Video: Durham's Traffic Police
There's far more to life in the police traffic team than car chases and flashing lights, so we sent our reporter Dominic Johnson to find out more about everyday operations with Durham Police.
There's far more to life in the police traffic team than car chases and flashing lights, so we sent our reporter Dominic Johnson to find out more about everyday operations with Durham Police.
The unit is currently being filmed for the hit TV series, Police Interceptors. We were invited to ride along with PC Nyci Thorns as she went on patrol across our region.
From the team base in Spennymoor, we set out to check on uninsured drivers and await any calls from the radio.
PC Thorns explained that there's far more to the job than just chasing criminals.
She said: "We do like the adrenaline rush, we like the difference of every day. There's not one day you can turn around and say it was the same as yesterday. There's plenty of days when it's just run of the mill jobs, people with no insurance, mobile phones, road traffic collisions, just making sure people are safe on the roads.
"But there are days where you think, what has just happened..."
As we waited for the radio to send over a job, PC Thorns admitted that many of the officers do secretly enjoy the chance to put their foot down a little bit.
"Everybody likes a car chase," she said. "You ask anybody on this department, they'll tell you if somebody puts their foot down and nicks off from you it does get your blood pumping, it does get you up for the job.
"We don't want people to drive off from us, that's not what I'm saying at all. But it does happen, so we have to be able to react and deal with it."
As we're called to help another officer test a suspected drug driver, she says that it's always an unknown when the radio message comes through as you can never tell what the job could be. Duties range from checking tyre pressures and brake lights to high speed pursuits aided by police dogs and helicopter support.
The unit have decided to appear on TV to help get their message of safe driving out to the public, and show that they're not out to cause people problems but are simply trying to keep people safe.
"It's not hidden, the fact that policing numbers have been going down at the moment and that does make our job a lot harder," PC Thorns explains.
"But we still try to do a good job and listen to what the public want. If we can engage well with them, they're probably going to take on board what we're saying rather than just think we're hammering people for no reason, which isn't what we're about."
Crews from Police Interceptors will be filming with the Durham Roads Policing Unit for the next three months, with the series expected to hit our screens at some point next year.