The Crime Agents

You've seen it in the movies, but what does undercover policing really involve? What makes an effective covert officer, and just how brutal is it for the men and women who are brave enough to go incognito? And do you get paid more for crossing the thin blue line and infiltrating the very people you're trying to convict? In this episode, Andy and Neil explain the realities of undercover policing, w...

In light of Andy's recent investigation - which alleged that a former Met police officer was part of a VIP grooming gang - in this Q&A episode, he and Neil explain the signs to look out for if you suspect children are being groomed or exploited, and what to do if your suspicions turn out to be right. After December's horrific anti-semitic terror attack at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Neil also addre...

The UK is the drugs capital of Europe, and more cocaine arrives here from Venezuela than from any other country. This week, in light of Donald Trump's operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Andy & Neil look at the impact this could have on Britain's drugs trade. Was Maduro really a narco-terrorist, like Pablo Escobar and El Chapo? They're joined by Tony Saggers, former head...

In this Christmas special, Andy and Neil ask each other the questions they've always wanted to know the answers to. Andy explains how the unlikely combination of cricket and being sacked by his Dad let to him becoming a crime journalist - while Neil reveals the full details of how he ended up as a chocolate salesman on his way to joining the police. They also recall some of the funniest and most b...

This week, Andy and Neil unpick last weekend's events at Bondi Beach in Sydney, where 15 people were murdered in an ISIS-inspired, anti-Semitic terror attack. Andy recounts the details of exactly what happened - while Neil explains how Australian Police and security services will be investigating. Plus they both pay tribute to the incredible heroism of Ahmed al-Ahmed and others who put their lives...

In this follow-up to Andy's exclusive report (listen to Part 1 here ), which revealed that a former Met Police officer has been accused of being part of a grooming gang by multiple survivors of sexual abuse, Andy and Neil take a deep dive into grooming gangs, and why children in care are so often the victims of this abuse. Andy hears from someone who works in the care sector, who claims criminals...

In this special episode, Andy exclusively reveals bombshell allegations of child abuse against a former Met Police officer, who has been accused of being part of a grooming gang by two different survivors. He tells a shocking story of children in care being abused by a VIP paedophile ring that allegedly involved an MP and a judge, as well as this former police officer. Andy explains why some of th...

In The Crime Agents' latest Q&A episode, Andy and Neil discuss the way police and the CPS treated Caroline Flack, the TV presenter who took her own life in 2020. Did officers seek to make an example of her because she was a celebrity? Or did prosecutors have a duty to pursue the domestic assault case against her? Tune in to hear their verdict on how this tragic episode could have been handled...

The Justice Secretary has announced one of the biggest changes in hundreds of years to the way the British justice system works. Jury trials for crimes carrying sentences of three years or less will be scrapped - but will this really solve the deep-rooted problems at the heart of a creaking system? In this episode, Andy and Neil explain how the backlog in our criminal courts has reached a record h...

Christmas: for most of us, it's a time of joy and celebration. But for a new group of organised criminals, Christmas means opportunity. Retail crime and shoplifting have hit record levels in the last few years - and the festive season, including Black Friday, is when this issue is at its worst. So when did shoplifting go from petty crime to serious business? When did retail criminals turn from har...

What proportion of 999 calls in the UK are genuine emergencies? The answer will shock you. In this episode, Andy and Neil play you some of the most bizarre and ridiculous 999 calls which have been made in the last year - and explain why these hoaxes and time-wasters could ultimately be a matter of life and death. They also take you behind the scenes of an emergency response room to explain what ha...

Why do less than 3% of all reported rapes in the UK lead to a conviction? Andy and Neil describe that statistic as "shameful" and "a scandal" - and attempt to explain why a combination of rape myths and problems in our creaking justice system make it so hard to prove someone's guilt. Plus Andy reveals why one senior detective he's spoken to believes it's time to get rid of jury trials in rape case...

Men are responsible for nearly 80% of all crime carried out in the UK and make up over 90% of Britain's prison population. In this Q&A episode, Andy and Neil are asked: why is this the case? Is testosterone to blame? Is it down to a lack of critical thinking skills in young men? Or is it an inevitable consequence of a patriarchal society? Andy and Neil also explain whether Andrew Mountbatten W...

One day in September 1985, a dawn raid in South London went badly wrong. Police were looking for a man called Michael Groce - but they raided the wrong address, and ended up shooting his mother, Cherry Groce, who was left paralysed for the rest of her life. The incident led to an uprising in Brixton, and the anger soon spread to Tottenham, and even Toxteth in Liverpool. In this episode, Andy and N...

As a train guard fights for his life and several other passengers recover in hospital, Andy and Neil bring you the latest on the story which continues to dominate the news: the mass stabbing on a train in Cambridgeshire on Saturday night. They explain that the man charged with carrying out those attacks has also been charged with an attempted murder on a train in London the night before - and disc...

Have you ever wondered how it feels to carry a firearm on the streets of London? Or what it's like to be among the first responders after a terror attack? And why do a small number of police officers in the UK choose to carry a gun, for no extra money, with all the added scrutiny and pressure that comes with the job? In this episode, Andy and Neil sit down for an exclusive interview with Will, a f...

In this week's Q&A episode, Andy and Neil debate the effectiveness of the IOPC: the Independent Office for Police Conduct. Last year, the watchdog controversially pushed for NX121 - the firearms officer who shot Chris Kaba in 2022 - to be charged with murder, only for a jury to return a "not guilty" verdict in near record time. So how does the IOPC work? And is it fit for purpose? Andy and Nei...

Last weekend, a gang of thieves made off with hundreds of millions of Euros' worth of jewellery from the Louvre in Paris - including some of France's Crown Jewels. But how did they plan a job like this? How could the world's most famous museum be such an easy target? And how will the police be trying to track the perpetrators down? In this episode, Andy and Neil examine what we know so far about t...

In this Q&A episode, Andy and Neil debate what happened to TV presenter Jill Dando, who was murdered on her doorstep in 1999. Was she taken out by a professional hitman? Or was the Crimewatch presenter the victim of a random attack by a local criminal? Tune in to hear what Andy and Neil make of one of the nation's most notorious unsolved cases. Later, Andy reveals whether his investigative jou...

When three year-old Madeleine McCann went missing from a Portuguese holiday resort in 2007, it was a story which had the nation gripped for all the wrong reasons. 18 years on, the case remains unsolved - but the story still has the power to create headlines and dominate the news agenda. In this episode, Andy and Neil look at the key mistakes that were made early in the investigation by the local p...

Once upon a time, the police and journalists were friends and allies. But as the phone hacking scandal unfolded, and it became clear that many journalists had broken the law in their pursuit of stories, the close relationship between police and press was shattered. Scotland Yard was forced to investigate and prosecute many members of the media with whom they'd been friendly - and officers were lat...

Today, Andy from The Crime Agents joined forces with fellow Global podcast The Crisis Room for a special episode to react to yesterday's terror attack at a synagogue in Manchester. If you'd like to hear more from The Crisis Room, find episodes weekly on Global Player or wherever you get your podcasts. What happens in the immediate aftermath of such an incident? Amber Rudd calls on her experience o...

In this emergency episode, Andy and Neil react to the shocking revelations in last night's Panorama, which exposed widespread racism, misogyny, and gratuitous use of violence within Charing Cross police station. Two years after the Metropolitan Police was branded institutionally racist, sexist, and homophobic, this plunges the country's biggest police force into yet another major crisis. Neil and...

It's the debate which won't go away: is stop and search a vital tool for making our streets safer? Or is it a blunt, overused tactic which unfairly targets ethnic minorities? In this episode, Andy and Neil unpack exactly how stop and search is meant to work, why it's so valued by police officers - and why it’s such a cause of tension between police and the black community in particular. They're al...

The UK is the biggest consumer of illegal drugs in Europe. From the British Pablo Escobar in the 1980s, to Albanian gangs taking over in the last decade, and a crack cocaine epidemic in between, Andy and Neil tell the story of how this shocking fact came to be a reality. They're also joined by Tony Saggers - the man who, until recently, was the head of Drugs Threat at the National Crime Agency. To...