Episode 13 Street Patrol UK

Our lives are blighted by antisocial 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 antisocial 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, we're behind the wheel with South Wales Police as they chase

down illegal off-roaders terrorising the countryside...

The horses have reared up. I've come off several times.

It is becoming a big problem

and I'm just afraid somebody could get really badly hurt.

..play detective to return the stolen World War I brass memorials

desecrated by metal thieves...

They became a place that family and friends could go to

to remember and to mourn those who had died.

..and we find out police in Darlington are going "POP",

with new initiative called Problem-Oriented Policing.

It's a different aspect of policing.

It makes you a more rounded police officer,

cos you're problem-solving people's problems as well. It's fantastic.

We're all in favour of people engaging in healthy sport,

but that should never be at a cost to others.

And in South Wales there's one recreation that causing

a nightmare for residents.

It's noisy, it's dangerous, and it's destroying the environment.

The beautiful forests of South Wales -

a peaceful and quiet area for walking or riding horses,

only, something has been threatening that peace...

..noisy and dangerous off-road bikers

who use the hills as a racetrack.

For local riders, like Michelle Lloyd,

the bikers are turning a lifelong pursuit into a torment.

The motorbikes are increasing in numbers.

They frighten the horses and it's just not very peaceful any more.

Motorbikes have come up the bank, shot in front of us,

the horses have reared up, I've come off several times,

and a couple of my friends have had accidents.

It's been really off-putting

especially if you've got children out riding with you,

and sometimes I'm afraid to go out riding,

because you don't know if they're going to be up there.

It is becoming a big problem

and I'm just afraid that somebody could get really badly hurt.

And it's not just humans and animals who are at risk -

woodland manager Michael Cresswell has to deal

with damage to the environment too.

See the ruts there?

This is a classic example

where the motorbike's been up and down, creating really deep ruts.

You can see where the water's pooling.

If that's going to cross a forest drain or minor watercourse

that can then re-route the water to where we don't want it,

like a mine tip, or even go onto the roads and cause flooding there.

This is also an example where they're actually going

real close to the trees.

Obviously, under the trees are the roots

and that is what hold the tree up - if they start causing deep ruts

there, they will damage the roots,

causing instability which will then force them over.

Concerned by the increase of complaints from the public,

Port Talbot Police are cracking down.

A hit squad team of enforcement agencies are gearing up

to target motorcyclists for trespass and breaking the law.

The reason for today is the last 12 months

has seen a spike in antisocial use of motorbikes or 4x4s in our area.

To combat this, they're going to use Section 59 of the Police Reform Act,

which specifically deals with antisocial driving.

From the police point of view, we've got the section 59 warnings -

we obviously have the vehicle seizures that we can use as well.

Those section 59 warnings last 12 months

so if they've already had a warning previously within the last 12 months,

then we can seize the vehicle.

You're with Gemma today.

The team are off.

PC John Uzzell is keen to act before anyone gets more seriously hurt.

We've had reports from horse riders that they've been up in the forestry

and that bikes have been driving around them,

cos the revs and everything have spooked the horses.

We've got young girl who broke her arm because the horse bolted

and she fell off.

The patrol teams spread out and it's not long before word comes through

that two bikers have been spotted.

We have had a report that they have parked up in the lay-by

further down the lane and have just been stopped

by the off-road bike team, just as they were entering the forestry now.

-He did a left.

-What did he say?

-He said to the left.

Drop off to the right, yeah? Righto.

-What's that?

-BLEEP!

Is it a Suzuki or what?

'They've got no permission to be in here

'and they've been stopped by the off-road bike team'

and are being dealt with and they're going to receive

'a section 59 warning notice.'

I must warn you that if you continue to drive or ride this motorcycle

in the same way or if you drive or ride the motorcycle in the same way

on any other occasion,

this bike can be seized under section 59 of the Police Reform Act.

-Yeah? Do you understand that, do you?

-Yeah, yeah.

-All right? Enjoy your day.

-Thank you, mate.

Just an hour in, and the first success of the day.

As woodland manager Michael checks the gate locks,

which prevent vehicles' access to the forest,

he's alerted to another illegal biker flying past.

There, he just stopped for a second, as the bike came round the corner,

so we're just following behind him at a safe distance

to see where he goes.

The boys have actually seen the bike going down this track here,

and the track goes down to a country lane.

We were up where we were meeting and there was all of us parked there.

He came round the corner, saw us and then just darted off then, so...

It seems that the biker has got away,

but the team isn't giving up yet.

PC Uzzell soon gets word over the radio of another group of bikers.

The off-road motorbike team are quickly on their trail.

There's one rider has been issued with another Section 59

and he's been escorted out of the forestry.

Later, the biker who rides straight into the arms of the law...

What you're looking at is possibly a section 59 warning, right?

..and the motorcycle that's a mechanical menace.

The front brake is being held on with Sellotape.

I've seen few bikes in such poor condition.

War memorials are a place to reflect and honour our heroes

and they're particularly poignant at the moment

because we've just marked the centenary of World War I.

And that just makes it all the more shocking that metal thieves

can cash in on our precious past, vandalising our memorials,

and disrespecting those who gave their lives for our country.

It's a familiar image - the return of the fallen from conflict

in foreign lands.

For families bringing their loved ones home, it allows them

to mourn and honour their memory. But

this wasn't always an option for families of soldiers

who died in world wars, which lead to the creation of war memorials.

During both world wars, there was a policy of non-repatriation

and this meant that soldiers were buried near to the battlefield

where they died.

And therefore there are not many graves in the UK

to those individuals.

When the memorials were set up, they essentially became

a substitute for these graves, and became a place that family

and friends could go to to remember and to mourn those who had died.

There are 100,000 war memorials in the UK.

Many contain metal - brass, bronze or copper - often in the form

of inscriptions dedicated to those who lost their lives at war.

But when thieves are out to make a few quid,

there's nothing sacred about this metal.

For church warden Judy Dunk, the stone obelisk memorial in Radford,

near Coventry, is a vital link to the past.

This is the Radford World War I memorial.

It was erected in 1919.

It was one of the first memorials to be erected.

But as a memorial, it's missing its key features.

Each of the marks on this memorial show where the plaque has been.

Those bronze plaques have all the names of the men

and boys from Radford who went to serve in the Great War -

both those who died and those who returned.

Soldiers from World War I were honoured on the memorial...

..but in an act of vandalism,

two of the four bronze plaques on it disappeared.

The two plaques from the back side

and this side of the memorial were removed.

We assumed that metal thieves had taken them

and we think that someone jemmied them off.

For the parishioners of St Nicholas Church,

the theft was a terrible shock.

It's such an emotive issue, stealing things from war memorials.

If they've got any conscience, right/wrong,

then they wouldn't do it, would they?

I lost my uncle in the war

and my mum and dad were in the war.

What makes people desecrate war memorials?

Everybody was really upset. We had people in our congregation,

whose parents' names were on that memorial.

All these young men and boys who went off to serve,

their memory had been desecrated for the price of some scrap metal.

I was absolutely horrified.

And if that wasn't bad enough, the parishioners quickly

realised that the two remaining plaques were vulnerable.

Just over 12 months ago, a neighbour walking along here

to go across to the shops actually noticed that somebody was trying

to lever off the other two plaques.

They decided to take the unusual step

of removing the remaining plaques for safekeeping...

..then Judy received some extraordinary news.

One night, a policeman knocked on my door and said,

"I think this belongs to you,"

and he had one of the missing, stolen plaques, bent in half,

and gave it us back, so we have three.

One plaque was returned to the church.

Though there's no trace of the other missing one,

the remaining three are being restored.

These two that are reasonably straight

are the ones we removed after

the neighbour had seen that they were trying to be jemmied off.

This one is one of the original thefts that the police

returned to us and when we got it back - you can see that bend -

it actually came back bent in half, bent double.

You can see where we tried to straighten it

and you can still see that bend.

But it will have to be straightened properly

and they will all be cleaned,

so that all this wear and weather markings

will be gone so the names will be clear again.

These are real names of real people

who still have family members living in the area.

Luckily, thefts as callous as this are relatively rare

but every incident risks wiping out

the record of some soldiers' names for ever.

In some cases, there may not be a record of the details

of the memorial and this can mean that

if the inscriptions are stolen that those names are lost for ever.

There is no official register of war memorials or where they are

and that's why War Memorials Trust,

supported by English Heritage, set up the War Memorials Online website.

The website allows comprehensive records of memorials to be uploaded,

meaning that information can be preserved

in the event of vandalism or theft.

This allows anyone to register as a user and upload information,

photographs and details about the condition of memorials.

But as well as restoring monuments, there's a need to try

and stay a step ahead of the thieves.

While there is still a trade in stolen scrap metal, councils

are now introducing initiatives to protect their precious monuments.

This memorial in Watford was created in 1928.

It's listed and treasured for its artistic and sculptural value

and has been the focal point for remembrance events every year.

It's also become

a sort of focal point for memorials more generally.

Recently, a new memorial was created to soldiers

that had died in conflicts since the Second World War.

Tragically, two soldiers from the Watford area were

killed out in Afghanistan in 2009/2010 -

Tom Sawyer and Christopher Harrison.

Because of that, the council worked on creating a new memorial for them

and also there's two memorial benches there.

Watford Council are part of In Memoriam 2014,

launched by the War Memorials Trust and a British company, Smart Water.

With the latest technology, the programme aims to reduce theft,

by employing an invisible solution containing a forensic fingerprint.

Every single bottle of smart water carries its own unique chemical code

and that chemical code will be registered

to a particular war memorial,

so once the solution has been used on a war memorial,

it means it can be traced back, no matter what happens.

By marking this, we're making it far more difficult for a thief

to successfully sell something like this on.

Smart water is only visible by UV light,

and is now being offered free to all memorial custodians.

If a war memorial is stolen

and subsequently recovered in a scrap yard,

or found in the possession of someone, then we can prove

beyond doubt where that memorial has come from and that can then be used

as evidence to help prosecute the person

that was responsible for the theft.

The parishioners of Radford don't know who was responsible

for stealing their plaques but they're planning to defy the thieves

by both restoring and fortifying this vital part of their community.

We are very busily trying to raise the funds required

to have these replaced, bonded in as well as screwed in,

so that they cannot be removed again.

The one that is completely missing will be remade

so that it's the same as these.

This then will be back to the way it should have always been,

and, hopefully, the fact that we've done all this means the community

will keep a watch as well as us and people won't feel

the need to come and attempt to steal them again.

Later, the treasure hunters who are using the cover of night

to dig up and destroy our archaeological past.

You think, "They've been here again. They've been next to my house.

"They've been on my property.

"What have they stolen? What's gone this time?"

Let's get back to what bothers you in Britain today.

Tell me some of the things that you've witnessed here

that have really annoyed you.

-Muggings...

-Yep.

-..for no apparent reason, for minor things.

Gangs beating up people on their own.

They can't do it when they're on their own,

they have to be in gangs because they ain't got the bottle.

I mean, there's drugs freely sold on the streets.

I mean, what are we supposed to do, grin and bear it?

It sounds like it, doesn't it?

It does sound like it.

Isabelle, lovely to meet you.

What do you witness that annoys you about antisocial behaviour?

It's definitely about the rubbish on the floor, in the front garden,

everywhere, or they have a picnic, they leave it,

and maybe 50 metres is a bin they can, yeah...

So people leaving their litter lying around really annoys you?

Yeah, and it's a shame.

What else have you seen that you don't like, Isabelle?

Um, the bus, eating in a bus, smelly food.

-OK.

-That's really...

-When someone gets on, they've got

-some stinking food and you have to open a window?

-Exactly!

-You can't.

-OK.

-You can't, you're just sitting there, yeah,

being polite, say nothing.

Police officers who have to deal with antisocial behaviour

are always keen to find new ways of keeping trouble at bay.

But it seems the answer's actually quite simple -

and it all boils down to the good, old-fashioned bobby

being accessible and understanding.

A lot of day-to-day police work isn't about knocking down doors,

busting drug dens and solving major crimes.

It's often the smaller things that can bother local communities

and it really helps when police can engage with their concerns.

In Darlington, PC Jeff Summerhill prides himself

on being at the heart of his neighbourhood.

The things that we deal with range from everything, really -

we are at the heart of our neighbourhood there

with our house, as it were, where we are.

It can range from a simple theft

all the way through to neighbourly dispute

all the way through to basically just helping people, really.

We are in the heart of the community

so we're there to be used, really, as a community team.

PC Summerhill and his community team have a big patch to cover -

six different wards consisting of housing estates and villages -

so keeping an ear to the ground,

for possible incidents of antisocial behaviour is vital.

-There's somebody up the railway tracks there, shouting

-BLEEP!

I think there's somebody there, you know what I mean?

-Whereabouts?

-Just up them banks.

-Up the banks, in the woods itself?

-Yeah.

All right, I'll have a look, sir. All right.

Sometimes, all it takes is a few words to diffuse a situation.

-Have you been effing and jeffing up there?

-Yeah.

-Have you?

-Why?

-Huh?

-Why have you been swearing?

MUFFLED CONVERSATION

For PC Summerhill, making time to catch up with residents' concerns

is key to the job.

I've worked this area for near on 20 years now

and so I do know a lot of people

and I do have a lot of neighbourly contacts

that I've built up over the years.

They're very friendly.

SIREN BLARES

Thank God I've never needed them - everybody gets on with each other.

We get no trouble with anybody, not like some estates,

do you know what I mean?

It's cos you've got a good police team, that's what it is.

It's a good neighbourhood police team

and you don't realise you have got any problems.

If you had a bad neighbourhood police team, it would be full of problems.

-Yeah.

-All right?

-Bye!

One of the attributes you need, you need to be able to spend time

listening to people's problems, empathy.

Hello, I'm PC Summerhill

-from the neighbour police team around the corner.

-Yeah.

Is it possible to have a chat in regards to the antisocial behaviour

-you've been experiencing?

-It certainly is. Come in.

You have to be with them on their level,

make sure that you understand that their problem is the biggest

problem in their world at that time and that you're there to help them.

-The kids, have they been playing football in there...

-Yeah.

..and using that as the goal, have they?

-And hit the garage doors.

-Large thud, isn't it?

I think when I was a kid I used to use the neighbour's wall

and play wally against it but it probably did have the same

-sort of effect, but once I was told I went in and I didn't go back out.

-That's right.

We were all young once ourselves.

Children playing, yes, it can be annoying when it is taking place

outside your house, but is it just a one-off or is it a long-term

issue we can solve as a neighbourhood police team?

-Have you got any children?

-Yeah, three.

Have they been playing football on the garages out the back?

The last couple of nights, they have been playing football round the back.

-They haven't been doing anything wrong.

-Are they stealing anything?

No, but they have been playing football, which is causing

a bit of antisocial behaviour to the people in the area.

So when they come in from school if you could tell them to keep

-playing football somewhere else, if that's all right?

-Okie-dokie.

For the old-age pensioners it is causing them a bit of a disturbance.

All right, thank you, take care.

This personal approach to what Darlington police are calling

POP - or Problem Orientated Policing - has helped to cut

crime in County Durham and it's one that's working for PC Summerhill.

The job on the neighbourhood came up

and it was on this area of town where I have been predominantly

based, so I thought, "Well, excellent, I will try that."

It's a different aspect of policing, makes you a more rounded police officer,

cause you are problem-solving people problems - it's fantastic.

Anything that might drag the community down is on his radar.

This, here, is new.

We will see if we can get this cleaned up.

We've taken massive steps over the years recently, trying to keep

the crime levels low and to keep antisocial behaviour low,

and to have stuff like this on the side, doesn't particularly make it look any good.

It is that old ethos,

if it is looking bad then people will treat it badly.

If it is looking nice and everything is looking good, then

people have a bit more respect for the area that they are living in.

But some acts of vandalism are more serious. As well as graffiti

there have been reports of vandals throwing bricks off this bridge.

Such wilful acts can risk lives.

Train coming, brick.

One stands on that side, says, "Now" then they drop a brick off.

The carnage it could cause if a train driver crashes that train

after seeing that brick is unbelievable, really.

It is a little bit more than vandalism.

You could actually kill somebody by doing that.

It's kids finding out the repercussions of their actions.

We will have a discussion about that at the meeting on Wednesday.

Getting safety messages through to children is critical - PC Summerhill

regularly visits schools to help with educational campaigns.

I've come here today to carry out what's called a speedwatch with the kids.

Look what it says on the back. Community Speedwatch.

It might drown you, mind. Look you try that one on.

'We have a PACT meeting which we hold in our communities every month,'

which is police and communities together, and we highlight

issues which are causing us problems in our area, and the kids at the

school have set up their own and it is called the Junior PACT meeting.

They have identified that speeding is causing problems outside the school.

Today the children are doing some police work of their own,

by setting a live speed trap to catch out dangerous drivers

who are going too fast past their school.

Since we have been working with the police I think it has

highlighted to us and the children the issues that are just

outside our school but in the village as well.

Right, kids, what we will do is wait for a car, really.

The speed is a massive problem for everyone at every PACT meeting we go to.

It is highlighted as one of the major issues that cause people concerns.

The one behind, the one behind is flying! Anybody got it?

30.

Children are highlighting the cars that are speeding

and writing their registrations down so we may possibly send them

letters and advise them to slow down when going past the schools.

It was more for education than enforcement at this stage.

35, write it down. And what time was that?

Anyone got a watch on? 11.15am. Yep, 35mph.

So just write 32?

35. If he was doing 35, why did you write 32?

I don't know.

People tend to forget what the speed limit is but you can see for quite a distance,

you can see what is in front of you but they tend to speed up

and it is then coming into a village where the school starts.

It can cause quite a few problems.

22mph, so how many miles an hour under the speed limit?

-Eight!

-Eight, well done.

He looked like he was going faster than that, didn't he?

For the kids, it's a valuable lesson

and they have their own ideas why adults sometimes drive too fast.

They might be in a rush because they're late.

Or they think they are smart while speeding

and they think they are all cool, but they are not.

Over 30, there!

It is a really bad spot because it is one of the straightest

roads in Middleton St George, so, yeah, the speeding is really bad.

People don't walk children down to school,

they put them in a car and if they are late,

even with children actually in the car, they're actually speeding.

When they've seen us stood here and they've slowed down,

do you think it has worked?

I do, don't you?

They did slow down, so yeah.

It is initiatives like this that put a friendly face on the police,

helping embed them into the community.

And PC Summerhill is hopeful that teaching kids early will

help their own future behaviour.

It's an education programme with the kids, isn't it? To let them

know that speeding is a problem, and when they become adults

themselves and maybe something in their mind will trigger and they

will think, "We did speedwatch at school and we shouldn't be speeding."

Hopefully in the long term it has a reduction on speeding

and accidents for road traffic, really.

Antisocial behaviour - be it intimidation, excessive noise,

vandalism, flytipping,

graffiti - is just not what you or I should have to put up with.

But there are people all over the UK whose lives are ruined by it,

so it's 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 will find her and she will pay.

...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 get back to what bothers you in Britain today.

-Chris, that is a beautiful dog. What is it?

-An Akita.

Are you a sensible dog owner?

Yes.

-Do you pick up dog poo?

-Every time.

Prove it! Have you got any bags on you?

All right, I will give you your due there! You have a whole roll of them, not just one!

OK, you must see people out there who don't?

You can tell them a mile off.

They don't notice their dogs, as if they're not there.

Often, my friends and I have told people, you know, "Your dog has

"made a mess," and sometimes they say OK and that.

They haven't got a bag and they come and get one,

but some do just walk on.

-Have you ever had any abuse when you mentioned it to somebody?

-A few times.

Oh, really? What sort of things have happened?

I was walking through a local park one time and somebody had a dog

in there, which dogs aren't allowed, and I said to the young girl,

"Your dog's just made a mess and your dog isn't supposed to be in here."

She said, "If you're so worried about it, you come pick it up."

Did that annoy you?

Yes. I mean, there is a lot of good dog owners out there

but the very few that don't do it give us all a bad name.

Earlier, we were out with the police teams in South Wales

on the trail of antisocial dirt bikers who are tearing up

the landscape and terrifying locals.

Woodland manager Michael Cresswell is on high alert for the bikers

as he works to secure barriers and gates to try and keep them out.

By putting a combination of block stones,

metal fabricated fences and the infrastructure we have...

I hear motorbikes.

Hang on... We have got some motorbikes.

But while they can hear the culprits all too clearly,

the bikers can't be seen.

Meanwhile, PC John Uzzell has had word that some other bikers

have been apprehended by his colleagues.

They have stopped two bikes entering or exiting the forestry.

They are off-road bikes and obviously uninsured.

THEY ARGUE

As well as not having insurance, the bikes are dangerous, and one has broken down.

Mechanically, it is shot to pieces. The front brake is being

held on with Sellotape to the fork, so there is no front brake

at all and that is the most important brake on a motorcycle.

On the rear wheel, the bearings are shot, so the wheel could collapse.

It is not just gone a little bit. It is really on the verge of collapsing

and then on top of that, the chain, there is no chain guard, so the if

they were not wearing boots it would be very easy for them to catch their

leg in the chain and that could result in quite serious injury.

I have seen few bikes in such poor condition.

These really are the sort of bikes we target.

The two bikers are both issued with a Section 59.

If they get another of these

within 12 months their bikes could be seized.

Meanwhile, Michael is checking on more of the fences that the forestry

team has installed to make it harder for bikers to get into the forest.

But even these wooden barriers reinforced with wire haven't

entirely deterred them.

Unfortunately, the determination of the illegal motorbikers is that

they've ripped them out of the ground and thrown them to

the side there, so we're going to have to come back here

and put something in its place to stop them trespassing.

This rider might be happy to bypass the barriers,

but he changes his mind at the sight of the team.

And there are still more bikers lurking while Michael checks out

a gate designed to allow horses rather than dirt bikes.

The horses can step over that and get into the forest,

but because of the gaps, cos of the height in it,

it makes it more difficult for motorbikes to get over.

I'm not saying it stops them completely,

but it makes it a lot more difficult for them.

You can see quite clearly on the ground

there's massive treads there from the motorbikers going through.

It's definitely illegal motorbikers, and just while we've been stood here

already two motorbikes have come up here, seen us and turned around.

But they don't all manage to get away.

Across the forest, an illegal biker

is caught riding straight into police hands.

We've had a report that one of the PCOS have stopped

another rider within the forestry.

What you are looking at is possibly a Section 59 warning, right?

It goes with the driver and the vehicle, right?

It is a different vehicle, but a Section 59 goes against the person,

as well as the vehicle itself. When did you get the section 59?

-Six months ago.

-Six months ago.

Having done the relevant checks, it was apparent

that the gentleman did have a Section 59 warning already,

so we've now arranged for seizure of the bike.

But this rider isn't happy.

He only got his £1,000 bike today.

Can't you take the van instead of this?

No, it's whatever you're driving or riding at the time, see?

He will have to pay... I believe it's a fee of £150

to get the vehicle back from the recovery agency.

It's also charged £20 a day, as well, for every day it's kept there.

So it can rack up, so hopefully that will be a deterrent for people

to think twice before they come back into the forest and ride.

It's been a good day for the forest operation.

Today's been a very successful day.

I think it was six motorcyclists we've spoken to and have warned,

and there was one bike seizure.

As well as using our powers under section 59, the enforcement,

we've also educated them of the dangers of riding within the forestry

and we've also provided reassurance to the community.

When you think of heritage, you probably think of buildings,

but some of our heritage is still underground

waiting for historians or archaeologists to discover them.

Trouble is, though, sometimes thieves get there first,

and when that happens, what they're stealing is part of our history.

Lincolnshire, the second largest county in the country.

Much of this rural land is agricultural,

and beneath it lies traces of our ancestors

stretching as far back as the Stone Age.

The Collection Museum in Lincoln houses a large number

of ancient artefacts that have been found on land in the county -

many by people using metal detectors.

We've got a very nice collection of objects here recently found.

We've got a medieval silver penny. A late Saxon mount.

So how were these found, then?

All of these have been found by metal detectorists,

just out searching a field.

In Lincolnshire we've got an awful lot

of arable land, a lot of ploughed fields

and they're perfect for people

to go out and find objects on,

as long as they've got the landowner's permission.

And what they do is go out, they find these things

and they bring them in to me and I'll record them.

In just over ten years

we've recorded just over 52,000 finds for Lincolnshire alone.

Metal detectorists, as they're called,

frequently pass on their finds to the museum.

A very nice gentleman called Keith Kellway,

who has a whole array of his finds here in the museum

that have been donated to us over the years.

But this is the thing -

metal detecting can be very positive for archaeology.

Keith is a perfect example of how metal detectorists

can work with archaeologists and museums,

and together we can help to improve our knowledge

and our understanding of the past.

While collaborations with detectorists

have contributed to the museum,

there is a darker side to the practice of metal detecting

that destroys the historical value of artefacts.

It's known as nighthawking.

Nighthawking is the name that we give to illegal metal detecting.

It doesn't have to be done at night - it can be done in the daytime,

but it is the illegal act of going onto somebody's land

and taking objects, particularly without the landowner's permission,

which is the legal side of it,

but archaeologically, ethically speaking,

we'd also say without recording and reporting those finds

and adding them to the wider knowledge that we have.

Without knowing where the artefacts have been found,

it's hard for museums to prove their authenticity.

Because it's only when it's been recorded

that it truly becomes discovered.

It's the find spot that tells us where people lived.

It gives us context.

Antony believes that when items are nighthawked

without proper archaeological checks and provenance,

their true historical value is diminished.

If you look at online searches of internet auction sites, for example,

there's a whole host of archaeological material,

British and foreign, that is circulating without provenance,

and each one of those is a sad story of an object that has been

ripped out of its context, its information lost,

and now being circulated more as an ornament

than a valuable piece of our archaeological heritage.

Nighthawking isn't a victimless crime.

Farmer Antony Strawson has suffered repeated trespassers on his land

searching for historical items to steal.

First noticed the damage about 15 years ago,

and since then it's been pretty consistent.

When the crops are taken off and it's easy to dig

and easy to walk over land, that's when we find the damage.

When you see these holes and you see the mess that they've made,

you immediately get the blood-boiling scenario,

when you think, "They've been here again, next to my house,

"they've been on my property - what have they stolen?

"What's gone this time?"

As well as the damage,

knowing that nighthawkers have been on his land also takes its toll.

Although we don't generally see the nighthawkers,

we know there's been probably more than three,

maybe even four of them, at least, so we do know they come in groups,

and that alone is slightly worrying

because, if you tackle them, that's when it becomes more fearful.

And in a remote part of the country, like Lincolnshire,

how soon the police could get there

and how effective they would be on their own, who knows?

In response to such concerns,

local police launched Operation Totem -

its aim, to tackle nighthawking across the county.

It was such a problem that it was reported to us,

that we felt we had to launch an operation,

and essentially that's why we did the operation,

to try and combat the problem.

The investigation team had to do some homework

into nighthawking and illegal metal detecting

to find out what it entailed,

how it was carried out and to try and stop it from happening.

And they've had some success, catching and prosecuting

one nighthawker who regularly travelled from Yorkshire

to rifle the fields of Lincolnshire.

The suspect in the case was a male from the South Yorkshire area.

So they were driving into Lincolnshire

at different times of the day and night

to come and take part in illegal metal detecting.

We did the search warrant on his premises

and it was there that we found a number of artefacts

that came from different time periods,

from Roman to medieval periods, and they were subsequently seized

and analysed by experts from the museum.

The nighthawker was fined and had his metal detecting equipment

confiscated, along with his hoard.

But, because he refused to divulge where the items were found,

very few of them could be properly identified

or included in the museum's collection.

We have four objects only that were confiscated and given to us.

These are the only ones have a secure enough provenance

for them to enter into the museum.

The first one is this rather beautiful gilded Roman disc brooch.

A lovely example, actually, of a type we don't have in the museum.

Two incredibly tiny coins, one medieval petit denier,

this one with a particularly gorgeous example of the coin

with a little knight inscribed on it.

So this is a tiny, early Anglo-Saxon coin known as a skeet,

and these are quite important finds to record,

cos these are some of the earliest coinage

after the Romans left Britain

that we have starting to be made in this country.

They're tiny coins, these don't give a very big signal at all

with a metal detector so, ironically, it takes quite a skilled user

of a metal detector to find coins like this.

Even these few small items make a difference

to our knowledge of the past.

If Operation Totem hadn't come to the conclusion it did,

if the objects hadn't been confiscated and subsequently recorded,

the people of Lincolnshire would have been denied this particular

artefact and the information that it gives us about their heritage.

And for visitors to Lincoln Museum this rampant disregard

for the proper rules and methods of archaeology is an antisocial act,

robbing us all of our heritage.

People are just looking out to get themselves some money.

They're not actually looking for things, erm,

for the history or what the items might be.

It's our inheritance, our heritage, isn't it?

All these things, it's what leads up to what we are now.

Pieces of history can be lost, the stories of history,

the narratives in history can be lost.

If you look at Pompeii,

if everybody had gone and taken a little bit then we wouldn't have

whole streets telling stories of how they lived and their culture.

So you need things to be contained.

Nighthawkers is a cool term that they've coined themselves

to make what they're doing a little bit dangerous-sounding,

but what they are is heritage thieves -

they're there to steal your stuff.

Nighthawking is often thought of as a victimless crime

but, actually, it affects every single person in the country

because it's our own heritage

which is being eroded and destroyed by these people.

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