Episode 2 Police 24/7

This time on Police 24/7...

PC Steph Samuel gets into the spirit of Student Freshers Week...

I'm standing in the middle of the road with a balloon.

I feel like I'm going to a party!

It's weapons disposal day in Property Stores...

I'm almost loath to put it in for destruction,

I was just going to keep it by my desk!

And Response Officers are called to a shooting in the capital.

This weapon is the allegation to assault someone.

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

if you do not mention when questioned, something you later rely on in court.

This is a week in the life of South Wales Police.

Seven days of action with the cops on the street

and the criminals they try to beat.

This is Police 24/7.

Oh, a dead squirrel!

There's a lot of roadkill.

We could get a pie out of that!

Squirrel pie!

Response Officers PCs Bushell and Doherty are on patrol in Cardiff.

I bet it tastes like chicken!

Everything tastes like chicken, doesn't it?

Crocodile? Chicken! Snake? Chicken! Rabbit, rabbit tastes like rabbit.

One Cardiff resident is about to get an early wake-up call from the duo.

Hiya, mate. Sorry to bother you. What flat are you in?

-Number two.

-Number two? Do you own a Vauxhall?

-Corsa?

-Yeah.

-Somebody smashed your passenger window.

-Okay-dokes.

Do you want to come and have a look? See if anything's gone and that?

Yeah.

-Can you see if anything's missing?

-Not that I can see.

-Got your sat nav on?

-Yeah.

-You have?

-Everything's on there.

That's what they'll do, they'll see that in there, it's left there,

and they think, "Oh, we'll have a go, see what the sat nav's like."

I thought you were a bit old for a boy racer like this now!

HE LAUGHS

Vehicle owner Phillip's been unlucky.

He's become one of the ten victims of car crime a day in Cardiff.

The police van is a mobile office where Response Officers

await their next emergency call.

And PC Doherty, or "Doc", as he's affectionately known,

has seen it all.

You go, like, from driving round rather fast and dealing with stuff,

to stopping and dealing with nothing at all.

But it's a young man's job these days, I think.

Why's that?

Because the older you get,

the harder you find you've to start running after people

who are a lot more sprightly than what you are,

and don't carry as much weight! That's why I wear my vest, see?

To keep it all tucked in!

The capital is made up of many different districts

and each one is served by a Neighbourhood Police team.

Morning, everybody. Well, it's afternoon now, isn't it?

Thanks for all attending.

Can we just get it done and we'll have a good bit of fun.

I do want you to tell people today...

PC Steph Samuel's patch is Cathays, which is heavily populated by students.

What we're trying to do is to advise people on crime prevention

and how to make their premises more secure.

The reason why this is being done is, as you all know,

Cathays is one of the highest areas for burglaries

within the South Wales area. So what we have done in the past

is small crime walkabouts. And statistically, it shows

that if you speak to people personally, it does work.

Officer Samuel's crime prevention project involves both students and

the police working together in one of South Wales's most-burgled roads.

I'm standing in the middle of the road with a balloon.

I feel like I'm going to a party!

Anyone who's left their home insecure gets a little present

of a helium-filled balloon with a message,

"Lock it, hide it, keep it.".

Students do get drunk, they do think that somebody

has closed the door behind them, or closed the window.

And it does happen. 60 percent of all the burglaries that happened

on this street last year were due to insecure premises.

I want it to come up a bit more, though. It's deflated a bit.

Hidden away in a secret location is a criminal Aladdin's Cave.

Property Stores.

Anything seized by the police ends up here.

And its Becky Morris's job to catalogue and care for the weird and wonderful things in it.

On the left is where we keep the majority of all the computers.

They might be from frauds or thefts and indecent images, things like that.

On the top shelf, we've unfortunately got a motorcycle helmet.

That's from a road traffic collision. And you can see,

it's kind of leaking blood through the bag. We'd be keen to get rid of as soon as possible, obviously.

On the bottom shelf by here, we have one of the more unusual items,

which is a rhino horn.

Which is quite big and so that's actually worth quite an amount of money.

Got a drum kit on the bottom shelf which was thrown out of a window.

Got a really nice flat-screen TV that's been stolen

and there's a gentleman who thinks that it's his.

But unfortunately, because they've taken all the serial numbers off,

and he hasn't put his address or anything on it,

it's very hard to prove that it's his. So it's always worth marking your property.

Becky has spent the last six years looking after criminal evidence for the force.

Even when I applied for the job, it wasn't overly clear

from the job description what it was going to entail.

I kind of had images, you know, from the movies,

where there's some little old man in a basement with a cage around him!

Which is essentially what we are!

'Hello, Ambulance.'

'Hello, could we have your assistance to gain entry for us, please?

'We've got a male who's called us to say that he can't breathe.

'The crew's saying they can't get in.'

'OK, then. I'll pass that on to them now.'

SIREN BLARES

Responding to this emergency call are Officers Bushell and Doherty.

It's only the one door we've got to go through.

Police. Can you open the door?

If Doc suspects that somebody's life is in danger,

there is only one thing to do...

Use the big red key.

Now the paramedics can gain entry.

Hello?

Hello?

But the man who called for an ambulance is nowhere to be found.

Door's broke. Yeah, he's in need of assistance, he can't breathe.

All right, lovely.

He's been assaulted earlier on today and we thought he'd still be here.

Usually, it's basically either attention or

they just need to speak to somebody, that's all.

Broke it. I fixed that up, best I can. Hopefully, it should lock.

As we said, we've checked the premises and he's not there.

With no-one at home, there's not much a policeman can do,

so it's on to the next job.

That's great. How's it going? "How's it going?!"

On the streets of Cathays, PC Samuel's operation

is well under way.

With many students living in one property, this area is full

of rich pickings for burglars.

Why would you go to one house where there may be one laptop,

one TV, whereas here, you might have eight or nine or ten?

And down the road is exactly what Officer Samuel is trying to prevent.

This student house has just been burgled.

-So they've forced this door, have they?

-Yes. We fixed it,

-but you can see it's been broken.

-Yeah. Yeah.

-Look how weird that is.

-Yeah. Yeah. It's a bit odd that they've opened a tin of sardines!

Alex Filmer is a Crime Scene Investigator.

He's on the prowl for prints and DNA.

-So they've taken my phone out of there. That little black bit.

-OK.

-And jewellery from there.

-OK. I'll crack on, then.

-OK.

For student Nia, the break-in has been unwelcome news.

The neighbours noticed that my door was broken.

And then the police went and rung me,

because I was back at home at the time.

And they found, like, a casual tin of sardines and my place literally trashed, basically.

So, yeah.

Could there be a cat burglar on the loose?

Maybe Alex should be dusting for paw prints!

There's nothing on there, unfortunately.

I'll do the ring-pull part of it, if I can get it off, for DNA.

For CSI guys like Alex, there's one thing he's definitely looking for.

Mostly it's blood we kind of hope for. Sometimes they cut themselves.

So hopefully, if they leave blood, that makes our job easier.

And if they're on the DNA database, it's case closed, really.

Obviously, doing this job, you hear and see a lot of things that aren't very nice.

And you do question, like, humanity and what goes through

people's minds when they're obviously doing these things.

This is my fourth time that I've been burgled. Yeah.

And I've lived in four different places, it's ridiculous.

But it's because it's the Cathays area. I think that's why.

I need to get out of the student area, to be honest.

And Alex is making a move too. He's off to process his handiwork.

It's got some potential for DNA with the sardine tin.

So, hopefully, it will come back with something.

In Property Stores, Becky keeps a keen eye on any officers booking in evidence.

Have you got the phone and the...?

Yeah, I've kept those, because I've had the phone finger-printed.

There are strict protocols and procedures to be followed.

And it's the officers booking in out of hours that are giving Becky a bit of a headache.

The first thing I'm spotting as a Property Officer is that the items haven't been sealed.

You need to seal them so we can prove the continuity on them.

So I'm not going to touch them too much.

And we should have a yellow label, which shows where they were seized.

So there's two things there that are wrong.

So I'm not going to take them into the store, I'm going to email the officer.

This item's still out in the holding area because it was used

as part of an assault and I think it was taken for forensic evidence.

But it's not been packaged at all or sealed.

So then Scenes of Crime aren't going to take it,

because it could have been handled by people.

Sue and I have sent out an email

and we've made sure we're not touching it at all.

And we're not getting our DNA or fingerprints on it.

But it does show the importance of making sure everything's

properly done when it comes in the store.

Becky's attention to detail benefits the whole of the force.

I'm a bit picky on it, but then,

it's not going to be me that has to stand up in court.

So it's for their own good, really.

Some people say, "Oh, I come to work to get away from the wife!"

Life's rough!

If you guys go in that one,

and then if Dave can go into that one after that, that would be brill.

Hello. I'm sorry to trouble you. Just to let you know...

Officer Samuel's crime prevention operation is in full swing.

Having worked this patch for four years, she knows it's sometimes

a delicate relationship between students and local residents.

Morning! No, it's afternoon now, isn't it?

Good morning.

You're going to ask what we're doing, aren't you?

No, what I'm going to ask is why on earth...?

-Don't be negative.

-This area is not their campus.

We've lived here all our lives. Yeah? Are you with me in that?

-I am totally with you.

-You cannot come out to a club and say,

"We are on campus now and we can create holy havoc

"up and down the roads and streets of Cardiff

"and keep everybody awake at night."

Irrespective of whether they've got children, youngsters,

work in the morning. They haven't got work in the morning.

They can lie in bed until ten, eleven, twelve or one o'clock in the morning.

And where on earth they get the money from, I don't know.

I'm not going to say I'm going to advocate it,

it's never going to stop. You're not going to get rid of them.

-It's never going to happen.

-It's never going to stop, you say?

What I'm saying is you're never going to get rid of the students.

They're here to stay. What we need to do is work together with them.

-That's really bad. Horrendous.

-Shocking.

And Steph's team are doing that very thing,

to help keep students' belongings safe.

-So, it's a name, and then...?

-Name and postcode.

Something so simple, but...

Yeah, something simple, but that is really effective.

And it is something that deters a lot of criminals.

Thank you very much for that. That's very helpful. Thank you for your time.

Hopefully, student Iolo's laptop is safe and sound.

And PC Samuel's not giving up on persuading Anthony to work with her.

What I'm asking you to do is, I'm not going to sit here

and argue with you and say you're wrong or anything,

-because I know you're dead right in what you're saying.

-Thank you.

-But I want you to attend that meeting.

-I'll be there.

You'd better be there! Because it is people like you,

Anthony, that I need.

'South Wales Police.'

'Oh, hi, can I report an incident, please?'

'Yeah, what's happened?'

'I'm an off-duty police officer, I've just been shot at

'by some sort of pellet gun on Salisbury Road.

'We've identified where they're shooting from as well.'

Response officers John Manders and Alex Smith are on their way.

They're checking in with the off duty officers who were shot at

and who have already caught the culprits of the crime.

-So we're in with the gang.

-OK.

So we've knocked the door, come in,

-they've showed us the gun which was in their cupboard.

-OK.

This gentleman's admitted having drugs in his room.

He's taken me upstairs and I recovered a small bit of cannabis.

OK, and that's the weapon there?

With this weapon, it's the allegation to assault someone.

HE CAUTIONS THEM

Anything you do say may be given in evidence. Do you understand that?

-I understand, yes.

-Do you understand?

-Yeah.

-OK.

-So anything you say now can be used against you, got it?

-Yeah.

-OK, cool.

-Who owns this?

-Me, that's mine.

-That's yours, is it?

-Yes.

-OK.

Been in trouble before, boys?

-Um, never before, no.

-Mate, what's your name?

-Are you students?

-We are students, yes.

-You're a million miles away.

For these drama students, it seems like a prank has gone very wrong.

What they've done, though, is really, really dangerous.

The allegation is they fired a BB gun,

which is really powerful, er, at people using the cash point,

so they've fired it from that first-floor flat.

Do you want to get the bag, John? We'll put them in together.

This shouldn't be doing it, it's as simple as that. It's dangerous.

There just happened to be a police officer, who'll report it.

She was hurt, I seen the mark on her neck, so, er,

-it's an assault, so, you know.

-We're off.

-OK, Carrick Bay.

The performance is over for these two students

with a trip to the police station.

They were both cautioned for assault

and one of them for cannabis possession.

Property office, Becky speaking.

I'm going out on a gun run shortly, but I'll be back this afternoon.

When BB guns or other weapons are used in crimes,

they often end up in the police property store.

Today, Becky's gathering together guns and knives

where the cases have been closed.

They're going to be destroyed,

so that they can never get back into the hands of criminals.

Two times CS sprays, so I've got both of those.

It's surprising how many weapons there are

and how many are sort of out on the street.

The number that come in, just subject of enquiry,

is so many compared to what you'd expect for somewhere like Cardiff.

It's not London and it's not America.

It's really quite scary. Because I work for South Wales Police,

I know that we're doing the best job, so...

and at least I know that all of these are in my store

and not in somebody's hands.

With around 8,000 items on the shelves and barely any room left,

it's important to de-clutter.

So, every other month, a gun run takes place.

Getting rid of stuff always makes me happy

and, um, a trip out of the office is always a bonus as well.

I don't get out often.

So we've got a box inside the van

for keeping everything secure while we're in transit,

just in case anything were to happen en route.

The amount of ammo, we need to keep it separately from the weapons,

so if we were to get hit and somebody take the weapons,

they can't get the ammo as well.

Er, this is my favourite weapon for destruction this month.

And I'm almost loath to put it in for destruction. I was just

going to keep it by my desk. SHE LAUGHS

The weapons will be taken to a secret location to be crushed.

ON RADIO: 'Just been flagged down by a member of the public

'regarding some lady has fallen on a bus,

-'so we're just going to have a chat with the driver.

-That's all noted.'

Response Officers Bushell and Doherty need to investigate

what has happened to a lady who's taken a fall.

-Yeah, was she on your bus?

-Yes, she fell back.

-Right.

Right, um, she didn't say anything till she got here.

I asked her if she was all right. She said yes.

-OK.

-I asked her if she wanted assistance. She said no.

-Right.

I've asked her, "Do you want my name and address?" "No."

-I said, "Can I have your name and address?" "No."

-OK.

People in there know her.

The lady's name is Lyz, and she's recently out of hospital.

She's suffered some sort of injury,

according to the card she's shown us, where she's had a brain injury,

um, she's indicated to us as well

that she's had a heart attack previously.

Yeah, sorry to be a nag.

Have you got an ET for the ambulance or paramedics?

-Could turn up...hour?

-Yeah.

-What have we got, an hour?

That is the problem we've got.

We don't know how long an ambulance is going to be,

so we can take you up to hospital. INAUDIBLE RESPONSE

All right? So you finish your coffee

-and we'll take you up to hospital, OK?

-OK.

All right?

-Right, big step now.

-OK.

-OK, do you want to sit in this one?

-Yeah.

-OK?

For response officers Doc and Bushell,

the job isn't just about catching criminals.

It's also about keeping people like Lyz safe.

All part of the job, the service we provide.

Lovely lady.

When most of us have been tucked up in bed for hours,

Cardiff's students are just thinking about heading home

and some make use of the safe bus.

EVERYONE CHATTERS

I'm like a little kid sitting here.

SHE LAUGHS

PC Steph Samuel was one of the brains

behind the idea of a student safe bus,

in partnership with Cardiff University.

At night, it trawls the streets,

transporting any vulnerable students safely home.

-Just getting a lift home free, mind.

-This is better than a taxi, innit?

We had quite a high spate of robberies, um,

and, um, sexual assaults, so it was trying to think of a way

in which we can take the vulnerable people off the streets.

Can you put the sirens on?

LAUGHTER AND CHATTER

And, obviously, the very nature of the population here again,

being students, um, they do get into states which put them

into situations that maybe they wouldn't ordinarily be in.

-We're well behaved there.

-All right, OK, we're here.

-Let's go to their house!

-No...

With response, it was like fire brigade, policing, and I did that

for near on 14 years, um,

but you can never make a massive difference,

because you literally just go and deal with what you got to deal with

and move away, whereas in the role, with a neighbourhood role,

you can make a difference.

-OK, guys.

-Ow! Ow!

Bye! Thank you for the lift. We love you, baby!

-And my name is Tanya.

-Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!

-This is for the police!

SIREN BLARES

MALE ON RADIO: 'Serving a noise abatement notice. Um, there's

'quite a lot of obstruction from the three females at the address.

-'They're currently playing a drum kit in the garden.

-Oh, brilliant!

-HE LAUGHS 'As you do!

-As you do, innit?'

Responding to this call for help from some council workers

are officers Craig Falconer and Duncan Mitchell.

OK, guys, we'll go across and see what's what with them.

They've come to ensure the safety of the council workers

as they serve a noise abatement notice on a student party.

HE KNOCKS Open the door, please.

Open the door!

All right, guys, where's the householders? Who live here?

-Three people who live here.

-Right, do you want to collect them,

put them in a room, so we'll explain exactly what's what with them?

-Which university are you with, guys?

-WOMAN:

-I know my rights!

-I don't want a camera in my face right now!

-Oi!

-Calm down.

-Get out my house! I don't want...

-I can smell cannabis now.

Do you want us to come and search your house?

THEY SHOUT OVER EACH OTHER

SHOUTING CONTINUES

MAN: What are you doing?

-WOMAN:

-No! No!

MAN: Will you strangle her? Are you going to strangle her?

SHOUTING CONTINUES MAN: Get your hand off me!

ON RADIO: '89, can I have some more units, please?'

-'Any units able to make their way to Albany Road, acknowledge.'

-214.

MAN: What are you doing? What are you doing?

Because things have become violent, back-up has been despatched.

SHOUTING OFFICER: Come here.

-WOMAN:

-What's happening?! What? What the...?

-Get out!

-What are you doing?! GLASS SMASHES

WOMAN SCREAMS

OFFICER: Calm down! Stand up.

SHOUTING CONTINUES, GROWS LOUDER

OFFICER: Don't... Just...

Armed response officers carry Tasers and can use them

to subdue people when they are violent or resisting arrest.

-Keep away. Keep away.

-TASER CLICKS

HE SCREAMS

SHOUTING INSIDE CONTINUES OFFICER: Don't slam the door.

The Taser fires an electrical charge

which, the police claim, is safer to use than a baton.

Once things have calmed down, the police get the cuffs out.

WOMAN CRIES: You're hurting me! This is really hurting!

-You should've thought about that...

-You hit me in the face!

You hit me in the face! What'd you expect me to do?!

-MAN:

-All right, I ain't going to do nothing.

As the firearms boys said, he just wouldn't calm down.

He was exceptionally strong, they couldn't control him,

we couldn't control him, he was like an animal almost.

At the end of the day, the noise people have got a job to do.

All they wanted to do was take the details of people

and give them some paperwork and we would've been gone.

We did try and explain that to them, but unfortunately,

they just wouldn't listen and, as you see, we are where we are

and we're going into custody with five, er,

with five people in custody, one being Tasered.

You're in custody now. Behave.

-Who's first, then, mate?

-We're all coming in at once.

Jump down one at a time.

-Just helping you down, all right.

-Ta.

-There you go, brilliant.

-Can you take the handcuffs off me, please?

-Once I've made sure...

-Right, well, then I would be quiet.

-Your name, please.

-No comment.

All right, have you got anything that's going to harm me or you?

-French ID card. OK, you're French, yeah?

-Yeah.

-OK.

Come on, over here with me.

This is ridiculous. The whole situation's ridiculous.

At the end of the night, cautions were issued to five students.

They were assault police, obstruct police, common assault

and possession of cannabis.

SIREN BLARES

ON RADIO: 'We have a female with a knife.

'Er, black dress, ponytail, she's running towards a couple of males.

'Male's now kicked it out of her hand.

'Can we have units down here as soon as possible?'

Officers Doherty and Bushell

are their way to this emergency call.

The Tactical Support Teams, or TSTs,

-have arrived before the response duo.

-Police!

SHOUTING

A female armed with a knife on this street threatened somebody.

It's been kicked out of her hand and she made her way to these premises.

The TSTs have turned up first

and they've got a female screaming inside,

so they've bust the door in and they've, um,

gone in, given warnings, informed them who they are,

said they're armed with Taser and that, um,

they've asked them to come down. SHE SHOUTS

Want to tell me first? What have you arrested me for?

It's not very pleasant for people living around here to be, er,

aware there's a lot of knife crime going on,

so the sooner we jump on it, the better.

What are you arresting me for?

The TSTs are quite used to this sort of training.

They do it day in, day out, so, um, it's better to stand back

and let them get on with it first and then pick the pieces up after.

-We'll...

-Are you sure?

-Yeah.

It's the end of the shift for Officer Doc,

and, after 15 years on the beat,

he's hanging up his stab vest to work in the emergency call room,

advising response police officers of the future.

It's a young man's or young girl's job these days, for me.

I just find it a bit hard.

Struggling to get out of bed in the mornings, because I'm too old.

So I'll just try and chill out a bit, you know.

Like my wife says, "Well, it's like going from 100 mph to 0 mph,"

then you've got to think, "How will I cope with that?" So I don't know.

I don't know how I'll cope with that, to be honest with you.

SIREN BLARES

Next time on Police 24/7...

we're on the beat with the neighbourhood team in Pontypridd...

-Police!

-Police!

-..one female.

-One female, yeah?

..investigating illegal dangerous dogs...

And in my view, he is a pit bull-type dog.

..and the helicops are in action searching for a missing person.

ON RADIO: 'Whisky-Oscar-9, quite urgent, somebody on the railway.'

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd