Natalie Pinkham was the glamorous host of Channel Five show Interceptors
Police chiefs are under fire for staging a mock car chase for a 'cops and robbers' TV show.
Presenter Natalie Pinkham, pretending to be a thief taking a 180mph Lamborghini sports car, was pursued by officers in two 150mph patrol cars for the Channel Five series Police Interceptors. Programme makers confirmed that officers broke the speed limit and used the blue lights on their £30,000 cars 'once or twice'.
The police teams gave 30-year-old Miss Pinkham a 20-minute start, then trailed her using a tracker device on her car. In all, the chase lasted for around an hour.
Road safety campaigners questioned whether drivers and pedestrians had been exposed to unnecessary risks while other critics condemned the exercise as a waste of taxpayer-funded resources.
Katie Shephard of the road safety charity Brake said: 'The police need to consider whether it's vital to be speeding, and whether they should be putting on their blue lights for a training exercise.
Perhaps they could have done it on tracks, where there is no risk to pedestrians.'
Mark Wallace of the Taxpayers' Alliance said: 'It's concerning that Essex Police seem to think their officers and valuable cars can be spared for use as film extras.
'The force seems to have been sucked in by the glow of the limelight rather than getting on with their job of protecting the public.'
Even police officers were furious. One said: 'Most people in the job are appalled. The programme depicts our blokes as muppets mugging it up for the camera.
'Sitting round swapping silly jokes, drinking cups of tea and chatting up young women drivers is not the way we should be portraying ourselves.'
Natalie Pinkham drives the 'stolen' Lamborghini and is seen speeding down a dual carriage way
The police finally catch up with the TV host and surround her in a car park
Busted: Natalie Pinkham with one of the police officers involved in the chase
The row comes as a policeman faces jail for killing a schoolgirl after travelling at 94mph in a residential area, after dark, without using his sirens or blue lights. PC John James Dougal was convicted last week of causing death by dangerous driving in Newcastle.
High-powered: Essex Intercept Team officers with their cars and helicopter
More than 150 people have died in accidents involving police vehicles in the last five years.
Essex Police defended the decision to co-operate with the high octane TV series, pointing to its educational value and ability to reach young male drivers.
John James Dougal (right), who knocked down and killed schoolgirl Hayley Adamson in his patrol car, can expect a jail term for death by dangerous driving
A spokesman said the staged pursuit, screened last week, had been a training exercise for officers in using a new tracker device. Programme makers Rawcut TV also defended the series, which focuses on the Essex Police Intercept Team.
Producer Will Henshaw said: 'After police gave Natalie a head start, she headed towards Tilbury, on the Essex coast, like a criminal who might try to make it across the Channel. It gave insight into the real work that police do.'
He confirmed that Essex Police had footed the bill for their part in the staged chase
15th April 2009
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