the Admiral Duncan – gay pub in Soho

Airwave – a type of police radio

baggy – a plastic bag containing cocaine

batty boy – West Indian derogatory term for a gay man

’blige! – North London expression of laughing astonishment, perhaps short for ‘obliged’

the Boleyn Ground – alternative name for Upton Park, home of West Ham Football Club

brass – slang term for a prostitute

butcher’s, have a – slang for ‘take a look’

CAD number – Computer Aided Dispatch reference number, which allows police on the move to keep those that need to know informed of their whereabouts

Chelsea tractor – sports utility vehicles that the upper classes use incongruously to get around London

chisel – slang term for cocaine

chop shop – a garage where stolen cars are illegally serviced and altered

CID – Criminal Investigation Department, the branch of a police force consisting of plain-clothes detectives

CRIMINT – a national crime database

DC – detective constable

DCI – detective chief inspector, senior to a DI

detective superintendent – or ‘super’, senior to a DCI

DI – detective inspector, senior to a DS

DPS – Department of Professional Standards – see below

DS – detective sergeant, senior to a DC

estuary English – the sounds of modern working-class speech in South-East London, and areas bordering the River Thames

five by fives – a grading system with which analysts assess the importance and reliability of intelligence

Flying Squad – mobile detective unit within the Met

FME – Force Medical Examiner, the on-call doctor covering several police stations

Grindr – gay dating website

Hendon – location of the police college

39 Hilldrop Crescent – home of infamous murderer Dr Crippen

I2 link chart – analysis tool to show links within criminal organizations

IBO – Integrated Borough Operations, a police department within a borough, which handles communications and gives out pocket books

‘I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles’ – a song associated with West Ham Football Club

Intelligence Cycle – a standard model of how intelligence is processed in professional organizations

the Irons – nickname for West Ham Football Club

kettling – police crowd-control tactic of isolating groups of protest marchers and containing them

Kojack – police slang term for an electrical socket only found on the dashboards of police vehicles

marked car – a police car with police insignia on it. An unmarked car is a car without insignia

Metvest – body armour that also identifies the wearer as an officer in the London Metropolitan Police

NDNAD – the United Kingdom National DNA Database

Nagra – an outdated form of undercover recording device

National Intelligence Model – a formal declaration of how intelligence should be applied to policing

OCN – an organized criminal network, a gang

OCU – Operational Command Unit, a division of police forces not on a geographical basis

Professional Standards – the department of the London Metropolitan Police that deals with police wrongdoing and corruption

PRO-FIT – software that lets a witness build up an image of a suspect’s face

punt – slang term for a bet or a liaison with a prostitute

10 Rillington Place – home of infamous murderer John Christie

RV point – rendezvous point

SCD 4 – the police department that examines the scene of the crime

SCD 7(2) – the police department that deals with special projects within Serious and Organized Crime

SCD 10 – the police department that runs undercover operations

Shebeen – an illegal and unlicensed bar, usually in a private house

shout – paramedic and fire service slang for a call out

SOCO – a Scene of Crime Officer

spod – slang term for an intellectual

the thirty-three boroughs – all the boroughs that together make up Greater London

tom – slang term for a prostitute

Tyburn Tree – the gibbet where criminals were hanged, in what is now central London

UC – undercover police detective