999: What's Your Emergency?

This episode reveals how, in Wiltshire, crimes driven by sex and sexual desire remain stubbornly high, with women being targeted by predatory males - Wiltshire police receive three times as many reports of voyeurism and men exposing themselves as any other force in the UK.

Wiltshire is home to 15,000 military personnel, meaning Wiltshire's emergency services face a battle dealing with incidents related to the large military population. Fights between squaddies and civilians are common, but with an 80% rise in mental health issues over the past eight years, increasingly the emergency services are dealing with problems caused to soldiers, as well as by them. In Swindon, a 24-year-old solider in basic training is arrested and brought into custody on suspicion of carrying out a totally unprovoked attack on a 76-year-old widower.

The number of people sleeping rough in the UK has doubled in the last six years. This episode explores the impact of homelessness on Wiltshire Police.

Over 60,000 people in Wiltshire have mental health issues but with mental health support services across the UK being cut it's falling to the emergency services to pick up the pieces. With calls to 999 now at record levels, Wiltshire Police and South West Ambulance call handlers regularly find themselves counselling people with severe mental health episodes rather than dealing with emergencies. Wiltshire Police call handler Amanda Southey and her colleagues are bombarded with 999 calls every three seconds from a man claiming he is the archangel Michael. Despite their attempts to help, eventually all they can do is send an officer to arrest him to keep the lines free for life and death emergencies.

Average life expectancy in the UK has risen to 81, and the proportion of people who are elderly is growing faster in Wiltshire than almost anywhere else in the country, with a rapidly growing number of calls to 999 coming from over-75s. In Warminster, the emergency services are called to a crash involving three cars, which has left one victim with life-changing injuries. The 75-year-old man responsible for the accident suffered a suspected heart attack at the wheel. It is his second heart attack in seven months but all the police can do is advise him to give up driving. PC Phil Bridge says 'There's got to be thousands of elderly people who shouldn't be driving on the streets, that shouldn't have a license.

From zero-hours contracts to long working hours, this episode explores how the emergency services deal with issues arising from rising levels of stress and anxiety in the workplace.

In Wiltshire more and more young people are challenging the police's authority. With over 88,000 under-18s arrested in the UK in 2016, are young people being given too many chances or not enough?