Welcome to Notes from the Beat: True Stories from a Police Notebook.

I’m a retired police officer with over 30 years of service in Avon and Somerset Constabulary, where I worked on everything from street policing to complex murder investigations.

My career began in 1977 on general duties in South Bristol. Over the years, I served in response policing, the Support Group, and specialist squads including the Drug Squad and Cheque Fraud team. I was part of public order operations, including during the St Pauls riots, and regularly worked in major incident rooms as a trained HOLMES indexer.

In the 1990s and 2000s, I specialised in detective work. I served in divisional CID, then trained officers across the force in investigative interviewing, family liaison, and the HOLMES major crime system. I helped design and deliver courses for police at all levels, from new detectives to senior officers, and even assisted the Metropolitan Police in setting up their Family Liaison Officer training.

Later, as Principal Analyst on the Major Crime Investigation Unit, I worked on many high-profile murder cases. My role was to analyse the flood of information coming into the incident room, identify gaps, develop lines of enquiry, and present clear, court-ready analytical products. My telephone analysis and intelligence work directly helped identify offenders in multiple murder investigations.

After leaving the UK police, I spent three years as a Training Consultant with the Special Anti-Crime Unit of Trinidad and Tobago (SAUTT). There I helped design a 20-week investigative course for graduate recruits with no policing background, taught major crime investigation best practices, and delivered courses in analytical methods and tools like Anacapa and i2 Analyst Notebook.

Throughout my career, I’ve believed in professional standards, clear thinking under pressure, and the power of good training to improve investigations. On this blog, I share true stories, reflections, and insights from decades spent working on the front line and behind the scenes of major crime investigations.