Episode 3 Police 24/7

This time on Police 24/7...

Crime Scene Investigator Joey is looking for clues.

I don't see how you can examine a crime scene

if you are not getting into that mindset of that criminal.

It's a proud day for the Chief Constable.

APPLAUSE

And new recruit Stacey gets a grilling

on her first day in uniform.

I hope she's got a boyfriend cos she'll make a lovely little wife,

-I'm sure.

-I might find my Prince Charming.

This is a week in the life of the largest police force in Wales.

Seven days of action with the cops on the street

and the criminals that they try to beat.

This is Police 24/7.

The Gurnos Estate in Merthyr Tydfil.

On our right there is the Gurnos Social Club.

And neighbourhood police officer Steve Pace

is off to check on a car that's been bothering some local residents.

CHILDREN CHATTER

KNOCKING ON WINDOW

-Hello?

-All right, bud? How are you?

-All right.

-Is this your car, is it?

-Yes.

-It is?

-Yes.

-You've got...

-Who's is that in the back?

-That's my bed.

-Is it?

What's your full name, then? INAUDIBLE.

-Where are you living to at the moment?

-In here.

-Is it?

-Yeah.

-So NFA at the moment?

-NFA, in the car.

David is currently camping out in his car.

It's parked on the public highway,

so PC Pace needs to carry out some vehicle checks.

Yeah, that's received. Is that all? Over.

Well, you can't leave it on a public place with no MOT.

-CHILDREN SHOUT And with no insurance.

-Don't need it.

HE SPEAKS QUICKLY, VOICE MUFFLED

That's his home.

It's not up to me. It reflects the law.

He's got no insurance and no MOT.

'So I'm going to get it recovered.'

It looks like David's going to lose his temporary home.

Well, people have been telling me it's been there days.

It's only been there this morning!

That's my car. It's the only thing I've got!

I bought that genuine and it was in that drive there

and I've put it over there.

The car will be impounded at a local garage.

And David's not happy.

Take it.

-Take it.

-All right, Dai.

Never mind, "All right, Dai"! I'm going to take that for an MOT.

You're making me...

I'm not making you do anything!

Yeah, you being funny. You took my keys and said you'd give them back.

I did give you your house keys and whatever else was back on there.

-No, my car keys back!

-All right. All right, David.

I've been tidy.

'The gentleman has got a dislike for me now,

'so I'll stand back while my colleagues talk to him.'

Unfortunately, I don't have a solution to him having no home.

'Just a bit sad, really.

'But you've got to treat everybody the same.'

Steve Pace joined South Wales Police after 24 years in the RAF.

He's now starting to feel quite at home on the Gurnos Estate.

It reminds me of where I grew up.

I come from a town in Harlow...

..um, in Essex.

So I think I can kind of relate to a lot of the people I deal with here,

because I had a similar upbringing, um,

funded by the state, on benefits, living in social housing.

South Wales Police protects over one million people.

And its HQ is in Bridgend.

Reporting for duty this morning is the man at the top,

Chief Constable Peter Vaughan.

-Good morning. How are you?

-Good, thanks. You OK?

-Yeah, not bad.

-Good.

-You don't mind the cameras?

-No, I was born to be on camera, sir.

-Aw, I always knew it.

-Yeah!

-THEY LAUGH

The chief started out with the force 30 years ago.

I'm really proud of that. I'm one of the few people in the country

that's done every rank within South Wales Police.

445, my original number, when I got posted to the Rhondda,

um, Sergeant, Inspector,

Chief Inspector, and underneath it is where I worked

and it's all across the force area.

This morning, Mr Vaughan is getting ready for a very important ceremony.

My wife thought it was a fantastic idea to, er, to get a cat,

which turned into two cats, um,

which was, again, another fantastic idea

until she decided she wanted white cats.

So, um...

I end up with a bit of Oscar and Bella on me wherever I go now.

Today, 70 Police Community Support Officers, PCSOs,

are taking part in their passing out ceremony

to mark the end of their training.

PCSOs, they haven't been with us that long. 2002.

Um, and almost straightaway, they got universal acceptance

and people within each of the communities have grown to love them.

They're now an essential part

of the way that we police our neighbourhoods.

Congratulations, llongyfarchiadau,

and the best of luck for the next phase of your careers.

Thank you very much indeed.

First up is Stacey Bolton.

She'll be posted to the same area

where the chief constable himself started out.

Well done.

-Congratulations.

-Thank you.

-Are they sending you to Maerdy?

-Yeah.

-Good.

-I've had all the practice in Ton Pentre.

-Yeah, yeah.

Well, I did that. I started in Ton Pentre

-and then went to Ferndale and Maerdy to work.

-Ah!

-So it's, um...

-Following in your footsteps.

There we are. There's a chance. THEY LAUGH

The lovely thing about the police service is,

if you've got the skills and ability, you'll get on.

Yeah, we could have met the next chief constable...

Not the next chief constable of South Wales Police,

but in a few years' time.

South Wales Police, what's your emergency?

This is the emergency line. You've rung 999. Can I help you?

The Public Service Centre at Bridgend HQ

takes nearly 2,000 calls for help each day.

Right, who's got a knife?

Who is armed with a knife, please?

350 staff work here 24/7.

Did you say they've smeared excrement on the car?

'You get some strange calls.'

You get some serious calls

and you get some light-hearted calls as well, you know.

Do you actually know if the cow is, er, still alive or if it's dead?

Just to make you aware, units are diverted in relation to this.

The task incident...

Nicole Johns has spent the past 17 years working as a call operator.

November Lima 3-0. 3-0, over.

Today, she's assisting a response team in Merthyr,

where there's been a burglary and the suspects are on the run.

WL to all units, observation's requested for an orange Focus.

It's just left Robertstown heading towards Swansea Road in Merthyr.

Allegation is stolen items in the vehicle.

Any unit can respond? Over.

November Lima 1-0, WL.

Sergeant Tim Morgan and PC Kelly Pugh

are now on the hunt for the wanted car.

1-0, what's the last position, please, it was sighted?

It's just been sighted A465 eastbound towards the roundabout.

Believed to have stolen goods in the vehicle. Over.

Yeah, Roger, we're coming up the A470 northbound,

so we'll make it a search

when we turn right onto the Heads of Valleys now.

November Tango 4-6, are you able to try and catch it up?

Don't engage in a pursuit of it.

Just round the corner.

With the assistance of another unit, the vehicle has been tracked down.

Get one in the, um... Get one in the van.

Come with me.

The men are suspected of the theft of two laptop computers.

For information, this male has previously

tried to bite an officer upon arrest.

Yes, yes, we're all in order.

Three males just being searched now. Stand by. Over.

Sergeant Morgan's priority now is to find the stolen laptops.

But Nicole's job is done.

It was good, because we didn't have a lot to go on,

just an orange Focus and a partial registration,

so it was a bit of a needle in a haystack, really,

but we had a lot of officers coming from different locations,

a traffic unit and also a lot of neighbourhood units

that knew the male responsible, so they knew where he might be going,

so they went in from each angle and they did find him.

The hunt for the laptops continues.

It's the first day in her new role for rookie PCSO Stacey Bolton.

-Based in the Rhondda...

-HORN TOOTS

Morning!

..her mentor for the next eight weeks is PCSO Lee Clark.

So this is Maerdy, Stace. Have you, er, been here before at all?

-I came up here briefly this morning, when I got lost on my way in.

-Oh!

-And I had to turn round and come back.

-How far did you go?

I got to just about the corner and I had to turn round.

It's the best place to work.

The people here are fantastic, in fairness, they really are.

Stacey's new job is

all about engaging with the community on the front line.

What better way than meeting with the local women at Maerdy Fat Club?

-So this is Stacey.

-Hello!

-WOMEN: Hello.

Stacey's up here now with me for eight weeks, um, tutoring with me.

Lee, what's the priorities in Maerdy?

We've got speeding, or speed reduction, in Maerdy,

cos we've done quite a few operations

on the main road with the speed camera.

We've also got off-road vehicles so we'll be up there patrolling.

Each month, Lee holds his police meeting

and also demonstrates how to cook a healthy meal.

I heard we were doing some cooking. I didn't think it'd be quite so...

-hands-on!

-SHE LAUGHS

It might seem unusual, but projects like this

are seen as an important part of community policing.

It's bringing back the village bobby, basically.

And that's great, you know, when you see a presence in the village.

It's lovely! Nice and healthy and lovely.

And we've got a big piece too. THEY LAUGH

Now the healthy burgers have been cooked,

it's Stacey's turn for a grilling.

Well, I hope she's got a boyfriend,

cos she'd make a lovely little wife, I'm sure.

I haven't, actually, I live on my own.

-ALL: Aw!

-It's quite sad.

I might find my Prince Charming.

I'll have to keep kissing a few frogs, I think.

-Where are you from, then, Stace?

-Um, I live in South Wales,

but I'm originally from Canterbury in Kent,

so the bottom end of England.

-Do you think they're friendly in the valleys?

-They're much friendlier.

I've made Wales my adopted home,

so, as long as everyone will keep having me,

I can't imagine I'll ever move back.

-I'm sure everybody will like you as well in Maerdy.

-Aw, thank you.

-Yeah!

SHE LAUGHS

Right, can we have a round of applause for Lee and Stacey, please?

CHEERING

Come every week now, Stace! STACEY GIGGLES

Stacey and Lee are working closely with their communities...

-I'll come every week if you want.

-Oh, there we are!

-Yeah.

..something Chief Constable Peter Vaughan strongly believes in.

Growing up in Aberfan,

he was influenced by an iconic image of the mining disaster,

where policing touched people's lives.

That says, to me, a lot about policing, you know.

We're not just crime-fighters,

we're there for a whole host of other reasons

and, er, I suppose that captures, um...

a heck a lot of the history of South Wales Police, actually, with...

with the way that we like to be part of the communities,

helping to keep them safe, helping to protect them,

and sort of trying to bind them together as well,

so, yeah, a hugely significant picture.

A huge part of my personal history

and anyone that was ever brought up in that community.

At Merthyr Tydfil station,

Sergeant Tim Morgan has had a result with the earlier computer theft.

So these are the, er, two laptops.

These will be taken now and bagged up as exhibits.

We'll be retaining them for fingerprints

and then, they'll be kept for interview.

Jonathan Hitchings will now be booked into custody

for questioning about the crime.

Go on, tell me how you got it, then.

Laptop, big laptop, little laptop.

Wallet, opened up, took the money out, wallet back, back out.

It's like I'm going stupid, man!

What I've done, I feel sorry, I wish I hadn't...done it.

-But it's too late now.

-Hm.

If we hadn't retrieved them, they probably would've been gone

and a lot of the people involved in this kind of offence,

well, they spend that money on drugs

and they will then be in a position where

they're back to square one, almost, and they have to go out

and commit another burglary in order to feed that drug habit.

Jonathan pleaded guilty to the crime.

He is currently serving a two-year prison sentence.

Tackling burglary crime is a high priority for South Wales Police.

And helping to catch the culprits

is Crime Scene Investigator Joey Giddings.

I tend to apply polish every other day

and then the intervening days, I just give them a quick buff.

Cos we work for the public service, public image is very important

and I think that should extend to boots as well.

There we are. Nice, shiny boots. I'm happy with those.

CSI Giddings is on his way to his next case,

and when it comes to finding his way around,

he prefers more traditional methods.

I don't do sat-navs. I'm, er, old-school. Map book all the way.

You can't go wrong with an A-Z,

especially if you're a scout and you know how to navigate.

That's what gets me around the city.

So, people of Cardiff, that's what gets me to where you live.

Joey's been tasked to find clues at this dwelling burglary.

What I'm doing is applying a magnetic powder,

with a little magnet in the pen, like this, picks up the powder

and then we just apply it like this.

As a CSI, I don't see how you can examine a crime scene

if you are not getting into that mindset of that criminal.

So, as a CSI, I'm looking at this thinking,

"Yeah, they've definitely touched the door handle, but they might

"have touched one of these parts as they're leaving, subconsciously."

It's not long before some crucial evidence is found.

Right away, I've got a fingerprint in this area here.

I do see fingerprints wherever I go and...

it gets quite annoying.

I sometimes think, "Gosh, isn't that a beautiful shoe print?"

That's my life.

But I wouldn't change it.

With the samples gathered,

it's time to get them processed back at the laboratory.

LOUD BANG Police! Police! Get down!

-Here we go.

-Can we check the, er...?

-Jason, is it?

Check the two sofas. Make sure you've got gloves on.

In Merthyr Tydfil, PC Pace and Sergeant Daly are on a drugs raid.

Jason, I'll search you, all right?

-Have you got anything on you?

-Nothing.

-No sharps?

-No.

-No green?

-No.

-No powder?

-No.

Right, you understand we've got a warrant

-issued by the courts to search?

-Yes.

People hide drugs in the strangest of places.

This endoscope camera assists the team with the search

into all the nooks and crannies.

This was obviously a fireplace at one time.

No, there's nothing obvious this far under the floor.

Officers have, er, also found what's believed to be cannabis resin.

Which will be sent for forensics and see where we go from there.

We found some items which I believe are controlled substances.

Um, cannabis leaf in the grinder.

Some I believe to be cannabis resin.

And questions on the bags with white powder.

So, the time now I make it 15:39. All right, Jason,

you're under arrest for possession of a controlled substance.

All right, Jase.

At the station, Jason will be taken into custody.

Take a stand on the yellow square for me, please, Jason.

My colleague's searching you now for any property you've got on you

and then, I'm going to carry out the booking in procedure, all right?

Although he was only found with a small amount of cannabis,

officer Steve Pace is pleased with the result.

'It makes people wary.'

They've always got to think, "When are the police coming for me?"

If we never did warrants, or didn't act on information,

it wouldn't send that message out.

But more than that, it, um, reassures the public

that we will take action.

-If you need anything, just press that buzzer.

-Right, cheers.

-Cheers.

Jason was later cautioned for possession of a Class B substance.

The face of the force may be changing,

but for Chief Constable Peter Vaughan,

policing is still a vocation.

I didn't join South Wales Police to be the chief constable,

I joined South Wales Police to be a police officer and I'm...

I'm a frustrated front-line police officer, I think,

and I think that drives the family mad.

As I said, I'm a frustrated cop, so I do like, um...

putting on my uniform and, um,

sticking my nose into what's going on and becoming involved,

and I think the vast majority of us are exactly like that.

As well as developing new staff,

the chief is also overseeing some big changes.

In Merthyr Tydfil,

a new multi-million pound custody suite is under construction.

-Ian, how are you?

-Mr Vaughan, how are you?

-Very good.

-Nice to see you.

-Morning, sir.

-Clare, how are you?

-OK.

-Can we go?

-Yeah, shall we make our way onto site, sir?

This new 42-cell unit will eventually hold detainees

from all over the Rhondda valleys and Merthyr Tydfil.

-Right, shall we take a look at...

-Yeah.

-..some of the custody cells?

The accommodation.

Where would the bed be, then?

-In this corner.

-Bed here?

-Yeah.

-Toilet over there?

-Yeah.

-The toilet goes in the corner there.

-Yeah.

We're going to have a 360-degree view of the cell.

If we need to speak to the detainee, or they need to speak to us,

they can press a button straight to the custody...

-Obviously, they'd be monitored from the custody desk anyway.

-Yeah.

This building is the last piece of the jigsaw

in Mr Vaughan's custody reorganisation plan.

We had seven cell complexes across the whole of the South Wales area.

The economy is getting tighter, so we've got to consolidate into four,

so with Bridgend, Merthyr, Cardiff and Swansea's complete,

that will be the four cell complexes we've had,

so, hopefully, the work here is done, as they say, yeah.

Lovely view of Merthyr.

-We needn't worry about pictures!

-Not here.

-Look at the scenery.

-The pictures are in the windows.

-Exactly.

At Bridgend HQ,

the scientific investigation unit is a state-of-the-art crime lab.

Thousands of samples are processed each week

by a team of specialist technicians.

CSI Joey has arrived with his precious print from the burglary.

-Yo, mate, as discussed.

-Oh, thanks very much.

-Cheers. Have fun.

-Cheers.

It's down to fingerprint expert Alan Morris

to search his database for a possible match.

Looking at the mark I've got,

a potential sequence of three fingers here.

Two of them look like smudges,

but you can still tell that they're part of a potential sequence.

I've told the system it's either the right four,

cos it falls into that configuration,

or the left ring, which is a similar configuration.

Once Alan has determined which fingers are involved,

he uses a computer programme to analyse the print.

I'm just marking the characteristics which I can see in the impressions.

What the computer sees are these characteristics in this arrangement,

and then it searches them against all the marks

with these characteristics in these positions.

The computer itself doesn't see what I see. Just looking at these.

If the computer throws up some potential matches,

the final decision can only be made with the human eye.

Sometimes, you could be looking at a mark, or marks, for hours,

to be able to just focus on that.

Not everyone could sit here and look at black-and-white lines all day.

That's an identification there.

Results like that make it all worthwhile.

ALAN LAUGHS

Teamwork. It is! Teamwork makes the dream work.

-Joey's happy.

-I'm smiling!

OTHERS APPLAUD Thank you. Cheers, thank you all.

You all do wonderful work in here. Don't forget.

As night falls, the volume of calls in the Public Service Centre rises.

'They're on the A465, coming from Merthyr to Neath,

'and it is a dog's been run over. It's in pitch black

'in the middle of nowhere, it's on its own.

'It's still alive and I need someone here.'

Nicole Johns needs to task this emergency

to the nearest response team.

I've got a dog seriously injured. That incident - 1051.

Sergeant Tim Morgan and PC Kelly Pugh are en route.

SIREN WAILS

I think the concern at the moment is, obviously,

the fact that it's still in the carriageway and might be

causing an obstruction to vehicles coming in the other direction.

It's immediately obvious that the dog is seriously injured,

which is why the people who found the animal called 999.

-What actually happened?

-Car drove down...

-Yeah?

-..high speed, clipped the dog...

-OK.

-We were about two or three cars behind.

-OK.

So you were following behind? You didn't see the vehicle

-or get a registration or anything like that?

-No.

-No.

We were behind it so we turned around and came back, that's all.

Cos we've all got dogs, so you don't want to see that.

OK, well, thanks for stopping. and thanks very much with your help.

I appreciate it. Thank you.

1-5, um, this animal is, um, still alive, obviously seriously injured.

Have you got the RSPCA or someone we can call out?

Inspector?

I've got a seriously injured dog on the A465,

officers asking for advice on who we can call out?

WOMAN: Try the RSPCA.

-Ssh, ssh, ssh. OK, right...

-He's not a light dog, is he?

The team need to get the dog to a vet, fast.

And the nearest out-of-hours surgery is over 15 miles away.

Stand by. We're just carrying the dog into the van now.

The more you do and the more things you encounter,

I don't think you get as stressed.

I mean, you have periods where you're very, very busy,

and your adrenaline goes, but...

I don't tend to get very stressed any more.

I think he's got a lot of internal injuries, so whether he'll make it

by the time we get to the vet's is very unlikely.

The only thing we can do now is try to make him

as comfortable as possible until we get there.

Ian?

-That dog was dead on arrival to the vet's.

-OK.

And they're going to cremate him.

OK.

..4½ years now.

Stacey is finishing her first shift as a PCSO.

-Are you going to play? You are!

-I'll give it a go.

-There we are.

-Brilliant.

-Football is not my strong point but I'll give it a go.

Her mentor, Lee, has roped her into the Tylorstown Youth Football Club,

which he started to keep the kids off the streets.

-Come on, Stace!

-I'm trying!

Stacey!

Don't use me!

Oh, yes!

It's been good, yeah, it's been like a baptism of fire, I think.

Hit the ground running and, er, I look forward to getting on with it.

Lee's been all right. He's been a good tutor so far, so...

It can only get better.

It's been a really good day, you've done really well.

Um, we'll have, you know, a few more different things now

over the next eight weeks. We've got a lot

to, obviously, cover, um, a few more diverse things,

but you're doing really well and fair play.

-Did you enjoy your day?

-Yeah, it's been good.

-Yeah? Fantastic.

-I look forward to tomorrow.

-Good.

On the Gurnos Estate,

neighbourhood police officer Steve Pace is on patrol.

Is everything all right? Just having a look round the Gurnos.

-Which is a good thing, I think, innit?

-Yeah.

-It's a nice place to live, innit?

-Not bad.

You get your rough spots, your good spots, but I mean...

-We all look out for each other.

-There's a lot of good spots.

-We're pretty good around here.

-There are a lot of good spots.

-And...

-It's the same wherever you go.

-Yeah.

It is. Well, I like working here and, er,

I feel safe walking round at night, even when they're not here, so...

-Yeah.

-All right, see you.

-All the best. Bye.

-See you soon. Bye.

Everybody is really quite friendly you see walk down the streets...

DOG BARKS People are happy to...

come and have a chat on the doorstep and, um,

if you treat them with respect, then they'll do the same.

A local word would be being "tidy", which means being, er...

nice and polite to someone, so, if you're tidy with them,

they'll be tidy with you.

Around the corner, a Community Support Officer has stopped a man

who sells strongly of what he suspects is cannabis.

PC Pace needs to investigate.

Hi, Jason. All right?

And it's Jason, who he arrested earlier.

-I could smell, like, an aroma of cannabis coming from him.

-Is it?

-Yeah, have you got any on you?

-No. No.

-100%?

-Guaranteed.

I really hope you haven't, but I've got to check.

Check me, there's nothing.

-We're coppers. We don't trust anyone.

-Carry on.

All right, so I'm just going to check your pockets, all right?

-The jacket was in the house.

-All right.

-Jason, thank you.

-No problem.

-I'm really glad you haven't got anything on you...

-Don't worry.

-..because I'd be gutted after last week and think...

-The last time.

You are there now. All right. Look after yourself.

I'm pleased for him and it would appear

that maybe he's learned his lesson.

Not carrying on being in possession of controlled substances,

at the moment.

See you, bud.

Next time on Police 24/7...

sniffer dog Naughty Norman is on the trail of something illegal.

There is a definite strong smell of what you call, er, MCAT.

It's time to reveal all in custody.

That one is a garter with a pair of knuckle-dusters.

Bad girl gone good, innit?

And neighbourhood officer Debbie's shift goes off with a bang.

FIREWORK BANGS

It was just a firework going off above the house.