A journalist from 107.4 Tower FM was caught up in the middle of an arrest last week when the police chief he was interviewing suddenly broke off from the questions to arrest a suspected drug dealer.
The media had been invited to see a series of raids on the Langley Estate in Middleton as part of National Tackling Drugs Week.
Tower FM reporter David Easson had spent the morning with officers and was last in line to have an interview with Supt Bryan Lawton, with most of the other journalists having already left. David said: “The officer was mid-sentence when he spotted this man walking past with a black bin bag and his instinct took over. He just told me to hang on and he ran over to question the man. The recorder was still switched on when Supt Lawton started to formally caution him.
“The suspect was then handed over to the other officers and Supt Lawton came back to finish the interview for 107.4 Tower FM. He’d earlier said Greater Manchester Police had arrested 66 people as part of the operation, so we had to record that again and change it to 67.”
Senior station director at the station, Mike Baker, said: “The interview is a very dramatic piece of audio footage and a lot of people have commented after hearing it on the station that it brings the story to life.”
