Policing Insight Publisher Bernard Rix’s Policing Friendship Tour recently caught up with Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner Festus Akinbusoye, to walk and talk about the policing challenges facing the county including the disproportionality in the number of Black and Asian stabbing victims and offenders, the importance of stop and search – done properly and lawfully – and the task of tackling county lines drugs.

Festus Akinbusoye was talking to Bernard Rix on a recent leg of the Policing Friendship Tour, which is taking Bernard across the British Isles where he is hoping to visit all police forces, before then taking the Tour around the world.

Bernard explained: “Public voices of support for policing are not sufficiently often heard above less supportive stories that seem somehow to attract more publicity. My Policing Friendship Tour will be, in part, my way of helping to make support for policing people – in the widest sense – that little bit more visible.”

The Tour will also raise awareness and money for policing charities, and those Bernard talks and walks with can nominate a charity of their choice to be supported. As his chosen charity, Mr Akinbusoye has nominated the Thin Blue Paw Foundation which provides care, support and ongoing attention for retired police dogs.