Thief-taker

In English legal history, a thief-taker was a private individual hired to capture criminals. The widespread establishment of professional police in England did not occur until the 19th century. With the rising crime rate and newspapers to bring this to the attention of the public, thief-takers arose to partially fill the void in bringing criminals to justice. These were private individuals much like bounty hunters. However, thief-takers were usually hired by crime victims, while bounty hunters were paid by bail bondsmen to catch fugitives who skipped their court appearances and hence forfeited their bail. Both types also collected bounties offered by the authorities. Sometimes, thief-takers would act as go-betweens, negotiating the return of stolen goods for a fee. However, they were often corrupt themselves, for example extorting protection money from the crooks they were supposed to catch. Government-funded rewards for the capture of criminals was a corrupting influence, leading directly to the Macdaniel scandal.

Thief Takers

Thief Takers was a police drama series made by Central Independent Television for the ITV network. The show depicted the work of a team in the Metropolitan Police Service's Flying Squad. Each case was a stand alone episode or sometimes spread over two episodes and continuing drama was provided by the depiction of the personal lives of the officers in the team and their families.

Production comprised a pilot aired in 1995 followed by the commissioning of three series between 1996 and 1997.

Characters and cast

With a special guest appearance by Nicole Streak