‘Just an Average Cop’: 30 Years of Policing in London and Hampshire
£9.99Book overview
Essentially, this book is a memoir of my life and the events that occurred in it, and is predominantly written for my family and my future generations.
Police officers, people interested in crime, and football fans of my era may find some of my stories interesting and be able to relate to them. If anyone else finds my story interesting, then that is a bonus.
Police Officers have lives outside of the Police and hopefully this book reflects that.
In saying that a large part of the book does focus on my 30 years as a Police Officer in the Metropolitan Police and Hampshire Constabulary and covers front-line policing and detective work as a CID officer, including murder investigations and my time on the drug squad.
It covers my involvement in the Hyde Park and Harrods IRA bombings of the early 1980s as well as my brief experience at Broadwater Farm during the Tottenham race riots in the aftermath of the murder of one of our own.
The book also covers my role working as a supervisor in specialised and often complex areas of police work covering Domestic Abuse, Hate Crime, Child Protection, Protection of Vulnerable Adults, and the delicate job of dealing with convicted Sex Offenders when they have been released from prison back into the community.
In terms of what I achieved during my 30 years of service in comparison to my colleagues, I was probably somewhere in the middle, depending on your perspective.
I was ‘Just an Average Cop’.
The book isn’t all about the police. I always felt that it was important to maintain the right work-life balance and hopefully this book reflects that.
Police Officers deal with a lot of challenging situations and they need time away from work to relax. Those who didn’t usually burnt themselves out and ended up making themselves ill.
I used sport and family life to relax and there are chapters in the book that have absolutely nothing to do with the police.
I talk about some personal issues, including my daily battle with PTSD and IAD, as well as my experience of working through the COVID-19 pandemic as an ‘Essential Key Worker’.
I also touch on dealing with retirement from the Police at the age of 48, which wasn’t quite as simple as I anticipated it would be.
Liverpool Football Club also features prominently in the book, as the club has been a very important part of my life since I was 8 years old.
There is a chapter detailing my experience as a survivor of the Hillsborough football disaster told from the perspective of an off-duty police officer who also happened to be a lifelong Liverpool fan. RIP, 97 YNWA.
All Royalties will be donated to Scotty’s Little Helper, a charity that supports children who have lost a parent in war/conflict
