INTERNATIONAL best-selling author PETER JAMES has spent hundreds of hours with the police as research for his novels. As the second episode of fly on the wall police documentary The Nick hits television screens last night, he reviews Brighton police's latest adventures for The Argus.

IT WAS a brave decision by Sussex Police, in their spirit of transparency, to allow a documentary crew open access to Brighton Police station – and it could so easily all have gone horribly wrong.

But I think now they should be both proud and glad they let the film crew in.

Brighton ‘Nick’ has the reputation of being the second busiest police station in the UK, and last night’s episode two gave a broad insight into why.

This is a documentary not so much of a cops and robbers, goodies versus baddies nature, but about the very human side of policing that the public rarely get to see, as well as it’s diversity.

We alternated through the show from lightness to darkness, and back.

The police rescue of a Dutch family who’d managed, somewhat incredibly, to get their camper van window stuck on a parking meter. A vile conman preying on the elderly and vulnerable.  Comic moments from a lady so drunk she couldn’t remember where she had left her mobility scooter. This was contrasted with a near fatal stabbing in the city centre. And a naked bicycle ride was thrown in too, for good measure.

All in a day’s work for Brighton’s youthful, passionate and very human commander, chief superintendent Nev Kemp, and his team, who have the task of protecting not only city’s 275,000 strong population, but also the 8 million visitors annually, on whom so much of the city’s economy depends.

What we have seen last week and now again this week is an almost unprecedented openness. A rare peek behind the scenes of what policing a city the size of Brighton is like, with its unique combination of criminal heritage and libertarian attitudes. “Only in Brighton” is an oft-heard saying, and one that our enlightened Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne, Chief Constable Giles York, and the Brighton and Hove commander all understand.

I can’t think of many other cities in the world where a naked bike ride would be tolerated. But there’s a balance – as Nev Kemp points out, tolerance is a two-way street. You can’t ride a bike naked through the city centre and then complain about people taking photographs. But at the same time, the police have to weigh up the motives of those taking the photographs, separating the innocent from the perverts.

This was fly-on-the-wall documentary making at its very best, the camera quietly there as the observer in the background and no tricksy photography. We saw it all. The high drama and action of stake-outs and police raids, and the gritty reality of an officer being spat at by a suspect who eventually had to be contained in a hood. Another officer having to sift through dog poo bins for drugs.

As in real life, there were few completely happy endings. The conman was arrested in a sequence as thrilling as any TV cop drama – and a lot more realistic than most – and banged away for nine years, guilty of over 100 offences. But as one of his victims, a sweet, elderly lady movingly said, “He made me  feel dirty.”  The impact of that crime will remain with her for ever.

One year on after an intense and continuing investigation, and an enthrallingly portrayed manhunt stretching from Brighton to London’s Wood Green and beyond, the stabbing suspect is still at large.

But what shone through this documentary for me, above all else, was the human nature of our all too-often demonised police.  Humour and compassion for the unfortunate and the vulnerable, and a resolve of steel for the villains. Brighton Nick’s willingness to go under such public scrutiny is both a triumph for television viewing and for the police themselves.