Welcome as we review the year in policing 2022.

In partnership with Policing TV, the leading police media channel.

Steve Bradshaw is a recently retired Police Inspector. He has spent the majority of his policing career as a firearms officer before being promoted up the ranks where he became a Force Incident Manager, taking command of high risk critical incidents such as vehicle pursuits, firearms and major threats to the public. 

But he also led another life as a budding actor and now retired, is free to fully explore his new career. He has appeared in several series aired on ITV and Netflix and has also appeared in several well know soap dramas. 

Steve reflects on both careers and sees how they are not dissimilar. Steve’s acting name is Noah Burd, a name he was perhaps destined to own. Find out why.

In this episode we talk to Lieutenant Colonel Will Meddings, an infantry officer in the Royal Anglian Regiment. Throughout his career he has commanded soldiers on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, in teams sizing  from a 12 man patrol fighting alongside the Afghan Army in Helmand, to a 100-strong company protecting advisors in Kabul. He now commands a battalion of 500 soldiers.

In 2016 Will was one of the founders of the Centre for Army Leadership at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, a small organisation designed to improve leadership across the British Army. Around the same time he also set up The Army Leader, a leadership development website sharing practical leadership advice for junior leaders. It now has over 150,000 visitors a year.

Will discusses the role of the Army leader and the delicate skill of balancing the task, the team and the individual and also discuss the differences between the armed services and the police. 

The Thin Blue Line podcast in partnership with Policing TV, the leading policing media channel.

In this episode we look at leadership and the associated topics of wellbeing within the police service.

The Thin Blue Line podcast in partnership with Policing TV, the leading policing media channel

In this episode we sit down around the virtual fire and discuss our own police antidotes and those stories that have gone down in policing folklore.  

The Thin Blue Line podcast in partnership with Policing TV, the leading policing media channel

In this episode we consider the Police and Criminal Evidence Act. The rule book for police since 1984 after the previous decade saw some massive miscarriages of justice. 

The Thin Blue Line podcast in partnership with Policing TV, the leading policing media channel

Richard Horton began his career with a short spell in accountancy before joining the police. Serving in the east side of Lancashire he performed several duties before becoming a Detective, a role he dedicated himself to for more than twenty years. Moving back into uniform towards the end of his career he was a response Sergeant overseeing a team of young and eager police officers. 

But that isn’t the real story. Richard wrote an anonymous blog called The Night Jack in which he described the realities of policing. He won the Orwell prize for writing and donated his prize to police charities. You would have thought that would be a reason to celebrate, however The Times newspaper hacked into Richard’s emails and outed him as the author. Disciplinary action followed by his employer. Richard took the newspaper to court and eventually won his case. 

Richard looks back philosophically on events and we discover that it still hasn’t  dampened his love of writing.

The Thin Blue Line podcast in partnership with Policing TV, the leading policing media channel

In this episode we consider the recent report by the HMIC on bad practises within the UK police service. It makes grim reading. What makes it worse it that it is not politically driven but based on solid verifiable evidence.  What is clear is that the Chief Constables have to own this report and deliver on it.

The Thin Blue Line podcast in partnership with Policing TV, the leading policing media channel

Policing TV brings you a new Podcast from Award Winning author Iain Donnelly

Maggie Oliver 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. 

Originally released on 21st September 2022

Policing TV brings you a new Podcast from Award Winning author Iain Donnelly

This week was a very weird (but enjoyable) episode, because Iain interviewed Steve Donnelly, his 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. 

He followed the IRA as a surveillance officer and was one of Salman Rushdie's protection officers during the period of time when he was at a very high risk of assassination by the Iranian regime.

First Aired Aug 22