‘I came into the job after GMP visited our school,’ Tucker said. ‘It was a travelling police roadshow type thing, looking to encourage ethnic minorities to apply. I didn’t think there was much chance. I mean, this was around ’94. Not as bad as it had once been, but still a bit of a “them and us” thing going on with the cops. But … something happened that day, you know.’ He paused, peering into his own past. ‘They gave us all the usual propaganda … posters showing blonde cutie WPCs having cups of tea with little old ladies, or big square-jawed uniforms standing at zebra crossings, holding hands with schoolkids. But I’d grown up watching telly. I’d seen shows like Hill Street Blues. That had a particular resonance where we lived … it was like the same bloody ghetto. And I’m watching these hard-arsed detectives kicking butt, bringing the scrotes in. And I thought: I can do that. So, I said to one of these fellas, one of these bobbies on the roadshow, I said: “I don’t want to show kids across the road, I want to be a detective.” Anyway, he took a few of us like-minded lads into a room and says: “Okay, this is what it’s really like. You want to go to war with these people who are ruining your estates? Tired of seeing your neighbours getting burgled? Tired of hearing that nice old Mrs Jones who lives three doors down has been mugged coming home from bingo? Tired of seeing gang-tags everywhere, drugs being sold. They’re not doing it in posh areas, you know.”’

Tucker’s eyes flashed at the mere memory.

‘That made an impact on me,’ he said. ‘I’ve never forgotten that bit. He says: “They’re not robbing the rich to give to the poor, they’re robbing the poor to give to themselves. You sick of all that? You want to settle that score? Then, lads, we are the job for you.” The day I left school and posted my application, I found that half the kids on our block suddenly hated me. But what did I care. It worried me a bit when they said: “You’ll be the token black face. They’ll pretend to like you, but really you’ll only be there to make ’em look good.” But even if that last bit was true, when I got into the job, I wasn’t the token black face. There were lots of black faces, and we were as good at it as any of the whites, maybe better because we had to be better. And anyway …’ He smiled self-consciously, suddenly awkward with his show of emotion. ‘Here we are now … making that very same difference they talked about all those years ago.’