Traffic Cops returns to Channel 5

Best on the Box highlight for November 29…

Britain’s most popular police show Traffic Cops is back for a tenth series on Channel 5  as always presented by Jamie Theakston.

On patrol in Derbyshire,surrounded on all sides by large metropolitan areas, the Traffic Cops tackle a huge variety of criminals, ranging from drunk or drugged drivers to violent county lines drug dealers and organised crime gangs. With the busy M1 motorway running through it, Derbyshire’s road police are crucial to maintaining order in one of the country’s crime corridors, at a time when the UK’s Police are coming under increasing pressure.

When the rewards run into thousands or tens of thousands of pounds, some criminals are prepared to take great risks and endanger the lives of Derbyshire’s Traffic Cops. PC Chris Ryan is following a car that triggered an alert on the police’s ANPR system after it is linked to a spate of catalytic converter thefts.

Chris’s life is put in danger when one of the passengers suddenly gets out of the car and hurls a metal pole and then a drill towards him, smashing his police car window. The suspect car then takes off at speed, but Chris remains unfazed and continues to pursue it. Eventually the suspects’ car is surrounded by officers who use batons to smash its windows and arrest the occupants. When the car is searched, officers find several catalytic converters in the boot.

Sgt Steve Hughes is working with HMRC and leading a team trying to track down and stop a vehicle that is suspected of carrying illicit cash. The car is intercepted on the motorway in a carefully organised operation and, when the officers search its boot, they find bundles of cash running into hundreds of thousands of pounds. Whether the driver of the car is anything other than a low-level courier, paid to transport the money, will come out during the subsequent investigation.

After the operation, Steve Hughes is on his way back to the custody suite when he receives a call to assist in tracking and stopping a lorry that is driving erratically and suspected to be bearing cloned plates.

When officers find the lorry, they see that it is transporting a digger which they suspect is stolen. Steve estimates its value to be at least £80,000. It turns out the driver does not have a driving licence, is uninsured and also fails to give a sample when officers suspect he could be drunk.

Traffic Cops, Channel 5, 8 pm