Coppers 3-4

Emergency

Emergency calls to the police have risen by 50 per cent over the last 15 years, although recorded crime has dropped by a third over the same period.

The series follows the police responding to emergency calls and reveals the incredible things people choose to call 999 about: from mobile phones running out of credit to arguments about whose turn it is to have a go on the Nintendo Wii.

Kent constabulary receive a quarter of a million 999 calls every year, with 80% classed as non-emergencies and many seen as 'nuisance calls'.

'We're seeing a generation divide,' says Chief Inspector Nicola Faulconbridge of Kent's Force Communications Centre. 'Whereas the older generation won¿t call us for almost anything, even in an emergency, the younger generation are much more willing and ready to call us about almost any issue.'

Police officers are spending much of their time acting as counselors, settling petty squabbles and relationship problems. 

'Sometimes you just want to bang people's heads together and go 'Come on, look at you - you're 40 and you're acting like you're 12!'' says PC Neil Cronin.

Another issue prompting an increasing number of calls to 999 calls is Facebook. When virtual threats get out of hand, the police have no choice but to treat it as a real emergency, sending cars racing to the scene.

Saturday Night

The series joins police officers on the Saturday night beat, where drunks, abuse and violence - as well as marriage proposals and requests to urinate in your helmet - are all part of the job.

Typical of towns and cities up and down the country, every weekend the streets of Wakefield and Leeds in West Yorkshire are filled with people getting as drunk as they can as fast as they can. Trying to keep them in order, and stop them hurting themselves or others, are a handful of officers, alongside city council night marshals.

'We get nothing but grief and abuse and we can't say anything back, can we?' says PC Phillippa Child in Wakefield.

'If we locked up everybody who swore or spat or urinated or got involved in a pushing and shoving match, within about an hour of being out on town, just about everybody on that city centre would be waiting in the cells to be booked in,' says PC Chris Merrick.

When they're not arresting people, the female PCs are fending off protestations of love: ''Can I have your number? You're lovely. You're really nice. Why are you a copper? You're too beautiful to be a copper.' And I'm thinking get lost!' says PC Child.

(This episode features in-vision signing for the deaf)

Channel 4 15-26 November 2010 2 x 60 minutes