Going on patrol with the police in one of the country's 'most dangerous' areas

Express & Star

As part of our ongoing coverage of anti-social behaviour in the Black Country, we received a first-hand experience of just what police officers have to go through when they're patrolling "Britain's roughest estate."

Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 - Share one through our three interviews

00:05 via the Express and Star.

00:07 - The only way you know that someone's throwing something

00:11 at your car is when it goes through the window

00:13 or hits your vehicle, really dangerous,

00:16 really concerned of the potential repercussions,

00:18 someone getting hurt.

00:19 - We're Daniel Morton with Express and Star.

00:27 What we're doing at the moment is we're gonna be heading out

00:28 with Bloxwich Police Station, Bloxwich Police Force,

00:31 the local neighborhood police force around the area,

00:33 into Blaker, which has been described

00:35 as one of the roughest estates in Britain.

00:38 It has witnessed a few serious events,

00:41 like bricks being thrown at police cars,

00:43 section orders being put into place

00:46 with dispersals and whatnot.

00:47 So we're gonna head around with West Midlands Police

00:50 at the moment, the Bloxwich Neighborhood Police Force,

00:53 just to see if it is as bad as what the reports make out.

00:58 - So, here we go, shops for kids.

01:01 - Yeah. - Obviously don't wanna engage.

01:03 Walking off, it's quite normal.

01:05 Any problems with the kids or anything like that?

01:11 - No. - Do you normally get many?

01:13 - Not that much, we get like a few shoplifters,

01:15 but we're both ideals.

01:17 - Everything's all right at the moment?

01:18 - Yeah, yeah. - Okay.

01:19 - I know there'll be a lot of kids sometimes

01:21 hanging around outside, but we haven't had any trouble.

01:25 - I know, okay, all right, nice to see ya.

01:28 - That's great.

01:29 - Yeah, they're probably all right.

01:33 - We went to engage with the shops,

01:35 had a chat with the shopkeeper, they were fairly happy,

01:38 nothing major going on, few incidents of shoplifting.

01:42 We've gone back outside, I think we met

01:43 with a little bit of verbal and visual abuse,

01:47 fingers being stuck up, some shouting and swearing

01:50 from the children, which is a little bit frustrating.

01:53 And then at some point, someone's attempted

01:55 to throw a stone at the police carrier, but missed.

01:58 When you're out on the road and you're in a vehicle

02:23 with your lights on, you can't see into here

02:24 when it's dark at all, it is pitch black.

02:26 So the only way you know that someone's throwing something

02:31 at your car is when it goes through the window

02:33 or hits your vehicle, really dangerous,

02:35 really concerned of the potential repercussions,

02:38 someone getting hurt, could be a serious

02:40 road traffic collision.

02:41 So just to sort of prevent this happening and combat it,

02:48 again, we sort of, apart from doing the police thing,

02:53 putting more officers into the area,

02:55 we've got a key to the gate so we can quite easily

02:57 get in ourselves, we're working with partners

03:00 to try and reduce the problems.

03:01 This was identified by officers.

03:04 Patrolling, a bit of a waste to sort of get into the

03:09 cemetery, just part of that partnership work,

03:14 getting that repaired.

03:15 - When we walked around the cemetery,

03:16 we could see that the bushes had been cut back

03:18 so you couldn't hide behind them.

03:20 You saw that some repairs had gone along

03:22 the fence line to stop people entering the cemetery

03:24 when it's closed and also the CCTV to deter the behaviour

03:29 and also if it does capture anything,

03:32 we can use that for evidential purposes.

03:34 - Again, it shows you that the technology works.

03:50 Small knife, you know, enough force could be used

03:55 to cause injury or again, that could be thrown

03:57 at a vehicle or a police officer.

03:59 A bit of an odd place to find that in a cemetery,

04:02 just in the ground.

04:03 - Yeah, so we're here back at base outside of

04:11 Bloxwich Police Station.

04:12 It's been an absolutely enlightening experience,

04:14 to be fair.

04:15 We've seen a mixed range between the youths,

04:18 you know, nicely interacting with officers,

04:20 but also attempting to smash one of the windows

04:23 with a brick while we've been out.

04:25 You know, going through the Lake North Town Centre

04:28 was sort of a scary experience,

04:30 but I wouldn't really class it myself

04:32 as one of the most dangerous areas in the UK.

04:35 It seems like the residents do want to interact

04:37 with police and get the area sorted.

04:40 It just seems like the police have a bigger issue

04:42 to deal with than what seems on the surface.

04:46 We went to Roycroft Cemetery as well,

04:49 which was an equally jarring experience.

04:51 We have been there before,

04:53 where, you know, directly after,

04:55 one of the police cars had been written off

04:58 by a brick that was thrown in there.

04:59 It's nice seeing a positive outreach by the police

05:02 to try and change things, you know,

05:04 repairing, cutting back the grass,

05:05 repairing the gates and whatnot.

05:07 But it's good seeing the police,

05:08 good seeing either side of the coin,

05:09 seeing the police do what they need to do

05:11 to try and sort the area out.

05:14 I do believe that the area will change as it goes on.

05:17 It's nice seeing the residents passionately interact

05:20 with the police as well and do what they can

05:22 to try and sort out their area.

05:23 We'll just have to see how the area carries on

05:25 as it goes on.

05:26 (upbeat music)

05:29 (upbeat music)

05:31 (upbeat music)

05:34 (upbeat music)

05:37 (upbeat music)

Category

Transcript

Recommended