Explore every episode of the podcast Tango Juliet Foxtrot - the police podcast

In this episode, I try and help people understand what will be going on behind the scenes as UK policing deals with the worst outbreak of violent disorder since the 2011 riots in England.

In this episode, I chat to Andy Fairie, who has retrained as a psychotherapist after leaving policing. He is also the host of the SFQ podcast and author of Listening Skills for Effective Policing.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1915713455/ref=cm_sw_r_apin_dp_PBTXNNHH7DSR1J3QPT59

In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking to Dave Marshall, who recently retired after serving over 30 years in policing. Dave is the author of the book 'THE FALL OF POLICING: When Woke Cancelled The British Bobby' where he discusses the decline of British policing. According to Dave, over time, the British police have shifted their focus from keeping the law-abiding public safe to politically correct initiatives, resulting in a less safe society. This shift has eroded public trust in policing and created a perception of incompetence among the police force.

If you are interested in reading Dave's book, you can find it at https://www.amazon.com/FALL-POLICING-Cancelled-British-Bobby/dp/B0CTW6XZ5Z/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3IEKM2JSVIKJX&keywords=dave+marshall&qid=1707860502&sprefix=dave+marshall%2Caps%2C173&sr=8-1.

In his book, Dave charts the demise of British policing. He describes how, over time, British policing gradually abandoned its primary purpose of keeping the law-abiding public safe to focus instead on politically correct initiatives that have left the public much less safe. This has undermined public trust in policing and created a perception that the police are incompetent.

***WARNING - This episode contains extremely graphic descriptions and should not be listened to in the presence of children***

In this episode I speak to Ex-Inspector Jack Frost who was trained to work with forensic scientists at crime scenes involving multiple fatalities. Jack and his colleagues were deployed after the suicide bombings on the London Underground in July 2005.

People like Jack deserve our respect and thanks for the particularly distressing job that they do.

In this episode I dive into the worrying rise in police resignations. In England and Wales, Home Office data revealed 3433 voluntary resignations in the year ending March 2022, a rise of 72% from the previous year and a rise of 196% since the year ending March 2012.

Professor Sarah Charman from Portsmouth University has interviewed scores of ex-police officers who resigned recently from policing. Her findings are deeply worrying for the future of the organisation.

In this episode, I look at the implications of charging officer NX121 with murder and what this means for our safety in the UK.

After a break for a few months I'm back.

In this episode I have a great chat with Scott Hamer, who will tell us all about his police career and being a close protection officer for the Royal Family.

Life has been tough for the last while...so this will be the last podcast for a bit.

This week I give my thoughts on recent developments in UK policing. Lots of signs that a new breed of police leader is prepared to make tough decisions, stick up for their staff and show some backbone!

This episode features a fascinating chat with Paul Franklin, the SIO who investigated the attempted murder of Vicky Cilliers by her husband Emile Cilliers. First he tried to blow her up in a gas explosion and when that failed he tried to kill her by tampering with her parachute. 

My no-holds-barred assessment of the Casey Report. 

**Spoiler alert** I think it's good.....

This week I enjoyed chatting to Andrew Snowden, the current police and crime commissioner (PCC) for Lancashire.

We had a wide-ranging chat about the work of PCCs, the controversy that surrounded their introduction under the Cameron/May government, political interference in policing, as well as hearing his thoughts on many of the current challenges faced by policing in the UK.

This week I had some of my own assumptions and prejudices well and truly challenged when I spoke to Skye Morden, who came out as a transgender police officer some years ago.

The massive level of support that Skye has received from her police colleagues is in stark contrast to the level of hate that she has received at the hands of some sections of the media and from online trolls.

This is her story.

The very sad Nicola Bulley incident needs to act as a catalyst in the re-setting of the relationship between UK policing and the media. This episode explores why I think this urgently needs to happen.

This week I had the privilege and pleasure of chatting to Christian Plowman, who served many years in covert policing in the Met and then went on to forge a successful career working for Interpol and a range of NGOs tackling the illegal trade in ivory and products from endangered species in Africa.

Fascinating stuff.

This week I go completely off-piste and chat to someone who I would describe as a friend, but who led a life that I knew nothing about when we first met. 

Craig Bulgin was outwardly a hard-working, professional builder and loving family man when I met him. It was only sometime later that he hinted that his life had not always been like that. 

This was the first time that I had heard his full story and it frequently made for difficult listening.

Craig is a great example of how it is possible to turn your life around and get away from a criminal lifestyle.

This week I dive into the horrible world of drug dealers and organised crime in my chat with expert witness and ex-detective Ian Broughton.

Illegal drugs are the single biggest driver of crime, human misery and violence in our inner cities and increasingly across once-peaceful parts of the UK.

Ian spent a large part of his police career investigating drug-related crime and became one of the most knowledgeable people in the UK on these issues. I learned a lot in our chat, and I'm sure you will too.

Ian can be contacted for training or his expertise at court at https://www.expertwitnessservices.co.uk/

In this episode, I had the great joy of chatting to one of my favourite comedians, Alfie Moore, star of BBC R4 show 'It's a Fair Cop'.

Alfie left policing after nearly 20 years to embark on a new career as a stand-up comic. As well as a highly successful theatre tour all over the UK, Alfie's show on Radio 4 is now on its seventh series.

You can book tickets to see him live here: https://alfiemoore.com/tickets/

Both new and experienced officers are leaving the police service in droves as a result of poor pay, low morale, weak leadership and political interference. 

Joe Crocker is now helping serving officers to understand what their options look like and how to present themselves and their skills to maximise their opportunities outside of law enforcement.

This week I chatted to Matt Johnson, who left policing with severe PTSD and reinvented himself as a successful author. https://mattjohnsonauthor.com/

His first book, Wicked Game was long-listed by the Crime Writers Association for the 2016 John Creasey New Blood Dagger Award and at the end of 2016 it was listed by Amazon as the highest-rated debut novel of the year.

His latest book, Crow 27, is a fictionalised account based on a series of incidents that took place involving the deaths in obscure circumstances of four British Army trainee soldiers at the Princess Royal Barracks in Deepcut, Surrey between 1995 and 2002.

Mental health issues are now reaching epidemic proportions in UK policing, and a recent academic report (Op Soteria Bluestone) showed that burnout symptoms for emotional exhaustion shown from a survey of officers are higher than amongst NHS staff during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Zane McCormack was a high-performing officer at the top of his game. Ironically he worked on a team dedicated to finding missing people who were experiencing mental health crises in difficult-to-reach terrain (coastal areas, mountains and remote landscapes) when he had a complete mental breakdown. He now works to support men in difficulties with his new venture www.theassuredman.com

Sir Mark Rowley, the Commissioner of the Met gave evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee this week and it provided a fascinating insight into the bewilderingly complex job that he has taken on. The preoccupations of the MPs and their obvious lack of understanding of the realities of modern policing was alarming but not at all surprising. 

This week I learn loads by chatting with the fascinating Carol Rogers who has spent 25 years attending some pretty horrific crime scenes as a forensic biologist.

This week I chat with Andy Conway, who has been planning and managing the security of high profile visitors, politicians and royalty visiting the 2022 football World Cup in Qatar. Andy had a long and interesting career in policing, running the Prime Ministerial protection team for a number of years.

There has been a lot going on as ever in policing, so I decided to give you my thoughts. Lucky you. You're welcome.

I talked about the Iceberg of Ignorance (Sidney Yoshida)....here's a link to more information.

https://andonix.com/uncovering-the-iceberg-of-ignorance/

Joe Carter (not his real name) spent over 20 years as an undercover officer, infiltrating criminal gangs. He wrote a book 'Undercover - A true story' about his experiences. 

In this episode, I chat with Caroline Goode QPM. Caroline was the senior investigating officer for the investigation into the murder of Banaz Mahmod. Banaz was only 20 years old when she was killed by her father and other family members for leaving a violent, abusive, arranged marriage and starting a new relationship.

I really enjoyed talking to Caroline. We talked about her career and exchanged light-hearted reminiscences about her time in the Met, before the conversation took a much darker turn with her recollections of the murder investigation.

**Warning: This episode contains some very distressing content**

I thought it might be useful to address some of the many recent issues impacting the best job in the world that is quickly becoming the worst job in the world. I also give you some news about the TJF audiobook.

Sorry about the Anglo-Saxon swearing, but sometimes you need to say it as it is.

This week I explore the good, the bad and the ugly of the new direct-entry detective scheme by chatting with Tom Murray, who spent the best part of 40 years investigating crime, before becoming a mentor to the new cohorts of direct-entry detectives.

This scheme was created following a national shortage of detectives that was yet another unwelcome and destructive legacy of the Theresa May years as Home Secretary and Prime Minister.

The subject of current police training has attracted a lot of criticism, latterly...much of it from me! I thought it would be important to separate fact from fiction. Therefore, I had a chat with my old colleague Ron Winch, who is the course director for police trainees at Birmingham City University, helping to prepare police officers for what is hopefully a long and fruitful career.

This shorter episode deals with the shocking revelations of widespread misconduct in the Met since 2013 and a systematic failure to weed out bad officers.

https://www.met.police.uk/police-forces/metropolitan-police/areas/about-us/about-the-met/bcr/baroness-casey-review/

This week I have a really interesting chat with the very lovely Hannah Bailey from Blue Light Wellbeing. (https://www.bluelightwellbeing.uk). We talked about the most common reasons why police officers come to see Hannah for support with their mental health, and Hannah provided loads of great advice for anyone experiencing difficulties as well as managers who need to be aware of how they can support their staff.

This week I have a very entertaining and enjoyable chat with Neil Sinclair, who has led an incredibly active and interesting life; first as a professional rugby player, then moving into policing to work in a wide range of fascinating roles in national security and counter-terrorism. Neil then went on to a very successful career in the private sector, promoting the benefits of cyber-security to small and medium-sized businesses. Man of many talents. A truly international man of mystery!

This week I had the privilege of interviewing one of my policing heroes, Ex-Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell. Hamish spent nearly 40 years in the Met police, most of that time investigating serious crime. He came under intense media scrutiny as the Senior Investigating Officer in the Jill Dando murder enquiry in 1999, which resulted in the conviction of Barry George. George was subsequently cleared of the murder, which today remains unsolved. Hamish reviewed numerous high-profile investigations that resulted in the conviction of some very dangerous offenders, not least Delroy Grant, who was found guilty of dozens of burglaries and rapes of elderly and vulnerable victims.

This week I chat to Maggie Oliver. Maggie worked in serious crime investigations and helped to expose the serious sexual abuse of vulnerable children that had been going on for many years in Greater Manchester and most notably in Rochdale. Maggie eventually turned whistleblower in frustration that she was not being listened to, and ultimately decided to resign from the job she loved. She has become one of the most prominent campaigners against child sexual abuse in the UK, and she was the founder of the Maggie Oliver foundation. (https://www.themaggieoliverfoundation.com)

I was asked to talk to Lewis Goodall about the many current issues around policing and the shooting of Chris Kaba. This is the interview

The last week has been a true baptism of fire for the new Met Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley with the shooting of Chris Kaba in very contentious circumstances by one of his firearms officers on the 5th of September and the death of Queen Elizabeth on the 8th of September. In this additional episode of the podcast I try and take a balanced look at the issues surrounding the shooting and consider what this means for an already beleaguered Met police.

This week I chat to Phd student Mark Brown, who is studying the reasons for the crisis in policing in England and Wales since 2010, and proposing how policing could recover. We debate whether the destruction wrought by the Tories is a case of good old-fashioned stupidity and incompetence or whether it was a deliberate act of Neo-Liberal creative destruction.

This week I describe my shock at finding out that I had worked with a serial child rapist, Anthony Smith, who was sentenced to 24 years in prison last week.

I then have a brilliant chat with Jon Adams, who served in North London before moving his family lock stock and barrel out to Western Australia, where he is currently a sergeant in a town south of Perth. It was great chatting to him and fascinating hearing about his life down under.

This week I had the pleasure and privilege of chatting to Jackie Malton, the real police officer upon whom Linda La Plante based her phenomenally successfully fictional detective Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect.

Jackie is an incredible character, full of fun and fascinating stories from a very successful police career. Her new book was published yesterday and can be found here;

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Real-Prime-Suspect-screen-detective/dp/1913068978

This week was a very weird (but enjoyable) episode, because I interviewed Steve Donnelly, my brother. Steve did 15 years in the Met police doing a lot of difficult and dangerous jobs before retraining in law and becoming a successful criminal barrister.

This week I chat with a genuine one-off character that is Bob Bird, who reinvented himself as a Computer Forensics lecturer at Coventry University after a long career in policing.

In this episode I flesh out the points I made in a LinkedIn post yesterday that generated tens of thousands of views and scores of comments. 

Here is the post https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6961584077950836736/

Also mentioned in this episode is a video of recent serious disorder in Wolverhampton

Here is the video;

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2992046524427118&extid=WA-UNK-UNK-UNK-AN_GK0T-GK1C-GK2T&ref=sharing

This week I chat with David Howell, who spent over 30 years in policing, much of it in police aviation. After a bruising encounter with terrible leadership, David is now pursuing his passion of understanding what makes a great leader and a great team in policing and other complex organisations.

You can find David here: https://ableandrush.com

This week I talk to Hannah Bailey, who found herself completely burnt out from a career in policing and also facing a life-threatening cancer diagnosis. She left the police and turned her life around to become a successful therapist treating people in similar situations in the emergency services, health service and the military. This was such an uplifting conversation.

You can find Hannah at https://www.bluelightwellbeing.uk

This week is all about investigating murder, the most serious of all crimes. Steve was a brilliant guest who has investigated literally hundreds of murders and I really enjoyed our chat.

You can find his book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Murder-Investigation-Team-Steven-Keogh/dp/1789466423/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2KAEBFZ7468Z6&keywords=steve+keogh+murder+investigation+team&qid=1658059570&sprefix=Steve+Keogh%2Caps%2C70&sr=8-2

Jaiye was the first openly gay black officer in the Met. What could possibly go wrong? Jaiye describes his career in this episode.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the creation of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, in June 1922. In 1999 Her Majesty the Queen collectively awarded the George Cross to the men, women and families of RUC officers. Between 1969 and 1998, over 300 officers were murdered by terrorists and many thousands more carry the physical and mental scars of that brutal period of British history. 

In this episode, I have a fascinating conversation with Stephen White, formerly an Assistant Chief Constable in the RUC and now the Chair of the RUC George Cross Foundation.

This week I have a great chat with an ex-colleague Martin Brennan, who retired from policing as a Det Supt, having spent most of his career investigating serious and organised crime. Martin tells a fascinating story of how he was forced to rethink his entire life after a medical emergency brought on by working excessively long hours and dealing with too many stressful incidents over many years.

You can find Martin at https://www.martinbrennan.co.uk

This is the second episode with Duncan Johnston, ex-protection officer to UK politicians and royalty.