Episode 12 The Specials

Get on the floor, do it now.

The Special Constabulary is the nation's volunteer police force...

Do you know the gent?

Watch your speed.

..it's made up of over 20,000 members of the public...

He's gone down there.

..who give their time to fight crime in their communities.

Out! Out! Get out of the car! GET OUT OF THE CAR!

Specials combine their day jobs...

Stage, please!

..and home lives...

There's a good boy.

..with being serving police officers on the front-line.

Shut up.

Coming up...

-Stay with me.

-Shush!

..James finds himself surrounded and in potential danger...

The worst thing that could have happened, they all turn on me.

GIRL SCREAMS

-Why are you carrying that around?

-Oh, how nice!

..Bill makes some shocking discoveries

on a routine traffic stop...

That's not good, is it?

At this moment in time, you are under arrest.

..and Louisa comes to the aid of a distressed driver...

-You OK?

-No!

..in a vulnerable situation.

It's unbelievably dangerous.

Don't hit us!

It's Christmas Eve...

Are you going to start heading home now?

..and 27-year-old Special James Chatfield

is out on shift with regular constable Claire Forrester.

-Merry Christmas.

-And you.

Tonight I'm on a reactive shift,

so responding to anything that may come in.

The thought of spending Christmas Eve at home with my family

and my girlfriend is all very lovely

but my girlfriend's a paramedic, she was at work,

and I thought to myself, "Someone's got to look after the county."

James is out volunteering when most people are home wrapping presents

and he knows it's a challenging shift.

It's half past ten on Christmas Eve,

so I should think it will probably get quite busy.

Crime never stops and Christmas is no exception.

James could well be right -

a call comes in reporting trouble at a local pub.

We've just had a call from door staff at The Griffin

to say they've got a male detained.

We don't know for at the moment.

Er, we're, literally, just up here

so we'll be there in about 15 seconds.

James and Claire arrive at the pub

to find that other officers have apprehended a man

who's been making threats to door staff.

Who's he had a go at?

He just come over and, sort of, lunged at us.

He told me he was going to stab us

and his dad was coming back to beat me up.

So, Foxtrot, Mike, 44. Go again.

Yeah, there is one male detained at the moment.

He's made threats to stab him.

There's a strong police presence in town this busy Christmas Eve

and James lets his colleagues know what the door staff have said.

He's then just lunged at them and said that he's going to stab them.

They just want him out.

-Are they going to give a statement?

-No, no, no.

Right, we'll Section 27 him.

The decision is made to give the man

a temporary banning order from the town centre.

So, that drunk male that we've got, he's going to be Section 27 now,

to get him out the area. The door staff just want him removed.

A lot of people just don't appear to be able to handle their drink.

They have a few to drink and then think they can fight the world.

-Have you got anything on you that will hurt us or hurt you?

-No, no.

-Are you sure?

-I swear on my life.

-No syringes? No drugs?

-Don't pull my trousers down!

-I'm not going to pull them down!

-No syringes? No drugs?

-I swear on my life. I swear on my life.

James searches the suspect before other officers send him on his way.

We're going to give you a ticket to go home now, yeah?

If you come back you'll be arrested, you need to go home and stay home.

Count yourself lucky you're not getting nicked.

You come with us, we'll take you home, yeah?

If he's found back in town tonight he'll be arrested for that.

That's that little problem resolved.

I'm sure that's the first of many like that tonight.

When James isn't giving his time as a Special,

he works as an estate agent.

It's been a fairly busy start to the day

but I'm now on my out to show some people round three flats to rent.

I'm a senior property consultant.

I do viewings, I value houses, agree sales,

progress them through to the day that people come and collect their keys.

About a year ago they did quite a lot of work on it -

refitted kitchen, bathroom, that sort of stuff.

Being an estate agent, I do enjoy it.

I think the fact that I've been doing it pretty much for ten years now.

If I didn't enjoy it, there's no way that I'd be doing the hours that we all do as estate agents.

Little kitchen. Condition-wise this is pretty good

James is happy juggling his career

with volunteering over 60 hours a month as a Special.

Yeah, and you've got a bit of space out the back, there.

I can't see myself wanting to become a regular officer.

I joined the Special Constabulary

because I've always been interested in the police force.

My dad was a policeman, in Cambridgeshire.

He retired three or four years ago now

So, I've grown up with the police in the family.

It's something I've always wanted to do

but not necessarily on a full-time basis,

I'm perfectly happy doing what I do now.

'It's modern, it's not bad, it'll be cheap to heat.'

In London this would be about a grand, wouldn't it?

-'RADIO:

-Domestic in progress over.'

'JAMES: Yeah, pass the details.'

Back out on the streets on Christmas Eve

and James receives another call requesting immediate assistance.

'Someone's having a domestic with their partner,

'he's actually pushed her out of the house as she's got violent.

'There's a 15-month-old baby boy at location.'

We'll be state five shortly. So that's another job just come in.

A domestic in progress that's been reported.

Domestic at 11.30. It's Christmas Eve, isn't it? Unbelievable, really.

James and Claire head to the property to find out what's gone on.

What's the problem? Who's kicked you out?

Right, OK.

Just move out of the way, please.

'When we arrived there, they opened the door

'but weren't keen to let us in.'

But with it being a domestic,

which is one of the top things on the Force priority list,

we have to go in and make sure that everybody is OK.

-Are you going to let us in, mate?

-Who lives here?

Yeah, if you can just open the door for us.

But while James is dealing with the domestic

something else appears to be happening nearby.

The neighbour down the road, erm...

all I remember was him saying,

"You need to be over here, there's a fight over here."

James leaves Claire to deal with the domestic

and goes to investigate a disturbance round the corner.

Foxtrot, Mike, 44, can we have some assistance,

there's another violence in progress.

'44, understood. Any mobiles that can break off to assist officer...'

James finds a group of people fighting in the street

and calls for assistance.

'As soon as I saw what was going on, eight or nine people fighting,

'I called for back up straightaway.'

There was no way that I'm going over there

knowing that I haven't got anyone on they way to help me.

What's going on? No, what's going on? PEOPLE CHATTERING

You move over here. No, get off me.

Right, you move back. Right, what's going on?

'My colleague is in dealing with a domestic,

'I've got myself involved in another situation

'that I cannot get out of now'

and I'm thinking, "There's eight or nine people there, I'm on my own."

-You come over here with me.

-OK.

-What's the problem?

What's the problem?

It's a potentially dangerous situation for the Special Constable.

Where do you live? Where do you live?

PEOPLE TALKING OVER EACH OTHER

'In that situation, the worst thing that could have happened,

'they all turn on me. Everyone was around me.'

At that moment in time, I did feel very vulnerable

and it was going through my head that anything could happen.

There IS a problem.

PEOPLE TALKING OVER EACH OTHER

James is finding it hard to establish what's going on

and he's also struggling to keep control of the group.

Excuse me, excuse me...

..if you'd like to stay with me. Yeah? Where...?

Shut up! Where are you staying tonight?

'The greatest fear I've got is if they pull a knife.'

That would just be absolutely horrendous to deal with.

Right, go home then.

-Right, are you going to go now?

-Yeah, we're going home.

-Go on, then. Off you go.

-Yeah, we're going home.

Off you go, please.

Do you want to get arrested?

Back up arrives, not a moment too soon.

'I'd called for the back up and as they got a little bit closer'

I did hear some sirens and I thought,

"I really hope that's the police, not an ambulance or fire engine."

Basically, we've gone to a domestic here,

two members of public have said there's a fight down there, I come down here and they're all scrapping.

I don't know where they're from, I can't work out where they're staying.

They're all here. I'm going to go round here now.

Now other officers are on scene,

James can return to check on his colleague Claire,

who's alone and dealing with the domestic

they were originally called to.

'The main thing is safety of colleagues -

'yourself and colleagues.'

If she'd gone in there and been attacked

and not had the chance to get to a radio then no-one would have known

so it was absolutely imperative that, as soon as practical,

that I got back there to make sure she was OK.

-He's going to go to his brothers for the night.

-Got all his details?

Yeah, got all his details, checked baby, he's fine.

The domestic seems to have sorted itself out.

I'm going to go and check round the corner

as there seems to be a bit more of an issue there.

'I went back over there

'and the sergeant was telling them just to leave the area.'

They were really noisy, they were still really aggressive.

MUFFLED SPEECH

They've obviously had too much to drink. Right, lock him up.

We did give them a chance.

WOMAN SHRIEKING

Officers struggle to contain a distressed woman

as the decision is made to arrest her brother.

CALM DOWN! Calm down.

-I CALM DOWN!

-Shush.

-"Shush!"

'It became necessary to arrest him

'because he would have continued to cause problems that night.

'When he was arrested I was pleased because I knew the group would

'then disappear because it would make them realise

'that we're not going to take any rubbish from them,'

it's not acceptable and we will take action.

Yeah, he's gone, he's been arrested.

-All right, you lot need to go home now.

-No problem, no problem...

Dealing with potentially dangerous situations like this

doesn't stop James wanting to give his time, free of charge,

to help police his community.

You're brother's been arrested, yeah? So you need to go home now.

I do think I was putting myself in that situation as a volunteer

'but it still doesn't make me think twice about it.

'The thing that stops me walking away from a situation like that

'is that fact that I'm there in that uniform.'

I will deal with that situation.

See you.

Christmas Eve fun!

The arrested man later received a fixed penalty notice

for being drunk and disorderly.

Service with a smile, Happy Christmas(!)

Specials are unpaid volunteers who work alone

or alongside the regular police to fight crime in their communities.

We got all of them!

-Don't want to see you walking on the main road again.

-Come on.

-Recovery's obviously en route.

Specials are not police community support officers,

they are fully fledged members of the police force

who have the same powers in law as their paid colleagues,

including the power of arrest.

-No!

-Stop it!

-Move over.

-No, no, no, no!

-Move out the way.

Within many Special Constabularies

officers can rise through the ranks -

from constable all the way to Chief Specials Officer.

Ouch, I found a thorn!

Let me remind you, you're under arrest and everything you say will be written down.

Specials work 16 hours a month or more as volunteers

and undertake all kinds of duties...

-BIRD SQUAWKS

-..from policing community events

to arresting hardened criminals.

In Peterborough Special Chief Inspector Bill Bond

is on shift with PC James Styles, of the Roads Policing Unit.

'I love the variety of the work with the RPU.

'You're there to make the roads as safe as possible.'

If you didn't have an effective roads policing regime

you'd have absolute anarchy on the roads.

This car, it looks like it could be have something wrong with it.

Let's have a chat.

Hello, is it your car?

Bill's work with the Roads Policing Unit involves dealing with all

sorts of incidents, including taking unroadworthy cars off the road.

-Two front tyres need your attention, James.

-Sir, what's wrong with that?

No, not, "just changed today," look at that!

That's probably one of the worse tyres I've ever seen.

Your car does not drive on a road until it's be re-MOTed

Policing the roads of Cambridgeshire

is something Bill is committed to wholeheartedly.

Yep, that's how you do it.

Bill spent many years in the army and civil service,

and now runs a small lettings agency.

Hi, it's me, everything here is absolutely fine

and it's fit to show.

On top of that, he volunteers over 100 hours a month

as a Special and wouldn't have it any other way.

'I don't feel that I'm ready, yet, to retire.

'I've got quite a few things that I want to do

'when I do eventually retire.'

OK, thank you.

Perhaps I'm a Peter Pan and don't want to quite go into my dotage yet.

I just thoroughly enjoy front-line policing.

It's 9.30 and Bill and James spot a silver hatchback

with a back wheel that's out of alignment.

That shouldn't be on the road.

Bill's aware that roadside stops can have unexpected consequences.

-Hello, is it your car?

-Yeah.

One of the interesting features about the work

is that you stop a vehicle for what appears to be a very insignificant

potential offence and it can lead to all sorts of things.

Come round here...

..and explain to me why that wheel is not pointing

in the direction it should be pointing.

Look at the angle it's at. Like that.

Yeah, so that shouldn't be on the road. That's dangerous.

See my colleague, over there, give him your details

and he's going to check your driving licence, etc.

While Bill makes checks on the driver,

James decides to take a closer look inside the car.

Why are you carrying that around?

Wedged down the side of his driver's door.

When James first opened the door of the car,

he saw a three foot metal pole.

We got the immediate impression it was there as an offensive weapon.

Things aren't looking good at the moment, fella!

And they are about to get a whole lot worse.

You stay there.

James has discovered a quantity of cannabis in the car too.

At this moment in time, you're under arrest

for possession with intent to supply.

You do not have to say anything

but it may harm your defence if do you not mention,

when questioned, something you later rely on in court.

Anything you do say may be given in evidence.

Oh, an offensive weapon.

You need to get that person in handcuffs

and under control immediately

because they, obviously, are prepared to use violence.

-Bill, do you want to ask for a van?

-I certainly will.

Just suddenly just got a lot more exciting.

Having unearthed both drugs and an offensive weapon,

the driver could be facing serious charges.

Right, fella.

He's been arrested on possession with intent to supply

and possession of an offensive weapon.

Right this guy needs a search.

Anything else on you, fella?

Anything sharp that's going to hurt me or you?

Bill searches the suspect before he's taken into custody.

OK, climb up there.

There's nothing in the back of this van, OK?

So, when you come out I hope there's nothing in it.

Is that him or the passenger?

That's the passenger, can you run him through for me?

This guy's the passenger in the car that we've stopped,

the driver of which has been arrested.

Bill now makes checks on the passenger in the car

and he and James also weigh up the evidence they've found.

That...in the back of the driver's seat,

bar on the driver's side - what do you reckon about the passenger?

I don't think we can make anything stick, do you?

-I don't think we could take the passenger in.

-No.

-We'll go back and book him in, and book the drugs in.

-Mm-hm.

Bill and James continue the search of the car.

-Bill!

-Yes.

Oh, how nice(!)

Another shocking discovery,

evidence is mounting up against the driver of the car.

-So, all in all, that, the metal bar and the cannabis...

-Mm-hmm.

What else am I going to find?

-Have you got all his details?

-Yes.

-You can go. Bye-bye.

The officers send the passenger on his way,

but they're not done with the car just yet.

He's got something in that sleeve.

-They can come with us.

-They certainly can.

A couple of balaclavas with eye and nose holes.

'I don't think police officers are surprised at whatever they find.

'Anything is possible.'

That's why it's important to do thorough searches

when you're in a position to do so.

So that's now going equipped. Offensive weapon times two.

Possession with an intent to supply.

-Lovely.

-Let's go book him in.

A simple traffic stop by Bill and James

has turned into so much more and uncovered a wealth of evidence.

All that from a routine traffic stop.

There's only one sort of reason why someone would carry a knife,

a metal bar, balaclavas and a lot of cannabis.

That's if they're going something they shouldn't be doing.

That's all resulted from that fact

that he's got a vehicle that shouldn't be on the road.

When they get back to the station,

further information comes through about the man they've arrested.

He's already on bail for other offences.

I think people offending on bail are giving a pretty clear indication

they don't really care about the process of law.

So, quite rightly, he was locked up over the weekend

and put before the court on Monday morning.

Minutes later, Bill and James head out on the road again,

this time to arrest the passenger in the car.

More information has come to light that the passenger

lives at the same address as the driver who's now in custody.

The weapons and drugs found in the car could in fact be his.

When we realised there was a closer connection

between the driver and passenger than we believed at the roadside,

'we realised we'd got the decision NOT to arrest the passenger wrong.'

HE KNOCKS

Hello, can I come in? Thank you very much.

Who's here?

They're in luck, the passenger has returned home.

-That's our man.

-Brilliant, you go speak to him.

Bill goes to arrest the man and bring him in for questioning,

so the police can establish who the weapons and drugs found in the car belong to.

T-shirt? Top?

'I was pleased the passenger was there.'

It meant they could both be interested I the same time frame,

and the driver wouldn't have been tempted to go down the road

of pretending that everything in the car belongs to the passenger.

A man turns up who can interpret.

Bill explains to the prisoner why he's been detained.

He has to be interviewed about his involvement

in the things that we've just discussed.

If the other guys says, "My knife, my baton, my balaclavas, my drugs,"

then he comes away. Do ask him not to swear.

The passenger was taken into custody,

but was later released without charge.

After further investigation,

the charge of possession with intent to supply was dropped.

The driver pleaded guilty to possession of an offensive weapon,

a bladed article and a Class B drug.

He was sentenced to a community order

and required to undertake unpaid work.

The weapons and drugs were destroyed.

It's this kind of result that motivates Bill

to volunteer for the police.

I get an immense feeling of job satisfaction about being a Special.

'At the end of the day, somebody carrying a couple of unpleasant items'

and a quantity of drugs was put before the court.

Another Special who works with the Roads Policing units

in Cambridgeshire is Special Constable Louisa Bellis.

Today, she's on-shift with regular officer Ian Grey and a call comes in

over the radio requesting assistance at a broken-down vehicle.

VB alpha tango 73.

Can I just confirm the type of vehicle

that's broken down, if it's a lorry or a car, please?

The radio operator confirms it's a car

and Louisa and Ian immediately head straight to the scene.

When she's not volunteering as a Special,

Louisa works as a scientist.

My day job, I manage a database of 1.6 million chemical structures

and I put them in an ordered fashion

so they can be put on the internet for drug discovery.

It's a huge contrast to front-line police work.

Being a scientist, you use one side of brain

that's very ordered and structured.

And being a Special, a lot of it is being able to think on your feet

and be more reactive to things.

Back on her police shift, Louisa's reacting to an incident right now.

She and Ian are racing to help a driver stranded on a main road.

So we're heading westbound on the A14.

We need to take the car out of the live lane.

We don't want somebody to drive into it while it's broken down.

Yeah, I can see it there.

I'll jump out and check she's got recovery.

We'll see if we can get her off the road more than she already is.

They arrive at the scene to discover the car is partially in the road.

She needs to get out of it for a start.

The road that the car had broken down on was a very busy road.

And the fact that she hadn't exited her vehicle immediately

meant that she was in danger of somebody else actually hitting the car.

We're with the broken-down vehicle.

It's in live lane, stuck at the moment...

Louisa goes to check on the driver.

Are you, OK?

No!

OK, stand up over here, I need to take you out of the car.

-I can't find my Tesco Breakdown card, I can't find...

-That's OK, don't worry.

'I could see that the woman driver,'

who was now sitting in the passenger seat was highly distressed.

She was crying.

'She was frantically trying to find her breakdown card,

'was upset that she couldn't. My first job was just to calm her down.'

We're here to protect you there.

And it's nothing to worry about, OK?

This broken-down vehicle had a flat tyre.

And it can happen to any one of us.

Louisa's calmed the driver

and Ian then makes a plan to get the car out of the lane.

-You drive ours.

-Yes.

-I'm going to drive it at walking pace and get it off the road.

We don't want someone to drive into the back of us.

It's a dangerous situation, traffic is passing at high speeds

and it's not slowing down.

Oh, my God, seriously.

That tyre is definitely coming off.

'I do have the opinion that's a lot of drivers don't realise the hazards'

involved when they see a police car with its lights on.

It's unbelievably dangerous.

I want to protect Ian, but people are leaving it till the last minute.

We've got the rear reds on.

I'm going to put the rear blues on as well,

just to give them more warning.

They're just leaving it to the last minute.

Oh, my goodness. Don't hit us!

I don't like this.

Lou, put a lane-one closure.

Yeah, I'll start doing a lane-one closure.

Having moved the car over to the hard shoulder,

Ian decides to close off the lane to give extra protection

while he deals with the faulty tyre.

People weren't moving over fast enough

so you have to put in a lane-one closure.

Traffic is still passing at speed, but Louisa's doing all she can

to make it as safe as possible for her colleague and the driver.

I'm just bit a worried, it's a busy road and my tyre's gone.

I can understand why she's inconsolable.

-It must be really scary.

-The hazards are not enough.

The traffic can't see the hazards in the sun.

This is why RP is so important.

We can come here and just help her and protect her.

You all right?

The Highways Agency arrive to give a hand.

I don't mind taking her down.

But there's a problem - the spare wheel doesn't fit the car.

What Ian's going to do is drive this lady and her broken tyre

down to a place that sells them,

because the spare she's got doesn't actually fit the car.

I was left to protect the scene because the broken down car

was still in the live lane and couldn't be moved anywhere else.

'It was still a hazard and we needed people to stay away from it.'

Half an hour later, Ian and the driver arrive with a new tyre.

Ian fixes the wheel and the relieved driver can finally get on her way.

All right!

-Thank you very much.

-You're welcome.

That's a day you won't forget!

'When the woman was finally able to get on her way,

'I did feel a little sense of accomplishment.'

I do really, really enjoy it.

I like the people that I work with, the situations we get involved in,

'and I like the feeling of thinking that I may have helped somebody.'

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