Episode 3 The Met: Policing London

This programme contains strong language.

This programme contains some scenes which some

This Taser is capable of delivering 50,000 volts!

The task of protecting them false to the country's

Hello, Metropolitan Police, how can I help?

In a single year, they are called to 90,000 robberies and burglaries.

You've been identified as being responsible

You unlawfully and maliciously caused grevious bodily harm.

Can you think of a reason now why I should give

It's a force seen by some as the enemy.

Black people growing up around here feel

My driver has come under attack with a glass bottle.

He's had his head split open, and another officer has been stabbed

What are you doing using language like that?

We lock up the bad people so that people like you can

Although, I once saw a fox run across the road with a whole KFC

Hackney is the only borough where foxes will look you in the eye

and purposely not move because they're not scared of you.

PCs Dave and Paris have been working together for five years.

They patrol one of the ten most violent boroughs in London.

OK, informant reporting a disturbance, who thinks two

Both are Taser trained and assigned to I grade

calls, where an immediate response is needed.

It's the start of the bank holiday weekend, and a 22-year-old man has

Can we take your top off and have a proper look, mate?

Facial injuries are very emotive, the face.

People can get totally transfixed with the fact they've got

an injury to the face, and in fact, they've got

a much more serious injury to their torso or abdomen.

Look down into your own groin and make sure there's no

Sometimes they won't recognise the fact they've got

what is actually a very serious injury, which is why

Stop, show me your belly, let me see your armpits.

Because, you take a stab wound into the axilla

He's stated that he fell over, that's how he did his face.

It's not particularly deep, but it's clearly enough

to make him be sick, and he's probably dropped

The victim needed 27 stitches in his face.

Suspect knife, possibly still outstanding.

Now our primary aim is to track the suspect down and arrest him.

I'm guessing he's going to be the usual gang-looking type.

Obviously, pleased you're a weight Taser unit.

Following information from a member of the public,

they believe the suspect is less than two miles away.

Fellow officer Naomi has reached him on his phone.

If he is distressed and in a state of panic, I'm not letting

He's going to be engaged by Taser officers.

He can arrange to meet whoever he likes.

Try and get eyes on, and he will be a Taser challenge.

He's obviously panicking, but the problem is, people make bad

decisions when they are panicking, and our job is to try to minimise

He's already done something stupid, and he's got to be dealt

with for that, and we've got to secure him safely.

The Sergeant has decided the Tasers shouldn't be used,

so another unit will carry out the arrest.

You do naturally get excited about these kind of calls.

Your adrenaline is pumping, and you are about to catch someone

who is walking around the streets with a knife.

It's one of the most satisfying things you can arrest someone for,

because it's such a big issue in London again, the knife crime.

Over the last year, 13 young people have died as a result

We were getting ready for a red dot challenge, we were.

We are going to take the suspect back to his home address,

try and find the knife, and it just ties it all

Less than a mile away, there's been another attack.

A 24-year-old man that's been stabbed.

It took me ages to get these new white shirts,

so I try not to get any blood on them.

It's like gold dust, getting new uniform.

We're looking for victim, and the suspects have gone up

to the left and taken the next left onto Bucks Hill Crescent.

But obviously, from the other cad, suspects have run off in that

direction, towards Bucks Hill Crescent.

He's got a stab wound to the upper right groin area.

Paris stays with the victim while Dave and his Sergeant

They like to debilitate their victims.

There is embarrassment, there's a lot of complications.

People end up having to use colostomy bags and stuff.

Myself and 19 are going to be walking through Red Path.

The suggestion that the suspects may have made off in this direction.

There two males just on your left into the park.

They didn't make off in any way, but they were paying a lot

With no description of the suspects to go on, all David and his Sergeant

can do is try and question anyone in the area.

Despite the arrival of more units, the police lose the boys

With the increased police presence, another man has been arrested

I'm arresting you for having the lock blade on you.

In the area, I heard little kids was stabbing each other.

Units have been called in to search the area.

They find a bag containing thousands of pounds worth of class A drugs.

And, back in the park, Dave has uncovered several weapons.

Regardless of what the motive is, they are just kids.

That lad's got a horrific, life changing injury.

I know they say it's not life changing, not life-threatening,

but he's basically got a massive stab wound in the top of his penis.

That's going to cause him, potentially, a lifetime of problems.

All these kids could be doing something worthwhile.

You know, they are all capable of doing something decent,

They're just throwing it away doing dumb shit like this.

When officers arrived at the address, a 45-year-old man

He is arrested and brought to Kingston Police Station.

So the charge is attempt to rape a woman 16 or over.

Intentionally attempted to penetrate the vagina

of a woman with your penis, when she did not consent,

and you did not reasonably believe that she was consenting.

Rape and attempted rape are difficult to investigate.

You effectively have one person's word against another, so the fact

that you have the suspect there, it's effectively the

Detective Inspector Neil Jones is from the Met's Sapphire Unit,

which investigates rape and serious sexual assault.

First and foremost, thank you very much for all your

We had an excellent result, which was well deserved.

We can take some comfort in the fact that a dangerous sex offender

But, as we know, that's the easy part, and the hard part

is going to be the next bit, ensuring that we have

At the moment, it appears they've never met previously,

there was a two-minute walk to the home address, then,

within a very short space of time, they are allegedly in bed having

sexual intercourse, which I would suggest is quite unusual.

It is very unclear what she means by "following".

"He wasn't that far away" was the words she used.

That's all you get, over and over again when you question her.

She's a lady who has Down's syndrome, and as such,

communication with her is proving to be quite difficult.

There is a possibility that she invited him into the flat,

but likewise, there's also a possibility that he followed her

without her knowledge, and got into the flat,

or forced her into the flat, or even under false pretences.

To me, there's a bit of confusion as to what he's

It is unclear whether there's been any penetration or not.

I think the confusion comes from when people have

asked her direct questions, "Have you had sex with him?",

But when I've asked the same question, she's very adamant.

Do we know what she understands by sex?

Mum has provided us with a statement saying that she understands

that it is something to do with a man and a woman,

but doesn't have any clue as to the biometrics

Which obviously casts confusion on when we ask

if she's had sex with him, yes or no?

The police arrived, and the male suspect was actually here,

What we are trying to find is traces of him and his DNA

and his forensic make up contained within this bed area.

The officer in charge of the case is Detective David Fall.

What we do know is that he was here upon arrest.

What we don't know is what took place in the address,

and what we are trying to establish is him committing

We are looking in terms of semen, bodily fluids,

I mean, that looks like it's a hand that way round.

But there's not a lot of detail in it at all.

David is joined by Detective Asha Sharma, who is visiting

the victims' neighbours to gather more information.

She came running into me and just hugged me and started crying.

She was saying, "There's a man upstairs in my bed naked

with a bottle of vodka, and he won't go, he won't go."

And she just kept saying to me, "he touched me here,

"I kept saying no", and I asked her if she knew who it was,

and she says, I don't know who he is.

OK, when you see Jolene, what do you think, when you see her?

It indicates there might be semen, so we will take those swamps

I've got something coming up right on the corner now.

That's going quite deep purple, isn't it?

We can't establish at this stage if that is semen of the suspect,

however, we will know more in a few days' time.

No reason why I shouldn't carry this weapon.

In east London, Dave and Paris are beginning their shift.

I've carried a Taser for three years.

I've only actually had to activate the Taser twice,

once for a person, once for a dog, and it is...

Someone set off the alarm in the front office, so I had to run.

I'm a big fan of running, as you can tell.

It was a false alarm, so we can go back.

Dave is 35, and one of the most experienced response

The test is if you can drink the coffee on the way to and I grade.

The test is mainly if you don't end up wearing coffee.

It's the beginning of rush hour, and a suspect package has been

reported three miles away in Old Street.

There is a male who's put an object on the side of in the bin.

There was a bin right in front of him, so it's very strange,

and obviously given the Brussels attack recently, people

So, Eastern European male, five foot seven, stubble,

black hood, rucksack on his back, wearing dark clothing.

Dave, that male on CCTV has gone into the block by Argos,

Do you want to look the other side of Old Street

He's placed an item by the side of a bin.

He says, as it blows up in his hands!

That's never going to cause anyone any harm, however,

someone was obviously nervous about it.

It's our job to make people feel more secure.

It's the Queen's diesel, so we will run around and pick it up.

25-year-old Paris joined the Met after leaving college,

starting out in Hackney, less than ten miles

This is my favourite song at the minute.

We may agree on many things, Paris, but music may not be one of them.

This is, you are away, somewhere hot, on a beach,

# I need to know where do you wanna go...

It's 9am, and they've been alerted to an altercation nearby.

You're not going to bite my hand off, mate, are you?

Mate, everything you say and do is on camera.

Patrol, this prisoner is smashing his head

And was ordered not to return to that address again.

I'm just going to try and see here, there is quite a large

queue of people waiting to board that bus.

What I'm trying to do is identify the point where the victim

and the suspect first encounter each other.

David Fall, the detective in charge of the attempted rape case, has got

hold of CCTV showing part of the victims home.

They did not board together, the victim in this case has actually

just boarded the bus here in the screen that we conceive.

And if we follow on the footage are suspect just enters

So at this stage it wouldn't appear that they've ever

And as we can see in the bottom right-hand picture there,

the victim is in fact sat by the window and the suspect

And I'm fairly confident that is the first time

It's very difficult to tell if he is engaged in any conversation

The suspect is now following the victim off the bus.

She comes out the bus and turns left, which would be

But he walks straight towards the fencing area

It would appear that he didn't get off the bus knowing which direction

From what we know, the account so far that we have managed

to obtain from the victim is very consistent.

What we need to really know is what happened in her flat,

At this stage there is a lot of questions that

The detectives need to get a more detailed description

of the alleged offence from the victim.

She's been living independently for six years.

But has been staying with her mum since the attack.

Remember when I said that we were going to get your story

about why you phoned the police on Friday?

What we are going to do, we're going to do that tomorrow.

And the reason we are here today is really to see if you've got any

We have got Gaynor here, she's going to talk to you.

Now, I've come to meet you, I'm not a police officer.

What I am is called an intermediary because sometimes when the police

talk to people they've got their own way of talking

and some people might not always understand what they are saying,

what they are asking them, so we are going to chat and look

at some things so I can get an idea of the sort of words you find easy

to understand and the sorts of things that you might find a bit

difficult, does that sound like a good idea?

Right, now, I'm going to put some things out on the table,

Can you pick up for me the blue penny and the orange pencil?

So, what I'm going to do now Jo is to see if you can tell me

the names of different parts of the body, so first

of all I am going to show it on myself all right?

So can you tell me, let's have some really easy ones.

Let's have a look at this picture of the ladies here,

what would you call those bits there on a lady?

On a man, what would you call that bit?

What does it do, what does the penis do?

OK, when you have sex, does it do anything else?

Does it do anything else, a man's penis that you can think of?

It's going to be particularly difficult for her to give

explanations of things, how did such and such

What was the reason that you did such and such.

She'll have enough difficulty just sort of chronological

So we may have to have sort of timelines where we can

draw pictures, some sort of visual reinforcement.

In east London, the Met's dedicated robbery unit, the Flying Squad,

are one of the only teams in the forced to carry firearms.

Personally I've always liked investigating robbery.

Obviously there is an excitement element to it.

Dealing with quite often top end criminality.

And we have on the Flying Squad an arms capability as well

Detective Inspector Nick Blackburn is investigating three armed

shop raids in south-east London.

The offences are very serious, at the top end of the offending

I cannot overstate the level of threat that was used here and it

has a hugely traumatic affect on the victims within the stores.

Some will never recover from what happened.

Two suspects have been identified from DNA evidence found

Paul Brown is linked through a dropped ?5 note,

it was dropped by Brown as he left the store having

This is a close-up of the dropped H bag and that was where we found

the partial DNA match for the suspect with

Nick and nine officers are heading up the day

Scott Smith is a far right supporter.

He's got previous offences for possession

That taken together means that we're not to enter his house.

That would be on his terms.

We are going to wait for him to come out of his house.

The intention for us today is to keep Scott Smith under control.

To avoid a possible armed stand-off the team have to sit tight

until Scott Smith comes out of his home.

I think with this particular individual, when you actually look

at his record, he's not a criminal mastermind.

From evaluating the offences themselves and the mistakes that

have been made by him and his associate.

They've committed an offence which will see them receive

considerable prison sentences, all for ?1200.

Insufficient I would say, for the risk that is presented.

After four hours on stand-by, Scott finally leaves his address

Yes, yes, you've got three arrest cars formed up in Beacon road.

Got anything on you you shouldn't have at all?

You fucking hit me in the back, mate.

Detectives search Scott's address looking for items that

What it is guv, it looks like we've got some of the items of clothing

The distinctive black trainers with white soles.

I did not take you for a Justin Bieber man.

That's it, your cred has gone now with us.

Kind of brought the mood down this hasn't it?

The second suspect, Paul Brown, has also been arrested,

and both are being taken to Bromley police station to be questioned.

There you go, man in the blue coat, gunmen

I believe that's you, because it looks like you.

The man behind him, do you know who that is?

Was that you that pushed the plastic bag under the counter?

A lot of the clothing was found, at both Brown's and Smith's address.

Paul, watching that, that's a very good likeness for you isn't it?

And let's not forget as well the likeness with the images that

we've seen on the CCTV so it's a very strong case.

I'm very pleased it's a success for the victims,

they are looking at quite a few years in custody.

You have been arrested on suspicion of attempted rape.

Jolene says that you touched her breast then pulled down her knickers

Is that why you forced your way into her house and tried

Do you get drunk and follow people home off buses?

The suspect in the attempted rape investigation has refused to give

David's only opportunity to prove what happened is to get

She's come in with her support worker Nicola.

Has she been, how was she after we went?

Handling it better than what I thought.

Come and take a seat, this way my darling.

Right, Jo, on Friday, you called the police,

I was in the bedroom and he's pulled my jeans down to my ankles.

Jo, who pulled your jeans down to your ankles?

Did you ask him to come to your flat?

After he took your clothes off, tell me, what did he do?

You were scared of the man and you told him you don't want to do it.

The thing that worries me now, I say worries me, it's quite

consistent at the start, right at the end, prior

to the break, he's raped me, or he's tried to rape me.

But we need to ask her what she understands about rape.

Which is our last question, do you know what rape is?

He's been charged with attempted rape and we need to be able to prove

beyond doubt that that offence has taken place.

Do you know, when you said he tried to rape me...

Tell us again, what does it mean, when someone rapes

They have now been interviewing Jolene for nearly 90 minutes.

Take him back to prison, the police came round and arrest him.

OK, we are getting very confused here Jo.

I think we are going around in circles now so I was just saying

whether or not there is any merit in maybe doing a further

I don't want him to go to my flat again.

We can sort that out, he's in prison at the moment.

Yeah, that is what my job is, to make sure that we lock up the bad

Neither do we, that's why we do the job that we do.

So that people like you, the good people can sleep safe

It's 11:30pm on Saturday night and units are called to Shoreditch.

Sorry mate, you got something to say?

Fella, I'd take yourself home before you end up getting

But with enough officers already at the scene,

Dave and Paris can go back on patrol.

That's why I wasn't going to stop, because I thought you were

Literally, it's not good to take much tonight.

This is going to be a fucking horrendous night isn't it?

Is there a woman flat out on the floor there?

You can't just lie here, people are going to think

You're lucky you ain't been robbed, this is the middle of Hackney.

You're taller than I thought you were going to be.

Madam, do you want to put the bag on your shoulder?

No, no, you are not under arrest, we are just taking

It's just I'm not putting you in my car, it's safer

in the back of this because it's wipe clean, you know what I mean?

She's in a lot more danger if we leave her there.

It's a couple of minutes round the corner.

It's not something we like doing but it will result in her not

becoming a victim of crime later on tonight.

Back on patrol, a car has caught Paris's attention.

He's literally running around all over that car.

Sounding angry and rude and aggressive?

I want you to practice your inside voice.

I want you to like kill them with kindness.

Good evening sir, I hope you're having a pleasant day, the Lord....

Let's stick to things like hello, I would like to firstly tell

you what a lovely shade of blue your car is.

But secondly, put a goddamn seatbelt on.

You're going to be calm, you're going be cool.

Excuse me sir would you like to pull your vehicle over?

I'm getting bored, we are going to have pull this vehicle over.

You know what, he's going to stay off side, if he stays off side

Just a quick note, your passenger in the back should be

Not only is it a ?100 fine for you sir, and you young lady,

but also in the event of a collision he will travel forward at about 60

mph and crush your head into the dashboard so I would

thoroughly recommend everyone wears their seat belts.

Aw dammit, now I'm going to have to stop at these lights.

It's nearly 4am and a mile and a half away Hackney council CCTV

team has spotted a fight outside a nightclub.

At the minute you are detained, you're under arrest

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

if you do not mention when questioned something

No, because there might be evidence in there

Relating to the GBH, someone's been hit with a

I didn't hit anyone with a fucking bike lock.

You are under arrest on suspicion, calm

OK, well you're going to be in the van and we

are going to check the CCTV, at the minute you're on suspicion.

Your further arrested for possession of

class B, you do not have to say anything but it may harm your

defence if you do not mention when questioned something

David has asked Jolene back as he needs to make sure he has

the most comprehensive account to present in

We need to prove beyond any reasonable doubt

That is why our interviewing victims and

We need to give ourselves and most importantly

the victim the best possible chance of justice in court.

They don't have the forensic results back.

And there's still some uncertainty whether they should prosecute for

attempted rape or the more serious offence of rape.

Can you tell me, who walked in to your bedroom first?

From looking at that, was he laying on top of you?

Talking in such graphic terms of parts of the body and

certain actions that may have happened in a sexual offence

investigation, it's such a difficult process for anybody to go through.

We can't ever make it any better but we can try to

make it easier and it's about having empathy.

It's making them feel that we are there, that we care

and that we want to do the best thing for them.

Again, I wasn't there, OK, so it's very important that I can

Can you tell me what you think I mean?

He came forward to me and put his penis right down my ankle,

Maybe we could just use, they've asked you, did his penis

We need to have a talk about this don't we?

I just don't think her yes, no answers are 100% reliable.

That's what she does do, she will try to please people.

But in this circumstance you've asked her several times

and she's come back with the same answer.

I think bearing in mind we are going to be presenting this in

court, as well, when we're in that room, it's very different from when

Ultimately it's going to really be for the jury

to sit there and make their minds up.

I think today's been really worthwhile.

The account that Jolene has given us is a very good one.

And this is the reason why some people

with downs syndrome or other disabilities

and vulnerabilities are preyed upon because it's very,

very difficult for the police to get a complete and accurate

She told us as much detail as she could.

After three weeks of living away, Jolene and her mum have come

to get her flat ready before she moves back in.

I'm really worried, I mean she's been

staying with me, she is still staying with me, but she wants to

She likes her independence and everything.

She's actually handled it really well.

She has moments where she goes very quiet and you can see her

thinking or say like something will come on the telly and you can sense

and she will just look down so I turn it over

Keeps asking me to buy her a new bed, she wants the bed gone.

Would you be happy coming back up here?

Just try and get her life back together really, normal, that's all

Two days after Jolene's interview, David gets the last piece of

I've received the forensic examination report.

There's no semen detected in any area in

Jolene's flat, and there's also no semen present from Jolene's swabs.

It would appear this was an attempted rape as opposed to

Further to that, with the injuries sustained to Jolene,

in her account, she was very clear that he pinned her down on the bed,

These are all injuries that she did have, and it

Because, ultimately, it's her word against Harjit Singh's.

David will have to wait until the trial to see

You know the only four basic moves to any boy band song, don't you?

It's just after midnight, and Dave and Paris have been on the lookout

for a white BMW that made off from officers earlier.

There's a massive smell of cannabis from inside,

The Met's firearms unit are calling for back-up as they

The helicopter unit are also on route.

The driver and passengers have abandoned the car,

and are now being pursued by officers.

Two of the suspects are picked up on the helicopter's

RADIO: Stand by, because we've got suspect climbing over a wall.

Stand by, I'll try and give you the name of the block.

RADIO: They were climbing over some walls, and now they are on foot,

RADIO: It looks like it's Evelyn Court.

RADIO: One's gone left into the estate.

This Taser is capable of delivering 50,000 volts.

If you make any sudden movements, it may be used against you.

The suspect is arrested without Paris firing her Taser.

He's turned back and realised he is caught between me

and the Trojan car, and given himself up.

At the minute you are detained for the purpose

You've been seen to decamp from a vehicle.

It's believed you may have some weapons on you.

The whole time he's running, he kept going for something

Well, to me, that can indicate you've got a weapon on you, OK?

That's why you were issued with a red dot from a Taser,

No weapon was found on either suspect, and the two

But the driver was found guilty of dangerous driving

If someone had been sitting in that car or crossing in front of it,

And that's the reality of the way these kids are driving.

So we need to deal with it as seriously as we do.

These lads obviously had something they wanted to hide.

The chap that was chasing them said he could see something long down

I'd say they probably were carrying weapons

We've got a very big gang problem at the moment,

and this is likely to be linked to that.

I once stopped the car, jumped out, and started running towards

Find out more about policing and how crimes are solved at:

And follow the links to the Open University.

He had been decapitated. There is every chance he might nick a lot of

people now. And I did this, so I have to be

the one to finish it.