It is a truism that we owe so much of our modern technology and medicine to warfare, where rapid advances take place out of necessity. The fght against crime, too, results in constantly advancing law enforcement technology, in particular, in the forensic sciences, and these have been complemented by advances in other felds which I try hard to keep abreast of, and which will undoubtedly continue to expand in the age of a digital revolution and beyond. For the past twenty-fve years, in the course of research for my crime thrillers, I’ve spent a great deal of time with both investigators and, sometimes, villains too. Two of the most signifcant things I have observed are that, frstly the criminal status quo is constantly changing, and secondly, there is a constant game of catch-up going on between law enforcement and felons, which creates a real dynamic, in trying to keep us safe. I was attending a 0900 hours daily briefng meeting in Brighton Police Station, one Monday morning, around ffteen years ago, when the Divisional Commander turned to me and said, ‘Peter you’ve come on a historic day. This is the frst time since records began that there has not been an overnight domestic burglary in the city.’