Episode 6 Neighbourhood Blues

The friendly, caring bobby pounding the beat

has always been the hallmark of British policing.

Fantastic. The pleasure's been all mine, my friend.

And has even been immortalised on film

by the fictional Dixon Of Dock Green. Good evening, all.

Today's neighbourhood police teams continue that tradition.

But also tackle the root causes of crime head-on

by targeting known hot spots...

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 police men and women of Somerset, as they continue

their quest to make our streets a safer place.

Coming up...

storming a terraced house looking for a suspected drug dealer

who's making his neighbours' lives hell.

Police! Warrant!

You need to calm down. This is happening.

The confessions of a supermarket shoplifter

caught red-handed.

Man, my head's all over the place and I admit I'm guilty.

And on the hunt for the person behind a rash of Nazi hate mail.

If you're unlucky enough to live in a neighbourhood where there's drug

dealing going on, you'll be aware of the sorts of antisocial behaviour

it can cause.

The neighbourhood teams try to encourage people

who suspect dealers are in their street to come forward,

so the police can take swift action to shut them down.

At Bridgwater police station,

Rich Smith has called a team briefing to discuss plans for

an early-morning drugs raid.

First of all, thanks for coming today.

Reports have come in of a 17-year-old suspect who is believed

to have been dealing drugs from the garage of his family home.

So, Rich has secured a warrant to raid the property this morning.

For the last several months,

they've been stealing from the garage at the back.

They're in there for about two minutes and they're gone.

We're talking up to, say, 15...

up to, one evening, about 15, 20 people.

Complaints have also come in from the neighbours

about the strong smell of cannabis coming from the house,

as well as the continual flow of visitors.

Also getting complaints from other residents,

people complaining about all these boy racers' cars pulling up

in the middle of the road, just waiting there,

coming back two minutes later and driving off.

The intel is he is dealing from...

A lot of the stuff is from his bedroom.

The smell is mainly coming from the back,

so I'm believing his bedroom is at the back.

He has been doing it from the garage.

Briefing complete, it's time to hit the road.

It's on the left. It's about another 200 yards on the left-hand side.

On arrival, there's no time to lose.

Police! Warrant! Police!

We're conducting a Section 23 Misuse of Drugs Act

warrant on this address.

I believe you're dealing drugs.

All right? We'll be searching the house,

outbuildings, vehicles etc, OK?

Rich's ploy to hit the house early has paid off.

The suspect was asleep in bed until being rudely awoken by the cops.

Can I put some clothes on, please?

Yeah, in a second, in a second. Just listen to me a minute.

At the minute, OK, you have to do what I say, all right?

Can put my clothes on, please? Yeah, just give me a second.

Got to make sure you've got nothing in your pockets, that's all.

WOMAN SHOUTS

Other members of the suspect's family

have also been surprised by the raid.

I've got a female colleague here and they will take over from me.

You need to calm down. This is happening.

It is upsetting. I realise that.

Downstairs, the young suspect's mother and her partner

are being questioned.

Relation? Mother.

Nobody's been injured. It's all gone safely.

We've not had to force entry, so all good so far.

The team get cracking,

searching for evidence over and under kitchen units

and up in the loft.

I always find the best place is normally around the hatch, because

people are lazy, aren't they?

They just want to, sort of, nip up the hatch,

maybe under the insulation or the boarding around the hatch.

That tends to be the best place.

It's now over to sniffer dog Buddy to cast his expert eye

and nose over the place.

And it's not long before he makes a discovery

in the bedroom of the lad's mother and her partner.

Good boy, Bud. He's indicating on that.

That was what came out of the pillow.

A little bit of cannabis.

Happy chappy. Good boy. Well done, Bud!

More has been found downstairs.

This was located in the living room

and it's a bag containing vegetable matter,

more than likely cannabis, yes.

So far, the police have only found evidence of possession, not dealing

and it's the young suspect's mother and her partner

the small quantity of cannabis belongs to.

Because they've admitted the offence,

they can be issued a cannabis warning, which means they don't

all have to be taken into custody, clogging up custody.

It's not a criminal conviction, but it means it's on their record.

If you could sign there, please?

Buddy now heads out to the garage

to search for any more drugs or evidence of dealing.

Wait.

Good boy.

OK. You're interested in that.

Good boy.

You don't have to have a super-sensitive nose like Buddy's

to be able to notice the unmistakable stench of cannabis.

There might have been something in there once before, Buddy, mightn't there?

Oh, that stinks.

Hang on.

There was something in here, mate.

Even though nothing has been found in the garage today,

it's evident that a considerable amount of cannabis

was probably stored here in the past.

Back in the house, good news.

A large stash has been found.

The team have got the result they were hoping for.

There appears to be some cannabis

and some cash, which was found underneath the bed.

I'll caution you now. You do not have to say anything,

but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned

something you later rely on in court.

Anything you do say may be given in evidence.

Just arrested one of the occupants on suspicion of possession

of a controlled drug with intent to supply, it's cannabis.

The teenage suspected dealer is taken away to be processed.

After he appeared in court, the teenager was found guilty

of possession with intent to supply cannabis

and was fined a total of ?235.

Whilst we've been at this address,

neighbours have approached us and they are really,

really pleased with our response.

They said it has been so busy for a long time and the information

provided to us, we've responded to and we got one in custody.

Bath is known as a city of literature and culture

and provides inspiration for writers and artists the world over.

But a number of art spaces and galleries have been experiencing

a very different type of creative expression,

in the form of disturbing hate mail

being posted through their doors and letterboxes.

It's caused such alarm to the recipients

that the police have been called in.

Neighbourhood officer Rob MacGyver is visiting one of the gallery

owners who received the leaflets,

in order to track down the person that sent them.

We are a bit worried, because we do have staff members working

here alone sometimes and sometimes after dark.

And obviously, although there are other shops around,

we wouldn't want it to escalate, so we are quite worried, really. OK.

The person responsible appears to be equating the galleries to Nazis,

claiming they are cultural fascists

for ignoring lesser-known artists like him.

If your staff are here and they're at all concerned about him

being outside, just tell them, ring 999.

OK? Not to be worried about that.

Whoever posted the threatening leaflets appears to have left

a vital clue on them. They have been written on the back of flyers

advertising the work of one particular artist

and Emma thinks she remembers who it is.

He is an artist who we had said no to in our submissions procedure.

Now the man is hellbent on getting his revenge on all

the art institutions that slighted him.

This really angry person, who is targeting you, you think, I mean,

it could escalate to anything, really, couldn't it?

Kind of think, well, it could've been a brick through the window,

maybe, or... You don't really know, because you don't know who

you're dealing with. Nobody really wants to be compared to a Nazi.

The question now is,

are the leaflets actually the work of the artist named on the flyer?

Rob and colleague Kayleigh head to the artist's home to find out

and what his potential involvement in the abuse is.

HE KNOCKS ON DOOR

Hello.

Hello, there. Can I come and have a chat for a minute?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you.

Have I dragged you out of bed?

Oh, sorry about that.

Rob needs to search the flat for evidence linking the suspect to the

leaflets, but before he can do that, he will have to arrest him.

A number of art galleries in Bath have reported to me that they've

received malicious communications.

Abusive and insulting.

OK? Posted through their doors.

Do you understand what's going on?

Yeah, of course I do, of course I do. Cool. OK.

I'm going to need to arrest you, OK?

Because I've got to question you about what has gone on

and also I need to do a search.

Because of what I've just said, I'm arresting you for

sending malicious communications, OK?

It's becoming apparent Rob has got the right man.

He's not hiding the fact

that he has an axe to grind with the art establishment.

I've been working as an artist for 35 years

and not made any money whatsoever, because of the gallery system.

OK. You seem to know what I'm talking about.

I approached these people and they've turned me...

They bring their boot down on every damn thing that I've done.

Look, I've got all this artwork here and they refuse to have it.

There's more innovations in this room than any other artist has...

put into an exhibition in the history of European art.

This is a new concept in vases.

Vases have been... With fixed colour areas on them.

Virtually since the beginning of pottery.

This adds a new dimension to what a vase is.

This adds a new dimension to what a piece of sculpture is,

you can interact with it and change it.

Maybe it's more Bath that's the problem.

I'm sure if you're in Shoreditch or Hoxton,

somewhere like that, they'd love it.

Art and struggle often walk hand in hand.

It appears, in this case, the artist blames Bath's art galleries for his

lack of commercial success.

I've had five exhibitions in this town and sold absolutely nothing.

It's been ongoing repression, suppression for 35 years.

I know you're wound up and I know that, you know,

there's probably a lot of background to this, but if you sort of hold on

to that for the moment and we'll talk about it properly in interview.

The man isn't denying he wrote the abusive leaflets.

However, Rob's search for evidence to prove he penned them

is still crucial.

I'm looking for the flyers and I'm also looking for

samples of your handwriting, OK?

These are the ones here.

I'll take that one.

Now, I need some samples of your handwriting, OK?

To compare to what's written on the notes I've got.

I think you can take this.

Yeah, take that.

All right, lovely.

Armed with the evidence he needs,

Rob's next task is to question the suspect at the station.

And so I'm going to try and deal with you as quick as I can, but...

these things sometimes... Well, I'm not exactly Jack the Ripper, am I?

No, you're not.

I think there was a lingering sort of worry with the victims of the

galleries that they were going to get more trouble and they were going

to get more of the leaflets and it might escalate.

So it was great, cos I found stuff in the property which matches up

with the notes,

so hopefully it should make it fairly easy to deal with.

Senders of hate mail usually do it anonymously.

In this case, the man doesn't appear to care or realise the seriousness

of what he's done.

In interview, Rob is determined to make him aware of the impact

his leaflets have had on the recipients.

Does that look like one of your flyers?

Sure, yeah, yeah. OK. That's me, yeah, yeah.

But the other side on it said, "For the proprietor,

"Bath contemporary display space for all art on all artists.

"Do it or BLEEP off."

Have a look at that. Confirm for me that that's your writing.

I don't know quite what I meant by that.

Hm.

But that's your writing, yeah?

Presumably, yeah. Presumably.

When you say presumably... I think it is, yeah.

OK. This is just a piece of paper.

It's not written on a flyer, OK?

The front of it says, "Close your shop, you are a parasite."

Have a look at that.

Yeah, yeah, that's true. That's what I said, yeah. All right.

If you were running an art gallery,

do you think you might find that a bit intimidating?

Well, I mean, I'm not threatening him, I'm just saying BLEEP,

do you know what I mean?

Somebody says something to me in the street

and that's not intimidating, is it? OK.

To use your example, what sometimes immediately follows that?

Well, they might hit you. They might hit you.

Fair enough. So, sometimes when you say stuff,

it may result in a violent reaction.

Perhaps more disturbing than the language,

the man's drawn a crude swastika on the leaflet, a symbol of hate.

It's got a swastika at the top and a "C-F".

And it says, "This ought to be your new logo.

"CF equals cultural fascism."

The Nazi swastika is a pretty negative thing, to say the least.

It's a bit strong, putting that through someone's door, isn't it?

Well, it's designed to startle them

awake to what they're doing, you know?

Somebody Jewish would be deeply offended by that.

I'm sure they would, I'm sure they would. But he's not.

I don't think he is. All right. Well, to be honest, you don't have

to be Jewish to be offended by that, do you?

Would you be surprised if somebody was offended by having that

put through their door? No, no, I wouldn't be surprised.

If somebody put a swastika through my door, even me as a policeman

who's, I suppose, a little bit more robust than other people,

I'm going to remember that for a long time.

It's a bit hard edge. HE CHUCKLES

What do you mean? Well, it's a bit strong.

I do admit that he could be very upset by that.

OK.

Now the artist has made a full admission,

Rob issues him with a formal warning which will stay on his record

and it seems he's appreciating the bigger picture.

This is the last time I'm going to try and do it, yeah.

I'm not going to do it again.

Rob lets Emma, the gallery owner,

know the outcome of the investigation.

Come and sit down. Yeah, great, thanks.

He fully admitted what he'd done, OK?

I don't think he fully appreciated the effect that it was having.

OK. He's been given a criminal caution.

OK. An adult caution.

Sure. OK. That is, in effect, an official warning. Right.

It's not quite a criminal record. No.

It's a step before that and he knows that if he does something again,

he will get arrested and he will end up going to court.

Right. OK.

It's a very satisfactory conclusion for all the gallery owners and

Emma in particular.

I wasn't sure that he would, or the police would take it seriously,

so it's really nice that they did take it seriously and that they've

done something about it and then we've actually seen a result and now

we won't be getting any more letters.

Coming up - a shoplifter caught in the act.

I'm arresting you on suspicion of theft, shoplifting, OK?

And hordes of bikers hit the beach.

Their belief is that they can't get caught

because the number plate is at the back.

All I do is turn it round and follow them.

This is Weston-Super-Mare,

one of the largest seaside resort towns in the West Country.

In the summer, it's flooded with tourists,

holiday-makers and families,

all making the most of its miles of sandy beaches

and its world-famous pier.

Popping into the local post office to send a postcard home shouldn't be

a risky business. But today,

a report has come in of some threatening behaviour there.

Wayne Hughes and accompanying PCSO Kate

are dispatched to the post office in the heart of Weston.

There's been a dispute earlier on today

and we are now going to see the manager of the post office,

about what's gone on and see what we can do for him.

The dispute was between the postmaster and an irate man who came

into the post office earlier this afternoon

and verbally threatened him.

I've been behind the counter.

He said, "Oi, you, come here."

So I've gone to see him, you know, try and see what the problem is.

He said, "Just you be careful who you're threatening.

"We're going to get you." Right. OK.

So, I said, "How dare you come into my post office and threaten me?"

So, I followed him out and I said, "You, come here.

"You tell me what you're saying here."

He said, "You just be careful. We'll come after you."

Before he left, I said, "Well, who do you mean?

"I haven't threatened anyone." He said, "She used to work here."

You know, "Leave her alone."

The threats didn't stop at the post office.

Do you want to see the text he sent me, as well?

You received a text? I got a text, as well.

The angry man backed up his verbal threats to the postmaster

with another made in a text, which, rather foolishly,

has given away his phone number.

As well as the phone number, Wayne's got another helpful lead -

the shop CCTV.

Can we have a look at the CCTV, if we can? Yeah. Ready to go.

I've got it all ready to rock.

That's him there now.

The brown shirt? Yeah.

So, where he's threatening you, then inside post office...

It's by the sweets, but my other staff saw him.

Right. Do we have that on the screen?

No. We don't actually have the threats on the...? No.

But the CCTV does show the moment the enraged man threatened

to head-butt the postmaster outside on the pavement.

He went like that. Yeah. And I said, "Right, you're on CCTV.

"This is all being recorded."

So he said, "Don't care, don't care," and he got into his car.

This aggressive response over a former worker

has clearly had an effect on the postmaster.

I won't be intimidated by people coming to my post office threatening me.

Don't get me wrong, I'm used to dealing with difficult customers,

but I did feel intimidated this morning.

Yeah, well, you would do, wouldn't you? That's understandable.

The CCTV camera outside the post office has also caught the moment

the suspect is seen getting into a maroon-coloured car.

Fortunately, the quick-witted postmaster took a note of its reg.

Do you want the registration?

If you could, yeah. OK.

Wayne now needs to trace the owner of the vehicle through its numberplate.

Can you do me a P and C check, please?

Burgundy Ford Focus.

The registered keeper, what was the surname, please?

Tracing the car is crucial as it could lead directly to the suspect.

The postmaster has been threatened by a member of the public whose

identity we don't know at the moment.

We're going to make some enquiries now with the registered keeper and

find out what he was doing threatening the postmaster.

After running several checks, Wayne hits the jackpot.

The car is registered to someone locally.

He heads to the address,

determined to get to the bottom of the man's threatening behaviour.

There's two sides to every story and we've heard the one side.

We're now going to, hopefully, get the second side of the story.

Bingo! There's the car in the drive.

Wayne has found the suspect's maroon car.

So, we're going to shortly make the enquiry.

Hello. But Wayne is met with stony silence...

Hello, it's the police. ..despite the front door being unlocked.

There's no-one in there?

At the moment, we've come to the address

looking to speak to the registered keeper.

As you can see, the house is insecure,

but nobody wants to answer the door.

Wayne persists for five more minutes,

convinced that someone's home.

And, finally, he gets a response.

Hello. Hello.

People are in the house.

The woman inside tells Wayne that, apart from the dog,

she is alone in the house

and that her partner, another Wayne, is out.

Are you happy for me just to look around

to make sure that Wayne isn't here? I'm not disbelieving you.

Do you want to come with me? I'll just have a look in the bedrooms.

Wayne searches the house, but there's no sign of the suspect.

The woman reveals that she was a passenger

in the car at the post office.

Basically what we're dealing with today is the threats that

your partner Wayne made to the postmaster. All right?

Which is out of order. I'm not saying that you do know them.

Right, OK. What's it all about?

The woman is not involved,

but her partner turns out to be a friend of the ex-employee.

There's been an inference used. Yeah.

Is it Wayne, your partner?

Yeah. Wayne was talking about BLEEP.

And the postmaster mentioned BLEEP.

I do need to speak to Wayne.

I would like to speak to him sooner rather than later, really. OK.

We've now established that there's a link between an ex-employee of

the post office and the gentleman that we're looking for.

It would appear that he's gone to the post office this morning

to intimidate the postmaster.

Because if we don't nip it in the bud,

then it is likely to go on and get worse.

It's a priority for us to bring this gentleman to justice.

With the man still missing,

Wayne has his work cut out to find him quickly.

We'll return to the search later on in the programme.

There are lots of qualities that make

a really good neighbourhood copper.

Being able to catch the bad guys and keeping the streets safe are amongst

them, but so is being a friendly face to those in need of help.

Bridgwater is a quaint market town in Somerset that dates back to the

Doomsday Book.

Local copper Dom Bryant is very proud of the beat that he serves

and takes his role as neighbourhood officer very seriously.

Mate, you shouldn't be cycling on the pavement.

Sorry? No cycling on the pavement.

But... That's right, you push it and then cycle down there, yeah?

Fair enough, isn't it? Thanks, mate. Cheers, bud.

Not all about cops and robbers.

A lot of it is just helping people.

We're here to help people.

That's our main job. We're not here to arrest people and

chase people with our whistles and batons. We are here to...

keep them on the straight and narrow, and if they need help,

point them in the right direction.

Bridgwater has its fair share of antisocial behaviour,

something Dom is committed to stamping out.

He's received word that two men have been seen drinking alcohol in the

town centre and he's straight on the case.

It's two regulars, anyway.

Two regular customers in the town.

What's up, guys?

How goes it? Everything cool? Yeah.

No drinking, bud, I'm afraid.

Do you want to finish your can now?

Well done. Thank you very much.

Lovely. Right, I'll leave you to it.

Thanks, see you later.

Another part of Dom's job is mentoring PCSO Billy,

passing on the wisdom he's built up over many years on this patch.

Billy is fresh out of the box.

He has just been... Finished his probational period.

He's been appointed to me.

I was very keen to have someone in the town to work with me

and I've worked with Billy before as a special constable,

and he's very keen and proactive and he's ideal for the town,

so he's been put on the same shift pattern as myself,

so there's TWO in the town.

Today, Dom and Billy are checking out a local church,

where a number of unwelcome visitors

have been reported hanging around in recent weeks.

Go ahead.

OK.

Up ahead, Billy has nabbed a suspect in the churchyard,

who he believes has been up to no good.

Unfortunately, even though it's a churchyard and a house of God,

it's frequented by drug offenders.

Billy, who I'm training up, was on him like a panther, which is great.

All right, Bill? Yeah, not bad.

What's happening? Just caught this gentleman napping.

Napping? Yeah. OK.

We've sort of decided to target this area on different days,

at different times of day,

and I noticed this male sitting on the bench, really.

I assumed he was asleep.

He had his, sort of, head tucked between his legs.

The moment I made myself aware to him,

he sort of scarpered up really and started packing everything

into his bag, which is obviously suspicious.

Billy is getting an important lesson in Dom's no-nonsense approach.

Is this all yours, mate?

No, it's not. Because you are in an area frequented by drug abuse

and drug offenders, I'm not suggesting for one minute

this is you or your mess,

but with that, I'm going to conduct a drug search, OK?

Yeah. So, first of all, have you got anything in your pockets

you shouldn't have? I've got a legal high smokes. That's it. Right.

Do you want to empty all your pockets out, first of all?

Just put them on the... Maybe on that gravestone.

The man isn't found to have any illegal drugs on his person,

but Dom still takes exception to his blatant disregard for his location.

I'd really appreciate it if you didn't choose a churchyard to smoke

your legal highs. Fair enough. Is that fair enough? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Thanks, mate. Thank you. All right, bud.

So-called legal highs may not be against the law,

but there's plenty of evidence

of illegal drug use here scattered around.

This is what they get up to in the churchyard.

There's distilled water here.

Also used to mix in syringes.

There's spoons.

And these things here, which they call spoons, as well.

It's for heating. Taking heroin.

Uncapped pin.

There's no pin in it, thank goodness.

But what we'll do, we'll get rid of that.

I don't want to leave that here.

I've spoken to the council operative about it

and they're going to come down here and clear it up,

but I can get rid of that pin myself, put it in a sharp box.

Dom is passionate about making Bridgwater a safe neighbourhood

and it's a message he is clearly passing on to his rookie.

It's ideal to be on foot, really,

so you can sort of walk those alleyways and walk behind houses

and, obviously, in the bushes here in the churchyard.

If I'm on foot, obviously people can stop and speak to me.

If I'm in a car, they have to try and flag me down and then I've

already passed them, really, so there is a good bit of presence,

really, the members of the public love it.

They love coming up and having a chat with you.

Foot patrols are really important to the public.

They give them reassurance

and show that the police are somehow doing their job.

A short walk from the church and Dom and Billy are back

in the town centre when a call comes in on the radio.

Yeah, go ahead.

A shoplifter has been caught by store security

in a local supermarket.

OK, I'll make my way.

Latest annual figures put the losses to the retail industry from

shoplifting at ?613 million, an all-time high.

Shoplifting is a no. I think shoplifting's completely wrong.

For some people, it's probably a means to an end,

if they're that hard up, to survive.

I don't think it's ever justified.

Shoplifting is becoming an all too regular occurrence on Dom's patch.

Sometimes they just haven't got any money.

Living life on the poverty line.

It's normally fuelled by something, but now and again,

it's just generally people haven't got the money.

The suspect has already been detained and Dom and Billy

are brought up to speed by the security guards.

What's happened, then? Selected those headphones off the shelf.

Right. Concealed in a bag.

Up from the aisle, down, straight through the exit and out the door.

OK. What are they valued at? So, ?17, yeah?

The suspect knows that all the evidence has him bang to rights.

I walked out of this shop with that pair of headphones

like a ... idiot and, man, my head's all over the place

and I admit I'm guilty.

I've lots of issues. I have no excuse.

Arrest me. I'm guilty.

Well, let's just... One step at a time.

Person check, please.

Any previous for shoplifting, please?

Roger that. Thank you.

It becomes apparent that the suspect is a serial offender.

Dom has a choice - to take him straight down the station now,

or to call him in at a later date to charge him,

a process known as street bailing.

James, I'm arresting you

on suspicion of theft - shoplifting, OK?

Now, the reasons for your arrest are that security here have witnessed

you enter the store, selected Sony headphones to the value of ?17.

You have placed these, secreted it headphones in your bag,

making no attempt to pay and you've left the store.

However, I'm going to grant you bail, street bail,

to attend Bridgwater police station nine o'clock on Monday.

Yeah. This Monday? Yeah. I'll be there.

We'll go in and it'll be you and I having a brief chat.

The man is suspected of stealing some headphones,

yet he's claiming he did it because he can't afford to eat.

Where do you turn at six o'clock?

When no-one else will help you, mate.

I'm sorry. It's not exactly an excuse.

I can't even get a food voucher.

How bad's that? Can't even get...

Having street bailed the suspect,

he is now allowed to leave and Dom can get back on patrol.

If I had taken him back to custody, that would have been myself

and Billy written off for the whole of the rest of the shift.

So, on Monday, I'll have the statement.

My interview plan will be done. I can pick him up.

Straight into interview.

20 minutes. Charging decision to be made and I'll give him a lift home.

Simple as that. So, I'm back out on the street,

which is where I'm supposed to be.

But before getting back to his beat, Dom shows his humanity.

A meal deal for the hungry suspect paid for out of his own pocket.

This is not me being a rozzer, mate.

That's for you. One man to another, all right?

Just a bit of tucker. All right?

Yeah, nice one. All right, dude.

So, Monday, 8.45.

No sweat. Definitely, all right?

All right, my man. You too.

Yeah. Cheers, James. Cheers, bud. See you later, mate.

Dom may have given the suspected shoplifter a meal,

but he's not going all soft on him, as we'll see later.

CCTV has captured it. He's been apprehended outside.

He's been detained. The goods have been recovered on his person.

Back in Weston-Super-Mare...

Hello, it's the police.

..Wayne Hughes is still on the hunt.

There's no-one in there?

For a suspect who, earlier this morning, threatened a postmaster

in his own post office.

You have to stand up to these people.

You have to know the police will be with you when this happens.

Otherwise, you know,

it just breaks down that whole fabric of the community.

Meanwhile, Wayne has decided to revisit the suspect's home.

He hopes that, this time, the man will be in.

Just in case, Wayne radios for backup.

Initially, he wasn't there. I'm single-crewed at the moment,

but I was just looking for an officer, or officers, to accompany

me to do the arrest attempt again, back at the home address.

With back-up en route,

Wayne makes his way to the man's address for the second time today.

This time, the team are in luck.

Hello. Hello, how are you? Are you Wayne? Yes, I am.

Can I come in and have a word, Wayne? The suspect is home.

All right?

It's now 1.33.

I'm arresting you, OK?

And the grounds for the arrest are that you've gone to the post office

this morning, in Weston. You've threatened the postmaster.

All right? And there's a likelihood that that may reoccur, OK?

Also, to carry out a prompt and effective investigation,

that means that we're going to have to interview you

about the alleged offence.

Wayne's patience has paid off and the suspect is arrested before being

handcuffed and transported to the police station for questioning.

Thanks, folks.

Wayne returns to the post office

to update the victim on the day's events.

We couldn't find him, we went back

to the home of the partner, where he was.

He's now been arrested, he's now in custody. Really?

Wayne's handling of the situation has got a swift result.

Hopefully with the speed that we've acted this morning,

the victim and members of the general public

will have some reassurance.

They've been absolutely first class.

They've dealt with the incident amazingly quickly and appear to

have been able to achieve some resolution very quickly,

which I'm very impressed with.

When he appeared in court, the man pleaded guilty to using threatening

and abusive language towards the postmaster.

He was given a six-month deferred sentence.

What's happening?

A few days ago, a shoplifter was apprehended by security in a large

town centre supermarket, and the officer attending, Dom Bryant,

street bailed him at the scene.

James, I am arresting you on suspicion of theft, shoplifting, OK?

However, I'm going to grant you street bail to attend

Bridgwater police station, nine o'clock on Monday.

It's now Monday and the suspect has turned up on time at the station.

Whilst he gets booked in and all his details are checked,

Dom is reviewing the CCTV evidence from the supermarket.

Took that up in custody, today.

So, I'm just doing the CCTV footage of the actual incident,

which is actually - I'm glad to say - pretty good

and it's captured everything.

So, this first bit is our man in the aisle, where the headphones are.

At the moment, he's just browsing, if you like.

I should imagine he's looking for a security tag,

something that's not going to set the alarm off.

Looking at all the electrical items,

but he's got his eye on headphones, in particular.

There he goes.

Having a look around.

There it goes. Straight into his bag.

Everything is in place for Dom to get an excellent result.

This is textbook for police, because the guy's come into the store,

the store detective has picked him up. He's witnessed the theft,

CCTV's captured it, he's been apprehended outside,

he's been detained, the goods have been recovered on his person.

It's going to be easier and plus, he doesn't want a solicitor,

and he wants to go off to trial, so, yeah.

But that's his choice, of course.

Don't want you to think I've given him a Chinese burn in the car,

or anything like that, but, yeah.

It's all good, yeah.

The shoplifter received one day's detention and a court fine of ?150.

It's a sunny day in a crowded Weston-Super-Mare

and Wayne Hughes is back on duty.

During the summer, it is very busy, usually.

We have an influx of tourists.

They come in by coach and by train and then,

you know, the seafront gets busy, and also the town centre, as well.

But today, as well as the tourists,

there's another group of visitors to the town.

Bikers.

They're here for a regular weekly event that's helped to raise money

for local charities and attracts bikes

and bike enthusiasts from miles around.

It's true to say it's a large event,

with probably well over 500 bikes at the moment.

We're just going to speak to the organisers,

make sure that everything's running smoothly.

The issue for the police, of course, is the safety of the motorcyclists

going to and from the event.

Which, obviously, can cause us some problems

and there's already been one accident tonight.

First people we invited down were Avon and Somerset Police.

Main reason being, we wanted the safety factor, really,

because I've got to say it, unfortunately,

there are a few idiots on bikes

and, having the police here, it, kind of, controls it.

For a Wayne, policing these events is no hardship.

I am a motorcyclist.

I passed my full bike test

in November 2012.

Evening, how are you? You all right?

Yeah, you? Yeah, not so bad, thank you.

Mixing business with pleasure.

As well as being here to patrol the show,

Avon and Somerset Police have brought along their own exhibit.

A speed enforcement bike.

The police have a message to send out.

I'm here today, primarily, to show

the motorcyclists the equipment we have and fill them in

on how it works.

Speeding motorcyclists are a big problem for the Somerset Police,

especially in summer on the county's winding country roads.

It's a good PR exercise, if you like.

But it's also a road safety message in two forms.

Firstly, please slow down,

because that's the most important thing,

and secondly, if you don't, we can catch you.

On board the police bike is a special, long-range camera that

checks and records the exact speed of any vehicle in its sights

and, cunningly, it's not just deployed in one direction.

Their belief is that they can't get caught because the numberplate's

at the back, but that's not quite true because all I do is turn it

round and follow them.

So, they can get caught if they're coming towards me.

They can also get caught if they're going away from me.

So, the equipment we have here,

we'll demonstrate to them, here, tonight.

It's to say to them, "Look, enjoy your motorcycles, enjoy riding,

"but please don't speed."

The police in Somerset now have six of these speed bikes

and believe they can play a vital role in making the roads safer

in the county.

We have lots of accidents,

a significant number of accidents in and around the 30s and 40s -

the speed limits, which are, obviously,

around schools and built-up areas.

So, the object of these machines - like the vans,

although we operate in a different area - is to reduce collisions.

That's what we want. We want people to slow down, have less accidents,

commit less offences.

As we've just seen, our neighbourhood teams put the citizens

they serve and protect at the heart of their policing,

and by responding swiftly and effectively, everybody benefits,

especially the public,

who can feel confident that their safety is being put first.

Until next time, evening, all.

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