POLICE officers have opened up their working lives to cameras crews to give the public an insight into their crime fighting efforts.

The Force has been filmed across the county since February, with a particular focus on officers based in Basildon and Southend.

The second series of the show, which is produced by Shine TV and will be aired on Sky One in the autumn,

It follows a 20 episode first series filmed with police in Manchester.

TV crews have followed Essex Police's emergency response teams as they respond to a wide variety of incidents, including life threatening crashes, domestic abuse incidents and assaults.

They are expected to stop filming in a few weeks time.

It is understood that the first episode features an assault in Pitsea, which turns extremely serious suddenly.

Gareth Nicholson, head of communications at Essex Police, said the production company were keen to film in the county to highlight the challenges the force faces in covering a large geographical area.

He said: "As they were in Manchester for the first series, which is very much an urban force, for the second series they wanted a force that covered a bigger land area.

"In Essex, we have rural locations, urban, coastal, motorways and links with London. The size of the county causes particular challenges.

"Over the last few weeks, they have filmed all of our response teams going out on 999 calls to crashes, domestic abuse incidents, neighbour disputes which have got out of hand and issues surrounding the night time economy.

"It's a look at everything we do really and it's a really good insight into what the officers are thinking in a lot of testing and trying situations."

He added that the programme, which also features incidents in Brentwood and Chelmsford, will help the public understand the pressures the police face in the midst of major cuts to the force, causing officers to tackle crime differently than they did before.

Mr Nicholson added: "We want to use this show to talk about what actually happens. They have even filmed inside the force control room, showing how we have to manage our resources and prioritise what we attend.

"Sometimes we have to prioritise between two very serious incidents.

"It shows a sense of our demand and what people call us for and perhaps what they should call other agencies about in the first instance."

Essex Police has previously been shown on the small screen, when the force was filmed for the TV show Police Interceptors.

Mr Nicholson said: "Police Interceptors was very much of its time - this show is more observant and moves from one clip to the next showing what the police are tackling.

"There is no jokey narrator involved."