Crossing the Line

'A love letter to police officers and the most vulnerable people they protect and serve' CHRISTIE WATSON, author of THE LANGUAGE OF KINDNESS 'Urgent and compelling. We all have lessons to learn from this book' SIMON MAYO As a society, we are captivated by policing; we watch police procedurals and fly-on-the-wall documentaries and absorb the headlines on the rolling news. Yet how much do we really know about the world that policing inhabits and reveals? In his deeply revealing new book, John Sutherland invites us to step behind the cordon tape and bear witness to the things that he has seen in his twenty-five years of service with the Metropolitan Police. Tackling ten of the biggest challenges facing society today - from alcohol abuse, drug addiction and domestic violence to knife crime, terrorism and sexual offences - we are introduced to people who have been pushed to the limits and beyond. In doing so, we gain a clearer sense of what needs to be done to make our neighbourhoods safer and to transform the lives of those we live alongside. Eye-opening, courageous and moving, CROSSING THE LINE is a book that will change the way you see the world around you.

A thought-provoking look at the biggest challenges facing society through the unique lens of an experienced police officer and hostage negotiator A RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK 'A love letter to police officers and the most vulnerable people they protect and serve' CHRISTIE WATSON, author of THE LANGUAGE OF KINDNESS'Extraordinary . . . urgent and compelling. We all have lessons to learn from this book' SIMON MAYOThere is much more to policing than tackling crime. Every one of us will need the help of an officer at some point in our lives, often when we're at our most vulnerable. Yet how much do we really know about the realities of policing? Using real life stories from his twenty-five years of service with the Metropolitan Police, John Sutherland invites us beyond the cordon tape to bear witness to all he has seen. In doing so, he offers a hopeful vision for how we can tackle some of the biggest challenges facing society today. Includes a new Afterword on policing during the Covid-19 pandemic