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Armoury partnered with Channel 4 to work on a series of films for The Home Office, to tell the stories of black, female, and LGBT+ police officers in a three -part series of short films.

“Untold: The Police” features members of the public from groups that are less likely to consider a career in policing interview serving officers from those same communities.

The conversations are unscripted and cover topics such as the reaction of family and friends to their career choice, inclusion, the Black Lives Matter movement, stop and search and balancing personal life with work.

This is part of the Home Office’s wider "Make your dfference" campaign to recruit 20,000 additional police officers over three years. An extra 8,771 officers have been recruited so far – although this follows a 20,000 decline in police numbers in England from 2010, when the Conservatives first came to power, to 2018.

We were determined that these conversations would be led by the contributors. This was the only way we were going to come close to achieving the integrity the films required. This was a trust exercise too. The contributors had to feel that they owned the conversation, which was also central to the creative idea of turning a Police interrogation scene on its head.

In order for these films to successfully recruit people from those categories that are less likely to apply for a job within the Police Force, they had to be bold, honest and tackle difficult issues head-on, and that is exactly what this exciting partnership with Channel 4 did.