STARS from Channel 5’s reality show Police Interceptors were at Preston Park Museum and grounds on Friday and Saturday as part of a Policing, Past and Present, event.

As well as meeting the officers from the Cleveland and Durham Specialist Operations Unit, visitors could speak to special constables and meet police dogs.

A spokesman for Cleveland Special Constables said: “We have spoken to lots of people, let them try on our uniform, see the dogs and police cars and showed the changes over the years in policing.”

Inside the museum there was a display about the history of policing, curated by volunteers who run the museum’s Victorian Police Station.

The exhibition included a variety of police memorabilia from some of the volunteers’ personal colllections, and gave an insight into how the force has changed from the Victorian period, and through the twentieth century.

The hands-on exhibition included a rare chance to see Victorian mug shot book on Friday, believed to be from the North Riding of Yorkshire, which dates back to 1878-1896.

Usually kept in the museum’s stores, the book gives an insight into Teesside’s criminal past.