Police Dash – A BBC Goof Up
Of all the goof ups this really takes the cake! The month of July this year saw police dash to the aid of a news agents’ store to prevent a robbery, only to find that they were intruding on a crime watch scene being reconstructed and filmed by the BBC.
However, the fault was not theirs; instead, the police dash raid must be commended because they reached the spot on time and would have prevented a robbery – if at all it were happening!
The fault that led to the police dash really lay with the bungling BBC authorities who failed to inform the police department of their plans to reconstruct a robbery scene and a police response unit, armed to the teeth, swooped down on them after surrounding the shop within minutes of receiving a call from a passer by.
The Crimewatch team was reconstructing a recent robbery at a shop in North Shields, Northumbria when a passer by heard a loud voice shout, «put your hands up and hand over all the money.» The terrified passer by frantically dialed 999 and instantly the police dash raid went into effect.
The people inside the shop had to come out with their hands behind their heads and declare that they were from Crimewatch and that the whole thing was just a farce. Needless to mention, that the police officers were seething with rage when they discovered that their armed officers were rushed to a spot to cover a crime scene reenactment just because someone never remembered to inform them of the filming.
Talk about miscommunication, the Northumbria police department heads were told about the scheduled shooting by Crimewatch the daytime road show, but they were never told when the filming was going to take place. A top ranking BBC officer confirmed this and admitted that a police dash had been wasted and innocent members of the public put through a tense situation.
However, in the ultimate analysis, it must be acknowledged that the police department of Northumbria reacted to the call with the swiftness and perfection that can only be expected from the best trained officers.
This police dash will be remembered for two reasons. One: fumbling communications between two departments leading to an exercise in futility and two: The effectiveness displayed by the North Shields, Northumbria Police in the police dash.