From Helping Fight Crime to Helping Write Crime - Stuart Gibbons

I would like to welcome Stuart Gibbon to my blog today. Stuart is a former policer officer who now advises writers on police actions and procedures. You can find out more by visiting Stuart's website - http://www.gibconsultancy.co.uk

From Helping Fight Crime to Helping Write Crime

by Stuart Gibbon

My name is Stuart Gibbon and I'm a former police officer who served for 30 years in London and the East Midlands before retiring from the police service in 2012. A large part of my career was spent as a Detective in Major Crime. As a Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) I was in charge of Murder and other serious crime investigations. As such, I have considerable experience in the way police investigate crime and other police-related issues.

On leaving the police service I decided to set up my own business, GIB Consultancy www.gibconsultancy.co.uk. I now help writers by giving advice on police actions and procedures. It can be anything from how a missing person is investigated or how forensic evidence works to how the police would go about solving a Murder.

Writers generally contact me via e-mail through my website and either send me a list of questions which they would like answering or send me a draft of the police procedural element of their work for fact-checking.

Although most of my work comes from crime writers, I sometimes get enquiries from writers of other genres who may want to include a police-related topic in their book. My first written acknowledgement came courtesy of Tammy Cohen, after I provided advice for the thriller 'Dying for Christmas'. More recently I've been helping C.L. Taylor with advice for 'The Missing' (released in April nd a massive hit!!) and her fourth thriller currently being written. I was originally contacted by Cally back in November 2014 and continue to help as and when required. It's great to see the advice and information you have given to authors actually appearing in the published version.

I've helped writers with many different topics from the role of the Coroner in suspicious deaths, how the police promotion system works to forensic procedures and Court sentencing guidelines. One of the most interesting was explaining how the police would deal with a person in prison who had confessed to a serious crime (you may recognise this if you've read 'The Missing', if you haven't keep an eye out for it!!!)

I also talk with Writing Groups on the subject of 'Murder investigation' and have a couple of national conferences booked for later this year as a speaker. I take the audience through a Murder case (using a generic case study) from discovery of a body to the arrest and detention of a suspect, explaining the challenges facing Detectives in such cases.   

My new career is every bit as interesting and rewarding as my old one and it's great to contribute towards the hard work that goes into writing a book. If any writers need help with police procedural or investigative processes I can be contacted via my website www.gibconsultancy.co.uk whether you just have the odd question or require more detailed advice.