The headlines could not have been worse for Nottinghamshire Police over the last couple of months. The ongoing public inquiry into the Nottingham attacks was always going to throw up some uncomfortable truths about our police force, but what we have heard has still managed to shock. We have heard that the force incident manager on that horrific morning in June 2023 said the number brutally killed by Valdo Calocane was “not as bad” as he thought. The families of Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates were devastated when that footage was played in the inquiry. That same incident manager also said Calocane would be “long gone” when asked about searching for the killer after the deaths of Barnaby and Grace. Calocane of course wasn’t long gone and would, in fact, go on to kill Ian Coates and run three people over. Frankly, to go through the full list of Nottinghamshire Police failings that have been revealed in this inquiry would take too long. Needless to say, this is a moment for Nottinghamshire Police to be humble and to put all its efforts into restoring public trust. This was recognised by Nottinghamshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Gary Godden, who announced the appointment of Steve Cooper as the new Chief Constable on Thursday (April 23) by saying: “We have to recognise that the force has gone through a difficult period, but we are determined to continue improvements that have been made recently and keep enhancing the service that the people of Nottinghamshire receive.” Yet as Nottinghamshire Police remains in the eye of the storm, the force has chosen this very moment to launch a podcast. You can’t move for podcasts these days as a never-ending cast of reality TV has-beens and failed politicians attempt to get a slice of the action. Into this landscape now wanders our police force with a series entitled Nottinghamshire Police’s Interview Room. At least it’s better than “Plodcast” – which Lincolnshire Police chose as the title for its offering. Essentially a true-crime podcast, each episode involves a different member of Nottinghamshire Police’s communications team quizzing front-line officers and detectives about particularly noteworthy cases. The podcast officially launched on Friday (April 24) with three episodes – each between 20 minutes and 30 minutes in length. You can’t fault the high production value of this podcast and the subject matter of each episode makes for an incredibly interesting watch or listen. The problem lies with the fact that Nottinghamshire Police has deemed this the appropriate moment to start such an initiative. Even in normal times, there would be a debate about whether a taxpayer-funded body should be using scarce resources on a fancy podcast, rather than engaging properly with local media outlets to get stories like this out there. Such sentiment was expressed in many of the public comments reacting to Nottinghamshire Police’s announcement of the podcast, with one writing: “We’ve already got enough crime podcasts. “If you really want to share your work with the public, give it to ITV or BBC and let them fund it, not taxpayers.” It should also be said that many people reacted positively to the news of the podcast and ultimately, the rights and wrongs of publicly-funded authorities producing content like this is a debate for another day. The key issue here is the timing and as we face at least another month of hearings at the Nottingham Inquiry – it is difficult to see how Nottinghamshire Police could have picked a worse moment to launch this tone-deaf podcast. Don’t expect there to be an episode on the Nottingham attacks .