wave, OK?

And come and have a chat with us.

I knew quite a bit. Not all of it, though.

They told me about some things that I didn't know.

It helps you in life, so you know what not to do and what to do.

I'd think twice before doing anything naughty or out of shape.

You've never even been in trouble, have you? Not much.

We've seen in today's programme how important it is for the police

to have the confidence of the public they serve.

Without it, neighbourhood policing

would quickly lose its effectiveness.

Until next time - evening, all.

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