A look behind the wheel of Nottinghamshire Police's Road Crime Team

The team spend their shifts hitting the roads on the lookout for wanted criminals, motorists breaking the law, or those moving money, weapons, and drugs through the county's 2,750 miles of road in search of an easy pay day or attempting to avoid being caught.

Tasked with different priorities every few weeks in different areas across the county - including knife crime, robberies, burglaries, disqualified and uninsured drivers, and car thefts - the team is constantly out looking for criminals using the roads to commit crime.

Chasing criminals and boxing them in on motorways is nothing out of the ordinary while they’re out on patrol in marked and unmarked cars and using their specialist advanced driver training.

The unit is made up of one sergeant and six PCs who not only police our roads but also help neighbouring forces and will often cross the borders on the hunt for criminals.

If a criminal is using the M1 to distribute drugs or is wanted for a crime - just because they drive out of Nottinghamshire doesn’t mean the team will give up.

Sergeant Neil Haynes, who leads the unit, explained how they play an integral part in fighting crime across Nottinghamshire and help other forces across the borders.

He said: “My team plays a huge part in keeping Notts safe and apprehending criminals using our road network to bolster their illicit activities.

“The technology we have inside our cars can help with a broad range of crimes from tracking ATM thieves, cloned plates, identifying vehicles from blurry CCTV images, all the way to pursuing and containing criminals in the middle of major roads and motorways.

“We’re specially trained to deal with anything that may happen when we’re responding to an incident.

“When we’re following someone who’s failed to stop – anything could happen but the safety of the public and those committing the offence is always our priority.

“We’re often in unmarked cars going under the radar so even if you think the police aren’t out on the roads – we are, but you’ll not notice us unless we catch you breaking the law.”