CROSSING THE LINE

LESSONS FROM LIFE ON DUTY

JOHN SUTHERLAND

W&N, 278pp, £16.99, ebook £8.99

John Sutherland, Richard Morrison reported in the Times, has written ‘an entire book about the unremitting frustration of being a police officer in a society full of problems that the police can do absolutely nothing about’. And, he added, Sutherland ‘knows whereof he writes’. A former chief superintendent in the Metropolitan Police, Sutherland left the police after a seven-month nervous breakdown – which he described in his first book Blue: A Memoir.

This follow-up volume ‘looks at the same problems, but from a more analytical perspective’: arguing that policing is so frustrating and demoralising because the force is dealing with the consequences of decades-long social malaises and unable to tackle the causes of criminality at root.

‘Without being sensationalist or sentimental, he lifts the lid on that underworld of despair, degradation and needless death,’ said Morrison. ‘It’s a read that should shame anyone with a conscience.’

The anonymous critic who reviewed Sutherland’s book for Police Life was similarly impressed, calling it ‘deeply revealing’: ‘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.’