Original title
Traffic Cops
Released
3/18/2003
Origin country
GB
Genre
Documentary
Production companies
Folio Productions
Status
Returning series
Number of seasons
22
Number of episodes
206
Cameras follow the officers of the Road Policing Units and Road Crime Teams of several UK law enforcement departments.
BBC One, South Yorkshire Police
BBC One, South Yorkshire Police
BBC One, Cheshire Police
BBC One, Hampshire Police
BBC One, Humberside Police
BBC One, Humberside & South Yorkshire Police
BBC One, South Wales Police
BBC One, South Wales & Sussex Police
BBC One, Bedfordshire Police
West Yorkshire Police
A convicted drug dealer leads the team on a 140mph chase.
The traffic cops of West Yorkshire take action against a teenage driver after he leads them on a high-speed chase across Leeds' Roundhay Park. And when they're not chasing down teenage tearaways the traffic cops face a battle to keep up with uninsured drivers.
One uninsured driver leads the cops on a 35-minute tarmac odyssey, and another flees the scene of a rush hour smash, earning a full-scale investigation for his trouble.
The traffic cops are on the tail of criminals who more and more frequently use cloned number plates to stay off the cops' radar.
Traffic Cops in Bradford pursue a team of suspected car thieves at speeds of 80mph, and officers from North Yorkshire's Road Crime Team track down a stolen Land Rover Defender.
On the A1 near Leeds, an intoxicated driver heads the wrong way down a dual carriageway. A miscreant's wellbeing becomes the officers' core concern in Halifax, after they discover a trail of blood leaving a drink-related crash scene.
Highlights from the first series. The traffic cops pursue a drug runner down a motorway, and a drug deal results in a white-knuckle race through Bradford's back streets.
The criminal underworld come to life at nighttime, as a high-speed pursuit in Bradford shows. Can the cops stop a riot from breaking out? An apparent routine stop ends up requiring specialist firearms support.
In Bradford there's a high-octane chase through a housing estate, a cocky petrol thief tries every trick in the book to wiggle free and Yorkshire's back roads have their peace disturbed by two cars carrying gun-toting drug dealers.
A driver nearly causes carnage to make sure his takeaway stays hot, a large cannabis stash is found at the scene of a crash, and a drunk driver gets caught short.
Some criminals drag a generator with just one wheel across Yorkshire, a van crashes through a level crossing and a van full of contraband is stopped in Bradford.
A speeding murder suspect is pursued through downtown Bradford, a speeding car thief picks a fight with a tree, and cops intervene as a young drink driver is attacked.
A young speeder writes his car off in a spectacular fireball, and cops pursue a car obeying all the rules of the road except for one. In the car is a familiar face...
Cops from North and West Yorkshire are cracking down on uninsured drivers whose recklessness is a cost to us all, raising everyone's insurance premiums and killing other road users.
The cops are on the heels of drug dealers, drug users and drugged-up drivers, including one dealer who tries to flush away the evidence.
The cops deal with a suicidal man with mental health problems, an Eritrean woman dumped out of a lorry by people traffickers, and a lass who's had a barney with her boyfriend.
The cops are cracking down on car thieves. Two reckless high performance car thieves lead them on the longest pursuit in the history of the force.
The cops have their hands full with night time drink driving incidents. Four police cars are needed to stop a car with a motorbike hanging out of the boot.
Officers deal with a four-car collision outside a primary school. They make sure all those injured or hurt are accounted for, and also set about finding out who was to blame. A speeding driver is desperate to escape from police and smashes into traffic at a junction, causing carnage before escaping on foot. He has left his passengers behind, but will they help the cops or hinder the course of the investigation?
The cops are called to a fatal accident near a theme park, where they suspect the driver responsible for the crash has been using drugs.
In this edition focusing on the hunt for disqualified, unlicensed and uninsured drivers. In Bradford, officers from the West Yorkshire Safer Roads team pursue a desperate and disqualified driver through the city streets, while a member of the public is forced into making a citizen's arrest when another banned motorist attempts to flee the scene of a crash. In York, a pensioner is knocked down in a hit-and-run incident and an urgent search for the culprit gets under way.
The police have their hands full with the machinations of forgers, fakers and takers. Forgers are turning out Scottish banknotes. A man is using multiple fake plates, and the traffic cops go after criminals in a high-speed pursuit.
After a pensioner gets knocked down, the traffic cops lead an urgent city wide search for a suspected hit and run driver.
North Yorkshire's road crime team chase a gang using 4x4s on nightly thefts from industrial estates. In Leeds, a teen crosses a busy road, and soon needs the emergency services.
North Yorkshire is considered a soft touch by criminals using the country's back roads. The traffic cops hunt down burglars, drug dealers, petrol bikers and thieves.
York's traffic cops need all their professionalism to deal with a distressing incident in which a pregnant woman has been knocked off her bike.
A gang of burglars who have been targeting pensioners are spotted in Halifax. The road crime team are tracking a team of burglars who operate in a convoy of cars.
The traffic cops have their hands full as drunks end up getting behind the wheel. The stresses of surviving Yuletide lead to late night argy-bargy and screaming matches.
Sgt Mick Roffe leads a raid on a club to catch some drug dealers, traffic cops pursue a car in Harrogate they believe is being used by suppliers of class A's, and a suspect tries to ditch some evidence on the A1.
A silver Astra leads Dan on a 100mph chase down the A1M before U-turning into oncoming traffic. An unlicensed teen tries to deny being the driver of a racing BMW, but Rich is not fooled.
Focusing on shoplifters, Julian pursues the users of a getaway car that crashed, James arrests the same man twice, and Lauren pulls over an organised gang of thieves only for one of them to collapse of a heroin overdose.
In York, PCs Chris and Steve set out to arrest a man suspected of assaulting a pregnant woman. On the road firearms officer Paddy chases a suspect In a Peugeot speeding at 80mph and officers assist a takeaway driver.
Across the UK, 63,000 sexual offences against children and teenagers were recorded. In York, Sergeant Mick leads early morning raids on two men suspected of exploiting and intimidating young teenage girls through the production of images and videos.
The Traffic Cops come up against some of the most dangerous and vicious criminals operating on their North Yorkshire patch, including one who already has more then 100 convictions, including 19 for violent crimes.
Following the work of the North Yorkshire Police as they take on the big city drug gangs invading their patch from Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester. On the outskirts of York, officers pull over a car that has made a 150-mile round trip into North Yorkshire from Leeds, with four suspects taken into custody after cannabis is found in the car. Read less
This edition focuses on North Yorkshire Police targeting crossborder criminals, with a fifth of theft and drug dealing committed by crooks from outside the area. Sergeant Paul is on high alert after a stolen car linked to a recent suspected firearms incident is spotted on his patch, while in Scarborough PC Dan is on the hunt for criminals in a 4x4 who have allegedly been stealing vans - and it is not long before he becomes embroiled in an off-road pursuit.
This edition focuses on officers cracking down on abuse, trafficking and exploitation. In York, Sgt Mick leads early morning raids on two men suspected of exploiting and intimidating young teenage girls through the production of explicit images and videos, while Sgt Julian discovers seven illegal immigrants in the back of a lorry at Wetherby services recently arrived from the continent.
A tyre stinger is used to stop a vehicle suspected of carrying stolen mobile phones and Automatic Number Plate Recognition helps to track and intercept a vehicle suspected of being used by burglars targeting the homes of older folk.
PC Andy stops and breathalyses a van driver in Harrogate, but, at more than twice the legal limit, the young man tries to make a run for it. A public-spirited motorist follows a woman he suspects of drink-driving after spotting her buying alcohol at a York petrol station, recording her car weaving in the middle of the road on a dashcam, and passing the data on to the police.
Paul is called to a domestic incident in which an elderly woman has allegedly stabbed her husband with a meat cleaver, while a mysterious traffic incident sees a car upside down and on fire, the driver missing and a baby seat in the back. Plus, a drunken disturbance in a pub leads to a tense manhunt through dark countryside.
While targeting cross-border thieves and fraudsters, officers are on the hunt for a car suspected of being used in supermarket thefts in a neighbouring county, while another intelligence-led operation identifies a car that is thought to be linked to drug dealing in North Yorkshire. In Scarborough, number plate recognition cameras identify a suspected stolen car, but when police attempt to pull it over, the car speeds off - and the chase is on.
Officers pursue a 15-year-old driving a stolen Audi at 140mph down the M62, and track the theft of a VW Golf using automatic number-plate recognition cameras. Plus, police discover a boot full of stolen goods while attending the scene of a serious traffic accident
Officers are called to a serious accident near Skipton involving a motorbike, while a group of bikers get into an altercation with a motorist on the road to Harrogate, allegedly forcing him off the road and assaulting him. At the start of the Easter weekend, a rider loses control in a potentially fatal accident and a collision investigation unit is called to the scene.
Officers in Harrogate spot a youth behaving suspiciously, but when they try to stop him, he flees into a local housing estate and things rapidly escalate as a hostile crowd gathers. On the southern border of North Yorkshire, some more youngsters catch the eye of the traffic cops when it appears the driver is using a mobile phone. As they attempt to pull the car over, the suspects speed off and the chase is on. The police conduct a raid on a house near York, on the hunt for a suspected drug dealer, while a routine patrol takes a sinister turn when a man in a bar is spotted with a knife.
An 80mph pursuit carries on for 15 miles across North Yorkshire, while wet roads make a 90mph chase near Scarborough even more dangerous. Another pursuit is aborted when the driver pulls over to relieve himself, and officers find an open crate of lager in his car.
Twenty-five miles north of York, Julian is called to the scene of a crash in which a car careered off the road and hit a tree, with the driver pronounced dead at the scene. Elsewhere, officers disturb two suspects they believe have been carrying out break-ins leading to a 100mph chase across a golf course.
An elderly woman near York has collapsed in her bathroom, jamming the door shut. Near the Yorkshire Dales, an elderly man driving without his glasses is responsible for a hit and run. And in Filey, North Yorkshire, a people-carrier has collided with a mobility scooter.
Police are called to a serious multiple-vehicle collision on the A64 that brings the northbound carriageway to a standstill, with the driver in the worst-affected car being airlifted to hospital with severe injuries. Near Scarborough, a VW Golf with no MOT fails to stop and clocks up speeds in excess of 100mph before colliding with a police car.
Officers close in on a suspected stolen car near Tadcaster, but they have to deploy two stingers as the driver tries to escape by hitting speeds in excess of 100mph. On the outskirts of Harrogate, a car with suspected links to supplying drugs is pulled over, with a search yielding narcotics with an estimated street value of over £12,000.
Jamie Theakston returns with the programme offering insight into the life of officers patrolling the nation's roads, this time following officers from Derbyshire, with this edition focusing on lawbreakers under the age of 25. Near Ripley, an uninsured van fails to stop, forcing officers into a dangerous off-road pursuit, while Nick and Ant lead their team on a mission to catch a suspected drug dealer.
Derbyshire officers target violent gangs ram-raiding cash machines, with criminals using hydraulic power cutters and saws to cut the ATMs out, gas pumped into the cash slots to blow them up, or heavy construction vehicles to smash them out of the walls. Meanwhile, Sgt Adrian is called to a report of an attempted burglary and Vicky is alerted to a suspected stolen car with fake plates on the M1.
Sgt Matt heads a team in pursuit of a teenage driver transporting stolen goods in a 7.5-ton truck, with the desperate youth ramming three police cars, almost running over an officer, and driving the wrong way up a dual carriageway before abandoning the vehicle and running off.
On the M1, Karl responds to a police camera alert on a stolen car that has been linked to a spate of burglaries, while controllers receive a 999 call from a man reporting that his car has just been stolen from his driveway. A report of a suspected stolen Range Rover takes a dramatic twist when the police arrest the suspect, who claims he had been kidnapped by the owner of the car.
An edition focusing on high-speed pursuits, revealing the judgement calls officers must make while weighing the dangers against the chances of capturing their suspects. On the M1, Karl hits speeds of 155mph to intercept a getaway car used by a gang of suspected thieves, but as he waits for other units to arrive his cover is blown and the target vehicle makes a run for it.
Jason Potts pursues a car that has been flagged as having no insurance or MOT, but as soon as the driver realises he is being chased, he speeds off at 70mph in a 30mph zone. On the M1 motorway, officers apprehend a driver described as `an accident waiting to happen', who blows almost twice the legal limit and is arrested, despite the vocal objections of his equally drunk girlfriend.
Nick and Mark are from a specialist Derbyshire crime unit that targets criminals who are using cloned or false number plates, and here they go after suspected drug dealers coming into the county from other areas. In Derby, PC Alex spots a known suspect driving past him in a BMW with false plates, and immediately gives chase through a local estate.
Police are involved in a game of cat and mouse with a car thief who has broken into a school compound and smashed through locked gates to steal a Honda Civic. In the early hours of the morning, Alex is called to a robbery in progress involving five men who have entered a house and are threatening the occupant with a knife.
On the outskirts of Chesterfield, Jim responds to an urgent call for back-up from his colleague Tom, who is surrounded by an angry mob following a report of a teenager driving dangerously. The aggressive young man, emboldened by an equally hostile crowd of friends, has no insurance and when police decide to seize and tow his car away, he takes out his frustrations on his own vehicle.
Officers in Derbyshire team up with neighbouring forces and take the fight to the cross-border criminals under a special initiative dubbed Operation Fuego. John and South Yorkshire officers soon give chase to a getaway driver in a stolen vehicle, which is now on a 120mph rampage on the M18. The stolen vehicle speeds along the hard shoulder on a collision course with a broken-down car. Police try to surround it, but the driver slips through and takes flight on foot. All is not lost however, as a police helicopter keeps tabs on the suspect.
Dan and Nick tail three suspected drug dealers into a car park, but just as they identify themselves as police officers, the trio speed off. Ant and Mark's dogged pursuit of a stolen moped takes them off their patch into the estates of Sheffield, where they play a game of cat and mouse around the backroads and alleyways.
Officers tail a Renault linked to a gang-related stabbing in Derby,but as they try to make a stop, the driver abandons the car and makes a run for it. The Road Crime Units gather intel on a suspect vehicle believed to be used for dealing drugs on a Chesterfield estate, while police track down a car with links to an alleged knifepoint robbery at a suspected drug dealer's house.
This edition focuses on the problems of drivers under the influence of drink and drugs. Craig is called to a single vehicle collision outside Chesterfield and discovers a woman who has just driven her car into a wall and ended up in a field after narrowly missing two girls sitting on a bench.
This edition focuses on the problems of drivers under the influence of drink and drugs. Craig is called to a single vehicle collision outside Chesterfield and discovers a woman who has just driven her car into a wall and ended up in a field after narrowly missing two girls sitting on a bench.
On the Nottinghamshire border, Craig responds to a report of a serious assault on a late-night train and an off-duty officer who tried to intervene also says she was struck by the assailants. In Long Eaton, Dave and Jason are called to the scene of a car crash, but what at first seems like a bad accident involving a suspected stolen car eventually leads to the arrest of the car's owner for perverting the course of justice.
The cops in Ripley join Operation Spacedust to target the drug networks. Ant and Andy arrest two young men for dealing in a local pub, and the suspects are taken into police custody to be strip-searched. On the outskirts of Derby, a high-speed pursuit of a suspected drug runner takes a dangerous turn off-road for Ant and Nick. And when suspected drug runners pull up outside an address, the officers, believing they are about to make a delivery, are quick to detain a young male and female.
A pursuit on the M1 near Chesterfield ends in dramatic fashion when a suspected getaway driver takes a late exit off the motorway, careering into a fuel tanker. This full-scale emergency forces Derbyshire's officers to close down a busy junction of the motorway during the morning rush hour. A rollercoaster day out at Alton Towers ends with a near-death experience for members of a group of day trippers when their car breaks down on the A50 and a lorry driver's momentary lapse in concentration sees him smash head-on into the stationary vehicle.
An arrested martial artist refuses to give up the fight - even at the police station. A driver disastrously misjudges an overtaking manoeuvre, while another falls asleep at the wheel on the M1 motorway.
Dave and Alex respond to a report of a motorbike theft near Ilkeston and the officers hunt down a pack of suspects in an hour-long chase, which concludes with Derbyshire's first-ever use of a stinger to stop a motorbike. South-west of Derby, Karl is called to a serious accident involving a motorcyclist, with witnesses reporting seeing the biker overtaking moments before colliding with the back of a trailer.
Officers attend the site of a horrific head-on collision involving a transit van and an HGV where the emergency services attempt to rescue the van driver from wreckage.
Derbyshire's road crime team attempts to intercept a drug dealer traveling into the county from Sheffield.
Ant Horsley and Dan Mitchell are on the hunt for a disqualified driver after a police camera alerts them to the whereabouts of his car, but events take a bizarre twist when an angry relative of the man in question decides he wants to have his say. Dave Shaw responds to a report of a car stolen when the owner left the engine running while she nipped into a shop.
Derbyshire Police
Derbyshire Police
At Ripley police station, officer Alex responds to news of two cars reported missing by a young woman, and the suspected thieves turn out to be two wanted men with a long list of previous convictions. Alex makes it his mission to catch the two dangerous criminals, who go on a violent rampage while on the run for four weeks.
After a spate of alleged violent robberies in south Derbyshire, Alex and Jason support a team of local officers as they chase down a gang of teenage suspects on foot through a housing estate. Meanwhile, rookie Chris joins local officers in the hunt for a gang of thieves suspected of a large number of burglaries and thefts in Chesterfield.
Police from Derbyshire are on a campaign to round up wanted criminals on the run, and officer Matt Copestake joins a high-speed pursuit of a man wanted across two counties. North of Chesterfield, Andy Swift receives intel on the whereabouts of car linked to a wanted suspect, and units from across the county close in on the suspect car and its occupants.
A dangerous driver pushes officers to their limit in Derbyshire as the vehicle reaches speeds of over 150 miles an hour, before crashing into a ravine. Meanwhile on the outskirts of Derby, traffic officer Jason deals with a suspected drunk driver sighted walking down a busy dual carriageway after crashing her car.
Matt leads a team pursuing a seven-tonne truck carrying stolen goods. Dave and Rich help to box in a lorry with fake plates on the M1. Craig must balance closing the roads with solving the mystery of a pair of escaping passengers.
Derbyshire Police
A fire extinguisher is launched from a fleeing getaway car. An insight into the working life of officers patrolling Britain's roads.
The programme follows officers from Derbyshire's road crime unit as they target dealers bringing drugs into the county, with PC Nick Lovatt giving chase after a sighting of a suspected dealer in Derby. At police HQ, the cops receive intelligence about a van travelling towards Derbyshire suspected of carrying a large amount of cash. The Road Crime Unit heads into position to intercept the van and surround it on the motorway.
Derbyshire's Road Crime Unit uses intelligence and surveillance tactics to crack down on suspected drug dealers. The team receives some intelligence about a man suspected of ferrying drugs into the county using a relative's car. After boxing the car to a stop, a struggle breaks out between the driver and road crime cop Nick Lovatt, and the suspect is forcibly cuffed and detained.
Karl is called to an accident involving a driver in his seventies who has reversed into a house and ruptured a gas main. With the elderly man trapped in his car, it's a full-scale emergency for Karl and his colleagues to free the driver and prevent an explosion. On the outskirts of Derby, traffic cop Jason is called to a mystery crash involving a middle-aged woman who has rolled her car on a quiet suburban street. Unsure why or how the accident has occurred, Jason is left gobsmacked when the truth is revealed.
The pubs finally reopen after nearly four months of lockdown and as a result the police prepare for a spike in drink-drive incidents on Derbyshire's roads. Paul investigates a report of a crash involving a car that has gone straight over a roundabout and then been abandoned, while Scott is called to a report of an alleged hit-and-run - which transpires to be the result of a fight between a pub-goers that spiralled out of control and into the path of oncoming motorists.
A scooter is driven the wrong way down a dual carriageway into oncoming traffic, but despite it having its tyres stung and being followed by a police helicopter, it proves incredibly difficult to apprehend the rider. A chase nearly ends in serious injury for an officer when he is almost dragged along by a car after it is cornered in a supermarket car park.
After receiving reports that a lorry driver has almost struck a road worker on the M1, officers race to intercept a seven-and-a-half-ton truck, with Sgt Scott Riley deploying a stinger to bring the vehicle to a standstill. PC Chris Ryan receives a police camera alert that the driver in the car in front of him may under the influence of drugs, while Sgt Steve Hughes and his team investigate a crash in which a car hit a wall. Share this on:
Officers stop a driver in relation to an alleged drunken assault and the breathalyser indicates he is more than three times over the limit and two knives are found in his car. Scott is patrolling Peak District villages and responds to a call in from a member of the public about two men acting suspiciously, soon coming across a white van towing an expensive trailer.
PC Dave Naylor responds to a call after a man with a history of violence is suspected of having stolen a car, which ispursued at 95mph along the M1, while police receive information about a man suspected of trying to sell a car for £1,000 and then driving off with both the vehicle and the cash.
PC Chris Ryan is patrolling alone at night when he spots a suspected cloned SUV and gives chase, with the driver of the vehicle ramming the police car five times and eventually turning off its lights to escape over a field. PC Nick Lovatt is part of a team of officers tracking a suspected drug-runner after a car is caught on a police camera, with a high-speed chase through residential streets ensuing.
Lee Ridley is one of four police vehicles pursuing a car suspected of being cloned, while police work with fire and medical crews after a crash on the M1 leads to a lorry ploughing off the road and into an embankment. Rich Morris responds to his fifth crash in four hours but as he places bollards on the road, he is almost knocked over by a car that skids by out of control mere inches away.
PC Andy Swift is patrolling on the M1 when a car he has flagged down takes off, prompting a chase at speeds up to 120mph, while PC Jason Potts is called to a pub where a distressed woman is convinced her boyfriend has fallen into the freezing waters of a canal.
Matt Cooling and Josh Field are on the lookout for organised gangs attempting to steal HGVs and the goods they carry. After they spot a suspect lorry, it's a dangerous and risky business trying to bring it to a stop safely, requiring tactics and teamwork. PC Andy Swift is called to a report of the theft of a van and catches a suspect red-handed in a vehicle parked outside the owner's house.
Acting on intelligence, the eight members of Derbyshire's Road Crime Team set out to intercept a car suspected of being used in drug deals, and detain three men, including the main target they were looking for. Ant Horsley gives chase when a suspicious car fails to stop late at night, with the vehicle eventually crashing after taking a corner too fast.
Matt Copestake is called to investigate a woman suspected of drink-driving at 10am, and discovers she was arrested two weeks previously for the same offence. Andy Swift is on the trail of a driver who has allegedly failed to stop after a collision, while PC Alex Boniface is almost hit by a car while he is clearing away debris after woman drove a car into a pub's wall.
An edition following Derbyshire officers as they tackle young offenders, with Sgt Matt Edwards on the hunt for a gang of suspected teenage car thieves in Derby thought to have been breaking into houses to steal car keys and then the occupant's vehicle. Alex Boniface and his partner Chris Buckland are tipped off to the whereabouts of a car with links to drugs and it is spotted in a residential area with two young occupants, who are pulled over and searched.
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