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