Former Eastbourne police chief pens book in response to BBC’s Line of Duty

Kevin Moore, who lives in Seaford, joined Sussex Police in 1978 and rose to the ranks of detective chief superintendent in the Criminal Investigations Department.

Mr Moore retired in January 2018 and has kept himself busy ever since with the release of two previous books about policing. Now he’s preparing for the release of his third book on April 27 – Good Cop Bad Cop.

The book, which he started in September last year, explores police corruption – something Mr Moore has plenty of experience in from his three years working in the police misconduct department from 1997-2000.

He looks into the types of corruption, undercover policing, police informants, and gives case studies throughout such as the Hillsborough Disaster and the murder of Stephen Lawrence.

Mr Moore said, “I started by looking into what constitutes police misconduct.

“I wanted to highlight when procedures were first put in place, covering the history of it and bringing it up to where we are now with it.

“I also wanted to talk about the issues around policing and why these things happen in the first place. It’s not just about police taking backhands.”

Mr Moore said his time working in police misconduct allowed him to work on hundreds of cases, which he breaks into two categories in the book – criminally stupid and criminally arrogant.

He said, “There is a very fine line between being lawfully audacious, to crossing the line where you break the rules.

“I look at some of the trends, what it used to be and where we’re going – we have a lot of cases of sexual misconduct now.”

Mr Moore said the idea of writing about police misconduct came from watching the BBC’s Line of Duty.

He said, “I wanted to cover this because I’ve been watching all the series of Line of Duty and I suppose while it’s compulsive viewing it needs an injection of reality. It’s a bit far-fetched.

“There’s never been too much written in terms of police corruption, I wanted to tell it how it is.”

Despite Line of Duty focusing on catching ‘bent coppers’, Mr Moore said there is much more to it than this.

He said, “The job in professional standards is just as much about defending the innocent as it is about prosecuting the guilty – it’s no different from any other type of investigation.

“For every bent copper there are lots of false allegations against innocent police officers.”

In terms of writing another book, Mr Moore said he’s got nothing in mind at the moment.

However, he said, “Who knows, never say never.”

Mr Moore has previously published My Way, which covers the changing face of Sussex Police, and Real Murder Investigations, which looks at how investigations have developed over the last 40 years.

All money raised from Mr Moore’s books goes to the Care of Police Survivors charity which supports families of police officers who have died on duty.

My Way

Real Murder Investigations