Corrupt police officers are exposed via their bodycams in this frequently jaw-dropping series β but the lack of disciplinary action is what really makes it such an urgent watch. I n a large office somewhere in Bristol, a police officer is watching bodycam footage of two of his colleagues arresting a woman for causing a public nuisance on the Clifton suspension bridge.
Viewers of To Catch a Copper have just seen the same video and, if we were in any doubt about our reaction being the correct one, the cop reviewing the tape is mirroring us at home.
He sits there open-mouthed. Four years ago, Avon and Somerset Police allowed documentary cameras to track the work of its Counter-Corruption Unit. As yet, To Catch a Copper offers no dark conspiracy or infiltration by organised crime.
Instead, in a first instalment themed around the mistreatment of vulnerable citizens, it reveals the disgusting behaviour of some individuals, and the infuriatingly inadequate responses of the relevant authorities. That jaw-dropping footage begins with female officers arriving at the Clifton Bridge, having been called out to intercept a woman who has been threatening to jump from it.
Back at the station, the woman β who is belittled and dismissed throughout β is pinned to the floor and searched, hands all over the back and front of her trousers as she screams and screams. Not quite as bad is another clip where two male officers assist hospital staff in preventing a female patient from absconding. The UK has more than , police officers; even a well-run institution would have a few bullies and abusers. Systemic problems are what denote a rotten law-enforcement apparatus, not one-off incidents, even startling and disturbing ones.
