Episode 2 Police 24/7

This time on Police 24/7...

Whiskey Lima 5-5.

Officers respond to a distressed man's call for help.

I've dealt with people like Peter Sutcliffe.

You name them, I dealt with them in Brixton Prison.

I can't cope with this.

The detectives are out looking for clues.

There is an old glove on the floor here.

Soaking wet, don't know if we'll get anything, but it's worth keeping.

And a suspected burglar isn't happy about spending

I love you, Dad. Right, ta-ra.

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.

South Wales Police protect over one million people

with nearly 3,000 serving officers.

We're to execute a warrant at an address in Alltwen...

In Neath, neighbourhood officer Jules Simpson is

briefing his team on their latest warrant.

Basically, we've got intelligence to state that the weapon is

a discharging Taser, very similar to the ones that the police use.

and then conduct a search for the items.

Intelligence suggests that the suspect

Every call that we go to, you never know -

there's always the potential for somebody to become aggressive.

It's just... That's the nature of our job.

Hello, police with a warrant.

The reason why we're here is that we believe that

OK, I'll get it for you.

It's upstairs, boys. Just upstairs, next to my bed.

All right, just let them clear the room first. Yeah.

confesses to possession of a Taser, but this firearm is unconventional.

A torch. Is that a torch?

Or not? Eh... No?

It's next to my bed. It's a torch, it is, boys.

It's a torch.

A torch. Yeah. Is it a touch Taser?

Yeah, just torch and touch. It doesn't fire barbs?

No, no, no, no.

Touch Taser, mate.

CRACKLING

Having identified the torch as the firearm,

Officer Martyn Langan takes a closer look.

Yeah, it's going to cause a burn and quite a nasty shock.

More to prod against the skin

rather than as the police use, with the barbs.

There's no legitimate reason for anybody to have possession of this.

Under the Firearms Act,

the only authorised persons being the police,

there's no reason he should have this whatsoever.

Am I going in?

At the moment, if we confirm that this is a firearm,

you will be coming with us into custody.

You've got no choice about that. Right.

We're going to have a quick search of the property first

and then take it from there.

Kendrick is already on a suspended sentence for a motoring offence.

Now that the firearm has been found, things aren't looking good for him.

It's not a nice job, looking through somebody else's property,

but we want to be absolutely certain that we're not going to leave here

leaving something in here that could be dangerous.

The only reason why we cuffed you was for our safety

while we done the search. Oh, right.

If you've got a Taser,

the last thing that I want is for you to hit me with a Taser.

All empty?

With the Taser seized,

Kendrick is taken into police custody for further questioning.

A successful warrant for the Neath neighbourhood team.

When people call for help from the police,

it's normally the response officers who are sent to investigate.

I had a lovely day yesterday.

Really enjoyed it.

What did you do yesterday?

It was Eid, innit? End of Ramadan.

Oh, right, yeah. So it was basically almost like...

Almost like Christmas Day for the Muslim... Oh, yeah?

With all your family?

Yeah, all the family there.

PCs Jamal Ali and Jo Williams have been working together for two years.

The first call of the day was to a burglary victim

in the Morriston area of Swansea.

DOG BARKS

All right?

Hello!

Cute little dog, isn't he?

I normally check the house every night. Yeah.

Make sure the windows are locked.

I'll make sure the doors are locked, because I'm very conscious of it.

Alison noticed her laptop was missing when she woke this morning.

What's the value of this computer? I paid 420 for it.

Where did you buy it from?

A catalogue.

So 9:30, you went to bed. Which window...?

When you say the window was open...

Both of them? Both of those. As it is?

Mm-hm. As it is now.

CID team along tonight, they're going to come

and speak to you in a few hours.

I'm sorry about what's happened, all right?

I'll keep you updated and I'll give you a ring tomorrow, OK?

I don't have a lot of stuff.

I don't have anything of any value other than my laptop.

That's what they've walked away with. Extremely angry.

I really would like to see them brought to justice.

One way or another.

That's how angry I am.

Burglaries account for around one in ten crimes in Wales,

and the success rate of finding stolen items is low.

She said she's lived at the address for ten years

and that's the first time that his has happened,

which is quite sad, really.

That's one of the things I hate, burglaries,

especially when she's seen this happen overnight.

At Swansea Central police station,

Nathan Kendrick is about to be booked into police custody.

I won't be in here long, guys, do you reckon?

Well, we'll try to get you in as quick as we can, but we can't...

Neighbourhood officers Jules Simpson and Martyn Langan

earlier arrested him for possession of an illegal firearm.

That's the genuine South West Police one.

The Taser, which resembles a police torch, has been seized

after a successful warrant at Kendrick's house in Neath.

Offence? Possession of a Section Five firearm.

What firearm did he have possession of?

A Taser.

Do you understand why you've been arrested? Huh?

Do you understand why you've been arrested? Yeah.

Right, mate, do you have any illness or injury?

No. Do you have any dietary needs? Are you allergic to any food

or can't eat any food for religious reasons?

I don't like curry, mate. I don't like curry.

You don't like curry.

Do you have any drug or alcohol dependencies?

Honestly, I do a bit of coke now and again is all.

Do you need help with reading and writing?

No, I'm all right. I just don't understand big words is all.

It's going to stun you and it's going to cause you a lot of pain.

You could torture somebody with it if you were just continuously

pressing it down on somebody's arm, leg or face.

It's going to seriously hurt.

I'm just googling buying these things.

You can buy it on the American eBay site for $11.99.

According to the description here,

it makes a great gift for a loved one.

HE CHUCKLES

It's not something I considered on my Christmas list,

but each to their own.

Kendrick, who was already on a suspended sentence,

appeared before the Crown Court

where he pleaded guilty to possession of an offensive weapon.

He was sentenced to two years and four months in prison.

South Wales Police have nearly 700 detectives

working to solve crime 24/7.

The guy's entered, taken a hold of his walking stick

and pinned him down with it, prodded him a couple of times,

demanding to know where his money is.

Leading this specialist burglary CID team

is Detective Sergeant Simon Thomas.

So he's gone in there, then taken the tin, which contained ?3,000,

his car key and his house key.

The team are just starting on a new case.

Yeah. He's threatened a neighbour before jumping in the car

and driving off.

The cause of their investigation is the aggravated burglary

against 75-year-old Gwynne Williams.

How are you feeling? OK, good.

Has anything like this ever happened to you before? No, no.

No. No. Bit of a shock, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah.

He's got you down on to the floor, has he? Yeah, yeah.

Prodding me. OK.

How was he doing that?

Huh? LOUDER: How was he doing that?

With the stick. Right.

Were you injured at all?

No. No? No.

Mr Williams' stolen car has been found,

and Detective Sergeant Thomas

is hoping to gather some forensic clues from it,

as the team want to find the perpetrator

of this horrible crime.

How much worse could it get?

An elderly gentlemen living on his own in sheltered accommodation.

He's been disturbed at 4:50 in the morning,

he's answered the door to a stranger and, in doing so, has been pushed

to the floor and has been pinned down whilst he's lying on his back.

He suffered a stroke 25 years ago and his speech is impaired,

his mobility is restricted, and he's then threatened violence

unless he discloses where his money is kept.

You know, to target an elderly person in the first place

is despicable, then subject him to so much violence...

I just hope we find the culprit.

There's a message I need you to read.

Basically, you're going to be looking at 12 photographs.

Nope. No.

No.

Definitely not. Definitely not one of them. No. OK.

Youngster. Right. So younger than the guys here, was he?

Yeah. OK.

So that's all recorded, then,

the fact that you've said it was none of them, it was a youngster.

Well, we're done.

OK? Thank you for coming down.

I'll speak to my colleagues now, and we'll give you a lift back up. OK.

The main thing for us now is to see who can be linked to the car

from the finger printing and the swabbing for DNA.

Possibly the rear-view mirror, actually.

That looks quite new as well.

These fingerprints will be sent off to the lab.

The detectives will have to wait

to see if there's a match on the criminal database.

In Morriston, officers Jamal Ali

and Jo Williams are responding to another call.

We've had a report of a shoplifter,

who was being compliant, but then it sort of escalated.

The suspected shoplifter has been detained

by supermarket security staff.

It turns out he's a familiar face to the police officers.

You all right, Greg? You all right, pal?

You've selected a load of toothbrushes

and electrical goods, razors, concealed them.

Yeah. Yeah, do you want to make any reply to that? No.

You're under arrest on suspicion of shoplifting. Yeah.

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

BLEEP come on, then. Have you got anything on you

that's going to harm me or my colleague?

Any needles? Any needles? No, I don't pin up.

I'm not a smackhead, am I? All right.

Van, is it? Come on, then.

Right, we're going to walk out now.

THUMPING Oi! Chill out.

Calm down, now.

BLEEP!

You're going out, calm down.

Calm down. Oi, there's children out here, there's children.

I don't give a... Oi. Oi.

As the suspect has become aggressive,

the officers are keen to escort him to their van

as quickly as possible.

Watch your head, yeah?

Take a seat, Greg, or you're going to fall over.

He is known to us. He is a face I recognise from our wanted board.

He's been in the area all his life, I believe,

and most of that he's been in trouble for.

BLEEP, OK?

Obviously he's under arrest on suspicion of shoplifting.

We'll take him down to Swansea Central where he'll be booked in.

BLEEP... You lot like blocking out people on camera, do you?

Gregory Jones was later charged with the shoplifting offences

and received an eight-week prison sentence,

suspended for 12 months.

The CID burglary team are investigating their latest case.

Gwynne Williams had his car stolen along with a cashbox

containing thousands of pounds.

Detectives Lewis and Thomas are retracing the burglar's route

in the hope of finding new evidence

as well as conducting house-to-house enquiries.

The kids there, they're always out playing.

So this house that backs on here?

They're always out playing, all the kids.

They might have mentioned something. She normally sits by the gate.

My daughter comes through here every day.

She'd notice a brand-new car, because she likes cars.

I don't understand cars, I don't, so... Yeah.

I mean, there's an old glove on the floor here, but...

Soaking wet, I don't know if we'll get anything,

but it's worth keeping.

Detective Sam Lewis continues to search the area thoroughly.

There's some money taken from the gentleman's house

that he described as being in a blue tin.

There is a blue money tin here.

I'll give him a ring back.

and it might be something to do with this, it might not.

I'll ring you back.

That's an elderly person's writing.

We've got to be realistic.

It's been out...

It's been out in the rain. ..in the elements.

It's a line of inquiry we didn't have half an hour ago.

DS Thomas visits the victim to update him.

Does that look like yours? Yeah, yeah. That's it, is it?

Yeah, yeah. Oh, excellent.

Hopefully we'll get something off this one now.

It's just been out in the rain, that's the problem. Yeah.

It's a frustrating time for DS Thomas and the team.

We don't have a suspect at this stage.

You know, we've got to try and do everything that we can

to help him, because what happened to him was horrific.

It's those type of offences you tend to go the extra mile for.

The detectives are continuing to hunt down the suspect

who committed the crime.

However, they have been able to return the stolen car

INDISTINCT SHOUTING

Many of them will end up here, in Swansea's custody suite,

under the watchful eye of Sergeant John Richards.

He just wants to get it done.

But the officers are carrying out their inquiries.

Lots of forensic runs to be made.

19-year-old Corey Rhys has been detained

What time do you reckon they'll be done with me? Say, 12:30?

We've got to find out when you're being interviewed.

but they're looking at a few burglaries.

cos I think the burglary squad are on top of it

and are doing what they need to do to get through the investigation.

But it's never going to be quick enough for him.

Corey can only be kept in custody for 24 hours

The detectives in the CID team

It's quite a unique footwear print that's been recovered that

they've described as small squares.

Oh, yeah...

Heading to the scene of the break-in that Corey has been linked to

is Detective Matthew Thomas.

where an elderly female's house has been broken into

It was crashed, then. We believe Rhys is responsible.

We've identified a potential point of entry being the bedroom.

We'll see in the passageway, we've got some shiny tiles

and a number of lifts that we're going to take off there.

Hopefully identify the perpetrator's footwear from those.

The team have also uncovered another key piece of evidence that

links the suspect to the crime.

McDonald's for food, then he was captured on the CCTV.

while the team prepare the evidence for his interview.

Yeah, but I won't be out tonight anyway, Dad, right?

BANGING

SHOUTING

He's quite irate, because he thought he was here for two burglaries,

and now it turns out he's being investigated for six or seven.

Detectives Jones and O'Donovan have the task of interviewing

I know the charges are bad, but they ain't from me, boys.

I ain't done it, boys.

Listen, let me just get my point across.

I did not do the BLEEP burglary, mate, at all.

I did not do it, mate.

I got a bit of a clue, I'm not giving names,

but I've got a clue who done it.

SCREAMING IN DISTANCE Is that him?

Yes. He told us he's going to tell us everything about the burglaries,

but then when we showed him the picture,

he said he wasn't a grass.

Oh, he's a man on a mission.

HE SCREAMS

He's given an account and he's denied being at both scenes.

We put four other breaks to him in the area,

and he's denied any involvement in them.

We've got a couple of forensic inquiries, alibi inquiries,

and then we'll be going to CPS,

but I think we've got enough on the two.

Corey will soon either be charged or released,

depending on the Crown Prosecution Service advice.

Not a happy camper.

Response officer Jamal Ali and Jo Williams are on duty.

He doesn't drive when I'm with him.

I only let you drive cos it's easy.

I can just sit here and chill, you know, relax.

They're patrolling the Llansamlet area of Swansea

when they get an emergency call.

I've had trouble with youths, a gang of them.

They turned up again this evening and they're now throwing missiles.

It's affecting my health. I've had enough.

If you drop me off, I'll jump out.

There's a better chance of grabbing them.

Jamal sets off on foot, searching the lane next to the victim's house.

No, there's nothing... They might have gone by now.

Ah...

I don't see anybody here.

The call for police assistance was made by 70-year-old Ronald Kent.

I've had this ongoing for 6 or 12 months. It's terrible.

What can I do? I'm an ex-prison officer.

I've dealt with people like Peter Sutcliffe.

You name them, I've dealt with them in Brixton prison.

I can't cope with this. I put this up to stop them climbing.

They've tried to rip it off.

They've thrown stones at the window today.

I've got at ?15,000 vehicle there. I've got eight grandchildren.

VOICE BREAKING: What can I do?

Jamal and Jo speak to two teenage girls who've been

seen near the resident's house.

He wants a peaceful life, that's all he's asking for.

That's not a lot, is it?

If he was a family member of yours,

you wouldn't like somebody to be treated like that, would you?

Be constantly harassed by these kids.

It's not funny then, is it?

I don't know, we're not even doing nothing,

and he started throwing bottles of water at us and everything.

The other policeman has told me I'm entitled to protect myself,

I'll be protecting myself.

Just walk back while I'm here.

You're looking quite upset at the moment.

Try and talk some sense into the boy -

it's not a game, this is somebody's life.

It's going to make him ill.

It needs to stop. It's stressing him out, isn't it?

Yeah? All right.

Last night was a similar incident, so obviously it is escalating

and it is quite concerning for us, so I will flag it up

for the inspector as well and try to see if we can push things forward.

Better to hang about here for 15 minutes.

Yeah, we'll have a drive round.

I am a bit worried, though, cos obviously his breathing...

It's clearly stressing him out. He was really upset.

I'm not sure if it's the girls that are causing the problems,

but the girls are coming to meet them.

They think it's a bit of a game, don't they?

But unfortunately, it's not to the gent living there. No.

Sometimes it's best to ring us and let us try and deal with it.

Mr Kent was referred to the community safety department,

and warning notices were issued to all involved.

No further problems have been reported.

Midnight at Swansea's custody suite.

Corey, come stand up here.

Suspected burglar Corey Rhys is about to be charged.

Corey, you don't have to say anything.

But it may harm your defence if you do not mention now

something which you later rely on in court.

Anything you do say may be given in evidence. OK?

21st July, having entered as a trespasser, a dwelling,

stole there a 40-inch television and a Ford C-Max motor vehicle.

Any reply to that one? Nothing to do with me.

That night, boys, that night, yeah, I've been with my missus.

Since I got out the jail...

Since the day I got out the jail,

I spent every single day with my missus.

I ain't got time to be going out pinching cars, boys,

I'm getting my provisional.

I'm doing it the proper way, I'm not BLEEP cars.

Corey, on 27th July, additional aggravated factors

where the driver exceeded speed limit and crashed the vehicle,

causing damage to it.

Boys, pinching cars and that was back when I was a little kid,

when I was 16.

BLEEP 19 now, know what I mean?

On 22nd July, you used a motor vehicle,

namely a Ford C-Max motor vehicle,

there was not in force, in relation to that use,

such a policy of insurance as complied with requirements

part 5 of the Road Traffic Act 1988. Any reply to that one?

No reply at all.

It weren't me, boys. I've sorted my life out, boys.

Mate, you seen me come out before I went to jail.

I was a little skinny little rat, weren't I?

I come out, I sorted my head out, boys,

I don't even take Valiums no more. I don't do nothing, boys.

All I do is go out with my missus and spend time with my missus.

It does my head in. Just cos I had a bad past, boys, right?

That's what it is. People are judging me for my past.

That's what it is.

Sickening, like, sickening.

However, despite Corey's protests of innocence,

when he appeared before the courts,

he pleaded guilty to two counts of burglary,

taking a car without consent and driving with no insurance.

He was sent to prison again, for two years.

A positive result for the CID team.

It's been a very long day. Luckily that's the end of it.

For today, anyway.

You've got a group of young children

diving off the Princess Of Wales Docks in SA1.

On their way to the docks area of Swansea

are response officers Jamal and Jo.

What I would say in relation to this call, I'm not a good swimmer,

so I hope she's a better swimmer than me.

Stay there, guys. We only want to have a chat with you.

Don't run, now.

Right, guys. We know you've been in the water,

cos we've been watching you from over there, all right?

It's very, very dangerous, this water.

It's freezing cold, you don't know what's in there -

shopping trolleys, everything at the bottom of there.

You could get into danger in there, OK?

As I said to your mates, there's nobody around here

that's close enough to be able to save you in time, is there?

I'm sure your parents wouldn't be happy.

What school do you go to, boys?

Are you all the same age? Yeah?

Please, please, do not be jumping in the docks, OK?

OK. There you are. Thanks, guys. Ta-ra. Ta-ra.

Luckily for Jo and Jamal,

their life-saving skills were not needed on this occasion.

Problem was the school I went to didn't have a swimming pool,

so you didn't get many lessons, like.

They'd book the leisure centre and you'd have an hour. I was deprived.

Next time on Police 24/7.

Training gets tough for 62 new recruits for South Wales Police.

Response officers are called to an assault on a paramedic.

He threw about six punches.

I mean, it wasn't minimum effort, it was, you know...

And road policing officer Tony Rees overcomes a language barrier.

HE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE