Traffic Cops

Traffic Cops is a British documentary series on BBC One which follows Road Policing Units (traffic officers) from various UK police forces. The current series follows Officers from the Roads Policing Group and Road Crime Team from North Yorkshire Police. Previous series have followed the Yorkshire & The Humber Regional Roads Crime Team, West Yorkshire Police, Cheshire Constabulary, Hampshire Constabulary, Humberside Police, South Wales Police, South Yorkshire Police, Sussex Police, Bedfordshire Police and Hertfordshire Constabulary. There is a separate spin-off series, billed Traffic Cops Specials, entitled Motorway Cops, because the main focus is on police patrolling Britain's Motorways. Traffic Cops has consistently been one of the most watched factual series on UK television. Due to its prime time BBC1 slot, Traffic Cops' viewing figures generally are many times larger than other UK police TV programmes. Both series are made by Folio Productions, a subsidiary of Mentorn Media, who also made a separate BBC One series called Car Wars, which followed police teams who dealt exclusively with car crime rather than traffic offences. In 2016 a new series of Traffic Cops began and for the first time in the shows history it was first aired on BBC Three and not on BBC One.

About

Traffic Cops shows what is involved in the day-to-day role of a traffic officer and the incidents they come across. The attraction of the show being the many strange and amusing members of the public the Police encounter in the course of their work. It often touches on genuine drama and serious issues when officers visit accidents where people are seriously or fatally injured. This mix of the serious and informative with the light-hearted probably explains the series' longevity. First aired in 2003, the show has drawn in more than 7 million viewers and has had 11 series produced. The year and episode name is usually shown on the title card following the opening title sequence. Some repeats of the show do not display the year of the episode. Each series has a similar opening title sequence but uses footage relevant to the given series. Also each series follows a different region of police forces in the UK. It is an observational documentary series which occasionally uses police footage. Between 2003 and 2015, Jamie Theakston narrated the programme. Theakston left his role in 2015 and was replaced by Steven Mackintosh. The titles and format received a minor revamp from Series 13 (2015) onwards. Repeats of the show can be seen on Dave, Really and Watch.

A notable episode of the Motorway Cops spin-off featured footage of the 2008 double suicide attempt of Ursula and Sabina Eriksson, which occurred in front of a Motorway Cops production team as they accompanied officers to the scene.

During each episode there are frequently links between incidents, with music accompanying generic video footage. The backing tracks to these links are frequently taken from Pink Floyd albums.

Music

Here is a list of some of the tracks featured in various episodes of Traffic Cops. Although an eclectic variety of music is often used during an episode, the show largely contains excerpts from electronic dance tracks.

Episodes

See also

• Sky Cops - series broadcast on BBC One featuring the Metropolitan Police Air Support Unit
• Police Interceptors - series broadcast on Channel 5 with a similar format
• Brit Cops - police series broadcast on Sky Livingit (originally on Bravo)
• Road Wars - series with a similar format broadcast on Sky1, Sky2 and Pick TV
• Street Wars - programme broadcast on Sky which is more about Police Officers "on the beat"
• Police Camera Action! - series broadcast on ITV with a similar format
• Traffic Blues - series broadcast on RTÉ One with a similar format

References

External links

• Traffic Cops at BBC Programmes
• Motorway Cops at BBC Programmes