The SFQ podcast speaks to its first member of police staff - Angela Blair, formerly National Productions Manager with Police Scotland. What are productions? Basically, all the property that gets seized by the polis, about 500,000 items a year. ...

Hear how Retired Chief Inspector Andy Brown went from a career in the highlands of Scotland to successfully negotiating a hostage release with the Taliban as part of his work with the Jesuit Brotherhood, in addition to his time spent studying n...

Hear how Jonathan Wender went from a 20 year career as a 'philosopher cop' in Washington to leading academic on the subject of police-public communication. He describes his groundbreaking work using AI to analyse body worn camera footage to red...

Former Strathclyde Police/Police Scotland detective Stuart Hall describes how he discovered the identity of the murderer of Emma Caldwell in 2005 and how this derailed his career when he went against his bosses - who had a different suspect. It...

Join me for the second part of my chat with former Police Scotland superintendent and terrorism expert Dr Martin Gallagher. In this episode, we discuss what causes people to take part in terrorist acts.Here is a link to Martin's website...

Why do people become terrorists? Former Police Scotland superintendent, Martin Gallagher, has become an expert on this subject, publishing his book 'Terror for Profit' earlier this year. In this episode, Martin describes his police career and r...

What happens when someone dies as a result of the police use of force?Following on from the previous episode, former Police Scotland Chief Firearms Instructor, Scott Williamson, discusses post incident management, the promotion process,...

From his first operational incident at the scene of the Dunblane Primary School shooting, to his final post as Chief Firearms Officer for Police Scotland, firearms have bookmarked Scott Williamson's police career. He describes it in this episod...

In this episode we hear more from psychological therapist Rachel Rogers about her plans for future work in the sphere of police mental health and a brief discussion regarding Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing therapy, which has proved t...

Rachel Rogers has spent much of her psychological therapy facing her ‘North Star’ of policing. She was involved in the introduction of the wellbeing programme within the Police Treatment Centres and then within Police Care UK in an intensive tr...

When Allan Dorrans stepped off the London train clutching his second hand suitcase, he probably had no idea what a career in the Metropolitan police would lead to. Follow his journey from police to publican, personnel manager and finally, polit...

Warning - it's all about emotions in this episode as Dr Sarah-Jane Lennie discusses how police officers often fail to acknowledge that they have any at all. Sarah-Jane went from the British Army to Hampshire and Greater Manchester Police, becom...

It’s all stabbing, scribbling and sectarianism in this episode featuring retired T/Supt Brian Cook, who retired from Police Scotland 7 years ago and has recently published his book ‘The Corsairs’, following the travails of probationer office...

PC Ash Toner-MaxwellScottish LGBTI Police AssociationThe SFQ podcast returns for a thought provoking chat with Ash Toner-Maxwell regarding her experience in the east end of Glasgow, including her time as a campus...

When Rob Hindley was medically retired from the police after a career with the GMP and the Met, he committed himself to helping others going through the medical retirement process and having a hard time with the trauma being a police officer ca...

Retired Chief Superintendent Suzie Mertes talks about her career, including her fight to retain her stripes when she became pregnant, looking after the G8 spouses at the time of the 7/7 bombings in London, and her time at the head of the Scotti...

Supt Henry Campbell retired from Strathclyde Police in 2010. During his career he was instrumental in redesigning the national negotiator course. In this episode he speaks about his time as a negotiator and his night as an inspector when a memb...

Are you ready for retirement?Are those close to you ready for you to retire?Police Scotland is, largely due to a change in pension rules and a job that becomes harder to cope with daily, seeing a lot of officers retire ear...

There’s a lot in this episode with George Barnsley, retired police officer, investigative training consultant and author of the Lanarkshire Police Chronicles. We discuss his police career, Lockerbie, kidnap, the evils of typewriters, his work w...

This episode features an interview with Paul Eastham, who policed the city centre of Manchester in a career that spanned 30 years. Paul provides a very honest and sometimes harrowing account of his experience attending the scene of the Manchest...

Ali Garrow had a career that took him from the Highlands of Scotland to London and New York. Police Officer/IT guru/Negotiator and now creator of the Paddlewheel Initiative, providing a wellbeing service for police officers through the medium o...

Steve Potts takes us on a journey from joining West Midlands as a police cadet, becoming a detective investigating serious crime and murders before embarking on a career as an airline pilot, eventually becoming a Captain with Virgin. In this ve...

A trailer for my new podcast