Inside The Force: 24/7 (episode 2) is on Channel 5 and My5 at 9pm on Monday 3 March.

Based inside Middlesbrough Police station, the biggest and busiest in Cleveland, this series goes behind the station doors from where everything is run. It’s home to over 500 police officers who look after a town with the highest crime rates in the country.

From the custody suites and over-stretched response officers, to the detectives and dispatchers in Force Control, the series takes an unflinching look at the realities of modern-day policing. The programme follows the different layers of the Force as in-the-moment decisions are made and the police react to everything from drive-by shootings and attempted murders, to drug dealing and mass street brawls.

In this episode, Middlesbrough officers deal with a spate of burglaries and thefts; the number of which has increased by a third in the last year.

PCs Tash Nicholls and Katie Armstrong are starting their night shift when they are called to a report of a potential armed burglary in progress. A male has been seen prowling round a property, trying a door, dressed in dark clothing, allegedly with a bladed instrument in his hand. Officers race to the location where it becomes clear the suspect is on a crime spree, attempting to burgle more houses in the area. Security doorbell footage shows him to be wearing a Halloween mask. With officers seemingly one step behind the prolific offender, patrols flood the area in an attempt to catch him. They need a break – and it comes when an off-duty officer spots the suspect going into a house.

Across town, PCs Charlotte Carney and Brian McClaren respond to a 999 call from a pizza delivery driver who alleges that he went to an address only to have a knife pulled on him and the food stolen. He’s unharmed but shaken up. Officers Charlotte and Brian go to the address of the suspected robbery, along with a dog unit but there’s no sign of the suspect. They track him to another address, arrest him and take him in to custody.

Robberies in Cleveland have increased by 36% in the last year and in another part of town, the latest one has just taken place. A man has been robbed in a hotel room by two men he believes might have spiked his drink. His belongings and the hotel’s television have been stolen. He’s on social media with one of the suspects so PCs Tayla Singleton and Ben Burgess go to arrest the man, who protests his innocence. However, CCTV from the hotel shows the suspect walking out from the hotel with the victim’s bag and the TV.