Sign-In
Cart
Stop, Police!: From northern England to Portsmouth: a UK police officer's true crime memoir of policing the thin blue line in the 1990s, ending in sur
Paperback
ISBN13: 9781068292408
Publisher: Moorhill Publishing
Published: Apr 7 2026
Pages: 474
Weight: 1.20
Height: 1.06 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
STOP, POLICE! is a gripping, true-to-life memoir that takes you from the backstreets of 1970s-80s Rochdale to the front line of British policing in the 1990s.
Richard's story begins with a wild(ish) youth spent skirting danger and trouble - close encounters with stolen property, dodgy motors, drugs, robbery and naïve decisions that could easily have landed him on the wrong side of the law.
Seeking a fresh start, he heads to the USA to grab a piece of his own American dream, only to return home and take an unlikely turn: joining the police.
On the beat in the naval city of Portsmouth through a decade of change, Richard meets every shade of humanity - funny, tragic, absurd and brave. STOP, POLICE! is an exposé of life on and off duty, facing real criminals and real danger, and recounting unreported events that form part of the social history of Pompey - not forgetting the many practical jokes played between officers to keep up morale! Told with the eye of someone who has seen both sides of the thin blue line.
Read about the author's policing experiences as a uniformed cop, walking the beat or racing to 999 calls as an area car driver, including incidents such as:
- Policing the Navy on shore leave
- What it is really like on a police stakeout
- Why covert cameras can be dangerous
- What it feels like to be in a police car chase
- Facing rioting mobs at football matches
- The grim realities of sudden death
- Prisoner escapes and manhunts
- Why domestic arguments are so dangerous for everyone
- Being dispatched as the first officer to a murder scene, with the suspect still present
- How it feels to tackle a sword-wielding youth
- Drugs busts that do not always go to plan
- Plus many, many more
When a sudden brain haemorrhage strikes while he is on duty, the author is forced to confront the biggest battle of his life - his own survival. Everything changes when Richard collapses at work, the result of an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) on the brain. Extensive brain surgery becomes his only chance of survival, forcing a man used to saving others to confront his own fragility. The memoir also charts his recovery and the quiet reckonings that follow a career spent managing other people's crises.
An immensely moving and deeply personal insight into what it is to be a police officer in Britain - and what it feels like to survive a brain haemorrhage and subsequent brain surgery - this is a story told with raw honesty and dark humour. STOP, POLICE! is more than a policing memoir; it is a story of resilience, second chances and what it truly means to wear the uniform.
Also from
Foster, Richard
Creative Destruction: Creative Destruction: Why Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the Market--And How to Successfully Transform Them
Foster, Richard
Kaplan, Sarah
Paperback
Norman Mailer - American Writers 73: University of Minnesota Pamphlets on American Writers
Foster, Richard
Paperback
The Robin Hood Paradox: The True Story... well, not really (Large Print Edition)
Foster, Richard
Paperback
The Robin Hood Paradox: The True Story... well, not really (Large Print Edition)
Foster, Richard
Paperback
Also in
Biographies General
Bluesland: Portraits of Thirteen Major American Blues Masters
Pete Welding (ED.)
Toby Byron (ED.)
Hardcover
Karl Popper - The Formative Years, 1902 1945: Politics and Philosophy in Interwar Vienna
Hacohen, Malachi Haim
Hardcover
The Children of Athena: Greek Intellectuals in the Age of Rome: 150 Bc0-400 AD
Freeman, Charles
Hardcover
Make It a Double: From Wretched to Wondrous: Tales of One Woman's Lifelong Discovery of Whisky
Sackier, Shelley
Hardcover
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
Isaacson, Walter
Hardcover
An Enemy Such as This: Larry Casuse and the Fight for Native Liberation in One Family on Two Continents Over Three Centuries
Correia, David
Hardcover
Agents of Chaos: Thomas King Forçade, High Times, and the Paranoid End of the 1970s
Howe, Sean
Hardcover
The Secret Life of the Savoy: Glamour and Intrigue at the World's Most Famous Hotel
Williams, Olivia
Paperback
The Badger: The Life of Bernard Hinault and the Legacy of French Cycling
Fotheringham, William
Paperback
The Devil's Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich
Kinney, David
Wittman, Robert K.
Paperback
Florence Kelley and the Nation's Work: The Rise of Womens Political Culture, 1830-1900
Sklar, Kathryn Kish
Paperback
The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family Politics at the Court of Henry VIII
Warnicke, Retha M.
Paperback
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II
Purnell, Sonia
Hardcover
Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth about Everything
Ehrenreich, Barbara
Paperback
Seafaring Women: Adventures of Pirate Queens, Female Stowaways, and Sailors' Wives
Cordingly, David
Paperback
The Butcher, the Embezzler, and the Fall Guy: A Family Memoir of Scandal and Greed in the Meat Industry
Cherington, Gretchen
Paperback
Gift of Power: The Life and Teachings of a Lakota Medicine Man
Lame Deer, Chief Archie Fire
Erdoes, Richard
Paperback
My Own Devices: True Stories from the Road on Music, Science, and Senseless Love
Dessa Wander
Hardcover
Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice
Giuffre, Virginia Roberts
Hardcover
How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay: Tips and Tricks That Kept Me Alive, Happy, and Creative in Spite of Myself
Lawson, Jenny
Hardcover
Family of Spies: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal, and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor
Kuehn, Christine
Hardcover
Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young: A Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground
Dohrn, Zayd Ayers
Hardcover
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon
Fedarko, Kevin
Paperback
Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast
Colloff, Pamela
Hardcover