Episode 14 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.

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.

Coming up - James is called to a New Year's Eve celebration

that ends in disaster.

The female there has been attacked by a dog

and some of the inside of her leg is now not inside her leg.

In the right place at the right time...

A male's been jumped just across the road.

Chris and his colleagues run some suspects to ground.

Calm yourself down.

And hot on the heels of some runaway horses...

Oh, you sod.

..Bill's horse rustling skills are put to the test.

Come on!

It's New Year's Eve and special constable James Chatfield

is heading out on shift with fellow special, Glenn Derby.

I'm thinking tonight's going to be a reasonably busy shift.

Nightclubs, pubs closing at two/three o'clock

so I'd imagine between the hours of 11 and three, we might be quite busy.

It's 6:40, we've got five hours and 20 minutes left of this year.

Plenty of time for the alcohol to flow

and the drunken revelry to get out of hand.

But the first call that comes in isn't quite what they expected.

RADIO: An RTC, Bridge Street in Wistow.

A car has crashed into the bridge.

They arrive to find the driver waiting in his car.

He's unhurt but the side of his car has taken quite a bashing.

-Have you had anything to drink tonight?

-No.

-What you doing, you out working?

-Yeah, I'm delivering pizzas.

-Whose vehicle is it?

-Mine.

-It is yours, is it?

Where did you come off?

I caught the corner.

The corner up there?

OK, we'll have to go and have a look at that.

Judging by the state of the bridge,

the driver has hit it with some force.

It's just that support pillar, there.

I mean, there's metal - he must have given that a real whack.

I suppose he's lucky he's hit that bit and not just one of the metal beams.

I'm not sure they would've... They're hollow so they may have given

and it's quite a drop down there, full of water.

Yeah, I think he's quite lucky, I wouldn't want to end up down there.

But the driver hasn't been drinking

and there don't appear to be any other vehicles involved.

I think it's a case of damage only, single vehicle damage only.

There's no injuries, he says he doesn't want an ambulance,

he says he's absolutely fine.

He's delivering takeaways, I know the guy from town.

So on this occasion, the police are happy to just give the man

a word of advice.

It's obviously fairly slippery at the moment.

You just need to watch it, especially in these conditions.

I've got all of his information, all of his insurance details.

He's not drunk and everything checks out.

The roads are slippery, there is mud about.

So, yeah, not the best conditions to drive in.

And it seems like conditions are no better elsewhere.

Minutes later, another call comes in.

-RADIO:

-A report of mud on the road.

-Yeah!

It's a fairly complex job,

it's going to take quite a while to explain, there's mud on the road.

It's not quite the kind of job the specials had in mind

when they signed up.

But on a poorly lit country road,

with cars whizzing past at up to 60 miles an hour, mud can be a hazard.

James checks out the force's mud clearing equipment.

Ah, there's a broom - one of us shovel, one of us broom.

Ah, look, no handle.

Here's a handle, it's a build-your-broom!

And the two specials get to work clearing the road.

So, here we are, sweeping up Cambridgeshire's roads,

having a muddy good time.

James volunteers 50 to 80 hours a month as a special.

And when he's not policing, he works as an estate agent.

My day job is kind of similar in the fact that it's office based -

doing paperwork - and out and about,

but the difference is the people that you're dealing with.

In the police, you get called to someone,

you're there to help them to resolve a situation.

In estate agency, you're helping someone look for a house.

So I guess it's still helping people, but totally different.

Anything on you that will hurt us, or hurt you?

James doesn't get paid to work as a special,

but unlike some of his colleagues, he has no aspirations to become a regular police officer.

Doing it once a week, twice a week is enough for me.

To think I can go to work doing my normal job, which I enjoy,

and think, "Tonight I'm going out in a police car, I'm fighting crime,"

that's enough to keep me going.

Tonight, James is out with fellow special, Glenn.

When he's not policing, he works as a warehouse manager.

It's now almost midnight and the New Year celebrations are in full swing.

So with no immediate jobs to attend to,

James and Glenn decide to see in the New Year with some familiar faces.

So here we're, New Year's Eve in Warboys,

we thought we'd do a bit of PR, let everyone know that we're here.

There were various people there, there were some off duty PCSOs,

some off duty police officers and most of Warboys village turned up

to see in the New Year at the Clock Tower, it was quite nice.

But the community spirit in Warboys isn't necessarily present

everywhere else.

And once the clock strikes midnight the trouble begins.

-RADIO:

-Domestic in progress.

We're going to a domestic in progress now involving a dog.

I'm not too sure what that means,

I don't know if someone's been bitten by a dog or what.

In a situation like that, I'm fully aware that I am putting myself

into a dangerous situation, but I do it because someone's asking for help.

They arrive to find a woman in the kitchen

with a serious wound to her leg.

The dog had attacked her,

I don't know why the dog had attacked her, but the lower half of her leg,

at the back of her calf, looked like it had been

clawed or bitten in several places and the skin just ripped open.

I can remember seeing the inside of what

I can assume was her calf muscle poking out of the wound.

-Hotel victor 99. RADIO:

-Hotel victor 99.

It's a bit tense here at the moment. Can we get an ambulance, please?

The female has been attacked, looks like been attacked by a dog,

quite bad injuries to the bottom of her leg.

It appears that the woman had been having an argument with her boyfriend when the dog went for her.

The dog got scared.

She was apparently going for her partner whose dog it was

and the dog, I believe, got confused as to what was going on

and, obviously, the dog's instinct is if someone's being attacked

they attack that person.

Another woman in the house saw what happened.

-She come down the stairs kicking off and the

-BLEEP

-dog went for her,

cos she started going for everybody.

The dog is now tied up in the garden,

but the house is full of agitated people who've been drinking.

We're not going to get anywhere while you're shouting as well.

We're not going to get anywhere like this, are we?

There was four or five adults in the house,

there was children downstairs, children upstairs

and lots of arguing going on and all of those people, and myself and my colleague,

that was it, there was two of us against four or five of them.

James calls for back-up and he does his best to take the heat

out of the situation as they wait for the other unit to arrive.

If you just come and sit in here, just to calm the situation down a little bit, yeah?

Just go and take a seat in your front room.

Other officers arrive and James brings them up to speed.

It's still a little bit confusing as to what's actually gone on.

Everyone's hammered, she's been attacked by a dog.

The priority now is to get the injured woman to hospital.

But as it's New Year's Eve, the officers have been told

there could be a two-hour wait for an ambulance

so they decide to take her to hospital themselves.

Basically we've got the female here that's being carted off to hospital,

the other people are OK to be left in the house.

There's just been a massive argument, they've all been out,

got drunk and it's just turned into a total and utter mash of a situation.

So, we've resolved it by splitting them all up,

and hopefully we won't get any more calls here tonight.

It's a job well done for the two specials.

But the incident's not quite over yet.

The injured woman's boyfriend suddenly appears,

believing that the police have taken his dog.

No, you can't do that, get my dog out.

-The dog's not in there.

-Where is it, then?

The dog is still tied up in the back garden.

And the penny then drops

as the man realises his girlfriend is in the van.

What, my girl's in the back?

-With a

-BLEEP

-bit leg, you put her in the back of a van

-with a

-BLEEP

-bit leg.

-She's going to hospital, mate.

-Are you police dumb?

-Stop swearing.

Come on, you're supposed to be proper police officers,

you put a woman in the back of a van.

-Go away and stop swearing.

-You put a woman in the back of the van?

-She's bleeding.

-You put her in the back of a van? You, stop.

The woman is taken to hospital,

where she'll receive treatment for her injured leg.

It's now 3:30am and James and Glenn were due to finish their shift

half an hour ago.

But in the early hours of New Year's Day,

Cambridgeshire's police are having to deal with four times the usual number of incidents.

And just as the specials head back towards the police station,

yet another call comes in.

Domestic in progress, immediate, great(!)

A lot of the time that Cambridgeshire Police

dedicate their time to, is to domestics.

I'd say that some people feel that they can't deal with their own problems.

They get themselves into such a mess that they need someone else

to come and deal with it, which is why they end up calling the police.

Phone line is open, I can hear screaming

and it sounds like a door being kicked/punched.

Sounds reasonably violent to me.

The caller has also reported furniture being thrown around.

And at this point in time, James and Glenn

are the only police unit en route.

Because it was a busy New Year's Eve, lots of people calling 999,

there is just no resources available.

So, at that moment in time, we were on our own.

Hello, what's occurring?

A woman answers the door

and it's immediately obvious there's been a violent struggle.

In the lounge, there was a chair flung across,

there was items of various clothing,

ornaments that had all been thrown around, as well.

Going to some incidents and the absolute mess

that people can get themselves into, whether it's their fault or not,

you do get to them and think, "How can this happen?

"How can people let it get this bad?"

The woman claims that her boyfriend has been threatening her and has assaulted her.

So the specials' priority is to split the pair up.

In a job like that, you have to separate them.

My colleague came in and spoke to the female,

I forcibly got the male to come out into the hallway with me

to try and get the people there, get their version of events.

But the couple, who appear to have been drinking,

are becoming more and more agitated.

It's really easy for anything like that to escalate out of control,

as I found out that night. It went from bad to worse.

They both kept trying to go at each other's throats.

Even after literally pushing him out of the way,

he was still trying to break past me, shouting at her,

her screaming at him, the children all crying,

literally screaming in the background.

It's a difficult situation to be in.

Fearing for his and his colleague's safety,

James calls control for back up.

-Hotel victor 99. RADIO:

-Hotel victor 99, go ahead.

Don't suppose you've got any more mobiles anywhere?

We've got another very tense situation here,

I think I'm going to have a complaint of assault.

The situation now moves up a gear.

The man is becoming increasingly aggressive

and tries to force his way out of the house.

Listen, you're not going anywhere, you're detained at the moment.

It don't matter for what, I am detaining you.

You need a reason to detain me, bruv.

There's an accusation of assault, all right, and we're just trying to find out exactly what's happened.

Luckily, back up is now en route.

-RADIO:

-Hotel victor 99, back up is coming as soon as possible for you.

And in the meantime, James has no option but to arrest the man.

You're under arrest on suspicion of assault.

-Listen mate, I ain't done nothing to her, she's taking the

-BLEEP.

If she makes an accusation of assault, we've got to act on it.

I know you have, yeah, but do you know what?

That's my son's mother, mate, I ain't going to hurt her, for Christ's sake.

A few minutes later, the back-up units finally arrive.

When I looked out and I saw all the cars coming from different

ends of the road, it was the biggest relief I had that night.

It's good to know you've got the support if you need it

and I think we did need it, I couldn't have handled that,

I couldn't have handled that, no way.

The man is taken to the police van to be transported to custody.

-What the

-BLEEP

-you bending me up for?

-What the

-BLEEP

-is your problem?

-Settle down.

-Why the

-BLEEP

-are you bending me up?

Get the door straight back. Get in the back.

-BLEEP

-idiot!

And now, 12 hours after they started their shift,

James and Glenn can finally say goodbye to New Year's Eve 2012.

The final word is it's six o'clock in the morning.

I was meant to be in bed by about half three.

Between the hours of 10pm and 6am, Cambridgeshire Police dealt with

almost 350 incidents and the specials had a vital role to play.

On New Year's Eve, the fact that we spent midnight with a whole village of people, off duty officers,

it was great being part of the community, and then at the end of the night,

being in those two really violent situations and still helping out the community.

The feeling of satisfaction after we left that,

to think that we've resolved that and now I'm going home to bed

and can think that I'm going to get up and have a good New Year's Day.

The man who was taken into custody on suspicion of assault,

was later released without charge.

Specials are unpaid volunteers who work alone or alongside

the regular police to fight crime in their communities.

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

Recovery is en route.

Specials are not police community support officers.

They're fully fledged members of the police force

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

including the power of arrest.

Stop it. Move out of 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.

Anything you say will be written down.

Specials work 16 hours a month or more as volunteers

and undertake all kinds of duties,

from policing community events to arresting hardened criminals.

Papa India three-five - myself, two-nine and three-one going now.

8pm and special constable Chris Hallatt

is on shift with the impact team -

a dedicated unit which focuses on prolific criminals,

tackling crime such as car theft and burglary.

I'd say the impact team is a different way of policing.

We're in plain clothes in a plain vehicle,

we've got intelligence on people, we know where they live

and we know the areas that they're targeting.

Barely minutes into the shift and the team have already received

a call about a possible break-in at an industrial estate.

A security guard called through to say that two males were climbing the fence next to a railway.

When I'm going to a job like that, you just want to get there

as quick as you possibly can to catch them red handed.

Chris has been in the specials for a year

and happily gives up his evenings and weekends to help

his regular colleagues police the streets of Cambridgeshire.

My main goal was to help people and to get life experience out of it.

You don't know what to expect, it's always different,

it's exciting and it's such a large range of jobs, as well.

So, yeah, I enjoy it.

And when he's not out on the beat, he works as a site manager

at two police training centres.

I basically look after some of their buildings, maintain it,

look after contractors, make sure security is where it should be.

I'm very passionate about working for Cambridgeshire constabulary,

I've got a lot of respect for them and what they do.

Tonight, Chris and his colleagues are hot on the heels of two males

who've allegedly been spotted trying to break in to an industrial estate.

When we arrived, there were industrial buildings all around us,

so we split up and did an area search.

It's a massive area

and the details about where the suspects were last seen are sketchy.

When it's dark, you don't know the area,

it can be a little bit intimidating.

I suppose you do feel a bit vulnerable.

There's no sign of the intruders.

The area was so big. It wasn't very well lit.

They would've only had to have seen or heard one officer approaching,

and they had plenty of opportunity to get away.

Control updates them that the suspects were last seen

in the next building along.

I'll walk round the back and walk through.

Did you see them go inside that door?

Chris's colleague, Paul, is in direct contact

with the CCTV control room.

That blue door, there, is where he said they were at. Make sure it's secure.

Doesn't look like they've gained entry,

but the bloke at the central monitoring station can only see

a certain amount of this area, so we'll just check it,

make sure it's all secure and then leave it as.

The police head back towards their car.

But just as they're about to leave the premises,

an unrelated call comes over the radio about a suspected mugging

which has taken place just yards up the road.

As we've been here, a male's been jumped just across the road.

There's five suspects currently walking down Fort Road.

There's one officer trying to stop them.

With so many officers in the area, the chances of catching

these suspects are stacked in the police's favour.

They all ran off in different directions,

so it's a good job we had plenty of officers there.

When I'm running towards an incident,

I'm thinking more about where my colleague is,

my safety, whether they're going to be compliant,

if not, what am I going to do?

Just getting there, as well.

Chris arrives just as the suspects are cuffed.

Five men are caught running from the area where the street robbery took place.

As a special on that particular shift, numbers were important

because of the amount of males that were detained.

If I wasn't there, maybe one of them would have got away.

Calm yourself down.

After an interview with the robbery suspects and the victim,

the suspects were released without charge and the crime has been filed,

pending any further information coming to light.

Nobody was ever found in connection with the suspected break-in at the

industrial estate and no evidence was found of an attempted burglary.

Working with this team was very different from Chris's usual shift

as a special policing the streets,

but it was a challenge that he relished.

Working with the impact team is something I'd love to do again.

It's a different way of policing, it's exciting.

It was very different to a normal shift, due to the fact that

we're in plain clothes and a plain vehicle.

We got to get involved in stuff and see it through to the end,

which was good. I enjoyed it.

In Peterborough, it's 9am and special chief inspector Bill Bond

is out on shift with PC James Styles.

They've just received a call about some runaway horses.

We've been dispatched to a report of some horses loose on the A47.

We're not quite sure of the location

so we're going to go to the most likely,

which is where some horses are known to stray onto the road.

This isn't the first time Bill's been to an incident of this kind.

In Cambridgeshire, there are a large number of horses

left to graze on public land, and escapes from fields are commonplace.

I think it's a problem throughout the county.

We have lots of people who keep horses

and seem to be terribly concerned about what they're doing.

If they get onto a fast road, they can move unpredictably,

cause vehicles to swerve, cause collisions, which are potentially fatal.

Before becoming a special, Bill spent 12 years in the army

and 14 years in the civil service.

I rejoined the special constabulary when I left the civil service

because, with my previous experience, I felt it was something

I could usefully contribute to.

There's going to be a penalty of £60.

I get an immense feeling of job satisfaction out of being a special.

Having been in the army and the civil service,

I'm used to the big organisation feel and I get that again in the police.

Bill now devotes up to 180 hours a month to working as a special,

alongside running a small lettings agency.

I'm fortunate in that I've got a small company

that runs quite smoothly.

There are some things that I have to do,

but, equally, there are some things that I can delegate and it gives me

the freedom to come and police for the greater part of my time.

Today, Bill and James are hot on the trail of some runaway horses.

How good's your horse rustling, Bill?

Not terribly!

They need to find the animals as quickly as possible,

as they could be a hazard to passing traffic.

But they're not sure of the horses exact location.

Here, horsey, horsey, horsey.

Can you see any horses down there?

I can't see any horses down there, James.

But then James suddenly spots one up ahead.

There we go.

Oh, they're all out. Wahey! It's great fun.

Nei-i-i-igh!

Where have you got out from, fellas?

It's an offence to allow your horses to stray onto the highway,

so fences around fields need to be well maintained.

Fence is down.

This fence is clearly broken

and the horses are now only feet away from a very busy road.

James tries to coax them back into the field.

In we go. Come on. This way. Oi! Dumb ass.

Back in the field, come on!

But these steeds are having none of it.

You stubborn horse!

Bill decides to opt for a more forceful approach.

-Go on, get in there, get in there

-BLEEP

-thing.

Come on, sha!

Oh, you sod!

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

And these ponies are going nowhere.

Come on, we're going to go this way.

Luckily, reinforcements arrive in the form of a helpful passer by.

Can you do me a favour? Stop this lot from coming back out the field.

Thank you. I'll try and get these next ones in.

Grab his head collar.

-Doesn't like it.

-They'll go where their nose goes. Go on.

Come on. Yes!

Come on.

Between the three of them,

they manage to get the horses back in the field.

Good horse.

Now they just need to fix the fence and hope that

these mischievous mares won't try to make another run for it.

We didn't have the tools to do anything about the fence

with its broken posts.

The best we could do was put some blue and white police tape

across the gaps and hope that the wind fluttering it would discourage

the beasts from breaking through until our shift had finished.

With a bit of luck, this flutter will scare them off.

It's more visual than practical, but, hey.

For now, the horses are out of danger

and are no longer a threat to passing traffic.

But Bill knows that this is only a short-term solution

to a long-term problem.

I must admit, I get frustrated by the issue of horses on the roads.

We have these animals that are kept and I think a lot more

could be done to ensure their welfare and keep them where they should be.

-I would shake your hand, but we're both covered in

-BLEEP.

-Who cares?

-There you go, thank you very much.

-That's all right.

-Cheers.

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