Show arresting viewing
Police Ten 7 has an arrest rate that cops everywhere can envy. More than 520 episodes have featured in the series so far and each programme has resulted in at least one arrest, says producer Sarah-Luise Whatford.
Originally presented by Detective Inspector Graham Bell, who is now retired, the show first screened in July 2002 and it has been a viewer favourite ever since, regularly winning its category in the TV Guide Best On The Box Awards.
Detective Sergeant Rob Lemoto took over the hosting role in 2014 but other than that, New Zealand’s top-rating police show has stuck to its original winning formula.
If the police had any initial reservations about the series, they quickly disappeared when cases started being resolved.
‘‘Originally we had to chase them but now they chase us,’’ Whatford says. ‘‘Police approach us when they’ve got a file they think will get results out of the programme and equally we’re always keeping an eye on what’s being reported in the media or the media releases that come out.
‘‘It also helps having a serving police officer as host of our programme because his colleagues certainly don’t hesitate to approach Rob and say ‘Can you forward this to your team and get it on your programme?’.’’
In addition, the production team has police contacts in every district.
‘‘If they’ve had one really good result from the show they don’t hesitate to approach us again,’’ Whatford says.
However, she adds, the show’s success depends on the viewers and their willingness to come forward with information – even if it implicates their friends or family.
‘‘I’ve learnt from this programme that there are always far more people willing to help, that are for the police (rather) than against,’’ Whatford says, adding this is backed up by the fact that the show’s Facebook page has nearly 60,000 followers.
The show’s 0800 number goes straight through to the police officers seeking information and some weeks the case officers are flooded with calls.
‘‘Sometimes they get 30-plus phone calls. Sometimes they can’t keep up,’’ Whatford reveals.
‘‘The show goes to air at 7.30pm and it’s not uncommon for them to still be checking their messages at midnight. Kiwis really, really, really love being able to help the police.
‘‘I think people get really upset when they see things or people being victimised within their own communities. That really jumps out at you if you see your own neighbourhood on Police Ten 7.’’
Family ties are not enough to stop some people from doing what they see as the right thing.
‘‘Just in the last year, we had a woman who dragged her nephew in after an aggravated robbery,’’ Whatford says.
‘‘A group of three guys were involved and the CCTV images were good enough that if you knew the men you’d definitely know who they were and, sure enough, one of them was literally dragged into his local police station by his aunty.
‘‘Then, we had one guy who was dragged in by his dad who already packed him a bag with a toothbrush and a change of clothes knowing full well that his son would be in the cells overnight.
‘‘Another woman handed herself in and told the police that after she appeared on Police Ten 7 it hit her, the shame she was bringing her family, that their surname was all over national television.’’
Whatford says the production team is proud of Police Ten 7’s success rate and admits some cases are hard to forget.
‘‘One was a really, really awful rape in a Symonds Street cemetery (in Auckland),’’ she says.
‘‘The police had some really grainy CCTV footage of a person of interest, a man that was in the area at the time and, because of the item we ran, their phones just blew up and literally by the next day they had a name of a suspect, went on to arrest him and he’s still in prison now. That’s a really satisfying case.’’
Police Ten 7, TVNZ 2, returns Thursday March 2.
TV Guide