Just another busy night on the town

7:11pm Thursday 24th July 2008

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Guardian reporter JAMES COLASANTI swaps a Saturday night in front of the TV for a shift alongside Epping Forest's new police commander, Chief Inspector Jonathan Baldwin

IT was 11pm on a Saturday night, and I was searching a crime-blighted council estate for gangs armed with baseball bats and knives.

Admittedly I was with the district’s most senior policeman so I wasn’t unduly worried but, still, it made an interesting change from a night in front of the telly.

And I have to say, an evening on patrol with Chief Inspector Jonathan Baldwin was infinitely more exciting than the latest developments in the Big Brother house.

I had began my ‘shift’ at 8pm at Loughton Station, watching officers carry out stop-and-search checks as part of a crackdown on knife crime.

Mr Baldwin arrived soon after, and the rest of my evening was certainly busy.

8.28pm: A call comes in about a disturbance in a pub in Chigwell. We get into the police car and the journey which follows I can only describe as exhilarating – I have no doubt many would opt for the word terrifying. We drive down winding county lanes, through red lights, in between traffic, and over roundabouts – safely passing a seemingly endless steam of hazards – and we are there in minutes. Tempers have flared between customers and staff over service. The dispute has remained verbal and officers talk to inebriated patrons to diffuse the situation.

8.40pm: As we leave, a ‘concern for welfare’ call comes in – an ambulance crew has requested assistance at a Loughton flat where an elderly woman has not answered her usual nightly check-up telephone call. Once again we cover several miles in next-to-no time and quickly enter the communal building. Officers call through the letterbox and find that the slightly deaf resident is fine ,she just didn’t hear the telephone.

8.56pm: Driving around Loughton town centre, we spot a man in full camouflage gear. He is a male stripper looking for the pub he is booked to perform in – all part of the rich tapestry local officers encounter every weekend.

9.26pm: After passing hundreds of cyclists on racing bikes on Epping High Street, we head towards Harlow. Mr Baldwin spots a 4x4 drifting from side to side. I hadn’t noticed and am sceptical the driver has done anything wrong.

He’s a local man with no licence, tax or insurance who was using a vehicle usually left dormant in his garage to drop a workmate off because she had missed her bus. We leave as he gives a breath test before his car is impounded.

10.01pm: Youths have been spotted drinking vodka in an alleyway on the notorious Limes Farm estate in Chigwell. The details are sketchy but a resident has reported they may be carrying baseball bats. This time the blue-lights journey through High Street. When we arrive, officers in a police van say there is no sign of the youths.

10.21pm: An ambulance crew call for assistance following reports of a man is cutting himself and armed with a weapon in his Chigwell flat. He confronts officers on a narrow staircase and is agitated by their pepper spray and coshes.

He has a deep cut to his forearm and is brandishing a knife. He is expertly calmed down and taken to his blood-soaked apartment for treatment. As we leave we talk to a large group of teenagers on a street corner who give assurances they are not out to cause trouble.

10.45pm: We are called back to the Limes Farm estate following another report of a gang of anti-social youths, thought to include a teenage girl who has been reported missing. This time they have been spotted on a field. It’s very dark and at first there is no sign of them. So we drive onto the field and use the head lights to scan around. We are just about to leave when we spot them running towards a building. Mr Baldwin speeds after them, skids to a halt then sprints after them. He catches a girl and she tells us where the others are hiding in nearby woodland.

11.05pm: A call comes in about someone carrying a knife at a block of flats in the Copperfield area of the estate. We drive around the crammed car park and find the flat number we are looking for but, as we are about to enter, the control room informs us it is a hoax.

11.20pm: We go back to the field and question three teenagers who, after being threatened with a night in the cells, reluctantly tell us where the rest of their group is. Then about a dozen officers arrive and spread out over the area, chasing hordes of hooded youths between buildings and down alleyways.

11.38pm: A woman has reported being assaulted by her partner in Waltham Abbey. We make it from one side of the district to the other in under ten minutes. The woman is clearly distressed and a man is handcuffed and arrested.

12.03: I decide to call it a day. I ask for a final comment, and Mr Baldwin says: “You’ve seen tonight the flexibility our officers have to have in dealing with incidents with a multitude of dynamics that really are as wide as your imagination.” I can certainly testify to that.