Policing in the 2020s has taken a hit. Raw from austerity measures, propelled into a global pandemic, reeling from a backlash from unrest in the US, contending with an increased terror threat and accepting shocking figures on the impact of trauma on policing, the service also faces the prospect of training thousands of new recruits.

That policing is under pressure is perhaps nothing new. What is new, is a power surge of resilience in the world of neuroscience – as yet untapped by the front line.

As forces across the UK and the world forage to procure or recycle interventions to try and meet the needs of their force, there is a resource that lies dormant. That resource is one of understanding the policing brain.

Understanding the common experience of trauma exposure and burnout.

Understanding that whatever experiences are inevitable on the job, damage from them is not.

Understanding that however many individuals make up a team, a network, a force or an institution, each of those individuals has something in common – the ability to work better with their brains.

So long as policing sees the answer to its mental health challenges as being under the invisible cloak of its culture, at the discretion of a hierarchy of wellbeing decision-makers or in the hands of a tireless third sector, then it will never grasp its own resilience.

This book takes a fresh look at the world of policing through the lens of the human brain. In doing so, it radically challenges notions of police culture and empowers the individual to embrace the reality of their experience in the service. The book encourages officers and staff on the front line and in high-risk roles to understand the neural mechanisms already at play every day on the job. It introduces practical cognitive techniques police can apply on their own or with others in the service to help make sense of their experiences and stay well.

Many officers adopt the approach of mimicking the resilience of those who don't report adversity within policing. When we do this, we risk getting in our own way. If we compare ourselves to others who are not like us (those who are seemingly and somewhat unrealistically unaffected by anything), there is a tendency for us to dissociate from and suppress our genuine response to what is going on around us.