Pursuits, drugs and police dogs: A shift with the Tameside GMP team

The police are people who deal with stabbings, drug offences, theft and murder - all while risking their own safety. Our reporters Daisy Dewsnap and Olivia Briggs spent a shift with the Tameside East Neighbourhood GMP Team.

On arrival to the premises, Sergeant Ben Marsden led us to a large briefing room where we were introduced to the other officers on duty that evening.

The whole team was presented with a detailed slideshow, which we were told is a regular occurrence prior to a shift.

This meeting outlined crucial information officers should know for the night ahead - covering subjects from missing people and those believed to be vulnerable to stolen cars and recent releases from prison.

We were also talked through the call to action if we were to be faced with firearms at any point.

Following the briefing, we headed out into Ashton on patrol - covering the Tameside East area.

As the officers talked us through their various procedures and what had led them into this line of work, a car drove past catching their attention.

After checking the number plate on the Police National Computer, we learnt that the driver had been disqualified from driving. This was when our first pursuit of the night began, however, we were unable to locate the car and no further actions were taken.

After patrolling the roads of Ashton and Stalybridge for a short while longer, a more serious call came through.

The hand-held radio announced another pursuit and we were off - sirens blaring, blue lights flashing.

As we ploughed through red lights across Dukinfield and Hyde, hitting speeds of 70mph, going and the team would look at  other car believed to be involved the feelings of adrenaline ran high.

The skills as our car weaved expertly between the teatime traffic left us both in complete admiration of these officers, completely putting their own lives on the line.

The pursuit continued for a further few minutes until a message came through from the communications team declaring that we should not go ahead and the chase was called off.

As frustrating as it was, the officers had a duty to cooperate with this instruction and were forced to halt what they were doing.

Sgt Marsden, who was driving, shared that no matter how many times he is involved in a pursuit, he feels he will never adjust to the overwhelming emotions you endure in those moments as you’re chasing a suspect, however ‘your training does takes over’.

While we were sat at a stand-still on the side of the road, a member of the public approached our car and pointed us in the direction of where he’d seen the car we were following go.

We decided to venture into the estate and see if we could find the vehicle, which was suspected to be involved in drug offences, and it was here that we came across it, abandoned.

The officers all began searching it in the hope of finding evidence or clues as to who had been driving.

As the situation developed, a potential offender from the vehicle was located in a nearby garden which led to a ‘foot chase’.

The team began their third pursuit of the night at this point, which resulted in a couple of people being detained in relation to the incident.

No arrests were made, but we were told enquires would be ongoing and the team would look at the evidence they had to ‘build a bigger picture’.

Sergeant Lisa Halsall told us: “Everybody has to work together, we can only take action from what the public are telling us.”

Ben Marsden added: “People are always saying ‘drug dealing isn’t the worst’, they’ll tell us to focus on other things, but what they don’t realise is it attracts serious organised crime in the area.

“It’s ruining lives with the drug takers, through addiction and so on. It attracts serious violent crime and cuckooing of vulnerable people. This is why we’ve got to target further up the chain - we know that the higher up dealers are forcing this industry on people who are vulnerable.

“We’re really wanting to focus more on this side of things to try and show the public that we are doing something about it. That won’t happen overnight but, at the end of the day, it’s the public who are having to live with this. They live and breathe it every day and see it happening outside their addresses.”

The police dogs (a German shepherd and a springer spaniel) arrived at the scene to check another car believed to be involved in the crime.

Neither of the trained dogs found any substances and the initial vehicle was towed away. Meanwhile, the police tracked down the suspect in his home but were unable to make any arrests due to a lack of evidence.

When we arrived back at Ashton Police Station, there was a brief talk about how every- one was feeling following the evening’s events.

Reflecting on what had happened, Sgt Halsall said: “For me, it’s an achievement. I know that nobody was detained, but they will be in the future and we’ve got another vehicle off the street that was used in crime. It’s the satisfaction of knowing that the public are seeing us doing something about it.”

Sgt Marsden described the events as ‘a little bit of victory for the community’.

It was so inspiring to see how determined, selfless and brave these officers were throughout the evening. Nothing phased them and watching how much physical and mental effort went into the operations was something which stuck with us both.