London's top gay
cop to pen memoir

London's highest-ranking openly gay police officer has signed a six-figure deal with Simon & Schuster to publish his memoir. Brian Paddick, who resigned last month as deputy assistant commissioner, is likely to release his book by spring 2008, according to The [London] Independent. Simon & Schuster's editorial director, Andrew Gordon, bought the rights and arranged for the former cop to write the book with crime writer Kris Hollington.

"Brian has left the force and has no restraint on what he can say apart from the libel laws," Gordon told the Independent. "He'll say exactly what he thinks about how the [Metropolitan Police Service] is run and how it might be better run in the future."

Paddick left the force after a falling-out with Commissioner Sir Ian Blair over the police shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes. According to the article, Paddick challenged Blair's statement that he didn't know for 24 hours that an innocent man had been shot. (The Advocate)