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The landmark documentary series that captures real life drama at its most intense, following police detectives around the clock as they investigate major crimes.
2015
The return of the documentary in which more than 60 cameras are used to follow the work of Bedfordshire Police, from the cells at stations to the operational heart of major investigations. A small town near Luton has been plagued with an outbreak of teen criminality, and DS Emma James and DC Cathie Layton pull a 22-hour shift to find the evidence against a young man accused of robbery and assault. He denies everything and paints himself as the victim. Will they uncover enough to charge, or will he be released?
Bedfordshire Police must decide whether to charge two men arrested as part of a nationwide operation against people possessing and, in some cases, distributing indecent images of children online.
DS Simon Hancock and DC Cathie Layton have 24 hours to interview two men who they suspect are behind a string of knife-point robberies. And neither man knows what the other's saying...
The police release a young man who's been accused of a vicious assault when he gives his mother as an alibi. But when she fails to support his story they have to try to find him again...
DC Cathie Layton investigates the case of a man who is alleged to have assaulted a taxi driver and stolen his keys. But her instinct tells her that all is not what it seems...
2014
This extraordinary episode opens with the dawn arrest of a man on suspicion of conspiracy to murder. The film documents the work of the lead detectives as they investigate and interview the suspect about his involvement in a plot to shoot a man. While driving to work, the victim was hit from behind by another vehicle. When he stepped out to inspect the damage he was shot in his leg by a close range sawn-off shotgun, sustaining life-threatening injuries. The police believe the case arises from a potential love triangle that has spiralled out of control. Detectives have 24 hours to gather enough evidence to charge or release him.
Police Constable Cheryldeen Liversidge and Police Constable Kat Alison investigate two strongly contrasting stories about harassment and domestic abuse. Domestic abuse takes up to 40% of police time nationally and is now a priority for Bedfordshire Police, having had a poor record in the past. A scorned wife has dumped an ex-partner's clothes in a charity shop, while another woman complains of a series of highly threatening messages from a man with a violent past. On the surface, two very different cases, but both officers turn the cases they are investigating into something of a crusade and are determined to get to the bottom of what really went on in the private relations between their suspects and the victims.
News spreads across the county about a suspected paedophile trying to abduct young children on their way home from school. Local press coverage has led to hundreds of calls from panicked parents to the police. With the culprit at large, cameras follow the Major Crime Unit as they lead the operation to arrest a third suspect following a nine-year-old girl's statement and an e-fit description. After two previous suspects have been released without charge, have they now got the right man? In the public protection unit, DC Annie Fowler and DC Selena Humphreys believe they have finally gathered enough evidence, including thousands of images and hundreds of videos of extreme child abuse, to ensure the suspect is remanded in prison pending a trial. Following his second arrest, he makes a frank and shocking confession. The detectives take this new information to the Crown Prosecution Service in the hope of preventing him from committing any more offences.
This episode opens with a young man accidentally dropping a large quantity of cocaine from his jacket pocket outside a petrol station - all caught on CCTV. On the case are hard-bitten Detective Constable Colin Knight and fresh-faced Police Constable Oly Tomlinson, who joined the team three months earlier. They get off to a promising start, tracking down the owner of the vehicle the passenger was travelling in. DC Knight brings in his chief suspect for questioning and discovers that, just like the man in the CCTV footage, he has a striking tattoo on the right side of his neck, but could it be a case of mistaken identity? Also brought in to the custody suite is Darren, a man arrested on suspicion of theft of meat from Marks & Spencer. As he is booked into custody it soon becomes apparent he is a heroin addict. Sympathetic Custody Sergeant Pete Fitz-Gibbon tries his best to persuade him to stay strong and get clean. Both cases provide a stark picture about the dark world of young people caught up in a cycle of drug addiction and crime in Luton and the challenges facing the police as they tackle it.
It's Saturday night in Luton, and Bedfordshire Police are dealing with drunken domestic disputes and a booze-fuelled fight. Police Constables Leanne Turner and Andy Parsons are sent out to investigate an alleged assault against a vulnerable and fragile 75-year-old man in a domestic dispute. The suspect is the man's private carer and has been living with him for the past seven years. When he made the 999 call, the elderly man alleged that he had been slapped in the head with an open palm. But when they arrive, PCs Leanne and Andy are confronted with a distressed victim who insists he does not want them to pursue the matter and who begs them to leave. At the police station, a Polish man arrested for a drunken row with his partner is admitted into custody. He's initially brought in for a 'breach of the peace' - to remove him from the situation and allow him to sober up and cool off - but things take an unexpectedly sinister turn when he whispers to the custody sergeant that he will kill his wife the following day.
A devout Muslim has been arrested on suspicion of assaulting his daughter with an iron, after she married a man he does not approve of. Bedfordshire Police have set up a dedicated `honour-based violence' unit at Luton, but the investigation falls to DC Rachel Chandler in CID. Will she succeed in finding the evidence before time runs out?
Drunken abuse, the theft of 98p's worth of fizzy drinks and the joyriding of a 45-seater bus are all in a day's work for acting sergeant Wil Taylor. Some can seem like a waste of police time, while others quickly become serious - such as the case of three sex workers who have been arrested during a raid on a local brothel. Are the women victims, possibly trafficked to the UK from Eastern Europe, or are they running the business and exploiting others? Last in the series
2015
Hardened detectives DS Hutton and DC Brecknock are shocked by an extraordinarily disturbing case of attempted murder in an ordinary terraced home
Two teenage girls are arrested after a fight broke out in a nightclub. And the police also arrest a 61-year-old man who's never spent a night in the cells before.
This episode follows an investigation into suspected human trafficking. DC Tom Stean says 'Human trafficking is getting worse and worse. I think Luton is a magnet.'
This episode follows cases where alcohol and relationship tensions mix in a dangerous cocktail. Investigating Officer Lisa Hutchinson says nine out of ten cases can be of domestic violence.
Several elderly people have been sexually assaulted in a graveyard. The police have a sample of an attacker's DNA from a previous crime scene, and arrest a young man. Will his DNA match?
Cathie Layton and Brett Jones used to work together in the police, but now Brett's a legal rep, representing one of Luton's prolific burglars, with DC Layton on the other side of the table.
2016
Banging from within a refrigerated lorry alerts Bedfordshire Police to a group of 15 illegal immigrants within. What starts out as a routine case takes a dramatic turn when the men start falling seriously ill.
The police have a complex case to deal with when a man comes to them admitting that he tried to set up a meeting for sex with a 12-year-old girl that turned out to be a sting operation carried out by online vigilantes.
Bedfordshire Police have a high profile case to handle when, English Defence League founder, Tommy Robinson assaults a Muslim man in Luton. They also try to help a Muslim woman seeking protection.
Two lives change in a heartbeat after a single punch fells a man outside a nightclub. The blow kills the victim and the police arrest the attacker. Cameras follow every twist and turn as the police try to disentangle what really happened.
Bedfordshire Police investigate a series of armed robberies that all involve two men wearing crude balaclava's fashioned from items of clothing threatening their victims at knife-point.
The number of domestic abuse incidents reported to Bedfordshire Police has soared to over 200 a week in recent years. Two such incidents show the difficulties officers have investigating these cases.
Officers search for an armed and dangerous man who is on the run from Bedfordshire Police's "Operation Bosun" - a specialist unit that tackles gun crime.
During Luton's annual carnival a man seizes the opportunity to enter a house and sexually assault two young children. Bedfordshire Police scan thousands of hours of CCTV footage in the hunt for him.
When a young woman reports that she has been raped by a man she met in a bar, Bedfordshire Police bring the man in for questioning and try to unpick the two very different accounts of events.
2017
A man walks out of a hotel lift covered in blood. He approaches the reception desk shouting that he has killed someone. As the terrified receptionist tries to rid get 999, the man grabs the phone, but the police have been reported.
A distressed woman arrives at Luton Police station, where officers have to tell her that her 76-year-old husband is under arrest following allegations of historic child sex abuse.
Amanda comes to Luton Police station claiming that his life's in danger and that he's just escaped from a slave owning gang. Over 200 officers launch a dawn raid on the suspects.
A man has been attacked and left unconscious on the floor of a crowded pub for over 30 minutes. Detectives face a wall of silence as they search for evidence.
Bedfordshire Police are particularly busy. A care worker denies stealing a gold bracelet, a man denies being involved in a stabbing, and a suspect is questioned about an assault.
2018
Cameras follow all the twists and turns of the major investigation into an allegation of police corruption, as detectives track down, arrest and then charge a fellow officer.
Bedfordshire Police are called to Dunstable Town Centre, where a man has driven a car into a group of revellers outside a kebab shop before fleeing on foot. With a suspect on the loose, cameras follow every twist and turn of the investigation.
A man lies dead in a Peterborough park. The position of his body raises intense suspicions but rigor mortis has set in and the trail of evidence is going cold. Detectives are called in to investigate.
Police search in a Luton garden for the body of a woman who disappeared in 2003, as they turn up the heat on suspects in a case that's puzzled them for years.
The police search for a couple who they believe have exploited a young, vulnerable woman by taking over her flat to use it as a drugs base.
A woman has reported to Bedfordshire police that she is living in fear because she believes a man who she once regarded as a friend has begun to stalk her, and officers are sent to arrest him. Cameras follow the complainant and the prime suspect as they argue over whether he has crossed a line and what was once friendship has now turned into an unhealthy obsession.
2018
A woman's body is found in overgrown grassland. When detectives inform her partner of her death, his behaviour marks him out as a chief suspect.
The real-life crime series has unprecedented access to a covert surveillance operation, which culminates in 10 simultaneous armed dawn raids against organised crime gangs.
A man lies dying in the street from a stab wound to his heart. A friend at the scene is desperate to find out if he will survive but it is now a crime scene and he is not allowed to see the victim.
A woman calls the police to a block of flats in Luton and as they carefully advance down the corridor, a bloody handprint is clearly visible on the wall. The flat appears to be empty, but police suspect a man who has previously been in trouble with them has fled the scene. Cameras follow Bedfordshire Police's enquiry into a disturbing case that ends with a twist.
A teenager disappears from hospital after being brought in with serious injuries that suggest she's been tied up and assaulted. Bedfordshire Police investigate.
A man phones police to claim that there are body parts buried in the garden of a house on an estate in Luton and a search team is dispatched, but faces a wall of silence at the scene. Detectives suspect that it is a fantasy but, more worryingly, they may be being deliberately drawn into a long-running and brutal tit-for-tat gang war. Cameras follow every twist and turn of the case as it escalates further when the mother of the original complainant is stabbed in the chest.
Bedfordshire Police confront issues thrown up by the mass movement of people across Europe. A man travelling with a young woman on a one-way ticket from Bulgaria is stopped at Luton Airport. Officers from the National Crime Agency believe that he - and another man who has come to the arrivals gate to meet them - may be bringing the woman into the country unlawfully. The story takes a surprising twist when one of the men they have arrested claims he is her father. Cameras follow every twist and turn of the case, as detectives try to discover the truth when so much is obscured by different languages and culture.
Bedfordshire Police have to confront the issues thrown up by a surge in the number of crimes related to the sexual exploitation and grooming of children by paedophiles. A man is lured to what he believes is a meeting with a 13-year-old girl, but is caught in a sting operation by so-called 'paedophile hunters'. A few days later, the case takes a surprising twist when police are called to a roadside where a pensioner is found badly beaten and suffering a bleed on the brain.
2019
Detectives hunt for two rapists. They race to stop a recent offender from striking again. And can new cutting-edge forensic techniques help them catch a rapist who has evaded justice for 10 years?
An experienced officer from the Bedfordshire Police Internet Child Abuse Investigation Team investigates an area of criminal behaviour beyond anything she has tackled before
Detectives race to the scene of a stabbing in broad daylight. Cameras follow every twist and turn of the investigation, revealing the real-life stories behind the familiar headlines about knife crime.
Cameras follow every twist and turn of a real-life police investigation as detectives attempt to catch a suspected drug trafficker before he can escape on a flight to Spain
The cameras follow an engrossing and surprising real-life investigation into a reported burglary of antiques worth a quarter of a million pounds from a country estate.
Detectives investigate the sudden death of a 48-year-old woman in Cambridgeshire, and the hunt for clues takes the investigation right across Europe as cameras follow every twist and turn in the investigation.
2021
Police officers search for a man in Luton who disguises himself as a delivery driver to force his way into people's homes and commit brutal assaults. However, when the police investigation fails to make headway, the family of one of the victims launch a campaign for information on social media - which increases the likelihood of the criminal seeing he is at risk of discovery and going to ground.
A violent daytime brawl with knives erupts on the streets of Luton as chicken hop war heats up. The case then takes a disturbing twist when a police raid lands a huge cache of drugs.
A lone detective is on the trail of a Luton man who sexually abused scores of young people, in what becomes a very complex and disturbing pursuit.
In the gripping conclusion to this two-part special, the victims of historic child sex abuse come forward to try and finally get justice, and prevent the suspect from walking free for the ninth time.
On a quiet Sunday lunchtime in a Cambridgeshire suburb, a man lies bleeding to death on the doorstep. A major manhunt is triggered, where the strength of family blood ties is brutally exposed.
Features police investigations into one of the most disturbing and hard-to-prove crimes, baby-shaking cases, and examines parents' often-divided loyalties. Detectives probe the stories of the parents, as they piece together what really happened
Royce Pierreson
Self - Narrator (voice)
2022
Bedfordshire Police investigate a possible break-in and a devastating high-speed car chase, navigating the rights and wrongs of people taking the law into their own hands.
Bedfordshire Police race to rescue a missing 15-year-old girl after receiving intelligence that a 20-year old man is holding her captive at his flat in Luton. She isn't his only victim, the suspect has targeted a large number of other underage girls.
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