Sarah Smart Murder Prevention

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Sarah Smart Murder Prevention

Murder Prevention - 4 Episodes - 30th October 2004 to 4th December 2004

Sarah Smart ... DC Karen Hughes

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Tense drama series about a police unit which aims to prevent murders before they are committed, using modern scientific methods combined with old-fashioned police instinct.

"Keep one step ahead of the killer, use surveillance, find his victim, bring him into a window of opportunity and arrest him for the crime he is about to commit."

Murder Prevention is the latest hard-hitting, fast-paced crime drama from World Productions, who also made the ground-breaking No Angels, This Life and The Cops.

Set up to reduce brutal crime, the Murder Prevention Unit (MPU) does not work like most detective units, solving a crime after it has happened.The remit here is to identify potentially dangerous murderers (a sinister sexual predator, a freelance hitwoman, an unhinged child-killer) and stop them before they kill.

A similar idea was used in the futuristic sci-fi movie, Minority Report starring Tom Cruise. However, Murder Prevention is not science fiction, but inspired by fact the real-life Homicide Prevention Unit within the Metropolitan Police.

The team follows its target right up to the moment just before the crime.A couple of seconds before in order to obtain enough evidence to convict the would-be offender of the crime he is about to commit.The MPU treads the fine line between protecting the public and establishing guilt.

This is the unseen side of law enforcement, where the boundaries of right and wrong are indistinct. Led by the formidable chief inspector Patrick Taylor, the team often risks overstepping the mark as it strives to trap the suspects. Some of their methods such as surveillance, background checks, psychological profiling and gut instinct are called
into question. But if they save a life, surely the end justifies the means?

Starring Sean Gallagher (Island At War), Sarah Smart (At Home with the Braithwaites), Mark Lewis Jones (Master & Commander), Conor Mullen (Island at War) and Michael Smiley (Spaced) as the core team of detectives and introducing TV newcomer Tom Brooke (Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason) as rookie profiler Mark, the Unit uses modern scientific methods combined with old-fashioned police instinct to identify and arrest potential murderers, with sufficient evidence of their intent to kill.

Credit: TVNZ