Lambros Fatsis, 'Policing the Beats: Black music, racism and criminal injustice', (Manchester University Press, 2026)

In this episode of Unlocking Academia, host Tarin Ahmed is joined by Dr. Lambros Fatsis, Senior Lecturer in Criminology at City St George’s and author of 'Policing the Beats: Black music, racism and criminal injustice', (Manchester University Press, 2026). Drawing on cultural criminology, Black radical thought and the study of music, Dr. Fatsis’ work examines how Black musical expression has been surveilled, regulated and criminalised from the era of empire to the present day.The conversation explores the book’s engagement with the colonial origins of British policing, the entanglements between policing and capitalism, and the long history through which Black music has been reframed as “noise,” “disorder,” or a public threat. Moving across sound system culture, reggae dances, grime and drill, the discussion considers how music becomes a site where belonging, exclusion and state power are negotiated, and how policing performs cultural work as much as legal work.The episode also reflects on the criminalisation of Blackness, the use of rap lyrics as evidence in contemporary courtrooms, and the narratives that link drill to violence in media and political discourse. Dr. Fatsis discusses the moral logic that has shaped institutional responses to Black culture, the politics of positionality, and the role of listening in understanding policing, race and public life in Britain today.