Saturday night fever in the city

The busiest time for police is between 8am Saturday and 8am Sunday. Photo / Supplied

The brief was straightforward: Film police action in one 24 hour period in four cities - Auckland, Perth, San Francisco and Oslo - and see what happens. What's similar? What's different about policing in cities?

It's like a snapshot. You're never going to see everything, but hopefully what you will see is typical of what goes on in each place between 8am Saturday and 8am Sunday - the busiest day and night for police. Even after the research I'd done, it was an eye-opening experience to be a fly-on-the-wall on what police assured us afterwards was, indeed, a typical night in Auckland. From this viewpoint, our biggest city may not have quite the sophisticated, cosmopolitan look we are all hoping for-especially the downtown area.

9.40PM We're only on patrol for about 20 minutes, when the officers we've been assigned to travel with are called away to help in another police district. At least two people have phoned police reporting a woman screaming in a distressed manner at a local park. The lights and sirens are on and the officers start radio communications with other officers in the police helicopter that is helping with the search.

The helicopter soon reports that infrared cameras have picked up five people leaving the park, which ups the tension considerably. It doesn't sound too good.

Other officers also attending start a sweep of nearby streets, while our officers speak to some of the residents who've phoned in, trying to pinpoint the location of the screaming.

The other officers literally stumble over the source of all the screaming: four teenage girls, two of whom are very intoxicated and have collapsed. A fifth girl is missing, so the police search - including the police helicopter- continues.

Police have trouble getting phone numbers out of the drunken girls, so a car is dispatched to drive to their homes to let parents know what is going on.

Police are stern, but not unkind.

We interview Sergeant Hirone Waretini about what's been going on: "Tonight we've had five police officers, one helicopter, upwards of an hour looking after four drunk 15-year old girls and the radio's going off and we've got jobs to go to, but we can't get to them because we're dealing with these kids who are drinking."

Midnight We join officers based at the downtown police station, Fort St. They're going on a foot patrol around the city streets.

The adrenalin and high spirits are palpable. There are hundreds of young people, probably aged between 17 and 25, in the area.
A young pimply-faced boy leans into the officers as they walk past: "Evening motherf*****s". What?

Officer Marty Brown turns back to him."What did you say?" "Oh, evening officers," he replies. He looks drunk.

About five steps down the road a young woman approaches the officers. "Can I have a cuddle?" She's also drunk and tries to grab one of the officer's arms. It's quite extraordinary.

We've already seen the wall of security cameras at the downtown station - covering city streets from Commerce St to Karangahape Rd. There are crowds and crowds of people and and plenty for the operator to keep an eye on.

The operator calls officers to report trouble is brewing in Fort St. There's been a fight and a big group of young men is still hanging around. The officers arrive and separate two men from the group to talk to them. A group of about eight young men gather around one of the officers and starting shouting and jostling. Then there's a roar: one of the men has thrown a hamburger at the officer, hitting him right in the chest.

The officers detain the person they think threw it and the crowd's really getting into it, with lots of pushing and shouting. The police station's just over the road so the police waste no time hustling the suspect back there. He's very defiant, swearing at officers all the way. We ask the officer about it: "It's not a biggie but stupid things like that just piss you off, to be fair."

2AM We join the Team Policing Unit and Sergeant John Nelson. This unit is made up of two van loads of officers who travel en masse to quell major disorder incidents. When we catch up with them in Fort St they've arrived because of reports of a big fight. When they get there, the crowd had run off leaving one guy slumped on the footpath with blood streaming from his ear and a bruised face. The unit has to wait for the ambulance to arrive before they can head off. Luckily it takes only a few minutes, as they're needed around the corner where another fight's started. This is what it will be like for them for the rest of the night, they say.

5AM By now it's no longer Fort St that's the problem- it's Karangahape Rd. There have been big crowds outside the bars and clubs, and again there have been frequent fights. Auckland was the only city where it was still this busy, this late (or early, depending on how you see it). Bars closed at 2am in San Francisco and 3.30am in Oslo. Perth's a bit more like Auckland but even there it was down to last stragglers by 5am. The differing impact of alcohol on crime emerged from the documentary series as an important issue.

And sadly, Auckland was possibly- probably - the worst offender.

* 24 Hours: Police screens from this Wednesday, as part of TV3's Inside New Zealand series.