Police Under Pressure

British policing is under pressure like never before as forces up and down the country try to cope with the biggest cuts to their budgets in modern times. South Yorkshire Police has more trouble than most. It is struggling to rebuild a reputation tainted by the tragedy of Hillsborough and some of the worst crime figures in Britain. It is also struggling to keep the peace in some of its most difficult neighbourhoods. In some parts of Sheffield, tension between the existing white and Asian communities and newly arrived Roma from Eastern Europe is threatening to boil over into violence. In other areas, an epidemic of anti-social behaviour threatens to spiral out of control. With exclusive access to both officers on the ground and the most senior ranks, this follows the neighbourhood police team in Sheffield's toughest patch as they try to maintain order while coping with ever decreasing resources. The film raises fundamental questions about the state of modern policing: with cuts biting ever deeper, is it time to accept there are certain things the police just can't afford to do?

British policing is under pressure like never before as forces up and down the country try and cope with the biggest cuts to their budgets in modern times. South Yorkshire Police is struggling to rebuild a reputation tainted by the tragedy of Hillsborough and some of the worst crime figures in Britain. They have just six months to turn things around and improve crime figures, or risk being taken over by government inspectors. With exclusive access to both officers on the ground and the most senior ranks, this episode follows the South Yorkshire police force as it attempts to lower crime with drastically reduced resources. As the pressure mounts, so the cracks begin to appear - in both the declining morale of ordinary officers and in the growing divisions among senior ranks over what to do.

Examining British policing under pressure from budget cuts. This episode follows officers in Sheffield as they investigate two separate incidents of missing girls, both victims of grooming and horrific sex attacks. Filmed before the Jay Report child abuse revelations became public, the programme follows South Yorkshire Police over 12 months as they struggle to rebuild their tarnished reputation while at the same time trying to deal with a new spate of child sex crimes. With unprecedented access to both detectives on the ground and senior commanders, the film tells the inside story of the investigation of child sexual exploitation in South Yorkshire. In both cases, the police face a fundamental problem: officers may believe the girls are the victims of sexual crimes, but the girls initially protect the perpetrators and deny anything has happened. The film explores the complexity that is often at the heart of grooming cases - making them among the most difficult crimes to investigate and bring to justice.