Episode 10 Street Patrol UK

'Our lives are blighted by anti-social behaviour,

'whether it's nuisance neighbours...'

Will you let us in please?

'..graffiti on the streets

'or too much booze.'

You need to make your way away from here right now.

'This is the story of the police officers...'

This is the police, are you in here?

You've been drinking a bit today, haven't you?

'..council wardens...'

This is anti-social behaviour because it affects everybody.

'..and local volunteers whose job it is to keep it off our streets.'

Let's go do some good.

Welcome to Street Patrol UK.

'Today...'

This is the police, are you in here?

'..we're on the front line with Somerset housing officers

'as they deal with a nightmare neighbour.'

One night he got his walking stick and smashed all her windows out

at the side of the flat, like, you know, and I thought

that was way out of order.

'The anti-social graffiti scorch taggers

'who are putting a heritage site at risk of a major fire.'

To burn?

The mind boggles!

'And the London borough where the vice squad, housing authorities

'and residents have joined forces to deter sex workers.'

It's just bloody awful. It's just really bad.

It is bad.

In this series we hear a lot of complaints about noisy neighbours,

intimidating behaviour and vandalism,

all the sorts of things that can be ruining someone's life.

But sometimes all that aggravation can be coming from just one person.

And when that happens,

there are different agencies that join together

to stamp out the trouble.

'Chard, Somerset,

'a quiet rural town you might not immediately associate with

'anti-social behaviour.

'But housing officer Amanda Lowder from Raglan Housing Association

'sometimes has to deal with the most extreme neighbourhood nightmares.

'She's spent months dealing with the fall out

'from one man's campaign of intimidation on a Chard estate...

'..and the list of complaints is incredible.'

Low level criminal activity, anti-social behaviour,

so burglary, shouting, swearing, drug usage,

always finding stolen goods at the property and drug paraphernalia.

'These antagonistic antics have made life hell

'for many of his neighbours.'

He's just been a nuisance basically to everyone around here, you know,

he just... He is one of these that just goes out looking for trouble.

It's like, he was robbing all the time from B&Q,

bringing flowers back to the flats and that, like, you know,

and robbing people's gardens and things like that,

and I thought, "What's he doing?"

My nephew lives up round the corner now and, like, he made him cry.

Nicked his push bike, a little kid's bike.

My little nephew, he went and asked him for it back

and because he shouted,

he was that scared he ran home crying to his mum.

I come on down here and got the bike back for him, like.

He took it back and then he took it back again.

Why do that to young kids?

When he was upset he was just shouting and blamed everybody.

You didn't know if he was happy or angry

or fighting with someone or what.

I think he needed help, he definitely needed help.

I felt sorry for that poor little girl,

you know, in the bottom flat over there,

because one night he got his walking stick

and smashed all her windows out at the side of the flat,

and I thought that was way out of order.

'After months of problems and complaints,

'this resident's behaviour has become so offensive

'that Raglan Housing have taken steps to evict him,

'and today they are at the final stage.'

The gentleman's got an injunction out against him, which means he's

excluded from the property and the area from midday today.

We are there to make sure that that happens.

We are meeting the police on site.

We are also meeting our contractors,

who are there to secure the property afterwards to make sure that

nobody else can gain access.

This gentleman, he can react differently from day to day,

moment to moment, so you don't know what he is going to do next.

'The police are already at the scene to ensure that the eviction is

'carried out safely

'and contractors are on stand-by to secure the property

'once the tenant has been removed.'

It is tense because it's so unpredictable.

You don't know what's going to happen.

You've got to prepare yourself for violent or aggressive behaviour.

'But the man is nowhere to be seen.'

'With the tenant gone, Amanda needs to check over the property

'so it can be secured.

'But she discovers that the evicted man wasn't the only

'intimidating creature living in the flat.

'She's called the RSPCA.'

-All right, Steve?

-Yeah, I think they're both beardies.

-Oh!

-I think. I'm not...

-Hiya, you all right?

They look a bit big for beardies.

Left behind are two...

It looks like, they said it was two bearded lizards,

so they are going to be assessing those now, assessing their condition

and hopefully making arrangements for them to be taken out of the property.

Otherwise we're going to be locking it all up,

and we can't leave them behind.

-They're not in bad condition, overall.

-No, they're all right.

-Oh, that's good. Good, OK.

-They're a little torpid, though.

Yeah, so I suppose easier to handle that way.

-He's got proper lights here.

-OK.

-We'll see if it's on a timer.

'With two lizards and one nasty neighbour dealt with,

'the next stage is for the Housing Association's contractors

'to board up the front door of the property.'

They put a metal door frame over the existing door and then

close the metal door and we lock it,

and that prevents the individual coming back

or anyone else taking advantage and trying to break in.

Job done.

OK, that is all secure.

No-one is going to be getting through that door.

An eviction will come,

we are going to go through a court process,

but in the meantime he is excluded by an injunction.

From 12 o'clock today, he can't be here.

Is he going to come back?

I don't know. We all know he is unpredictable,

that's why I said to everyone just keep your eyes open.

He is not allowed to be in the flat.

Even if he is not doing anything wrong, he still can't be here.

Since he left it's more calm,

so everything get to normal again!

We can just relax now, you know,

because we know that we are all safe really.

It's hard trying to coordinate everybody,

make sure the workmen come, the RSPCA come,

making sure the police are able to do their part without us interfering,

reassuring the neighbours.

I think that those people that have been living in fear

have a lot more confidence that they can live their lives as normal,

let the children back out to play in the street.

I think the biggest thing that's changed

is that the people that have been affected,

particularly directly by his behaviour,

the shouting, the swearing, the violence,

they will be able to have a peaceful night's sleep

knowing that he cannot return.

But a few weeks later, it seems that Amanda's optimism was short-lived.

The resident breached his court injunction

almost immediately by going back to the flat.

There were three further breaches,

two actually being at the property,

and the third and most serious one

was actually spitting at the witness

whilst they were out in the town centre.

By returning to the flat, he was committing a criminal offence

and now the police are involved.

He was arrested because he kept breaching the injunction.

It was a civil injunction put on there by a judge at a civil court.

It's got to be taken very seriously

and he just did not take it seriously.

I don't think he believed the judge had either any powers

or he thought there was going to be any comebacks

or any sanctions to what he was doing.

He essentially just completely ignored it.

Er...the...

Thankfully, the neighbours kept ringing, saying when he was there.

He was then arrested a number of times by police officers.

And on one occasion, he had to be Tasered

because he was so violent in the arrest.

The former resident was given a six-week suspended sentence

for breaching his injunction.

At the moment, he's disappeared, so nobody knows where he is.

But that's not where it ends.

Raglan Housing are taking him to court

to get possession of the flat

because of his extreme anti-social behaviour.

He breached his tenancy by having a dog in the property,

he breached his tenancy by causing a noise nuisance,

he breached his tenancy by letting his friends

or visitors to the property cause a nuisance

when they were coming to and fro.

There was damage to communal areas, damage to flat.

The police had to attend the property on numerous occasions.

Thank you.

This is the first time Amanda has visited the property

since a steel door was fitted to prevent the tenant gaining access.

And she gets a shock.

This is probably one of the most secure doors

that we can put to secure a property.

I think whoever has done this

had some quite heavy kit with them.

I'm not sure at all if it's...trying to get access to his home,

or whether it was someone else trying to break in to steal items.

So I think...

..the best course of action is initially to...

The police, for them to come out and...have a look.

I've just come to the door and someone has ripped the door off.

Now, obviously, this property has been

and is vulnerable to squatters,

to drug users, to people just trashing it

because it's open and available.

So the first thing we need to do is ascertain nobody's inside it

and that there's no evidence

the police need to take away from there for whatever reason,

and we need to get it re-secured.

Thank you for coming so quickly.

-Have you been in?

-No. I was waiting for you.

I've shouted, there's no answer.

But obviously, we need to be really careful.

It's the police! Are you in here?

That's quite a...

Someone has been using this place and it's in a dreadful state.

He did that last time, didn't he? He hid underneath the covers.

Yeah, thank you.

Make sure he's not under here.

There's no recent activity, is there, by the looks of it?

What about the door?

-I've just called that through.

-You done that?

-Yeah.

This is the most secure thing we can do

and they've literally ripped it out.

Hopefully, a new door will prevent the former tenant returning

and the neighbours can live in peace.

We've got things in place to stop him coming back,

but as you can see, that doesn't always work as effectively

as we would all like it to.

But once we legally have possession of the property back via the courts

and we can go in, fix it,

make it look nice and let it to somebody else,

that will then be the end of it.

Since Amanda visited the flat,

the resident has been convicted of breaching his injunction

under the Anti-social Behaviour Act

and is now serving time in prison.

It's good to know when things get really bad with nuisance neighbours

that action can be taken and properties freed up

for people who need housing,

who treat it with greater respect.

The inebriated OAP

and the Ilfracombe Town Team policing the streets

to enforce its alcohol-free zone.

He's too drunk, really, to go home on his own

so, unfortunately, he is going to be spending the evening with us.

Shoes off. Lie on the mattress.

I've been out on a street patrol of my own

to find out what bothers you about Britain today.

Naddy and Terri,

now, what annoys you that people do that is antisocial?

Loud kids on buses.

Yeah, there is a lot of that, isn't there? OK.

But not even just being loud,

but the constant swearing of school kids.

When I was growing up, you couldn't get away with that.

Your auntie might have been on the same bus

and it would be all hell when you got home.

But also, charity organisations.

If you're your lunch break and you've got 25 minutes

and you're stopped by about five different charities,

that is annoying.

Especially when you say no, but they persist

and persist and persist and they won't let you go.

You know they're not allowed to do that?

-They are not allowed to harass.

-It's a form of harassment.

-It is harassment.

Cher and Brian, lovely to meet you both.

What annoys you about antisocial behaviour?

Noisy dogs and dog fouling in the play park out the front of us.

OK. So it is not just the fouling, it is also the barking?

Yeah. My wife, she works nights,

so she's trying to sleep during the day

and the neighbour's dog is barking and...annoying.

So noisy neighbours and noisy dogs by the sounds of it, yeah?

We used have a dog ourselves and it was just...

I mean, you wouldn't go to the toilet outside and leave it,

so naturally, I took a bag with me, pick it up, takes two seconds.

But you see it out the front and...

I should go out and confront them, but I just don't.

They stand there, watching their dog do it, then walk on.

It's like...doesn't seem a problem to them.

When it comes to antisocial behaviour and drunkenness,

we're all too quick to blame young people,

but it's not actually as simple as that.

You see, as far as alcohol is concerned,

any age group can be a problem.

Ilfracombe, a charming seaside resort

on the north coast of Devon.

With its picturesque harbour

and small population of about 17,000 souls,

you'd think it was paradise -

the perfect getaway.

And the folk who run the town want to keep it that way,

making sure it's attractive all year round

for tourists and locals alike,

not blighted by rubbish and antisocial issues.

To do this, the police and the council

have created a task force - the Ilfracombe Town Team -

designed to combat antisocial behaviour.

And the very public face of this proactive initiative

is community support officer Karen Grant.

Hello! All right? Hiya!

She knows just about everybody around town.

Police community support officer,

we work closely with the community,

we deal with low-level antisocial behaviour

and we build quite close relationships

with people in the community, with other agencies.

And we can get to know our communities really well

because we have the time to be able to spend with them,

whereas a police officer may be going from job to job

and not be able to make as much contact with people as they'd like.

Is it you got the alarm?

They are using the steam cleaner in here to clean

and they left the door open, which has then set it off.

That's OK, as long as it's all sorted - thank you.

Karen is on her way

to talk to a ladies' group at the local yacht club

to find out what concerns they may have about behaviour in the town.

Thank you very much for asking me to come to speak to you today.

My name is Karen, I'm a police community support officer

based at Ilfracombe Police Station.

The local ladies do have concerns, especially about youth drinking.

Drink, very much so.

And I do think that the pubs

are serving underage people.

But when Karen is called to an incident

with local PC Nella Barker,

it's not youth drinking that is the problem.

We've had a report of a male slumped over,

um...just concerned for welfare, really.

Just at an address just further up here.

A parent walking his children home from school reported it in -

keep going -

and it's just in one of the side streets

on the left up here.

Yep...there he is, look.

-Hi.

-Hello.

-What's happened, then?

I just...walking down with my children

-and he was sort of talking...

-I know him.

-He says he lives here.

Their initial concern is his welfare,

but this bloke isn't too bothered.

Hello.

-HE SLURS HIS SPEECH

-What's your name?

SLURRING: Whatever...

It doesn't make any difference

but I think you have been drinking a bit today, haven't you?

Which is probably why you're in someone's doorway, isn't it?

SLURRING: Go away...

We can't leave you here.

-DRUNK MAN: Shut the

-BLEEP!

It's obvious he's drunk and his language is less than charming.

Don't talk to me like that. Where do you live?

-I live right

-BLEEP

-here.

-You don't. You don't live here.

-What do you want?

-I want to know what your name is.

Leave me alone.

We'll leave you alone if...

He won't move from where he's slumped.

-Hey, you're a

-BLEEP.

-Oi!

-That's not very nice, is it?

It doesn't look like he's going to stop.

-BLEEP.

-Oi, stop calling me names.

And with kids around, Nella has no choice...

I'm arresting you for being drunk and disorderly,

Anything you do say may be given in evidence, all right?

-One, two, three...

-MALE OFFICER: Ready?

DRUNK MAN YELLS

That's it. Well done.

-BLEEP!

-That's all right.

Get your leg up, get yourself in.

Problems caused by too much booze

are not just down to binge-drinking youngsters.

In the past decade, alcohol-related admissions to hospital

have soared by 150% for those aged between 60 and 74...

and Karen has come across this boozy OAP before.

I recognised him as a local who drinks in one of the local pubs,

so I was aware that he was somebody that lived locally.

Sometimes it helps if you do know them.

Unfortunately, he was so drunk

that I don't think he would have realised if he'd known us at all.

BLEEP!

SLURRED MURMURING

Come on...

The man is taken to Barnstaple nick

where he will stay until he's sobered up.

PC: I'm just holding you up cos you're going to fall over again.

I'm going to book you in, OK? So listen to what the officer says.

-Just wait there.

-DRUNK MAN: What have I done wrong?

He was arrested for being drunk and disorderly.

You've been swearing and you've been drunk, chap.

You'll have to stay with us until you sober up, do you understand?

OK? Yeah, that is what is going to have to happen.

I need to take some details first. We'll look after you, all right?

DRUNK MAN: Whatever you say.

That sounds reasonable to me.

It is difficult with a man like that -

custody's not where we'd like to have him.

But I think today, we explored all the other options.

The ambulance service don't want to take him,

he is too drunk, really, to go on his home on his own.

So, unfortunately, he is going to be spending the evening with us.

Lie on the mattress. Lie on the mattress.

I come across all sorts of antisocial behaviour

and much of it has a complete element of mindlessness to it -

property being damaged by selfish, thoughtless people.

But when the actions of vandals

not only destroy a piece of our heritage

but also endanger life,

that pretty much beggars belief.

Chester in northwest England is a city steeped in history.

Its unique wooden galleried shopping and residential area,

known as the Rows, dates back to medieval times.

It's much-loved by residents and tourists alike.

But there are some visitors to the Rows

who don't treat it with the respect it deserves.

In our last series,

we featured police cracking down on drinkers

using the walkways as a private toilet.

The porous wood soaked up the urine

and was rotting the fabric of the buildings.

You go up there sometimes and they just stink of urine.

It put people off coming round here as well,

you know, like tourism and stuff like that.

It is disgusting as well, if it's on nights out.

I go on nights out myself

and I don't think it's right to be doing that.

Sergeant Andy Burrage was part of the hard-hitting campaign

to take tough action against these careless offenders.

The police took the decision

to take a zero-tolerance approach to public urination -

that is that everyone caught urinating on the Rows

would face prosecution.

In policing it, we are heavily supported by CCTV,

who are often catching people in the act

and within a few minutes, police officers are directed to them.

Fines have been £400 plus from the courts for public urination

and we make sure that that's publicised in local press

and I think, slowly but surely, word is getting around

that the police will take the matter seriously,

they will prosecute it and people can get fined.

So I think, in the long-term,

people are getting more wary and going before they go.

It would be nice to say that that's where the story ends.

But just as police got to grips

with one form of antisocial behaviour,

another raised its ugly head.

Graffiti is something that we see on our buildings

up and down the country,

but this is a new type of tagging

that could result in the complete destruction

of the iconic Chester Rows.

Scorch tagging, where a naked flame is used to burn a blackened tag

directly onto the surface of the walkway.

Graffiting by scorching is potentially a catastrophic problem

for the city of Chester.

The problem with that is the Chester Rows are largely wooden -

they're very old, they're very dry, they're very brittle

and, obviously, could succumb to fire very easily.

For Sergeant Burrage, this new form of antisocial behaviour

doesn't just threaten the building,

but the lives of the hundreds of people who use it.

This is Bridge Street Row in the city centre.

As you can see, it's mainly wood

and it's a mixture of residential properties,

like there are behind us,

and also some business premises up on the right-hand side here.

This is one of the areas where the scorching has taken place,

as you can see on the white plasterboard.

Behind that plaster is very old, brittle wood.

Using a flame to scorch graffiti onto the Chester Rows,

it's just ridiculous, it's mind-numbing.

I'd ask them to think about their actions,

to actually think about the possible consequences

of applying a live flame to a 900-year-old piece of wood.

Potentially, it could bring down the whole street.

People's lives are in danger,

properties are in danger

and they should take away and think about that.

This building, exposed to naked flame,

could quickly become a tinderbox.

For the residents of Chester, the prospect of a fire

caused by such wilful, destructive behaviour

is unbelievable.

It would be devastating and it would affect the whole city.

It would be very sad.

Most of the town is wood, isn't it? Like, Tudor buildings.

So...a lot would go up and it'd probably damage quite a bit.

Graffiti with chalk, paint...

But to burn?

The mind boggles!

It is unbelievable

and you are talking about an utterly different world of graffiti to me.

Local magistrate Hilary McNae

is Cheshire West and Chester Council's heritage champion

and she's terrified by the thought of the damage a fire could do.

It would be devastating to our history.

These are 13th century buildings, they don't exist anywhere else.

Heritage, once it's gone, it's gone.

She also knows from experience

how easily these buildings can go up in flames.

Some years ago,

we had a really bad fire

and there was a lot of destruction

and it just made people realise this is really old wood

so very capable of going up, particularly in the summer,

when everything is super-dry.

And it really highlighted to everyone how important these rows are to us

and, to an extent, how vulnerable they can be.

There has been an odd bit of spray painting,

but this fire thing's a totally new thing,

and I don't know whether it's because they knew part of it

burned down or just cos they're idiots.

The culprits have been at work

in a place where CCTV cameras can't catch them.

But Sergeant Burrage is determined

to nip this dangerous behaviour in the bud.

Chester Police are putting extra measures in place

with a view to quickly catching these selfish idiots.

Part of the problem and difficulty of policing Chester city centre

is it's a very old, historic city -

there's lots of nooks and crevices and alley ways

that people can hide in.

In the past, we didn't have enough cameras to go around.

New, additional cameras have now been added

and now the City Rows here in Chester

are pretty much covered in their entirety,

so any behaviour ongoing up there

can be caught on camera and be reported to us.

Let's hope these mindless fire bugs can be caught in time.

We're on patrol with Tower Hamlets Vice Squad

as they tackle the antisocial dealers and sex workers

on their beat.

They have both been arrested for outraging public decency

because of where...where they were doing it.

Antisocial behaviour, be it intimidation, excessive noise,

fly tipping, graffiti or vandalism -

just not what you or I should expect to have to put up with -

but there are people all over the UK whose lives are ruined by it.

So it is just as well there are people we can turn to.

We're on the front line

with the highly-skilled teams of council workers...

It is my job to get the evidence.

We'll find her and she'll pay.

KNOCKING

..police officers...

I saw you urinate on the pavement.

..and volunteers who are committed

to keeping our streets safe and clean

and taking on our antisocial battles on a daily basis,

to make sure that our lives are not blighted

by other people's bad behaviour.

This is Street Patrol UK.

Let's be honest, none of us would want to visit a town centre

if we had litter, louts

or antisocial behaviour to contend with

when all we want is a pleasant shopping or eating experience.

The same goes for the shopkeepers because they want us to come back.

In one town, the shopkeepers have taken steps

to make sure they keep the louts out and the shoppers coming in.

Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire,

a peaceful-looking market town, birthplace of Oliver Cromwell.

But even here, antisocial behaviour can surface,

including vandalism, drunkenness and mindless violence.

A lot of people drinking, especially in this kind of Market Hill area.

Drugs, as well, that is quite a common thing.

But the town centre businesses aren't having any of it.

They've clubbed together to invest in a new scheme

they call The BID Huntingdon Town Rangers.

Hi!

With regular town centre patrols on foot,

the Rangers are on hand

to liaise between the police, CCTV and the shops.

So did anything else happen yesterday?

-No, just...

-Just the Oxfam thing, yeah?

Wendy and Bob are part of the three-man Rangers team,

which has been patrolling Huntingdon since February 2013.

As a highly visible and approachable presence on the street,

they can they can deal directly with issues as they arise.

I was kind of looking around

and I saw the advert and thought I'd apply for it.

Yeah, I'm glad I did, actually.

It's good.

Town Rangers are an absolute credit and a bonus to the town.

I was very sceptical when it was first brought up on us

as I didn't know if we actually needed them.

Keeping shoppers safe on the streets is a vital part of their job.

Excuse me, can you walk with your bike, please?

Can you get off your bikes please, lads?

Can you walk with your bike?

-Can you walk with your bike, please?

-Two in one, there!

-Two in one.

It's a blind bend. If you're coming round

on your bicycle at a fair speed,

there's a young child walking up...

you can easily knock them for six.

It's a job where you come in on a daily basis

and nothing's routine, everything can change.

You can just walk around a corner and the whole day changes.

And you have to deal with whatever's put in front of you.

With their links to the police,

the Rangers are also well placed

to nip more serious problems in the bud.

-Basically O2, right?

-Yeah.

Two days - on the 7th - they had a load of tablets swiped.

Could you pay a regular visit to the shop?

-Course, yeah.

-Because they think you might be a deterrent.

-Hiya!

-Hello.

They say you've had a bit of a theft?

Yes, we have, it was our Z2 tablet, unfortunately.

OK, let me write this down.

A lot of shoplifting goes on in town, which...

They're very clued up on who's around.

They're always there, you radio through to them,

they respond immediately, so it helps us with our business.

Shoplifting costs British retailers millions of pounds a year

and Huntingdon sees its fair share.

There's four guys hanging about - one's wearing a hoodie, jeans.

With two-way radios linking them to CCTV operators,

and their own eyes and ears on the streets,

Bob and Wendy can be on the scene immediately

when shoplifters are about.

We've got three guys at the moment

acting really suspiciously in the sports shop

just down the way there,

so they've already called the cameras in.

All we're doing is supporting in case they walk out with anything.

That's one just walking out now, actually, the blue hoodie.

CCTV, it's the Rangers, those guys have just gone in.

I might just walk in there after them,

see what they're up to.

But the suspect shoppers seem to be merely browsing, taking their time.

Hello, Rangers to CCTV.

Those guys, they are paying for their stuff now,

so they seem to be...OK.

For both shops and shoppers, the Rangers are there for them.

If we can help people, that's the idea, I think.

If we can help people, then we do.

That's quite a feeling of...

It makes you feel good.

This is pedestrianised between ten and four.

The Rangers are steadily becoming part of the fabric of Huntingdon.

Have you got any problems, any issues today?

We're building up really good relationships with most of the shops,

most of the businesses, actually, so they do use us.

I think they like having us about.

Night-time is the time the seedier side of human behaviour -

like prostitution and drug dealing - come to the fore.

The two often go hand in hand, which means double the trouble

for any residents who live in an area

where girls work the streets.

I spoke to a lady in east London who told me the problem is so bad

she feels like she's living in a nightmare.

Linda, how long have you lived around here?

I've actually only been in the area for ten months.

OK. And what do you think of it?

It is absolutely horrendous.

It is not an area that, even in the day time,

I would like to walk around alone

because there is so much drug dealing, alcohol,

alcoholics, prostitutes...

Really? This is daytime as well as night?

Daytime, night-time, 24/7.

Have you changed your normal habits,

things you'd do normally during the day

as a result of life around here?

Well, I very rarely go out

because I don't want to be harassed by people.

What sort of harassment are you getting?

Um...the harassment mostly is men in the street

thinking that you are a lady

that wants to...make a little bit of money or something like that.

People actually asking you whether you want to prostitute yourself?

Yeah, the cars start to go slowly

or they're knocking on the door.

Are you...?

I find this hard to believe.

So you're inside, you've actually got people knocking on the door...

-Yes, you do.

-..offering you money for sex?

Well, yes. I mean, you know that's what they want

because that is what goes on down the street.

Why else would they be knocking on the doors,

walking backwards and forwards?

And as a result, you don't go out much?

-No, not at all.

-I am quite shocked to hear it is that bad.

It is horrendous.

It doesn't seem like normal life, but that is what happens down here.

You need to live in the area to understand that...

-It's not great, is it?

-No, it really is horrendous

and that's not even...

That's not even summing it up.

It's just bloody awful. It's just really bad.

It is bad.

But in one London borough,

the police, the housing association and the residents have joined forces

to banish the problem for good.

Tonight in Tower Hamlets, the Vice Team -

Sergeant Dave Deal and PC James Coxshall -

have been joined on the beat

by One Housing antisocial behaviour co-ordinator Kiera Curran.

One Housing have been instrumental

in bringing the vice squad onto their estate

to help them reduce drugs and prostitution,

and they've taken other measures, too.

It's called crazy paving,

it is basically meant to deter antisocial behaviour from occurring

in a place where you don't want people to stop or loiter.

Basically, the issue here was prostitutes were coming here

and having sex up against this wall

so they have replaced the usual paving with crazy paving

to stop people standing on it for long periods of time.

Now that they have instigated

joint late night patrols of the estate with the police,

installed new lighting and gated alleyways,

fewer residents on this estate

are making complaints about prostitution.

But even with measures like this, it's a constant battle

for the Vice Team to keep the problem in check.

Many of the girls who work the streets are drug users,

so a key part of James and Dave's job

is to try and keep them away from drugs

by getting the dealers off the streets.

Each night they patrol, often with CCTV operators

tipping them off to anything dodgy-looking.

SIREN BLARES

And they haven't been out long

when a speeding car arouses their suspicions.

They decide to give chase.

CCTV captures all the action.

Gents, you're detained for a drugs search.

Why did you pop your hands in your pockets? Sit tight, sit tight.

Listen, boys, sit tight in the car. I'm going to explain it to ya.

Gents, the way your driver's been driving

suggests you didn't want to get stopped by us.

So what were you boys up to tonight?

Gents, if you could step out of the vehicle.

Step over there for us, boss.

Dave and James suspect these guys may have been dealing drugs.

With many of the girls working to pay for a drug habit,

these stops need to be visible and impactful.

So what's going on tonight, gents? What's with the driving?

What's with the driving?

He was going too quick, ain't he?

You got anything in there, boss? I saw you jam your hand in there.

The vehicle we just stopped,

basically, we'd seen it doing loops of the area, seen it out and about,

so for a start, that gets us wondering

what they're up to, driving round and round.

They darted past us, he was taking various routes,

basically trying to evade us.

But with the help of CCTV, and us popping round corners,

we've caught up with them and you saw us put the stop in.

My name's James - fellas, listen to me.

I'm James, I'm from Bethnal Green Police Station.

I'm searching you under Section 23 of the Misuse of Drugs Act.

I'm going to have a look.

I'll keep hold of that.

In the rear seats of the vehicle, I found this little torn bit there,

which, to a lot of people, won't seem like much,

but basically, that there, you can see,

is snapped off at the top -

that is commonly how crack cocaine or heroin would be wrapped.

That, coupled with the fact they didn't stop quick enough,

the amount of change that was in the vehicle -

now, commonly, when people are addicted to crack cocaine,

they don't always have crisp £10 or £20 notes.

They'll do it in 50ps, £1s, whatever.

A lot of them were taking calls at the same time.

These are drug users, calling them, saying, "I want to pick up, where are you?"

Evidentially, there's not enough there for me to arrest them,

I can't prove it, but I'd put my next month's wages

on that's what they're up to.

Boys, you can go.

See ya later, fellas. Be good.

Without enough hard evidence to make an arrest,

they have to let the men go on their way.

As well as spotting dealers,

Dave and James are familiar with many of the girls who work the area.

The Vice Team's constant presence

is a way of keeping their activities in check.

There she is, Oh, no, she's going the other way.

Although, it's not illegal to have sex for money,

it is against the law to solicit for sex,

so if the girls spot Vice, they move on.

She always works on that little section.

She's just out working.

Now she's seen us, she might leave, she might not.

Then they spot another girl they don't recognise.

Her behaviour suggests she's working the streets.

We're sat in Chester. They're going to walk right past us.

The team ask CCTV to keep the girl in their sights.

Stand by, mate. Jase, they've just gone past our car.

Can you just give us the updates where they're going?

By liaising with CCTV operators,

they can keep track of the potential suspects.

-RADIO:

-They're just by the recycling bin,

just on the corner of Kelsey and Chester.

Yeah, the usual...usual spot.

Dave and James know better than to jump in straightaway.

They're pretty sure they know what is about to happen

in the communal area of this block of flats,

something that can only cause offence to the residents.

It's kind of just picking the right time to go over

so that there's enough evidence for us to be able to arrest them.

Basically, CCTV will keep an eye.

They can't directly see them, but they can see where they've gone

and if they're in there for a minute or so,

me and the skipper will just walk up and see what's going on, basically.

I reckon they're in the normal place.

James and Dave time their intervention perfectly

and catch them in the act.

Hello. Police officers.

The pair are separated and questioned.

What's your first name?

Get yourself sorted out.

There's no lack of evidence this time

and both are arrested for outraging public decency.

They're taken separately to the police station.

We saw totally what they were doing.

It is a public place.

We could see them from 15 yards away, easily,

as soon as we walked around the corner.

And...they've both been arrested for outraging public decency

because where they were doing it, people could see it.

It may only one couple, but every time Vice steps in,

it's another move towards cleaning up our streets.

Well, that's your lot for today. Thanks for watching.