SICKENING pornographic videos involving adults, animals and children are form part of a depressing but routine workload for undercover cops in Lancashire.

The anonymous bobbies are at the cutting edge of the war against crime and deal with more sleaze, sex and violence in a week than most people will see or hear of in a lifetime.

Using an office as a base to complete paperwork is the closest members of the plain clothes police department in Blackburn will come to working a typical nine-to-five day.

These unsung heroes spend most of their time out on the streets armed with tip-offs in search of their culprits, often working at bizarre hours in strange locations. They are the ones gathering intelligence about the drug rackets peddling in death, seeking out and shutting down brothels, locking up paedophiles preying on the young, clearing the streets of prostitutes and catching perverts performing sexual acts in public toilets.

"The work makes you cynical.

"You have to have a sense of humour," said one WPC.

"It is a job not many could stomach.

"People in Lancashire don't realise what is happening on their doorstep. Pornographic books and films are fairly widespread in Lancashire and paedophiles are in existence but it would be difficult to put a figure to how many there are," said the anonymous boss of the unit.

"But now you get computer pornography, which is more difficult to detect." The unit recently smashed its first computer pornography racket at a Blackburn industrial estate.

"There were half a dozen videos and documents but also a list of suppliers, which put us in touch with a whole network of people," he added.

The WPC said: "We may have to watch hundreds of videos at a time for evidence.

"We watch the whole film, as some hard porn may be slotted in between soft porn movies.

"The ones involving children and animals turn your stomach.

"I did get upset at the start but you have to distance yourself from them."

Men committing indecent acts in public places are also a big problem for the department, which is made up of two men and two women. "Many come from other towns to meet up.

"We have to catch them in the act to convict them - so we pretend to be members of the public.

"Male officers can feel quite threatened in that sort of situation," the WPC added.

The role of an undercover cop is not much different than the life of an actor.

"I suppose it is like acting in a way.

"You play different roles," said the WPC.

"You have back-up but obviously you are apprehensive about getting your cover blown.

"It gives you a buzz and gets your adrenaline going.

"If that goes out of the job I'll be very upset."

This particular 27-year-old has gone undercover as a supposed drug addict to 'score' from a dealer and later convict him.

She even dressed as a boy on a milk round to net an early morning burglar.

"You have to dress the part," she said.

"For a drug addict you need scruffy clothes, unwashed hair and bags under your eyes created by make-up and must use 'in' words to describe the drug. "It is dangerous but all forms of police work are dangerous," said the 5ft 2in WPC, who has been taught how to buy drugs and pornography.

"You have to gain somebody's confidence," she said.

"If you are successful and make a purchase you are on an absolute high but you're back in uniform the next day and it is a hell of a come-down."

Intelligence from all types of people in the community is the key to the department's success. It isn't always exciting.

"A lot of times you could be sitting in a van for up to eight hours observing premises, with nothing happening," said the WPC.

Other routine crime-stopping activity for the department includes investigating illegal gambling and scanning football crowds for hooligans.

Officers also pose as customers in pubs to check for flouting of licensing laws, such as serving after hours or staging karaoke without an entertainment licence.

"People say to us that they'd love to have a job which involved drinking in pubs, going to football matches and watching blue movies," said the WPC.

"Two weeks with us and they'd realise it's not such an easy life."

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