Episode 5 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!

-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 -

a man with a knife is on the loose in Cambridgeshire.

Hands behind your head.

Stay there. Do not move.

Ross helps a disabled man who's been hit by a van.

-Do you have any pain anywhere?

-In my right side.

Yeah? Whereabouts? Is it your hip?

And a woman's miraculous escape from a horrific car crash.

Any further to the right, she would have been killed.

It's just before midnight and Special Constable Chris Hallatt

is out on shift with colleague PC Colin Johnson.

A report has just come in of a double stabbing

in a town in Cambridgeshire.

The perpetrator has fled the scene and is still at large.

Can you go again with a description, please, for the stabbing?

SIREN DROWNS OUT RADIO

We've got a description of the male,

so we're just going to head on down there to see if we can find him.

Chris has been a Special Constable for a year

and is used to being called to potentially dangerous situations.

What was going through my head was, "Get this chap off the street.

"Is he going to stab anyone else?

"Are you going to go home that night?"

Chris was already working for Cambridgeshire Constabulary

before becoming a Special.

In his day job he's a site manager, in charge of building maintenance

and security at two police training centres.

Sorry about the parking. Will that reach down the bottom, there?

But the main reason he became a Special

is because he himself has been a victim of crime.

About eight years ago I was attacked in a kebab shop after a night out

and I was quite seriously hurt and put in hospital.

So this is one way of contributing,

stopping that from happening to someone else.

All units are now heading to the scene.

A potentially dangerous attacker is on the loose in an area

surrounded by open countryside.

It's sort of quite remote, a lot of country roads and fields.

He could have hid somewhere quite easily.

The reason we have so many units is to contain that area,

so he's got no opportunity to get out.

Chris and Colin head into the centre of town...

..just as some worrying new information comes through

about the extent of the victims' injuries.

RADIO: 'Ambulance required.'

At that time it was said that it was serious.

We didn't know exactly how serious,

but I suppose you've got to treat that as worst scenario, haven't you?

The police are now on red alert.

Their intelligence has provided them with a name for the suspect

and they need to find him before he strikes again.

And on a dark stretch of road on the outskirts of town,

it looks like Chris and Colin might be in luck.

Could this be the man they're looking for?

Just keep your hands out your pockets for us...

But it turns out to be a false alarm.

The man provides ID that proves he's not the suspect.

Cheers, buddy.

Chris and Colin decide to try a new strategy.

The police believe the suspect may be heading towards

a specific address so they lie in wait in a nearby street.

We're just going to see if he pokes his head out.

If he does, obviously,

we'll update the control room, cos if he's got a knife,

that would normally be the firearms unit that would deal with that.

In a situation like this,

Chris and his fellow officers are putting their lives on the line.

And yet despite the danger, Chris does the job entirely for free.

You don't think about whether you're being paid or not being paid.

When I joined the Specials I didn't particularly want to be

just walking around the streets speaking to people,

I wanted to get my hands dirty and jump in and get involved with stuff.

It's now almost an hour since the stabbing

and the offender could be anywhere.

But at half past midnight

it seems the team's patience might have paid off.

-Is it him?

-Excuse me!

Stand back! Stand back!

'I was concerned that that was the chap that had the knife

'and the way he was walking towards us...

'Yeah, I thought he was going to have a go.'

Do us a favour, chap, and this is only for our own safety, all right?

Have you got anything on you at all?

I've got my car keys and my house keys,

no money whatsoever.

I'm going to cuff you, mate, cos at the moment

I just need to be sure who you are.

But once again it's a false alarm.

Pull that out my pocket, will you?

Look, that's my wages, try that one.

An identity check reveals that the man is not the suspect.

I was just walking home.

The police now believe the suspect may already have

arrived at the address they've identified and be hiding inside.

We've got our firearms team and the dog handler moving forward now,

to go and search that address as we believe he might be there.

So they're just obviously doing a few last checks before they move forward to that address

and hopefully in a moment we'll find out whether he's there or not.

As the armed officers approach the house,

Chris and Colin make sure no-one else enters the street.

We closed off the street

due to the fact we didn't know whether the suspect was in the house.

He could have been hiding down the side of the street in a bush

or anything like that, and our main role is to protect the public.

The team now waits for news from the house.

But then Chris spots someone approaching from down the street.

-Does that look like him?

-Yeah.

-It is?

-Could be, yeah.

Put your hands where I can see them.

Get on the floor. On your knees.

Put your hands behind your head.

Hands behind your head! Stay there! Do not move!

You're under arrest. Put your hands behind your back.

You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence

if you don't mention when questioned anything you later rely on in court.

Anything you do say may be given in evidence.

Stay there, sir.

'It was tense.'

You didn't know what sort of state of mind he was in.

'You don't know what he's going to do.'

Have you got anything on you that might hurt us or yourself?

The police carry out a thorough search

but find no knives or other offensive weapons.

But have they got the man they were looking for?

Once he was detained we checked ID and it was him.

So their priority now

is to take him to the police station for questioning.

It's the end of a successful operation,

which in no small part is down to Chris.

It was a relief to find him.

It was a pat on my back for spotting him.

Originally we weren't the officers that were attached to the incident,

we were in a completely different town altogether.

Turns out that we got the arrest.

The man was later charged with common assault

and two counts of GBH with intent

and is due to appear in court in a few months' time.

Specials are unpaid volunteers who work alone or alongside

the regular police to fight crime in their communities.

-He got over!

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

-Come on.

-Recovery is 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.

Stop it!

-Move over.

-No, no, no!

-Move out the way.

Within many Special Constabularies, Officers can rise through the ranks

from Constable all the way up 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.

It's a winter day in Cambridgeshire

and temperatures are well below freezing.

Special Sergeant Ross Spalthoff is about to start a shift

with PC Samantha McMurrugh.

It was the worst day, I think, of the year that we were in at that time

that I can remember.

It was very icy, it was very foggy, visibility on the roads was poor.

We came on at 7:00am, and by 11 o'clock we'd had nine accidents,

collisions, just in our area of South Cambs alone.

Former accountant Ross joined the Specials four years ago,

giving up his evenings and weekends to help the regular police force

patrol the streets of Cambridgeshire.

He now volunteers full-time as a Special.

It's always something I've wanted to do,

the pay's not really relevant to me,

it's just, I wanted to give something back to the community.

And Ross now has an added reason to want to give something back.

Having split from his ex-girlfriend,

one day a week he looks after his 14-month-old son, Elliott.

Since I became a dad, it's had a huge impact on my life experience.

I think it's a primary reason, really, now, for doing this.

Obviously, my son and other children of his generation,

I'd like them to grow up in a safe world and safe environment.

Ross is so passionate about his police work

that he's now been accepted as a regular officer

and will start his job in a few months' time.

It'll be one of the proudest days of my life, I think,

when I can hopefully have that contract to sign

and have the passing-out parade.

In the meantime he's happy to live off his savings

while he volunteers full-time as a Special.

Today conditions on the road are treacherous.

Ross and Samantha have barely left the station

when they're called to a car that has slid off the road into a ditch.

Hello, mate, you all right?

'He'd clearly slalomed across the road, slid off onto the grass,'

no damage to the vehicle, no injuries but he was just waiting for recovery.

Thanks very much. All the best.

It turns out this is just the first casualty of the cold weather.

Back on the road, Ross and Samantha

get a call to another incident a few miles away.

We've got an RTC come in, in Papworth Everard,

just outside the Post Office - car versus wheelchair.

Right. So we're first on scene.

A van has reversed into a man who was crossing the car park

in his wheelchair, throwing him to the ground.

-How are you?

-A bit shaken.

-Bit shaken.

-Bit shaken. Do you have any pain anywhere?

-On my right side.

-Yeah, whereabouts?

Is it your hip? Yeah?

'When I arrived at the scene,

'the gentleman was lying on the ground of the car park,

'covered by coats, and was being attended by four, maybe five,

'members of the public.'

Our immediate concern was the health and wellbeing of the gentleman on the ground.

Are you comfortable where you are at the moment?

66-year-old Nigel has been lying on the ground

for half an hour in freezing temperatures.

If they don't get him into a warm place soon,

he's at risk of developing hypothermia.

We're at scene here with this gentleman.

He's on the floor but no ambulance.

Can you hurry them up, please?

Cos this guy's obviously very cold on the floor.

'In the back of the cars we have some first-aid kits,

'which have silver-lined foil blankets

'so we tried to get one around him, and more, perhaps, importantly,

'one underneath him to get him off the floor.'

Standing out in subzero temperatures

to help someone in need is all part of the job as a Special.

But Ross wouldn't have it any other way.

I love it. I've done this for over three years now as a volunteer

and I wouldn't choose to do anything else, really.

It does play a little bit of havoc with your social and personal life,

but I was choosing to do this rather than go down the pub,

so it's saving me money and keeping me a bit healthier

and putting something back into the community.

While they wait for the ambulance to arrive,

Ross takes one of the passers-by who witnessed the accident

to the car to try and get to the bottom of what's happened.

He's sort of coming in like this, Nigel,

and the van's coming back and he hit him on the side.

And it basically moved him, moved his chair and it lost its balance.

And it toppled over.

So very slowly, not even five miles an hour.

No, he wasn't speeding at all.

'There was nothing at this stage for us to think'

there might have been anything untoward in the respect

that it was purely he hadn't seen the gentleman

and it was a simple case of an unfortunate accident.

But unfortunate or not, all accidents have to be investigated.

And Ross and Samantha need to be sure

that there isn't more to this case than meets the eye.

The driver is breathalysed to make sure

he hasn't been drinking alcohol.

It's very straightforward, like you're blowing up a balloon.

And just keep going until I sort of say stop.

Keep going, keep going, keep going.

Lovely, that's it.

Zero, lovely.

It looks like the driver is probably in the clear.

But then Ross notices a CCTV camera

pointing towards the scene of the accident.

There's a possibility it might have captured the moment of collision.

They track the owner down to a local shop

and spool through the footage from the last hour.

They're in luck. The camera has recorded everything.

And it shows exactly how the accident happened.

When we saw the CCTV, it was a shock to myself and my colleague

how hard the gentleman was hit in the chair

and how hard he was thrown from it.

I must admit, I did think it was just a case of a nudge

and perhaps the chair had just toppled over,

but he's literally been thrown from the chair.

The ambulance finally arrives

and the paramedics assess Nigel's injuries.

Do you think you can straighten this top leg for me, Nigel?

He's then transferred to a stretcher

in preparation for the trip to hospital.

For Ross, it's a relief to see the old man finally in safe hands

and it serves as a reminder of why he joined the Specials.

I suppose it's a bit of a cliche,

but I suppose it's almost saving the world one day at a time.

I do feel like I really want to make a contribution, make a difference.

It's a really good job and the helping people,

the community aspect of it,

helping gents like this,

it's not all about the arrests and the criminal prosecutions.

This might appear to be just a very unfortunate accident

but the police must consider whether anybody was at fault

and whether to press charges.

I'll need to interview the driver.

I'm not going to interview him now cos he's in a little bit of shock,

I'll wait until I've got all the witness statements

and then, obviously, any other evidence that's gathered,

I'll make a decision then.

Nigel spent the night in hospital

but was discharged the following day with only minor injuries.

The CPS did prosecute the driver,

who pleaded guilty to driving without care.

He received three penalty points,

a fine, and was ordered to pay court costs.

2,000 people die on Britain's roads every year.

As a Special who focuses on traffic policing,

Special Chief Inspector Bill Bond

has seen his fair share of accidents.

Responding to reports of road traffic collisions is a major

part of the RPU role. We're there doing general enforcement,

but we're liable to be dispatched

to reports of RTCs at any moment in time.

In Peterborough, it's 6pm and Bill is halfway through his shift

with regular officer Darren Nyul.

They're on their way to a traffic accident on a country road.

'The informant's gone off the road into a field, banged her head...'

It's a dark night, and Bill and Darren have only been given

an approximate indication of where the vehicle is.

The issue with cars that have gone off the road into a field

sometimes can be actually finding them.

First thing is to protect the scene.

There's no point in worrying about casualties

if they're about to be mowed down by a vehicle approaching from behind.

Bill became a Special to help people in just this kind of situation,

although he prefers to play down the more sensitive side of the job.

I prefer to depersonalise it a bit

and say I enjoy serving the community.

I'm from the stiff-upper-lip generation.

I personally think you're a big softie at heart.

Yeah, but I try and hide it, Darren.

Before becoming a Special, Bill was in the Army for many years.

I think being in the armed forces

is a very good grounding for police work.

It gives you the discipline and you're used to wearing uniform.

There are lots of things, I think, people who come to it

as a civilian would find more difficult that somebody who's

been in the armed forces just accepts as second nature.

Now retired from the Army, Bill divides his time between

volunteering as a Special and running a small lettings company.

I'm fortunate in that my company virtually runs itself,

which enables me to take time off to do policing.

I think in the current financial situation there's a need

for as many Specials and other volunteers

as the police service can attract.

I felt I had a choice with my background of either getting off my backside

and doing something or sitting on my backside and complaining.

Tonight Bill is certainly putting his money where his mouth is.

A car has come off the road and he and Darren need to make sure

the driver is OK and the vehicle is not a danger to other traffic.

They find the driver waiting for them at the side of the road.

She's clearly shocked but doesn't appear to have any serious injuries.

-You're obviously shaken. Are you OK?

-I think so, yeah.

-Were you on your own in the car?

-Yeah.

-So what happened?

I think I hit the kerb over there and then I went up it

and then I just couldn't control it and I came right across the road.

Right, let's have a look at where it is.

You're a lucky young lady.

I know, it's on its roof and everything.

According to a report by the Institute of Advanced Motorists,

the most common cause of car accidents in the UK is

simple driver error or loss of control.

The situation is that a single vehicle

travelling on the A47 has, we think, clipped the kerb,

come across the bank, somersaulted through a fairly substantial

15-foot tall hawthorn hedge and landed on its roof in the field.

'When I saw the Mini, I thought she was really quite lucky to

'have walked away from it.

'I've been to several fatal collisions.'

When you deal with these things day in and day out,

you're just pleased when you arrive at the scene and the driver

and any occupants have walked away from it.

Darren takes the driver across to the ambulance, where

paramedics will make sure she hasn't sustained any internal injuries.

-She OK?

-Yeah, I believe it's going to be damage only.

They've had a good check, so when she comes out, because I think

half of it is she's actually cold cos she's been standing here.

So once she's out, we'll pop her in our car to keep warm.

Miraculously, the driver has escaped completely unscathed.

Others are not so lucky.

'I've been to several fatal collisions. We have to take'

the bodies of the deceased to hospital

as part of the continuity of evidence.

'It's not pleasant but it's something you get on with.

'The only times I've been upset by death is when I dealt with

'somebody of the same sort of age and gender of a parent that I'd lost'

recently, but that was very much my own personal situation coming out.

After many years spent serving his country,

Bill now devotes his time to serving his local community.

And he gives his time completely for free.

'I worked about 1,900 hours last year,'

so that is roughly working the full-time hours

of a regular officer.

'I do have a sense of pride in what I do. I don't waste

'a lot of time thinking about the problems that I see in society,

'I enjoy being able to tackle some of them in a small way. And I can walk'

away and sleep soundly, having dealt with whatever I've had to deal with.

Now that the driver has been given the all-clear by paramedics,

her boyfriend arrives to take her home.

There you go, young man, get in there, go and say hello.

And Darren calls a recovery firm to remove the car from the field.

It's probably 15 to 20 feet from the carriageway, on its roof

in a field, so it will need a full high-up lift,

so it will need lifting by crane out of the field.

With the recovery truck en route and the driver out of harm's way,

Bill and Darren do their best to salvage some of the driver's

belongings from the smashed-up car.

Purse...

I'll be able to get the rest of the kit out the car

when it's recovered.

Yeah, it's just the main stuff here.

Stick that in there.

Pop it in the back of our car.

Working as a Special is all about teamwork,

and where possible, Specials are paired with regular officers -

something that Bill values highly.

It is very important indeed that you get on with your colleagues.

'I believe that Specials should be totally integrated with'

regular colleagues, and I personally get job satisfaction

from working with a team of regular officers.

Right, getting out is going to be...

Ouch, I found a thorn.

Oh, dear, Bill, is that spiky?

It is spiky, yes. I located one with my left buttock.

Ah, you're killing me.

Oh, beautiful.

The recovery team arrive and face the mammoth task of getting

the Mini back over the 15-foot hedge.

If we get hold of it somewhere in the wheels here.

Yeah, just pull it back as much as you can

and drag it straight through.

I might cut a little bit of that hedge out,

just one or two of the bigger bits probably out

so we don't get the obstructions as we're going through the gap.

Once I get it through there, I'll flip it back on its wheels.

We'll get a good look at it inside, job's a good' un.

Pick it up, chuck it on the lorry. Happy days.

The team get to work cutting through the hedge.

That's better.

There you go, there's an indication where the Mini came through.

It's the wing mirror.

Then they attach some chains to the Mini's wheels

and drag it towards the hole in the hedge.

'We wanted to maintain the integrity of the hedge

'and to minimise the damage to the landowner's property.'

The vehicle had to be retrieved.

It was a matter of getting it through as small a gap as we could.

What you going to do, flip it there?

-SMASH!

-Another window's gone.

Are you going to flip it straight down here?

Once the car is through the hedge,

the team flip it back onto its wheels.

And it's only now that the team discover how close the driver

really came to death.

From how it's looking now, the lady is very, very lucky.

The impact on the cockpit roof is actually just to the central point.

Any further to the right, she would have been killed.

Good job the driver was fairly small.

I think if someone my size had been driving,

I could have had fatal head injuries.

No charges will be brought against the driver,

because there was only one vehicle involved.

And the farmer whose hedge was damaged will be able to claim

on the driver's insurance. As for the driver,

she can count herself lucky that she lived to tell the tale.

'As a police officer, we've got a duty of care to anyone

'we find who needs it.'

So you do whatever you need to to deal with that person's

immediate needs.

'It's impossible to say what would have happened'

if she hadn't been wearing her belt. I personally think that she

probably owes her life to the fact she was correctly restrained.

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