Darryl is out and about with Murphy in Exeter and is called to help with the apprehension of a car thief who nicked a vehicle in Torquay, rammed a police car with it, and is now hightailing it towards Exeter. By the time the chopper’s on scene, the car’s been abandoned and a suspect has been spotted on the run. It’s time for Murphy to show what he’s made of, and they head out across fields to where they can see the chopper hovering. Unfortunately, it’s the wrong fields, and Darryl can’t contact the crew. By this time, the suspect is largely knackered, so the team of officers, and dog, are now on the hunt. Things are not improved by the possibility that the suspect is carrying a knife, so it’s just as well the pack now contains a few armed guys as they converge on some fishing pools to pick up whatever trail they can. They head out on foot again, past bemused anglers, and finally converge on their suspect with drawn tasers, much shouting and – from Murphy – much barking. Once sorted, all that Darryl has to do is see if Murph can find the knife – and show off his blistered fingers.
Taff and Jim are chasing a suspected drugs dealer, and we get a birds’ eye view of it from the Force chopper, to watch the suspect massively overcook a turn at a junction and send his car merrily into an unsuspecting tree. Apparently uninjured, his flight is short lived – and he is returned to the scene where the Lads have uncovered the reason for the mad chase: a kilo of amphetamine in the boot.
One short spot of car porn later, we’re now with the RCU in Saltash. Giles is lurking in an ST on watch, while Mike and Jon are waiting out of sight in one of the beemers. It’s a ‘crim radar’ kind of thing, with Giles looking out for suspicious vehicles and calling in his colleagues to help when he gets in behind them. He gets behind a dodgy looking Merc, but Mike and Jon are going in the opposite direction so a hasty about turn is required to get in touch again. The stop, when carried out, is flawless and the driver is completely taken by surprise. The first find is a small bag of cannabis, which is a little disappointing given that they were hoping for more; but the bag of compressed white stuff in the bag under the drivers’ seat is exactly what they were hoping to find. Grins all round!
Taff and Mark are lurking in Okehampton to back up local officers aiming to clamp down on local criminals by keeping an eye out for suspects’ vehicles – all set down on a list. They don’t have to wait too long either, as a car on their list is heading their way – until the driver clocks them and does a hasty turnoff. Fortunately it pulls in after a short while and they are able to apprehend the seatbelt-less driver and his colleagues who aren’t particularly happy to be on the telly. By this time Mike has also arrived and the searching begins, much to the driver’s disgust. There’s no drugs in the car, but a quick dip of the fuel tank reveals something else. Red diesel.
Sticking with the red diesel theme, Giles and Roger are parked up along the M5 ANPR-ing and deploying their crim radars. Spotting a likely vehicle, a white van, they pull it and Giles, (kitted out completely in hi-vis just to make sure no one misses him) goes fetches out the driver for Roger to have a speak to, before having a word with the passenger. While the two occupants of the van are apparently clean, their van is one of those vehicles which practically has an ‘I’m using illegal fuel’ sign over the top and Giles retrieves the dipper from the boot to prove his instincts right.
Mike and Chris are ANPR-ing over the M5 and get a ding on a car which has been flagged by the local safety camera partnership as having triggered a camera, but no clear culprit identified, and shows no insurance. Double whammy. They pull it on the motorway, and Mike sets out to sort matters. The driver is not the registered keeper – she can confirm that the relevant details for the camera incident have been sent in – but she was under the impression the car was insured and has to give her husband a ring to check. And thus discovers he’s forgotten to renew it. Even though it’s his fault, she’s the one who will have to cough up the fine and take the points because she was the one driving it. Fortunately, hubby manages to get the insurance renewal through while they’re doing the ticket. They can’t check it on the relevant databases as it’s too late in the day; but, being nice types, they take down the policy number, issue a producer and let the lady retain the car rather than dump her on the hard shoulder. Bless.
Following a public disorder montage, we join the TAG on one of their training exercises. They do more than just bust doors down in search of tiny amounts of cannabis; their actual job is to maintain public order, so they need regular refresher training to keep their skills in tip-tip condition in case of bad behaviour on the streets. The afternoon is spent practicing with riot shields, modern-day testudo techniques, before night falls and they go into the simulation proper, which includes such applied nastiness as noisy people with bits of wooden blocks, loud shouting and Molotov cocktails to add a sense of real unpleasantry. They perform with aplomb, before taking a well earned rest and breaking out the pasties. Nice.
Roger and Jon are coming to the end of their shift in Kingsbridge, and find themselves behind a vehicle which comes up as having an expired MOT. As it only expired a short time ago, they decide to stop the driver and warn him of this occurrence rather than mess around with points and fines. This turns out to take quite a bit longer than expected, as the driver doesn’t seem to want to stop at first, before driving the vehicle halfway up a grass verge. This is all very well, but there’s a distinctly boozy smell lurking in the vehicle which concerns Jon to the degree that he wants to breathalyse the driver. While this one doesn’t develop a spontaneous cough, he does seem to have a lot of trouble blowing into the tube – primarily because he isn’t doing it properly. Jon keeps giving him ‘very, last, final chances’, and lots of helpful instructions. The guy attempts to make out that the task is too difficult for a man of his age, until Jon points out that they test breathalysers on people with only one lung. After all that, he needn’t have worried as he is, quite literally, just one point under the limit. Hopefully he will take that as a warning from now on…
