Neville Blackwood is a former senior UK police detective and international law enforcement adviser. During a 30-year police career, he specialised in serious and organised crime, homicide and major crime investigation, covert policing and public protection.

An experienced Senior Investigating Officer (SIO), he has led and advised on complex investigations involving homicide, kidnap, organised crime and other serious offences. He has subsequently drawn on this operational experience to design and deliver SIO programmes for senior investigators in a number of countries, including Morocco and Uganda.

For the final three years of his police career, Neville served as Detective Superintendent Police Adviser at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. Working across government and with overseas partners, he provided specialist policing advice on serious crimes involving British nationals, particularly murder and kidnap, and contributed to the UK response to terrorism, natural disasters and other major international crises.

Since leaving the police, Neville has worked as an adviser, consultant and trainer in more countries across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. His assignments have brought him into direct contact with police and security services, prosecutors, judges, government ministries, diplomatic missions, NGOs and international organisations.

His work has covered serious and organised crime, counter-terrorism, major crime investigation, gender-based violence, child protection, illicit trade and investigative capability development. Significant assignments have included advising and mentoring the Somali Police Counter Terrorism Unit while working with the British Embassy in Mogadishu; supporting police in Pakistan on major crime investigation; capacity-building programmes in the Maldives and Jamaica; and work with criminal justice agencies across South Eastern Europe.

He has also contributed to programmes addressing sexual and gender-based violence, human rights and the protection of children affected by conflict, working with practitioners and criminal justice partners in challenging environments. His recent work in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq has focused on strengthening investigative practice and developing training and professional development programmes for investigators and other criminal justice professionals.

Neville holds a degree in English Language and Literature, a Diploma in European Policing and an MSc in International Policing. His postgraduate research examined approaches to tackling child sexual exploitation across the European Union. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute.

Alongside his law enforcement work, Neville is a crime novelist. His debut novel, Covert, was published in August 2026 and draws on his extensive experience of serious crime investigation and covert policing to bring authenticity to his fiction.