At a difficult time for the Metropolitan Police following the resignation of the Commissioner, Cressida Dick, and a series of scandals, the South West Basic Command Unit, is taking steps to reach out to the community.

Chief Superintendent Liz Chapple is leading an initiative to help people across Richmond borough get to know the area's police officers and their work.

She said: "I think this will be a fascinating opportunity to discover more about how your local police officers operate and the motivations that drive them.

"They will share how factors such as their faith, ethnicity and personal interest shape the way that they police London."

Detective Sergeant Richard Scott

I'm one of the supervisors on the South West CID, which is part of the Local Investigations strand, based at Wandsworth Police Station. I run a small team of officers who are tasked with the investigation of serious and complex crimes committed across South West London, in the boroughs of Wandsworth, Merton, Kingston and Richmond.

Our remit is really varied, ranging from drug supply to serious assaults, from aggravated burglary to sexual offences, from kidnap to blackmail, death investigations and many more. It's a cliché but nonetheless true to say that I have no idea what I will be dealing with each day when I come to work.

Like all police officers I have been dismayed by recent coverage and public perception of my profession. I feel let down by those officers who have brought the police service into disrepute, but I cannot reconcile the way we are so often described at the moment with what I see every day, which is a team of dedicated detectives who care about the way their work is perceived and want to do a good job for the public they serve.

I thought it might be useful to describe a typical day on the SW CID.

We work shifts - earlies, lates and nights – ensuring there is 24-hour CID cover across our boroughs.

At the start of each shift I take a handover from the outgoing shift's supervisor, which will detail ongoing matters that need to be progressed over the next 8 or 9 hours.

Sometimes there is a lot to be handed over, sometimes nothing. More often than not it's somewhere in between, and a number of my team will be tasked to these enquiries.

Those who are not will be able to use the time to progress their workload of ongoing investigations: taking statements, conducting interviews, locating and arresting wanted suspects, making CCTV and witness enquiries, reviewing and scheduling digital material and preparing files of evidence for referral to the Crown Prosecution Service amongst other things.

They all know, though, that the phone could go at any time, and when it does they will need to drop what they're doing and deploy to a stabbing, or a suicide, a high risk missing person or a premises search, a cannabis farm, firearms offence, vulnerable sexual offence victim or anything else that might and does happen on a daily basis across the South West.

When they do deploy, they won't know what they're about to walk into, when they'll be able to return to their ongoing investigations, when will be their next opportunity to eat, whether they will be off work on time, how much sleep they'll get if they're off late, and of course what tomorrow will bring.

And yet they keep coming back. We put them through a lot and I'm proud of them.