''Police Interceptors'' is a British

factual A fact is a truth, true data, datum about one or more aspects of a circumstance. Standard reference works are often used to Fact-checking, check facts. Science, Scientific facts are verified by repeatable careful observation or measurement by ...

programme that profiles the work of elite police units from across the UK. There have to date been 23 series, following police units from

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city in north east England **County Durham, a ceremonial county which includes Durham *Durham, North Carolina, a city in North Carolina, United States Durham may also refer to: Places ...

and

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...

and

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

. The documentary has been broadcast by Channel 5 since the first episode on 9 May 2008. The show is produced by the same producers of the former Sky series '' Road Wars''.

History

The first three series follow a police

ANPR Automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR; see also other names below) is a technology that uses optical character recognition on images to read vehicle registration plates to create vehicle location data. It can use existing closed-circuit t ...

Intercept Team (now known as the Territorial Support Team) in

. Series 1 began on 9 May 2008 on Channel 5 (as Five) and ran for six weeks with an additional compilation episode. Series 2 began at 8pm on 10 October 2008 on Channel 5 and ran for twelve weeks with two additional compilation episodes. Series 3 began on 7 June 2010 on Five for 15 episodes.The Interceptors are back
Essex Police The fourth series began on 13 June 2011 on Channel 5 and rode with

Police's Road Crime Unit for 8 weeks and returned in January 2012, this time following

Police's Road Policing Unit.Primetime series follows road crime officers
South Yorkshire Police Series 5, consisting of 10 episodes, began on 28 January 2013 and followed the

Cumbria Constabulary Cumbria Constabulary is the territorial police force in England covering the unitary authority areas of Cumberland and Westmorland and Furness in the ceremonial county of Cumbria. As of September 2017, the force had 1,108 police officers, 535 p ...

's Roads Policing Unit. Series 6, 7 and 8 all consist of 10 episodes and followed the work of Lincolnshire Police's Road Policing, and Special Operations Units. Series 9, 10 and 11 are based around the work of the collaborative

Durham Constabulary Durham Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing the council areas of County Durham and Darlington in North East England. It does not cover all of the ceremonial or historic area of Durham, parts of which are covered ...

and

Cleveland Police Cleveland Police is a territorial police force in England responsible for the policing the boroughs of Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland in North Yorkshire and Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees in County Durham within North East England. T ...

's Specialist Operations Units. Series 12 follows the work of the

Cheshire Police Cheshire Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing the ceremonial county of Cheshire in North West England, comprising the unitary authorities of Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Borough of Halton and Borough ...

Roads Policing Unit. Series 13 & 14 saw the Durham and Cleveland Special Operations Unit return as hosts in September 2017. Series 14 again follows the

and

's Specialist Operations Units and began broadcasting on channel 5 on 30 April 2018. ''Police Interceptors'' returned for its fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth series in late 2018, March 2019 and October 2019 respectively, this time following a new police force,

West Yorkshire Police West Yorkshire Police, formerly the West Yorkshire Metropolitan Police, is the territorial police force responsible for policing the metropolitan county of West Yorkshire, England. It is the fourth largest territorial police force in England ...

's Roads Policing Unit (RPU), as well as other Specialist Operations Units. Series 18 returned to observe the work of West Yorkshire Police RPUs

Interceptor team

The series features the following police officers from across the UK involved in high-speed car chases following car thieves in stolen vehicles, speeding and drunken drivers. For example, in season 12 of Police Interceptors, the Cheshire police force was showcased, with many police officers included (examples of police officers include Sgt Sean Doolan and PC James Hunt). They use the latest high-speed

police cars A police car is an emergency vehicle used by police for transportation during patrols and responses to calls for service. Police cars are used by police officers to patrol a beat, quickly reach incident scenes, and transport and temporaril ...

to follow and hunt down

boy racer Boy racer is a term given to a young person who drives in a fast and aggressive manner; it has become a broader term (often pejorative) for participants in modern custom car culture who tune and modify cars with street racing-style afterma ...

s presenting a danger to the public. The Interceptors also use the latest number-plate reading technology (

) to detect drivers without

car insurance Vehicle insurance (also known as car insurance, motor insurance, or auto insurance) is insurance for automobile, cars, trucks, motorcycles, and other road vehicles. Its primary use is to provide financial protection against physical damage or bo ...

, often resulting in an argument with the driver and the disclosure of other

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

s. The chases are often interspersed with light-hearted incidents involving the team's food breaks, harmless drunks and practical jokes in the incident room. The show often identifies officers by humorous nicknames and on-screen graphics feature data on their years in service, likes and dislikes. Most incidents are tracked down by uniform officers from the Interceptor team but plain clothes and

undercover police A covert operation or undercover operation is a military or police operation involving a covert agent or troops acting under an assumed cover to conceal the identity of the party responsible. US law Under US law, the Central Intelligence Age ...

have also featured in the series.

Episodes

''Ultimate Police Interceptors''

On 8 August 2011, a new show started entitled ''Ultimate Police Interceptors'', a compilation of the best bits from episodes of the previous series.Ultimate Police Interceptors
Channel 5 Series 1 Series 2 Series 3 Series 4

Compilation shows

The Essex series included ''Best of Police Interceptors'' showing highlights of the chases and incidents from the previous programmes. At the end of series 4, ''Ultimate Police Interceptors'' contained highlights from previous shows with updates on the fate of the criminals since the series' first airing.

''Police Interceptors: Special Edition''

spin-off Spin-off, Spin Off, Spin-Off, or Spinoff may refer to: Entertainment and media *Spinoff (media), a media work derived from an existing work *''The Spinoff'', a New Zealand current affairs magazine * ''Spin Off'' (Canadian game show), a 2013 Canad ...

to series 2, ''Police Interceptors: Special Edition'',Police Interceptors: Special Edition
Channel 5 was presented by

Natalie Pinkham Natalie Jane Pinkham (born 20 September 1977) is a British television presenter and Formula One pit lane reporter for Sky Sports F1, having held the same post for BBC Radio 5 Live in 2011. She is also known for hosting '' Police Interceptors Sp ...

and Chris Barnes on Fiver (now

5Star 5Star (stylized as 5STAR) is a British free-to-air television channel owned by Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Paramount Global, which is grouped under Paramount Networks UK & Australia division. It originally laun ...

) in 2011. This was a follow-up show to the main edition featuring highlights from the chases, interviews with members of the Essex team and the presenters participating in "hands-on" reconstructions and police training exercises. Presenters also took part in incident

simulation A simulation is an imitative representation of a process or system that could exist in the real world. In this broad sense, simulation can often be used interchangeably with model. Sometimes a clear distinction between the two terms is made, in ...

s, like driving a car while a

stinger A stinger (or sting) is a sharp organ found in various animals (typically insects and other arthropods) capable of injecting venom, usually by piercing the epidermis of another animal. An insect sting is complicated by its introduction of ve ...

is deployed to puncture the car's tyres.

References

External links

Police Interceptors (Official website)Police Interceptors (Channel 5)Police Interceptors (Facebook)
*{{IMDb title, 1397259 2008 British television series debuts 2000s British crime television series 2010s British crime television series 2020s British crime television series 2000s British reality television series 2010s British reality television series 2020s British reality television series Channel 5 (British TV channel) documentary series Documentary television series about policing Television shows set in Essex British English-language television shows