Episode 3 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!

-All right!

-Get out of the car!

Specials combine their day jobs...

Stage, please.

..and home lives...

Here's a good boy.

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

Coming up, Chris is hot on the trail of a burglar

as he stakes out a stolen car.

You've got to keep your eyes on the ball all the time, ready to pounce.

Alex arrests a drunk man keen to show off his moves.

'In custody he started to make us very nervous'

cos I don't want to be clobbered round the face.

Don't mess around, OK, because we need to get this done.

And Louisa helps the victims of a incident involving a camper van

and a car.

When I get a call I'm always wondering,

is this one going to be more serious than the last one?

What are we going to find when we get there?

As a special constable, Chris Hallat is usually on regular patrol

reacting to 999 calls and assisting members of the public,

but this shift is different.

Tonight's operation is Op Tigger.

Chris has been seconded to the impact team, a unit which focuses

on prolific criminals tackling crime such as car theft and burglary.

We've had a burglary overnight. During that there's a front door

left unlocked. Handbag was taken, as well as a car.

If we see any of these vehicles out and about,

we give the early heads-up to each other.

If we see them parked up then we can obviously get round and sit on them.

I was excited to go out with the impact team.

I hadn't worked with any of the officers on the impact team before,

but it's something I've always wanted to do and try.

Keen to impress,

Chris must familiarise himself with a unit who pride themselves

on intelligence-based policing,

and remember operation details

such as names of suspects, number plates and shoe prints.

That is what we're looking for in the last couple of burglaries.

That sort of footwear.

If we see anyone out and about we don't know with them on,

then just give them a quick stop-search, see what's going on.

Tonight the unit are searching for a stolen car which they believe

is being used to commit burglaries on their patch.

Chris has been paired up with regular officer PC Paul Dowling.

An hour into the shift, and there's good news about the stolen car.

My colleagues have just found it stationary and unattended.

We'll go and have a look, see where it is,

see if it's going to be linked to any of our nominals.

Then we'll probably get it recovered.

The car is their only link to the suspects,

who they believe are using it to commit burglaries.

Tell me when you can see it. Right, you can see it...

And although it will soon be recovered, the impact team

won't waste an opportunity to catch the suspects

if they come back to the car.

So basically what we need to do is recover that vehicle but

we're going to sit up for a little while, see if anyone goes to it.

And if anyone goes to it then they'll be arrested.

Hopefully it'll be one of our lads.

It's very close to a lot of the home addresses of the people

we monitor so there's potential that it could be involved with them.

It's just a waiting game, really.

There's another unmarked car in the area,

as well as a plain-clothes officer on foot.

All eyes are on the stolen car.

I've never been involved in a stake-out before.

'You've got to keep your eyes on the ball all the time.

'I was feeling tense, excited.'

Yeah, adrenaline was going, ready to pounce, I suppose.

The slow pace of tonight's operation

is in contrast to Chris's usual duties as a Special.

The shifts I would do is basically what we call reactive,

'so if someone dials 999,

'need a police officer quickly, then you would react to that.'

My normal duties as a Special would be foot patrols, arresting people,

helping with events and operations that go on.

'I normally tend to follow a particular shift'

and normally try to stick to the weekends.

When he's not volunteering, Chris can be found doing his day job

as site manager at a police training station...

catching up with his family

or getting into shape at the gym.

Like all Specials, managing his time is a challenge,

but Chris wouldn't have it any other way.

You only live once, you're only young once.

I'd rather further my skill set and move forward in life

rather than get drunk and waste my money down the pub.

Back with the impact team,

and the officers are still watching the stolen car parked yards away.

At last, after waiting for an hour and a half,

someone is approaching the car.

Pricey, who's just gone to that vehicle?

So as not to arouse suspicion,

our camera must stay away from the window.

He's in the boot, he's in the boot.

There was a young lad,

'walked up to the vehicle,

walked around the vehicle, opened the boot and pulled out a jerry can.

-He's running off.

-He's just took something out the boot.

Papa 2-9 to PC Price.

They're walking past that tree up there towards them, look.

Someone has just gone up to that car, done a whole circle of it,

gone in the boot and then legged it towards you.

We updated the other officers down the other end of the street

that we'd just seen this and those officers followed that offender

to a petrol station.

Now there's two ways this could go.

They could either go and fill up with fuel and take that car

or come back and burn that car out to get rid of any forensics.

We've had intelligence from last night it was used in Leicestershire

to try and take car keys through a letter box.

The suspect with the jerry can is being following covertly

by an officer on foot.

Where are they going now?

It's definitely them, then, isn't it?

The officer on foot has confirmed the suspect is a convicted burglar

who has broken his curfew.

We'd heard over the radio that there was actually two offenders

coming back to the vehicle.

'I thought, brilliant, we're going to catch someone here.'

We're going to catch the people that have stolen this vehicle.

Yeah, if you can keep your eye out,

there'll probably be potential for that car to move very shortly.

The next thing we heard over the radio

was one of the other officers shout for some assistance.

Do you hear that? Right, we're en route.

The officer on foot stopped the suspects

just yards away from the car.

-Getting nicked?

-Keep your hands up, mate.

-What have I done?

-Tell me what I've done.

-I'll tell you in a minute.

-No, cos I'm getting

-BLEEP

-nicked for nothing.

Listen, mate, wind your neck in a bit. Don't be swearing, all right?

Well tell me what I've done.

These two lads were extremely angry about being arrested.

They were denying everything.

The two suspects were arrested.

One was charged with burglary and theft

and attempted burglary with intent to steal.

He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a 12-month referral order,

a supervision order, and a curfew.

The other was released with no further action

and the stolen car was returned to its owner.

For Chris, his first night with the impact team

couldn't have gone any better.

Policing is about keeping people safe in their own homes.

Stopping antisocial behaviour, targeting prolific offenders.

And I came away feeling very satisfied

with what we'd achieved that night.

Specials are unpaid volunteers who work alone or alongside

the regular police to fight crime in their communities.

-Have you got a hold of them?

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

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 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 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.

22-year-old Special Constable Alex Willat has been volunteering

in the Special Constabulary for over three years.

You're going to have to be flexible, and your friends and family

have to understand that as well.

You don't come off at 10pm every time. You could be on till two in the morning.

It's when the job finishes is when the job's done.

For many volunteers, being a Special is an insight

into a whole new world of police work.

Can I take a date of birth, if that's OK?

But for Alex, it's something he's already familiar with.

My day job, I'm a dispatcher for the control room.

I answer and dispatch officers to jobs.

So that's anything from 999 calls to incidents whereby PCSOs can attend,

so there's a wide range of jobs there.

So the child said Mummy's sick upstairs?

OK, we're on our way.

I think the two go very hand in hand. You know what it's like from both ends.

Are you going to do CPR for me?

When it comes to a choice between a shift behind a desk

or one out on the beat, there's no competition.

I do enjoy my day job, don't get me wrong,

but I think being on the streets, that's where the fun is.

Tonight, Alex is teamed up

with fellow Special Constable Ashley Hicks.

The pair are out on patrol in Peterborough when they receive

a call about a drunk man causing a disturbance at a house.

'The call to control room came through as a male

'banging on the back door of the property,'

and we were told that he could have been quite violent and quite drunk.

From what the dispatch told me, he'd been round three times before,

harassing her, so we were sent to deal with it.

All right, it's the police.

The woman who made the complaint knows the man.

He's now left the area, and although he hasn't hurt her,

he has tried to get into her house several times

and is extremely drunk.

When we're there, you've got two mindsets.

Your first one's with the victim and your second is where is this guy?

'He's potentially violent and quite nasty and he's trying to get to her.'

Your priority with anything like that is to find out where the danger is, where the problem is,

and get to that first cos that's the potential to go wrong.

If he's out there on the street and he isn't going to go anywhere back to home

then he'll come in for breach of the peace because I'm concerned

that he's going to come back and cause more harassment to yourself,

then we'll do that if necessary.

Once we got back out in the car the control room shouted us up

and said there'd been another call about two miles down the street.

'A drunk male matching the description from our job'

was now knocking on someone else's door causing problems,

so we've gone to that address.

When they arrive at the area where the suspect is reported to be,

they come face to face with him on his bike.

-You're not going anywhere, mate, at the moment. I just need to have a chat with you.

-Sure.

Come here. You're not going anywhere for the minute. We'll have a chat with you for the minute.

I tried to take him over to one side to try and talk to him.

-Get in front of the car. Actually, get in front of the car.

-What's wrong?

-Get in front of the car.

As I took hold of him, I felt his arm tense up.

And I think you get that from training - you know when you're going to have a problem.

-What have I done?

-You've been at three addresses tonight

-whereby you're alleged to have gone to places in the last three hours.

-Oh, please...

He has started to struggle once on the car, and he's incredibly strong and took me by surprise.

The suspect is resisting arrest

and Alex calls for back-up to help take him into custody.

PP Papa Tango 8-9, van on the hurry, up.

Alex puts the man on the floor to gain control

but he's still resisting and tries to grab Alex's radio.

Get off my radio.

He's not been cuffed still and he's managed to get his arms in front of him again,

so he's clearly not wanting to be arrested.

The next level up of appropriate force

is to deploy what we call PAVA, which is almost like a pepper spray.

What's your problem?

PAVA deployed.

Alex sprays PAVA to gain control of the suspect but it's powerful stuff.

People describe it as having a hot burning needle in your eye.

From experience of having it in training and having the backlash,

that's true plus more.

People may think it's really violent and it looks bad

but I don't know this guy from anyone else.

I don't know what he's capable of,

and when he's in that state he is incredibly strong

and he's not willing to reason with you.

Under the circumstances it was appropriate to do what we did.

Yep, we've got one cuff on.

Yep, male's cuffed.

The custody van arrives to take the man back to the station.

MAN CURSES INAUDIBLY

-You're under arrest for breach of the peace.

-Yeah? What have I done?

You don't have to say anything but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned...

-The reason for your arrest is

-BLEEP,

-all right?

-You are

-BLEEP.

And we're going to put leg restraints on you.

We had to use leg restraints.

He was still kicking out with his legs. It's designed to stop them from kicking out, really.

We can control them a lot better going into custody with them on.

Like all Specials Alex has been trained how to handle prisoners,

but that doesn't mean it's always an easy job.

Careful guys, careful.

SUSPECT CURSES

My main priority is getting him in that van and in safely

without anyone getting hurt, really.

What he says and what his views are are irrelevant to me, I'm not bothered.

-Bend your knees.

-BLEEP!

-Yeah, go on, you

-BLEEP.

When they reach the station,

the officers will face the challenge of putting the man into a cell.

MAN SHOUTS AND CURSES

He's going to need a welcome party.

We have what we call a welcome party which comes to the doors in custody,

which is another group of officers that help us

cos they're likely to kick off there as they are everywhere else.

I think the amount of officers he sees, he's going to say,

"Well, game's up." Isn't it, really? You're not going to win.

Just careful.

But any plans to cause trouble seem to disappear

when he sees the officer booking him in.

He took a liking to the custody sergeant, that was quite clear,

which I think helped.

-Do you understand why you've been arrested?

-I don't know, no.

-You don't understand why you've been arrested?

-You're beautiful, though.

-Thank you very much.

Can you take that off me, please?

-Are you going to behave yourself if we take those off?

-Of course.

-Honestly?

-Of course.

-Cos there's lots of officers here.

Because you're a beautiful woman. Please.

-OK. If you're happy to take them off, I'm happy.

-All right, lift your arms up a bit.

That's it, good man.

SHOUTS UNINTELLIGIBLY

Sir, keep calm for me, put your hands on the desk, all right?

Alex is doing all he can to keep him under control.

-Are you employed? Do you have a job at the moment?

-Employed? Yeah.

But the man is keen to impress the sergeant with his moves.

We need to get this done, all right?

The other officers are not impressed.

'In custody, he started to make us very nervous'

cos I don't want to be clobbered round the face.

Don't mess around, OK. We need to get this done.

'So he kept doing this move and kept going around like that,

'and we're trying talk to him, trying to keep him calm and get his details booked in

'so he can be dealt with safely in custody, but at the same time,'

he's not far off being restrained again

in the fear that he's going to lamp him one.

How much have you had to drink in the last 24 hours?

-I've had about....

-How much do you think you've had?

Four cans.

The man appears intoxicated, and as a Special who often works late night shifts,

Alex is all too familiar with the effects of alcohol.

When I started, it used to shock me what I used to see, cos I've been out

I go out with my mates, have some drinks, have a laugh, but people can be incredibly violent

when they're drunk and they can do some incredibly dangerous things.

-I'm not a drinker, really.

-Do you mind if we take a specimen of breath

just to see how much alcohol's in your system at the moment?

-Then we can get an idea of where we are.

-Do that.

Keep going, keep going. That's it.

The breathalyser shows the man is three and a half times

over the drink-drive limit, so the sergeant decides

he's too drunk to answer her questions at the moment.

I think the best thing to do is pop you in your cell with a drink

and let you have a bit of sleep and see if we can sleep some of this alcohol off.

Right, follow me.

He's taken to the cells to sleep it off.

He was put behind bars for the night, which is what he deserved.

The victim's had a good night's sleep cos she knew where he was.

Mind yourself.

As a Special, Alex has done his bit tonight

to keep control of the situation.

Specials, they are an integral part of policing and I'd like to think we are relied upon.

We are police officers just like the regulars

and we go to jobs and deal with them.

Sometimes we are the thin blue line. We are the last ones out there.

After a good night's sleep, the man was no longer considered

to be breaching the peace, and was released without charge.

We'll have a chat in a little bit. All right?

Despite massive increases in traffic, Great Britain

has one of the best road safety records in the world,

with around 3,500 fewer deaths per year than in the 1980s.

Louisa Bellis has been a Special for a year and a half.

Is he named on the policy?

Laying down the highway law might not appeal to everyone,

but Louisa's role in the Roads Policing Unit

couldn't suit her more.

I really don't know where it's come from.

I just really enjoy anything traffic-related,

anything car-related.

I've given out more tickets than some of the full-time officers

'have given out in their full careers.

'So being an RPU Special is'

exactly what I've wanted since before I started training.

There are signs that actually you're in a 30 zone now.

The reason I've stopped you today is because of your speed.

Tonight Louisa is out on patrol with regular officer PC Stuart Hilton.

And your speed has been monitored at 42 miles an hour.

A call has come over the radio of a road traffic collision

on a dark country road.

There is a mobile home that has been involved in an RTC

just on the border between Cambs and Herts, so there's apparently a woman

with chest pains, so we're going to have to go and make sure that

everything's safe and she's OK.

For me personally, when I get a call, I'm always wondering,

is this going to be more serious than the last one?

What are we going to find when we get there?

There's always that element that somebody may have died.

I've been quite fortunate that I've not been on a fatal job yet,

but that doesn't mean it's not going to happen

and, yeah, I do get a little bit nervous

and wondering what we're going to find when we get there.

Louisa's role as a traffic cop is a world away from her life

as a PhD qualified scientist.

'For my day job, I'm the chemical content curator'

for a drug discovery database which is hosted on the internet

and in layman's terms, what that means is I'm a glorified librarian

who looks after 1.6 million drug molecules.

'I became a Special

'because I've always wanted to work in the police in some way.'

Being a Special allows me to get the best of both worlds.

I get to be a scientist by day and I get to be a police officer at night.

'It's something completely different and I do feel as though'

I use the different side of my brain.

I use the more reactive side of my brain

rather than the very processed, librarian, geeky side of my brain.

'I think Specials are just very important'

because they are people who aren't doing it because they have to,

because it's their job, they're doing it because they want to and they to be there.

Back on the road, Louisa and Stuart have been updated

on the road traffic collision on a country lane.

The information that came over the radio was that a car had been

seen to drive into a hedge and possibly a mobile home

had been involved in the collision, but that was all we knew.

When they arrive, they are met by the owner of the mobile home

which was involved in the accident.

-Hello.

-Hello.

Through there's the gap in the hedge where she's gone through.

Where is she? Is she in the car?

No, she was but she got chest pains

and she wanted to get out so she could breathe a bit better, so I helped out of her car.

She's all right, she's walking, but she's got a bit of pain in her chest.

Stuart immediately goes to speak to the other driver,

while Louisa contacts the Ambulance Service,

who are already on their way.

Can I just confirm that an ambulance is en route?

The informant said that he has called for one.

In this situation, the priority is the health of the driver

who had been involved in the RTC.

First thing is to get you to the ambulance to make sure you're all right.

Do you suffer any existing illnesses, any heart issues?

-Not heart, no.

-Cos the gent said you had a poor chest.

I've got a bad back. Yeah, I've got asthma.

-The seatbelt...

-Yeah, the first shock hits you.

And have you got your inhaler with you?

Yeah, in my bag somewhere.

I don't know what to do.

-No?

-I've never had an accident...

-Which way were you going?

I was going this way and he reversed out,

and so I swerved to avoid him and I seemed to lose control.

The driver says she swerved to avoid the camper van as it reversed

out of the field. She lost control and went through the hedge.

The owner of the camper van gave a different version of events.

He told me what had happened.

'In his terms, he'd stopped his vehicle,

got out to move the gate, to open the gate so he could drive through

to where he worked and then close the gate behind him.

That's when it all must have happened but I was oblivious to it.

I came in, did a big sweeping circle and the car had appeared

in the field. I hadn't seen her come through the hedge. I really... Yeah, not too sure what happened there.

She's saying that there's something reversing out of here

which has caused her to swerve out of the way and end up in a heap.

But I pulled in, come that way, pulled into here,

stopped, jumped out, opened the gate.

-You weren't reversing, then?

-No.

She's obviously thought you were reversing and has thought,

"Oh, he's coming into my lane," and so she swerved around you and gone off into there.

Louisa and Stuart's job as police officers

is to try and get to the bottom of what happened, and to assess

whether an offence has been committed.

'It's about perceptions.'

It's about what people believe may have happened, may not have happened,

so it's important for you to get each version

and then use your own judgement.

The woman has been assessed by the paramedics

and has no serious injuries.

She gives Louisa a statement and is sticking to her side of the story.

-I'd just come off the dual carriageway...

-OK.

-..coming along.

Caravan thing was reversing out...

-Yup.

-So put my brakes on but I knew I wouldn't stop in time

and I lost control. It's the only way I can describe it.

I knew I was going into the hedge and I couldn't do a thing about it.

Despite the differing accounts,

Stuart and Louisa are happy that no offence has been committed.

'There will be no further action with this incident

'with regards to the police. We've let them swap insurance details.

'It's up to the insurance companies now.'

From what I saw, it was a complete accident on both parts

and there is no need for us to be involved any further.

A tow truck arrives to pick up the car, which was declared a write-off.

Fortunately, the woman is well enough to be taken home by a friend.

The end of the day, everyone was safe and well, everyone's still healthy,

and they all got to go home. Yes, the car was written off

but cars can be replaced, and overall it was a job well done.

Keep coming, that'll do you.

'Being a Special in this situation,

'it's not that I'm... amazing or fantastic.

'The fact that I'm there'

when Stuart would be normally be single crewed at that time

'meant that we could do the job a lot faster

'we could get everyone on their way quicker.'

I think the Specials are an integral part of the police force

and I think they can only do good things,

and if people want to join then they should join.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd