BEVERLEY
DOU GLAS
Author · Mentor · Presenter
Beverley Douglas is a retired police officer, author, and lifelong advocate for justice. Born and raised in Bristol, she is the youngest of nine children in a Jamaican family who arrived in the UK as part of the Windrush generation.
Despite early challenges within the education system, Beverley forged a remarkable career in policing, education, and public service. In 1983—just three years after the St Pauls riots—she became one of the first Black women to join Avon and Somerset Constabulary as a Special Constable, later becoming a full-time officer in 1988. She went on to dedicate over thirty years to frontline policing, mentoring, and community and school engagement.
Beverley held several leadership roles within police staff associations, including Chair of the Black Police Association. She coordinated the 2007 National BPA Conference in Bristol, commemorating the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade, and later served as Deputy Chair of the Legacy Commission, supporting initiatives to address inequality across African-Caribbean, Asian, and African communities.
Her mentoring work—particularly with young people at risk of exclusion from school—has had a lasting impact, with many going on to succeed in higher
education and professional careers.
Beverley is the author of two memoirs. Her debut book, Cutie (2021), offers a vibrant, humorous, and poignant portrait of childhood in inner-city Bristol, celebrating community, heritage, resilience, and belonging. In 2025, she published PC Bev, a raw and powerful account of her thirty-year police career.
She is a regular co-host of The Real Women Show on BCFM 93.2FM, a trustee of a Bristol-based charity, and contributed as a plot adviser on police procedures for Apple TV’s Criminal Record. Beverley continues to write and mentor, dividing her time between the
culturally diverse city of Bristol and the rustic island of Gozo, Malta.
Beverley on BCFM
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