Tango Juliet Foxtrot - the police podcast

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 l...

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...

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 suppo...

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 sma...

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 subse...

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 becom...

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 wha...

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 fascin...

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.c...

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...

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...

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+K...

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 ep...

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. Yo...

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