Arquebus’ Executive Chairman and former head of the National Ballistic Intelligence Service (NABIS), Paul James, recently delivered a talk to the fantastic audience at Walkers and Talkers, a Bristol-based charity alleviating social isolation in the local community. In it, Paul shared his experience of policing gun crime in his boyhood city of Bristol and the value of joined-up ballistics intelligence in helping law enforcement combat firearm-related criminality in societies across the world.

§

Like many other major cities in the UK during the 1990’s and early 2000’s, Bristol was experiencing a wave of firearm-related criminality. The emergence of crack cocaine on its streets brought with it an intensification of armed violence, with gangs controlling the local drug market acquiring guns in increasing numbers and of greater lethality to compete with their rivals.

Having been a Senior Investigating Officer at Avon and Somerset Police between 1995 and 2006, Paul was at the forefront of efforts combatting gun crime in Bristol at the time and worked on a number of high-profile firearm homicide cases. It became evident that the investigation of firearm incidents, not just in Bristol, but across the UK, were being hampered by the absence of a joined-up ballistics intelligence system.

Paul took the opportunity to dedicate the final six years of his career in the police service to the establishment and operational management of NABIS. In pioneering a new, centralised approach to fast-time ballistics forensics and intelligence sharing, NABIS helped to deliver a reduction of over 50% in recorded gun crime in the UK between 2006 and 2012.

After retiring from Avon and Somerset Police in 2012 as Detective Chief Superintendent, Paul co-founded Arquebus, building a team focused on tackling the illegal use, manufacture and trafficking of firearms and limiting the harm they can do to communities on an international basis. To date Arquebus has provided support to over 50 different countries.

Recently, Paul was invited by the Bristol-based charity Walkers and Talkers to talk about his career as a guest speaker. Below are a few words from Paul regarding this rewarding experience and the fantastic work done by Walkers and Talkers, as well as a personal message on the importance of getting tested for Prostate Cancer:

“I was extremely privileged to be invited to give a talk to an amazing organisation called Walkers and Talkers which was established in the wake of the Covid pandemic to address social isolation in the wider Bristol area. Since its inception in 2022 it has evolved into a weekly gathering attended by upward of 200 people, becoming one of the largest social inclusion initiatives in the UK.

The driving force behind Walkers and Talkers is ex-Gloucestershire Cricket wicketkeeper Andy Brassington, who garnered support, and encouraged attendance initially from his friends within the cricket community, but now to a much more diverse audience to provide a regular weekly opportunity for people to get together, find new friends, have a walk around the Gloucestershire cricket ground, share a coffee and have an input from a guest speaker on a wide variety of subjects.

On the day that I attended there were well over 200 people in attendance, and I was immediately struck by the sense of camaraderie between all present.

I had been asked to give an overview of my involvement in tackling gun crime, ranging from the 1980’s and 90’s as a Detective in Bristol, moving on to the establishment of the National Ballistics Intelligence Service in the mid 2000’s and then to the formation of Arquebus Solutions in 2012.

I thoroughly enjoyed presenting to a receptive, knowledgeable and friendly audience on a subject I was very comfortable talking about, but I was not so prepared for the second part of my presentation on a very different, but equally important subject, that of Prostate Cancer.

I was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer in May 2023 and received treatment for it throughout 2023 and into early 2024. Fortunately, the treatment appears to have worked for me and my consultant tells me that there is a 95% chance that I have been cured. The only reason that my treatment has been successful is that it was diagnosed at an early stage whilst the cancer was contained within the prostate.

I happened to mention this to this to a couple of the organisers just before I was due to give my talk and they asked me if I would be prepared to say a few words to the group, as many of them were in the most at risk age group for developing prostate cancer, and had previously expressed concern that they didn’t know how to get checked out to see if they had it.

So, there I was talking to an audience of over 200 people about my journey through prostate cancer. It was quite a surreal experience as us blokes are notoriously reluctant to talk about such matters, even with our closest friends, yet alone to an audience of strangers. I had no chance to prepare for this so just spoke of my own experience and strongly encouraged everyone in the risk category to get checked out – don’t wait for symptoms, because by the time they appear it is often too late.

At the end of the talk, I was approached on an individual basis by many present, who expressed interest in both subjects that I had talked about, but I was struck by how many of them didn’t know about the risk of prostate cancer or what steps they could take to see if they had the disease.

It was quite simply an uplifting day. Seeing the wonderful voluntary work being carried out by the organisers, the great interaction and friendship between the members of the group and the positive impact it is having on so many lives. In these very challenging times where all we seem to hear or read about is so negative it is so refreshing to witness the wonderful experience of Walkers & Talkers.

I want to highlight that it is the ambition to establish Walkers & Talkers in all parts of the country. If you hear of them in your area, I extol you to support them in any way that you can.

I am now personally committed to help spread the word about the importance of getting a test to see if you have prostate cancer. 1 in 8 males will get it in their lifetime and if it is caught early, it is often curable, if it is not identified at an early stage, it can be a killer.”

§

Please visit the Prostate Cancer UK website at https://prostatecanceruk.org/risk-checker to carry out this 30 second check. Also, show your support for Walkers and Talkers by following their Facebook, Instagram and X accounts linked below:

Walkers and Talkers 

@walkersandtalkersqanda

@walkersandtalkers