Hunting for murderers in the capital
THE MET: POLICING LONDON BBC1, 10.35pm
A HANDFUL of statistics, given right at the start, indicates the size of the task facing the Met.
The capital is home to eight million people from over 200 nationalities. Safeguarding them are 49,000 men and women, who in the space of one year can be called to more than 100 murders and 70,000 robberies and burglaries, and make nearly a quarter of a million arrests.
All of which means a substantial feast of possibilities for the BBC crews that converged on the Met for this five-part fly-on-the-wall series.
Tonight’s episode homes in on a case of mistaken identity that led to murder. A man has been stabbed outside a pub in Southwark; several suspects were glimpsed on CCTV footage, but most were disguised by hoods and scarves. Which raises an interesting point for the viewer: just how do you go about finding them, when the initial material – the footage – seems so unpromising?
“I think we solve nearly nine out of 10 murders,” says murder detective John Sandlin, “but obviously this one’s more difficult, because you’ve got seven people who’re involved – we don’t know who they are, at the moment. It’s going to be a difficult, difficult investigation.”
As indeed it proves. Appeals are made for the public’s assistance in the hope that someone’s conscience might be pricked. “If you don’t put the hours in,” Sandlin says, “you ain’t going to catch the killers.” We see the effect the murder has on his family, a poignant moment.
The programme follows Det Sgt Tracey Miller as she tries to track down a sex offender who has been targeting Muslim women. His victims are understandably distressed as long as he remains undetected.
Also cropping up tonight is the Notting Hill Carnival – and a reminder that not every local resident is exactly thrilled by the prospect of it taking place each August. Come the actual event, with hundreds of thousands of people pouring onto the streets, one officer observes: “It’s like ------hell on earth, isn’t it?” A policeman’s lot is not always a happy one – even in the middle of a giant celebration, a theoretically happy event.