Pontypridd Response Sgt Chris Peters is featured in the new
series of Police 24/7.
Here he talks about what it is like to be filmed doing his job.
I thought I had experienced
everything in my 14 years as a police officer, until last year when I was asked
to take part in a new fly-on-the-wall documentary produced by BBC Wales called Police
24/7.
I was apprehensive at first - the prospect of being followed
around by cameras was totally alien to me, but after speaking to family,
friends, colleagues, and of the community, I came to realise it was a
unique opportunity that couldn’t be missed.
That was last year. After a very successful first series
which was broadcast in January 2013, the crew came back to me asking if I’d be
interested in being a part of the second series to be filmed in November. I
jumped at the chance to get involved.
The we had after the first programme was
incredible. People recognise us all the time, and appreciate what we are doing
more than ever.
You can be forgiven for thinking police work is just about
high speed chases, bursting through doors or running after criminals through
fields in the pitch black. Of course, there is a bit of that - and it is a
great part of the job - but the side you don’t see are the hours we spend in
the community managing offenders, looking after victims, witnesses and vulnerable
people.
I think what’s so refreshing about Police
24/7 is that the programme has gone to
great lengths to show the everyday grass-roots side of policing, so if you want
to know what it’s really like, this is your chance.
If there’s one thing I have learned during my time as a
police officer, it’s when you start your shift you just don’t know what the day
will bring, and the week we were accompanied by cameras was no different.
So tune in to follow me and colleagues confront drunken men
in the street, surprise a drug dealer, help a man who’s become lost in the woods
as he tried to walk home, and police what was the first ever Premier league
clash between Cardiff and Swansea back in November.
You won’t be disappointed.
Police
24/7 is on Thursday, March 6, BBC One Wales at
8.30pm.
