Christmas is a time for shopping, partying and enjoying the seasonal spirit for most of us. But Bromley's police officers see a completely different side to the revelry. Reporter SARAH WARDEN spent a Friday night with the crew of Operation Nicholas, from the pro-active operations unit ...

AS I arrived at Bromley police station for the start of the shift, many of the officers were already out on the beat, having just dealt with a disturbance in the Glades.

Once they returned, we jumped on board the "rowdy bus" the police name for their weekend transport for the evening and our first call came through immediately from an officer stationed in the CCTV headquarters.

Two youths, aged about 14, had been seen visiting the same cashpoint twice and trying the doors to some closed High Street stores at about 7.30pm.

Officers were on the scene in minutes and zeroed in on the shop where the youngsters were browsing. As they left, they were taken aside, questioned and searched, before being allowed to go on their way.

After calls to Mottingham and Petts Wood, the bus drove through Hayes where one of the officers saw a boy of about 14 behaving suspiciously outside the station, and spotted a bottle he was trying to conceal.

Ten minutes later we were back on our way with an empty bottle in the back of the van.

Next stop was Southey Street, Penge, to talk to seven teenagers congregating in the street, then we grabbed a moment to update intelligence reports before heading into the town centre for pub closing time.

I was told this was a typical pattern for Friday night earlier calls to groups of youths causing disturbance in residential areas, later ones to the town centre.

"You take all the problems and just add alcohol," commented one officer.

In Bromley town centre I was impressed with the way trouble was stopped before it could get started.

Bar staff had clearly called police as soon as trouble looked likely, and just a drive-by in the rowdy bus seemed to be enough to stem much of the trouble.

Plainclothed and uniformed officers were also out on foot, collecting information and keeping all the revellers aware any trouble would be dealt with.

The next call was the evening's most urgent and we dashed to Bromley South where a man had been seriously assaulted and was unconscious.

The victim was on the ground outside a Laura Ashley shop, surrounded by paramedics.

Witnesses said the attack could have involved up to 10 people.

An attacker was believed to be on the 208 bus, so the bus was stopped and everyone herded off in an attempt to find witnesses and identify a suspect.

A man was arrested and taken to Bromley police station. He was later released without charge.

December 19, 2001 10:25