Coppers: Season 2, Episode 8

2 - 8:

The final episode of the series joins officers on the rural Pitlochry beat in Tayside. For many urban cops, quiet low-crime rural beats are the source of much amusement - somewhere you're put out to pasture and where the most serious crime is a bit of sheep bothering. But with over 1000 square miles to cover it's a challenge just to get to crime scenes, and back-up could be an hour away. In an area where everyone knows everyone else, police officers work the same way their predecessors did generations ago, through respect and quiet words. People are more likely to wave than hurl abuse at the police here and the officers' secret weapons aren't tasers and semi-automatic rifles, but a cup of tea and a smile. But while crime is low, the officers have to cover a long stretch of the A9 - as well as treacherous rural roads and remote countryside - and major accidents are a regular occurrence. PCs will often be the first emergency service on site and have to cope with the dying and severely injured alone for some time. Former Glasgow PC Ronnie Deuchar nearly cried when he found out he was being transferred to Pitlochry, and it was so quiet in the first week that he thought his radio was broken. PC Peter Lorrain-Smith takes his work very seriously and believes the best way to fight crime is to be seen and getting kids on the straight-and-narrow early. Meanwhile, Sergeant John Watson, who's approaching retirement, knows everyone and, according to his colleagues, can walk into a pub and sort out a situation just with a look.