Bobby pens books on crime-fighting Panda inspired by West Midlands Police
A beat bobby inspired by his days patrolling the streets of the West Midlands has penned a crime-fighting animal book.
Pc Ashley Crowley used his 16 years' experience with West Midlands Police to craft his collection of children's illustrations.
His job on the frontline inspired character 'Officer Panda' - a detective who encourages readers to help him follow a trail of clues to solve a mystery.
The 40-year-old said: "A panda was my natural choice for a character as the British light blue and white police cars in the 1960’s were known as ‘panda cars’. The idea grew from there.
“I’d say he is based on a mixture of the officers I have met throughout my career. In the first book he gets around on a traditional bicycle and I like to think he has the eye of an experienced detective."
In the first book, Officer Panda is a fingerprint detective and starts to notice giant fingerprints appearing throughout the town during patrols.
The second book sees the character take to the skies to follow a mysterious trail of clues, including confetti, balloons and a mysterious package.
Pc Crowley, who joined the force in 2003, revealed parts of the crime-solving books were inspired by his early career.
The officer, who worked as a junior designer for London magazines before joining the force, said: “My experience in fingerprinting prisoners certainly became part of the inspiration behind the story in the first book.
"When I first joined the police we would fingerprint our own prisoners using wet fingerprint ink - I was fascinated by this process and wanted it to be a part of the book somehow.
“Initially the fingerprints were just intended as a decorative feature for the end papers of the book, but as I experimented they evolved into the main concept of the story."
The response officer turned his attention to creating his own books after becoming a father in 2010 and enrolling on a masters in children’s book illustration at Cambridge School of Art.
Following a London exhibition, he was contacted by a New York agent and within two weeks had a two-book deal with publishers Harper Collins.
Since then, he has illustrated four other books written by fellow authors.
Pc Crowley added: “One book that I have illustrated deals with the emotions a child experiences when they lose a parent.
"As a police officer I definitely have to deal with people at times of heightened emotions and when people are sometimes at the lowest point of their lives so I definitely think that experience helps me convey emotion in a story.
“When I am working on a book I will very much be immersed in the process, I can work for hours and sometimes very late listening to music and drawing. Drawing can be a very intense thinking process so I completely lose myself when I’m working and often forget about the stresses of my day job."
