James T. H. Cooke

James Cooke spent most of his early years in rural Herefordshire UK where he was educated at Ross-On-Wye Grammar School.

In 1976, at the age of 16 he entered the Metropolitan Police Cadet Corps where he continued his studies and became House Captain. At the early age of 18 he started his policing career at Paddington Green where he was involved in responding to the IRA Regents Park Bombing and Brixton riots.

In 1983 he was promoted to Sergeant and started his junior management role at Bow Street Police Station covering Leicester Square and Covent Garden. During this time he was responsible for Divisional Intelligence and leading the Special Events Office which planned and implemented security for numerous VIP visits to the area including HM Queen Elizabeth’s 60th Birthday celebrations.

In 1990 he moved to Notting Hill and was team leader for the All Saints Road policing unit combating drug supply and disorder with various covert and uniformed operations. This was followed by an Acting Inspector role for the entire residential western sector of the Division. During this time he also studied for his Diploma and MSc in Operations Management at the University of West London

In 1994 he was seconded to the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award for Young People and project managed a major canoeing expedition across the northern reaches of the Algonquin National Park in Ontario, Canada. This was sponsored by various corporate organizations such as British Airways, BP and Glaxo SmithKline.

Between 1996 and 2000 he established and developed what was to become the UK’s first Business Improvement District between Piccadilly Circus and Covent Garden which involved numerous programmes of public space design, new policing tactics for high risk places and a pioneering community justice initiative. This was closely followed by a project officers role for the West End CCTV initiative during which he developed a new city centre management approach involving the proactive use of the camera system.

Between 2003 and 2009 he was repeatedly selected to lead on various initiatives to combat the growing threat of gun and gang crime developing several programmes of pioneering work to address this issue through comprehensive risk management systems and multi agency intervention. The work involved extensive research and visits to Seattle, Vancouver, Toronto and partnership work with the LAPD to develop a hybrid London approach. He was commended several times and then asked to lead Commissioner Ian Blair’s review of all Public Protection departments in 2005. During the course of this intense period he was promoted on two further occasions to Chief Inspector.

After retiring in 2009 James established his new Company Standing Start Solutions. This has two trading arms World Ready which provides personal development coaching and management training. Together with World Safe which provides VIP Close Protection security services. In 2012 he was responsible for the security of the Qatar team at the London Olympics

James is an active outdoor expedition enthusiast and in 2010 he travelled with Ray Mears to the Swedish Taiga region and was trained in Arctic survival techniques.

He lives in Soho, London