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The Real Inspector Morse

By Philip Attwell

A four-part BBC 2 series The Force ran on Wednesdays at 9.50 p.m. from January 21st until February 11th this year. The documentary series, presented by David Rose, followed the Thames Valley Police over a six-month period in their fight against crime. Thames Valley were chosen because of the new methods they employ such as offenders being confronted by their victims.

The second programme (broadcast on 28th January) was entitled The Real Inspector Morse. Despite it’s promising title it had little Morse content. First, Oxford is billed as the city of ‘dreaming spires and burglars’. We are introduced to a ‘confessing’ burglar, Gary, before the opera music begins and we view a red sports car. We are then introduced to the driver, ‘the real Inspector Morse’, Detective Chief Inspector Euan Read. Read states that his job is very different from Morse’s, it is ‘time-driven, high volume crime ... constrained by budgets’ and he doesn’t have time to visit the pub at dinner-time!

We then find David Rose at the Morse bar, at the Trout in Godstow, explaining how rather than the obscure motives to which Morse is used much burglary is drug-related. An estimated 65% to 75% of burglaries are thought to be drug-related, some addicts needing up to £250 a day for their habit.

It is no surprise that Thames Valley Police target their resources on individuals, especially constant burglars and their drug dealers. There are now 1200 addicts in Oxford and it is hoped that by being tough on dealers the burglary rate will decline. Intelligence-led methods, such as surveillance, are employed and £80,000 a year is spent in paying informants. Prisoners are able to confess to other break-ins to controversially boost the clear-up rates without fear of prosecution. The Thames Valley Police have a 26% clear-up rate, about half of which is of this secondary nature.

To complete the programme we meet again with Euan Read, who once more claims policing is very different from Morse’s world, although he does laugh and confess a liking for opera!