Episode 9 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

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... A Saturday night spirals out of control for Gary...

Listen to me very carefully!

..a woman is knocked down by a car in a busy rush hour...

Her left ankle is broken.

..and the burglar caught on camera as he tries to rob a convenience store.

-Who's done this?

-One man, two man.

It's Saturday night in Peterborough city centre.

Veteran Special Inspector Gary Cowling is on shift with

fellow Special Susan Burberry,

who's only been volunteering for a couple of years.

Gary's been doing it for many years more than me, so he's

definitely more experienced and so I learn a lot from working with him.

Tonight they're in charge of the prison transport van.

They'll patrol the area near bars and clubs

and transport any suspects into custody.

Unfortunately, like any busy city centre,

we get quite a few arrests on a Saturday night.

You can expect to encounter drunk people, happy drunks,

unhappy drunks, violent drunks and people that have been arrested.

When he's not volunteering,

Gary works as the manager of a local supermarket.

..get the tickets on there tonight.

My day job, in some ways, is quite similar

to my Special Inspector role...

because, at the end of the day, the police force is there to

provide a service to the local community.

I live in Peterborough, I do the majority of my policing

in Peterborough.

At the end of the day, you can sit there at home

and think, "Yeah I have put something back."

Tonight Gary is showing the ropes to 21-year-old Special, Susan.

When she's not volunteering,

she's a chemistry student at Bristol University.

Being a Special is much more varied than doing a chemistry degree.

I think being a Special just requires a bit more instinct,

a bit more using your own resources

and doing a chemistry degree is a bit more about scientific knowledge.

Tonight Susan and Gary are out on the prison wagon -

a secure van with a cell in the back used to transport people

who've been arrested to the police station.

It's a Saturday night and the clubs get quite busy

and there's probably going to be some public order offences

going on, maybe some violence.

Drunken youth on the streets is a growing problem in Britain.

More than ten million people in England now drink more than

the daily recommended alcohol limit and alcohol misuse

contributes to over a million incidents of violent crime a year.

You generally get people who've been in fights who get arrested,

and take them to custody. Sometimes you're just taking really

drunk people home because it's the safest thing for them.

It's one AM and Peterborough's nightlife is in full swing.

It's not long before the first incident of the evening

appears on the police radar.

'Can I have a van for two to Fever, please?'

A fight has broken out inside one of the city's most popular nightclubs.

Susan and Gary have been called in to lend a hand.

Will you take control of this one?

He's quite a big lad, he's got cuffs on.

-Come on then.

-Where are you taking me?

'Everybody involved was very heavily intoxicated, there had

'been pushing, shoving, some rumours of assault on the dance floor.'

And to make it safe for people trying to enjoy

themselves, the door staff had taken out quite a high

number of people and this male was one included.

You're taking me back to Thorpe Wood to explain that?

Susan and Gary need to get the man away from the nightclub

so he can't cause any further trouble.

But he's not going quietly.

That's my phone, you can't take that.

We're just taking all your stuff out your pockets.

-So you're telling me you've got the right to take that?

-Yeah.

How am I meant to know you're going to give it back to me?

'It definitely helps to be a female officer in certain situations.'

If you're in a volatile, violent situation,

men don't want to hit women, generally, so that's good.

They place the man in the van while they decide what to do with him.

It wasn't clear whether he'd assaulted anyone. There was

no complaints at the time, but he was heavily intoxicated,

he was very loud, he was very obstructive

and he would have caused more problems if we'd left him there.

With the rise of public order offences, cell space is under

pressure, so the police are loath to take the man into custody.

But they do have other ways of dealing with suspects.

We're just going to get this gentleman out the way,

we're going to issue him with a Section 27 direction to leave,

which means he'll have to leave the city centre immediately.

If he breaches that, we'll then arrest him for it.

As soon as I take the handcuffs off, you must immediately

get in a taxi and go home.

If you do not immediately get in a taxi and go home,

you will be arrested immediately.

-Do you understand?

-OK, yeah, that's fine, but can you do me a favour?

Can you actually do it when there's a taxi in front of me?

-I'll let you walk to a taxi.

-You are allowed to walk to a taxi.

I'm not going to run to a taxi just because you say I've got to run to a taxi.

I don't want you to run cos you might fall over,

I just want you to go straight to a taxi.

-I'm not bothered if I fall over, but I'm not running to a taxi.

-Just walk to a taxi.

A taxi arrives and the man WALKS over to it.

His night may be over, but it's only just beginning for Susan and Gary.

A lot of people tonight are going to be very drunk, so that's

the kind of people we're normally dealing with on this kind of shift.

At the moment it is...20 past one, so the clubs are open

till six, some of them, so many more potential incidents until then.

They head back out on the road, and it's not

long before the next incident of the night is radioed through.

We're just going to two people detained outside Ghost nightclub.

We're not sure if they've been arrested yet,

but we'll find out there and decide what we're using the van for.

They arrive to discover that one of the males has been arrested.

He's been seen by door staff in Ghost to basically fight them,

be aggressive with them.

He's been removed by door staff,

he's still aggressive towards police.

He's been arrested, drunk and disorderly, clearly intoxicated.

The man has now calmed down and allows the police to lead him

towards the van.

I need to give you a quick search to make sure you haven't got

anything sharp, any weapons or anything like that on you.

But one of the regular officers on scene warns Gary that the

man's behaviour is unpredictable.

He's very up and down.

-Where is he?!

-Listen to me...

All I want to do is talk...

Listen to me very carefully.

'Once we tried to get the male in the van, I think it hit home that

'he was being arrested. He became very aggressive very quickly and did all he could'

to try and assault us

and to try and make it impossible to get him in the back of the van.

BLEEP. BLEEP.

'I think this incident showed that when you're dealing with anyone

'that's drunk to any sort of level you have to be very careful.

'When you've had something to drink alcohol-wise, what you think and

'what you do can change dramatically to what you're normally like.'

Do NOT kick out.

It takes six officers, including Susan and Gary,

to get the man into the van and even then they have their work cut out.

We need to get him back to Thorpe Wood as quickly as possible,

we have a welcoming committee waiting for us.

Other officers will probably take him straight to a cell which will be the safest option.

It was a tense situation for the two Specials to deal with,

especially Susan, who's only been volunteering for a couple of years.

I think authority to deal with incidents comes with experience,

age, to an extent, but now I've been a Special for about two years,

I feel I've got a lot more authority than I had

when I first started, I know much more about what's going on.

By the time they arrive in custody, the man has calmed down again.

-Bring this leg forward.

-Ready? Step down.

-All right?

And he allows officers to lead him into the police station.

You all right? One foot after the other. There we go.

But he's left a gift behind in the van for Susan.

He was sick in the back of the van,

so I'm using this stuff to clean it out.

Colloquially known as "cat litter",

you sprinkle a bit on, apparently, and it should just soak it all up.

There's a lot of stuff that we come across that is not part

of training because you just don't ever imagine it's going to happen.

So this is not the kind we cover,

but it's something that you learn pretty quickly, so it's OK.

The prisoner is booked into a cell for the night

and will be interviewed in the morning once he's sober.

As for Susan and Gary, they can finally head on home.

I think, at the end of a prisoner transport shift

you do feel like you've done something.

You are very tired and all you want to do is go home and go to bed,

but you do look back and you do see how you've made it

safer for people that have just wanted to go out

and have a good time and not get involved in any trouble.

You also know that you've helped your regular colleagues as well,

so it's a great feeling, you get a good sense of self satisfaction once you've done a shift like that.

The man who was issued with a Section 27 direction to leave

did abide by the order and went home to bed.

The second man was arrested on suspicion of being drunk

and disorderly and was ordered to pay a fixed penalty.

Specials are unpaid volunteers who work alone or alongside

the regular police to fight crime in their communities.

Have you got hold of him?

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

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!

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...

Specials usually 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 snowy night in Wisbech.

Special Constable Chris Hallatt is preparing to start his shift,

when an emergency call comes in from a convenience

store in the town centre.

We've just had a report of a personal attack alarm gone off.

Was it a wine shop?

International Food & Wine Store in the Market Place.

That's all the details we've got at the minute,

so we'll get down there, have a look and find out what's going on.

A personal attack alarm is fitted to

most of the shops and banks in Wisbech.

Basically, what happens is, if they've got an issue, they'll press

that personal attack alarm which sends a call to a call centre

and then that call centre notifies the police.

Chris has been in the Specials for a year

and is used to responding to urgent calls for help.

When you hear a call like that over the radio,

I suppose your instinct is to get there as quick as you can.

There could be a number of things happening,

that person could be being attacked at that time,

they could be lying on the floor in a pool of blood.

You've also go to think about your safety

and the best way of dealing with it.

In his day job, Chris works for Cambridgeshire Constabulary,

as a site manager for 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'd say that my day job isn't much dissimilar to being a Special,

there's always something that needs sorting out,

it's always unpredictable.

But being a Special also gives Chris the opportunity to

indulge his more caring side.

I would say that I'm quite a community-focused person,

I always have been since an early age.

I always try to help people where I can,

I always go round and see my next door neighbour who's elderly and I

think being a Special just puts the icing on the cake, really, it helps.

And when he's not at work or policing the streets, Chris

enjoys nothing more than spending time with his brother

and the rest of his family.

I am proud of him,

he's doing things that I wouldn't like to do, if I'm honest.

I do think he makes a good police officer, he takes it very seriously.

You do worry because you see it on the news, don't you, police

officers are going down...and the last thing I want to hear is Chris

getting into trouble when he's just trying to do right by people.

Tonight Chris is on a rescue mission.

A panic alarm has been pressed in a shop in the town centre

and Chris and his colleague, PC Stacy Smith, need to get

there as soon as possible.

It's just a few minutes to the store, where

they find the worried shop assistant and her partner waiting for them.

We walked into the shop,

I could see tins and food all over the floor, it looked a bit

of a mess, really, and the shopkeeper just seemed very shaken up.

The shop assistant explains that a man has tried to burgle the store.

-Who's done this?

-One man, two man.

-One man, two.

Where have they gone? Out here in the back?

One man, two.

Chris and Stacy go through to the back office, where the

shop owner shows them some CCTV footage of the incident.

From what I could see,

a male with a yellow hoodie entered the shop,

and basically tried to take something from behind the counter.

He had a scuffle with the owner and ran out from the back of the shop.

Chris and Stacy set off to see if they can find the culprit.

Basically we're looking for a guy in a hoodie, bright yellow...fastened

right round his face, that's as far as we've got at the moment.

They're also looking for his accomplice,

who appeared to be keeping watch outside the shop.

Can you ask your partner what the other chap was wearing?

Both of them.

Black dress. Black jumper.

Black jumper, all black? OK.

They head in the direction the suspects were last sighted.

-Apparently they went down here, mate.

-Down where?

They went down this way, so we could go up Norfolk Street.

I think what they've tried to do, they've attempted to try

and rob the store, possibly for money, cigarettes.

I'm not really sure if they've got away with anything,

but we'll find that out later.

It's now 20 minutes since the suspects left the shop,

so the police need to act quickly.

But just as they reach the area where the men were last seen,

they spot someone else behaving suspiciously.

And for now, they're forced to suspend the search.

Hello, mate, what you up to?

A man is going from car to car, wiping snow off the windows.

As we approached the male,

he seemed not quite with it, just acting very strange.

Walking around checking these cars like you're doing...

Made meself look suspicious.

You've made yourself look very suspicious, haven't you?

And I've got alcohol in my system, as well.

-Have you got any ID on you at all?

-Yes.

Driving licence or bank card?

I think I've got a bank card, which proves it's me,

or, no, it doesn't really.

Stacy decides to search him,

to make sure he's not carrying anything harmful or illegal.

The grounds why we're going to search you is

because we've just seen you coming from that car,

scraping the window, going to that car there, scraping the window.

So my suspicion is maybe you're looking in the car to see

if there's anything there to steal. This is what we're thinking, OK?

But the search turns up something rather unusual.

-Pants, yes.

-I daren't ask why.

Why have you got a pair of pants in your pocket?

Just step forward, mate.

You've got underpants in one drawer, socks in the other, I don't know

what I'm going to find in the third pocket, I don't even want to ask.

Unfortunately, the man's third pocket

turns up something a bit more sinister.

What am I going to find in this one, matey?

-A knife, what have you got a knife here for?

-A knife?

Yeah. Why have you got a knife with you?

-I don't know.

-No?

-I think you're up to no good, you, aren't you?

-No.

I think you are.

'He could have been a danger to the public due to the fact that he had a knife on him.'

You have to ask yourself why is he carrying a knife and if he hasn't

got a good enough reason, he's going to be arrested for it, simple as that.

The man is also behaving strangely.

I was out with a couple earlier,

but then the brother come in the King's Head and I thought

there was going to be a blooming punch up,

cos people was acting weird.

-A bit like you are doing now?

-No, no, it's not that.

Chris calls control to run some checks on the man.

He's known for previous convictions,

he's been released from prison in 2010.

Obviously we've got to be careful

as someone could just turn at any second.

They decide the best course of action is to take

the man in to custody.

I'll take you in on possession of a bladed article in a public place.

You're under arrest, you don't have to say anything,

but it may harm your defence if you don't mention something which you later rely on in court.

Anything you do say may be given in evidence.

-Do you totally understand what I'm saying?

-Yes.

Right, come round the back of my van, my friend.

Excellent job.

Chris and Stacy head off to the police station, where the

man will be detained and questioned.

But their night's not over yet.

As they turn the corner,

with the detained man in the back of the van, they spot three males

fitting the description of the men who burgled the convenience store.

Yeah, that could be them.

'One of them'

wasn't wearing a top or he was just in a T-shirt, which was

quite strange as it had been snowing and it was minus five at the time.

It could have been that he'd been wearing a yellow hoodie

and he'd taken it off so he wasn't recognised by us.

Weren't you wearing a jumper or coat earlier?

No, because I got black jumper.

You're out in the cold and that.

Because, for me, it's hot.

Is it? Where have you just come from?

Poland.

Have you, from Poland? Ah, good place, good place.

Where have you just come from now?

His house.

-Chris runs a check on the man...

-Yes, yes.

..and discovers that he does have previous convictions.

'He had previous for being violent'

and he was known for carrying weapons as well.

But when they search the man they find nothing to connect him

with the burglary.

So they have no grounds to hold him and let him go.

Thanks very much for your cooperation, look after yourself.

They now head back to the police station,

to take the man with the knife into custody.

Every time I go out on duty, you end up starting

one thing and finishing with something completely different.

The male that was arrested that had the knife, it's satisfying

that we got him off the street, you never know what he could have done.

But it's not just about arresting him, he probably needed other help,

so it's good to know that we've done that.

Two of the men who they stopped in the street were later

arrested in connection with the burglary,

but were released with no further action due to insufficient evidence.

The man with the knife was charged with possession of a bladed

article in a public place.

He was sentenced to 18 months community service

and enrolled on an alcohol treatment programme.

It's mid-afternoon in Cambridge and Special Sergeant, Kirsti Bruce,

is teamed up with fellow Special, Jamie Cooper.

A report's just come in of a road traffic collision in the town centre.

It's a car versus pedestrian as far as we're aware.

So we're going to go and assist...see if we can give them a hand.

SIRENS BLARE

Our main priority when we arrived was to just stop the traffic because in situations like that,

even though the cars can see what's going on, if they're in a rush, they'll do anything

and take any risks they can to get through the traffic.

In her day job, Kirsti works as a nanny, looking after two children aged five and seven.

'I take them to school, prepare their meals for them, take them to their after school activities

'and keep them busy in the holidays.'

I went into nannying because I wanted to work closely with families as opposed to working

in a nursery where you work with lots of different children.

And I feel like working with my family, I've really become a part of their family.

Oh, there's a teddy bear one, Luke, it says "create your own".

And for Kirsti, working with children isn't a million miles away from her work as a Special.

Being a Special's quite similar to being a nanny,

it's about boundaries, not crossing the line,

not letting people take too much and pushing their luck.

Both jobs require a lot of patience, a lot of listening...

..and a very good sense of humour.

Today, Kirsti is out with fellow Special, Jamie Cooper.

When he's not volunteering he works in a supermarket.

They're at the scene of a road traffic collision.

A woman has been knocked down by a car as she was crossing the street.

The driver of the car is now with her.

Her left ankle is broken, we're trying to establish

whether she's hurt anything else, I ran into her.

'We thought that she had broken her ankle,

'that's certainly what it looked like from where we were.'

SHE CRIES

I think she was in shock, she was in a lot of pain, she was crying

and I think she was just quite surprised at what had happened.

SHE GROANS

While the paramedics tend to the woman, Kirsti and Jamie

make sure the waiting traffic doesn't try to force its way through.

Stopping traffic in Cambridge city centre is an absolute nightmare.

It's quite easy stopping cars to a certain degree.

If all the other cars have stopped then they have to stop.

But you have motorbikes and the main issue is cyclists

because they will just see that they can get through

and they'll try and go through no matter what we're doing.

The injured woman is transferred to a stretcher and taken to the ambulance.

Kirsti and Jamie go to talk to the driver and passenger of the car.

It's important to interview the driver to find out what's happened.

Potentially it could be a drink driving offence.

Unfortunately it can just be an error as well,

but from interviewing them straight away we can hopefully

get as much information as possible about what's happened.

She slowed down, then noticed she was in the middle of the road.

-But she took a step back as we went over...

-OK.

..and so she stepped back into the car.

I think the driver was quite upset by what had happened.

She was in shock, she couldn't believe that she'd hit somebody, she just needed reassuring.

Sometimes, unfortunately, it's just one of those things where...

..it's just the situation and you're stuck and sometimes there's just nothing you can do.

-Ironically she'd have been fine if she'd just stayed in the middle of the road.

-Yeah.

It looks like an unfortunate accident, but regular officer, sergeant Aaron Murphy,

still needs to perform a breath test.

Keep blowing until I say stop. I'll hold on to the machine.

Blow, keep going, keep going, keep going, thank you very much.

In any RTC situation it's standard procedure to breathalyse the driver

just to rule out drink driving as a factor.

She said she hadn't been drinking and she blew zero which proved that she hadn't had a drink.

Next, the team talks to witnesses to corroborate the driver's story.

And pending a statement from the victim, the driver is now free to go.

We've got your details...

From what I can see it seems to be an accident,

the driver hasn't been drinking, there's no driver error,

she didn't go through a red light, the pedestrian was crossing

when the traffic light was green and the crossing light was red.

But until statements have been taken from everyone involved,

it's impossible for the police to tell categorically if anyone was at fault here.

In the meantime the specials try to reassure those involved.

In a strange kind of way this is the nicer side of specialing.

And that's what I really want to achieve doing this,

I want to help people, not necessarily by locking up criminals, by catching bad guys,

but by being there, by being that reassurance when someone needs it the most.

The victim was treated for her injuries in hospital.

And no further action was taken against the driver.

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