To Catch a Copper

This program me contains strong language, discussions around mental health and suicide

as well as scenes of violence that some viewers may find upsetting

Fellow citizens allow fellow citizens to police them.

That consent is very, very precious.

Policing contributes to making communities safe,

and we want everybody to have a positive experience with the police.

Hiya.

You got a name or anything?

Oh. Which one?

When that doesn't happen, and when we do something wrong,

I'll say so.

Ancl I'll deal with the consequences of it.

OK, fine. Off to custody, then.

Four years ago,

Avon and Somerset Police took the unprecedented step

of inviting cameras

to film the unit that investigates their own officers.

Whilst restraining the female,

you called her a "BLEEP bitch."

In a nutshell, the Counter-Corruption Unit

is there to root out officers that have clone something

that they shouldn't have clone, knowingly.

These officers could end their colleagues' careers,

and even land them in jail.

But until now, their work has remained a mystery.

We urgently need to take these officers off front line duties.

When I first joined this department, people said to me,

"Oh, right, so you're joining the dark side, then, are you?"

Get on the floor now! Oh!

How does it feel for a police officer when the tables are turned

and THEY are on the wrong end of a serious allegation?

I am telling you my version of this event,

and I am telling you, that did not happen.

And does a system where the police investigate themselves really work?

I don't know what to say.

It's the worst misconduct I think I've ever seen.

I don't really know how to tell you this,

but we've had a not guilty verdict back.

What are you doing?

I took this kind of nonsense.

My parents took this kind of nonsense,

and they're still getting away with it.

Investigator Ian Jameson

has called an urgent meeting with senior colleagues

to discuss a new case he's been assigned.

He's part of the specialised unit

that investigates police misconduct cases.

The victim in this case hasn't even made a complaint.

This case was actually discovered by one of our internal panels.

They saw the footage

and they highlighted it as bad conduct.

The internal panel was viewing the footage

on the lookout for possible assaults on the police.

It's now being reviewed

to see if the officers themselves

could be guilty of career-ending misconduct.

Hiya.

Have you got a name or anything?

Which one?

Two response officers have been called

to help a woman having a mental health crisis

who wants to jump from Clifton Suspension Bridge.

On your feet, one, two, three.

Or what?

Get your legs out.

All right, here we go.

Pava is a synthetic pepper spray

that officers carry for self-defence.

Police rules state it should be sprayed from at least a metre away,

and that officers have a duty

to look after members of the public it's been used on.

It looks awful because it is awful.

Police officers are trained to deal with difficult people.

They're trained how to use force correctly.

They're trained to be compassionate.

Pava isn't there as a punishment.

It's a tool for officer protection.

Ancl the spit hood shouldn't be used as a torture instrument.

All right, we're just gonna chuck her in the car

and sort of turn around as best we can, so don't worry about coming.

I don't think the young lady is doing it because she wants to,

and it's highly likely that the underlying diagnosis here

will be a personality disorder, which is normally born of trauma,

normally in childhood.

There's normally some dreadful back story that goes with it,

and this person perhaps has gone to the bridge

on this particular occasion in that moment of crisis,

in order for someone to come and contain her, feel held.

No.

Because you've attempted to spit, and then you've kicked.

Yeah, that's because of Pava.

You were warned several times.

No.

Do not bang your head!

You kicked me.

It's a matter of seconds between "Do we know who it is?"

to "You're arrested for public nuisance."

What would you have expected to have seen?

Well, "Why are you here?

"What's happened today? How are you?"

Where was the kindness?

It's hostile, it's aggressive, it's short-tempered.

I'm ashamed. This wasn't a person committing a crime.

This was a person calling for help.

We urgently need to take these officers off front line duties.

OK, so we've got our acting inspector, a police sergeant,

who in essence, has had sex with a drunk female

in his police car.

Having sex with a member of the public whilst on duty

is a criminal offence, which could lead to a lengthy prison sentence.

Sergeant Lee Cocking offered the woman a lift

because she was drunk and vulnerable.

The whole reason the police were originally called

is because our victim was...

The best way to describe it is, she was being a nuisance

in one of the local um, clubs.

He told her to go and see if she could find her friends,

see if she could get a lift home with them.

And he had said, "lf you don't find your friends

"and you cannot get a lift home, then I'll pick you up."

The CCTV camera follows her to the next nightclub,

where she appears to go and look for her friends,

and then it shows her walking off towards the other point.

He's said to the other officer,

"No need to arrest her, I'll take her home."

You know, it does feel predatory.

It is our biggest issue,

officers using their position to...

...form illicit relationships with vulnerable members of the public,

and forming relationships with people that they have met

through the course of their duties.

That is a big problem, unfortunately.

Where do we think this has happened, then, the sex?

Well, from the description she's given us,

we think it's happened on the toll road.

We were able to pinpoint which lay-by they were in

from the radio data,

a lay-by set back into kind of like a forest area.

It's pitch black. There's no street lighting,

there's no CCTV, there's no houses that overlook it. So literally,

if there was going to be somewhere

you were going to park to have sex with a drunk female,

you'd pick the toll road.

She remembers being outside of the car.

She said they originally had attempted to have sex in the car

and it wasn't working.

So she then recalls being outside of the car,

leaning back in onto the driver's seat

and him being behind her.

You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence

if you do not mention when questioned

something that you later rely on in court.

12 days after the complaint is made,

Sergeant Lee Cocking is arrested and brought in for interview.

In a lot of cases,

you do think...

"What were you thinking?

"What on earth were you thinking? Why did you do that?

Surely you would know

that that is going to somehow get out

and put you...

...in a whole world of trouble.

Why would you do that?

ls there any reason for her not to be telling the truth?

I can't see that she's got anything to gain from this whole process

other than reliving the trauma of that night.

She's got nothing to gain from this.

The evidence will now be assessed

to see if it is strong enough

to lead to a criminal charge for Sergeant Cocking.

Yeah.

The case of the woman arrested on Clifton Suspension Bridge

has been escalated

to the Independent Office for Police Conduct,

a national body that oversees the police complaints system

in England and Wales.

In 2022, over 81,000 complaints went through this system.

Fewer than 1 % resulted in formal misconduct proceedings.

During the IOPC investigation,

the two constables will be represented

by the Police Federation, a staff association for officers.

Come on.

Local federation chair Mark Loker

reviews the body-worn camera footage.

Get on your knees.

Right. I'm going to take this off you now, OK?

Do not spit.

Right.

We'll get her coat off and then do the rest.

just going to take the handcuffs off.

There we go. All right.

All right?

There we go.