What does it really take to go undercover, expose corruption, and protect lives at the highest level?

In this powerful episode of Women Road Warriors, Shelley Johnson and Kathy Tuccaro feature real-life covert operative Nina Hobson—whose story feels like a movie, but every moment is real.

For over 15 years, Nina worked on the front lines of U.K. law enforcement, leading high-risk undercover operations involving murder, kidnapping, sexual assault, and financial crimes totalling over $100 million. She went on to become one of the few women to rise to Head of Security, protecting high-profile figures and A-list celebrities.

But her most dangerous mission wasn’t against criminals—it was from within.

In 2006, Nina risked everything to expose systemic corruption inside the British police force. Wearing hidden cameras for nearly a year, she gathered evidence that became the BAFTA-nominated Channel 4 documentary Undercover Copper. Her bravery helped change how sexual assault victims are treated and exposed deep-rooted institutional failures.

Today, Nina continues her mission—working in executive protection, advising major platforms like HBO Max, Netflix, and Discovery+, and taking on humanitarian efforts around the world, including rescuing victims and children of human trafficking and conducting anti-poaching operations in Zimbabwe.

This is a conversation about courage, conviction, and what it truly means to stand up for justice—no matter the cost.

🎧 If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to fight corruption and protect others in the most extreme circumstances, this episode will stay with you.

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This is Women Road warriors with Shelly Johnson and Kathy Tucaro.

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Welcome.

We're an award winning show dedicated to empowering women in every profession through inspiring stories and expert insights.

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I'm Shelley and Kathy's on assignment.

Have you ever wondered what it's really like to work undercover and crack some of the biggest criminal cases or even be a bodyguard?

Our guest today has been a real life covert operative you don't usually hear about until the movie comes out.

For 15 years, Nina Hopson served on the front lines of UK law enforcement, leading undercover operations into murder, rape, kidnapping and financial crime cases totaling more than $100 million.

She's the only woman with her level of field experience to rise to head of security, protecting public figures and a list celebrities.

But her story goes even deeper.

For nearly a year.

Her evidence became the BBC documentary Undercover Copper, which earned a BAFTA nomination.

Today, she continues to operate at the highest level of executive protection and consults for hbo, Max, Netflix and Discovery on real world security and investigative storytelling.

Beyond that, she's worked in Zimbabwe with anti poaching units to track down rhino poachers and has conducted missions to recover survivors of sex trafficking.

From whistleblower to humanitarian, Nina is a powerful voice on courage, justice, and what it truly looks like to protect others.

Nina's a true warrior and we have the honor of having her on our show.

Welcome, Nina.

Thank you for being with us.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for having me.

Oh, this is going to be so exciting.

You know, you're an amazing lady and you've accomplished so much.

Did you always envision yourself in this career?

I mean, how exciting and challenging your career has been at the same time?

To be honest, no, I didn't.

I actually wanted to be a vet.

My love of animals obviously started at a very young age, but I wasn't clever enough.

And so it was a kind of, what do I do now?

And actually, while watching Cagney and Lacy on a Sunday afternoon in the uk, that was the thing that made me want to be a police officer.

And much to my Mum's disgust, actually, at the time.

And then the rest is history, as they say.

And I am super privileged and honored to be in the position that I'm in.

Oh, my goodness.

Yes.

So you decided because of a TV show.

It's just like this was your aha moment.

How old were you when you saw that?

Yeah, that was.

I was 18.

I mean, I joined the police.

It was crazy.

I. I remember going to my first domestic and the.

It was a relationship that they'd been together for 25 years.

And the offender, the actual husband, said to me, what do you know about marriage?

And I was like, I absolutely don't know anything about marriage, but what I do know is that you can't hit your wife.

So that's all I need to know at this point.

But I, I remember and I look back now and I'm like, it was crazy that I did this so young.

Oh, yeah, I'm.

What a great answer.

You may not know anything about marriage, but, you know, it's not appropriate to be hitting your wife.

I. I love that.

I mean, you had moxie, so would you say that that was part of it?

I'm sure you had some challenges with your training and what would you say the characteristics are that you need to have to go into something like that?

Tenacity, for sure.

And I think my ability to stay calm and I can assess a situation and I can read people, and I think being able to do that quickly is something that potentially saves mine or somebody else's life.

And I think it's a passion to be a police officer and it's a, it's a calling, for sure.

We make lots of sacrifices.

Family, finances, you know, it's not the highest paid job in the world, but, you know, it's just a real privilege to have been part of that.

So you really made a fast track from being a police officer to what you became.

Could you kind of give us maybe a summary of what you did and how the different jobs you took helped you get to where you were to do the job you're doing, I mean, you really delved into this and I'm sure you had a lot of challenges along the way.

Yeah, I mean, when I joined the police, to be honest, which probably feels like a million miles ago, you know, I wore a dress and heels.

My protection was a handbag.

And we're only talking the 90s, so my handbag was my weapon when I first went to the news, which is hilarious.

But my voice, my mouth is my weapon, and it has been throughout my career.

So I'm.

And I.

To be honest, being English female has been beneficial in America, but it's because I can diffuse with my mouth.

I don't.

My instant reaction is to.

Isn't to grab a gun, because I've never had one.

So I think that's one of the skill sets that I try and teach all of the guys.

And I say guys because the majority of guys.

But that's what saves you right here.

When you first began, you were put in some different roles than the men.

As a female police officer, I was immediately put into the role of looking after sexual assault victims or children.

And at the time, I didn't like children.

I mean, I love my own now, but again, didn't know anything about it.

Wasn't the best qualified, but my gender made me the best qualified.

And, you know, sitting with a rape victim as a young woman myself was challenging.

What was I supposed to do at that point?

And it was that.

That was one of those moments where I looked into the eyes of a victim that I was sat with who was the most incredible lady I've ever met, probably other than my mom and daughter and Margaret Thatcher.

But she looked at me, and that made me want to be a detective because I now wanted to capture the people that were doing this.

So that kind of flipped me from wanting to be a dog handler to wanting to be a detective, back to my Cagney and Lacy moment.

And so that's what I became.

And I was super privileged.

I had a great mentor who believed in me and believed that my gender wasn't an issue and that my age wasn't an issue, and that I showed the skills to be a good detective.

And that's how I kind of became the detective.

And then I moved sideways into various roles through the career and was always very fortunate to have great leadership.

And I think that's something that I now, in the role I am today, I'm also very aware of great leadership.

And I'm also.

I work now for a company called called Torchstone Global, which is, I can say, the best security company in the world.

And the reason I say that is because I am surrounded by, once again, great leadership.

And the company I work for now, they actually care.

They really care about our clients.

And that's something that's gone with me from police to private sector.

And it's something that I believe is very important.

Whether you're at the bottom rung of a career or you're someone like me who's older and experienced having the mentors that I now have in the company is also still so important.

And I don't think I've answered your question at all at that point.

Oh, I think you gave listeners a really good idea of some of the things you encountered.

But you actually went, I'm trying to think, would you say that you were at the federal level, head security?

I mean, you were working with national figures in England, you started at what, the local level, like local police, and worked your way up to maybe what would be provincial or state police.

And how did all of that work out?

Because I kind of want to give some context because we have in the United States, obviously local police, state police, and then of course the federal level, like the FBI.

Yeah.

So it's really different in the uk and so we all start, I discussed this today.

We start at the same level and we start in the same kind of environment and we have the same training and then we move into, you know, I, I was privileged to move into detective status, which I went to detective school to become.

So I.

You train at the basic academy and then you go sideways whether that's, you want to be a traffic cop, which I absolutely never ever wanted to be.

And then you kind of moved that way.

So it's not even really comparison with how things are working over here.

But what I did do, I became, you know, I loved my police career and I want to make that really clear because I'm who I am today because of my police career and my mom.

But when I decided that I was going to expose what was happening in the police, it was because I wanted the good police to be able to be good police.

And I wanted this tiny minority of bad police to be exposed because it was the bad police that made it really tough.

And it took me a long time to make that decision.

This wasn't something that I woke up one day and went, you know what, I'm going to go undercover and expose the police and I'm going to then go to make a show about it.

It wasn't like that.

It was probably a two year decision.

And as things changed within the police force and I saw things changing and over that length of time, it was then that I made the decision.

And when I made the decision, I was at the time married to a cop and it was a case of I need to do this on my own, I don't need to bring anyone into this because if this goes wrong, it's then on me.

And when I say go wrong, I mean, you know, let's be realistic.

Police organizations are powerful like any organization.

And I was, what, a 15 year service cop and I was taking on quite a big responsibility, but I needed to do that alone.

And so I did it on my own.

I didn't tell anyone.

And it was probably the hardest undercover job I've ever done in my life, probably because I knew that the risk was going to prison.

And actually I did tell someone.

I told a lawyer.

I went to see a lawyer and I never forget meeting this lawyer he was wearing.

He's the only lawyer I've ever met that was wearing a Manchester United football top.

And I knew that I would get on with him instantly for that.

And he said, absolutely, you are not doing this under any circumstances.

He said, I have no defense for you.

So the best is five years in prison and the worst is 25 years in prison and there's nothing I can do to help you if that happens and so you not do this.

And I said, okay, thank you for your advice.

I'm doing it.

Wow.

Now that took some kahunas.

I want to get right back into this story with all the details, but we do have to go to break, so stay tuned.

Stay tuned for more of Women Road warriors coming up.

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Welcome back to Women Road warriors with Shelly Johnson and Kathy Tucaro.

If you're enjoying this informative episode of Women Road Warriors, I wanted to mention Kathy and I explore all kinds of topics that will power you on the road to success.

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Before the break, we introduced you to Nina Hobson.

But what you need to understand is that this isn't just a story.

It's a life lived under pressure most of us can't Even imagine.

For 15 years, Nina was embedded in undercover operations across the UK stepping into cases involving murder, rape, kidnapping, and financial crimes totaling over $100 million.

She wasn't watching from the sidelines.

She was inside these worlds, building trust with dangerous individuals while protecting her own identity and her life.

It was all inspired after she watched the TV show Cagney and Lacey as a teenager.

She even went undercover to expose bad cops.

Nina, that took some tremendous courage.

And from what I understand, you said you could have gone to prison if everything had gone astray.

So I knew at the back of my mind that that was the reality.

But I also knew at the back of my mind that I was so passionate about the cause and about the police force and about the good cops and that I knew I had to do it regardless.

And that's what I did.

You are a true warrior.

Oh, my goodness.

I mean, you took one heck of a risk.

You said you were 15 years into the police force in your career, and you were seeing systemic corruption.

Well, certainly you're not gonna make friends when you're trying to expose that sort of thing and you're going to have people who are going to work against you.

And I mean, the odds of you going to prison for five to 25 years, that's huge.

I mean, what kind of courage took, what kind of systemic corruption were you seeing?

Exactly.

So it was things from.

I mean, when the documentary came out, I think they very much, and rightly so, focused on the way that sexual assault victims were treated with the disregard and the lack of investigation.

I suppose then it was, you know, the taxpayer was paying and the police were sitting on nights not being out proactive, but watching porn.

The police stations were still full of inappropriate pictures in police stations of women with little no clothing on.

The sexism, the racism, the way that the system Was being manipulated for government purposes.

So it was across the board, and it was.

I mean, you say, you know, you're a warrior and courage.

And I sometimes say, was it courage or stupidity?

I'm not sure.

But it was across the board.

And I think that was what made it so interesting, was the fact that it wasn't just one thing.

It was an organization that was corrupt.

And so therefore, it was a harder job for me because I wasn't focused on one particular division or one particular person.

It was an organization that I was highlighting was corrupt.

You were taking on a mountain.

Yeah.

That takes some serious bravery.

And your husband was fully behind you.

I mean, so you had.

He had your back while you were going on this.

Oh, no, no, no.

He had no idea.

Alzheimer had no idea.

Alzheimer went home.

I went alone.

I made a conscious decision, and I was.

We're no longer married.

But it wasn't a result of this.

And we were married for 25 years, so.

And he's the father of my children.

But I made a conscious decision not to tell him because, yes, I knew he would have my back, But I also knew, as a serving police officer, he had a great career, he loved.

I was placing him in that impossible position.

So I made a decision not to tell him.

So not only was I now covert in the police, I was also now having to be a covert and lie to my husband in order to protect what I was doing with the police and to try and best protect my family.

And that was tough.

Like, we didn't have secrets.

We weren't that kind of relationship.

And he is a cop.

I'm a cop.

We'd grown up together in the police force, and we'd married young, and we were.

That was our lives together.

And so that was a very difficult decision, but one that I had to make very early on not to tell him I was doing this.

That had to be so tough to do.

And I'm sure he may have heard rumors, and you just had to kind of bite your lip and not say anything, Right?

There were no rumors.

I mean, that was the thing.

It was.

I couldn't afford to be a rumor.

You know, I knew my exit strategy, that one day I might have to run or one day I might have to face prison.

And every day when I left my children, I. I left my children.

I think I cried every single drive into work because I actually didn't know whether that was the day I would walk through those doors and be arrested and not see my children again.

And to live with that pressure because my children are my absolute heartbeat and always have been and to live with that.

So there was this constant juggle of moral and emotional dilemmas going on in my brain every single day.

And every day I wanted to not do it, but every single day I continued, oh, wow.

Yeah, there are a lot of people that could not do that at all because you didn't know if you were going to see your family again.

You never knew what the outcome of each day was going to be or something would be revealed.

Wow.

Did you have some people who were working with you as you were doing this, or is this something you did completely solo?

No, this was solo because it's not that I didn't trust anyone in the police.

I had to do it.

I didn't know what anyone else's response was going to be.

So I had to go it alone.

And I had to set my locker up every single day in a manner to make sure that when I got back the following day, I knew whether anyone had been through my locker.

Because back then the logistics of it was that I was carrying a recording device in my stab proof vest because we didn't have bulletproof vests there and I couldn't take that out of the police station because that would have drawn attention to me.

So I had to leave everything in my locker, which again meant that I went home in total fear every night so that somebody would go in that locker, would pick up my vest and feel the weight.

Every two hours I had to change the battery.

So I had to make an excuse to go to the bathroom.

I had a reason why I was the first at work and why I was always the last to leave and why I didn't take my vest off during breaks.

And I always had to be 10 steps ahead of the question that might come from an officer to deflect from anything that I was doing.

Wow, that's constant stress.

Constant, constant stress.

It was 24 hours, but ultimately my freedom depended on it.

So I kind of, I just lived that life.

And yeah, it was a very.

Now, even when I'm talking about it, I'm like, wow, that was crazy.

Yeah, it was crazy.

And as you said earlier, I didn't know what the outcome was going to be.

I knew there'd be an outcome and I knew that my career was over.

I was very aware that whatever the outcome, my career was over.

And so I didn't know whether I was going to be hated.

I didn't know whether I was going to be loved.

I just didn't know.

But I just knew I had to do this, I had to do it.

And fortunately for me, the outcome was, you know, I was a voice for a lot of people and there were changes made.

Stay tuned for more of Women Road warriors coming up.

Dean Michael, the tax doctor here.

I have one question for you.

Do you want to stop worrying about the irs?

If the answer is yes, then look no further.

I've been around for years.

I've helped countless people across the country, and my success rate speaks for itself.

So now you know where to find good, honest help with your tax problems.

What are you waiting for?

Welcome back to Women Road warriors with Shelly Johnson and Kathy Tucaro.

We're back with Nina Hobson.

Her story takes a turn that feels more like a thriller than real life.

But it's very real.

She chose to expose systemic corruption within the British police force, putting her career and her personal safety on the line.

For nearly a year, she wore hidden cameras, documenting what most people would never dare to confront.

That work became the BBC documentary Undercover Copper, earning a BAFTA nomination and national recognition.

Nina, I know I keep saying this, but it took tremendous courage to stand up and do what you did when you saw corruption, but you did it for the greater good.

A lot of people wouldn't have.

You were an advocate for those who couldn't speak, and you brought out the injustice.

But how long did you actually do all of this?

I was actually undercover with them for, I think it was 11 months in the end.

So the first month that I knew I was going back for legal reasons, I had to not carry, you know, the lawyer advised, you know, don't go carry a camera straight away.

Go check everything out first.

Because I'd moved back into uniform as well, so I wasn't a detective.

But, yeah, it was 11 months, and that's 11 months of pretending to my family and friends and 11 months to pretending to the police.

And the most important thing for me was that I was still a police officer first and foremost.

So me recording anything or finding out anything.

And trust me, every day I wanted to not find anything.

And I was dealing with people I'd worked with for years who were doing the wrong thing and who were friends and knew my kids.

And it was like I had to have a very high moral level of it doesn't matter who it is.

If something is being done incorrectly, that's what you're there for.

And again, an extra pressure.

But, yeah, it was a long time.

That'd be so hard.

These are people that you knew and you knew that essentially this was not gonna be a good outcome for them.

I mean, you had to take a much higher, like you said, moral ground to do the right thing.

There were gonna be some casualties along the way, but you knew that there had to be change and that's what it had to take.

The 11 months had to have felt like five years to you, doing all of that, going solo.

How did you present this?

What authorities did you go to?

I mean, I would imagine you were wondering if anyone would believe you too, in terms of your credibility.

Yeah, and I think that's why I went to the media, because I needed a voice.

I needed what I had done and witnessed to be able to be heard.

And no one was going to listen to me.

I was just a cop.

And I went to the media and of course they made the documentary.

They notified the police force.

And it was very interesting because the chief of the police, who is like, I think, I'm not sure what, I'm assuming it's the same rank here in America, but the chief was very well trained, media wise.

He was a very charismatic.

And after he was told his basically naturally his response was, this is terrible, and we will deal with all of these issues.

However, we do wish that Nina had come to us and we would have put her undercover to do exactly the same thing, but for us.

And, you know, no one believed that.

I absolutely didn't believe that.

And we did go on a number of interviews together, and he was always super nice, but one interviewer asked him, oh, so if you think all of this, and you're very pleased that this is brought to your attention, are you going to give Nina her position back?

And clearly that response was no.

But back to my point of being a police officer first and foremost, because that was who I was.

And the rest fel into the background.

But while I was actually working and doing this undercover work within, I was actually awarded police officer of the year or whatever title it was.

So that validated again to me, you know what, you actually are doing a great job as a police officer.

And no one could ever turn around and say, oh, you were trying to make a documentary.

That was never the case.

This was a case of I I need to, you know, I didn't wake up and go, I'm going to make a documentary.

I, I woke up and said, I, I want to make change and I want to make a difference.

And you did and I did.

And you did it as a one man show, one woman show.

I mean most people, you know, I don't think that there are a lot of men that would have that kind of courage to basically take 11 months and they know that they're risking everything and the outcome's not going to be good.

Obviously the police force was not you, but you knew this needed to be done in order for the change to be made.

What changes actually happened after this came out to the public?

So in the end, yes, I didn't think it could have gone either way.

And the response from the public and actually the response from the police force was overwhelmingly wonderful.

And I remember watching the show, the documentary and just being on tenderhooks of like, what's the response?

And even my, my ex husband was like, wow, you know, this is incredible.

And understood exactly what I had done and why.

And that response around the country, I had letters off people, obviously I didn't know who were like, this was amazing.

And because there had been a focus, sadly, on the way that sexual assault victims were treated by the police, there were a lot of changes with regards to that and how the processes were changed with regards to investigations of that nature.

And you know, sadly, the rape conviction rate at the time was 3%.

I think it's only 1% now.

So I do still have a constant, you know, was it worth it?

Did it make any difference?

But at the time, the fact that procedures were changed and victims were treated better, as they should have been from day one, you know, that even if one person was treated differently or one offender was arrested because of the awareness that I had brought to the police, that's a difference and I'm happy with that.

But I know that training changed and procedures changed and scenes of crime changed.

And also I think people were the doing the bad things behind the scenes and watching the porn and taking pictures down and all of that changed.

And I mean, it was hard for me.

I'd lost my career and I remember the day that I got the nomination through for the finalist of the woman of the year, which is a really big deal by the way.

Uk, I mean it's a huge deal.

And I was sat and I was having a pity moment.

I remember it very clearly.

I was emotional tears, where am I gonna go in my life?

And this gold envelope came through my letterbox because we had those then.

And it just kind of.

I read it and I was like, what is this?

This is crazy.

And no one knows who nominates you for that award, but it has to be somebody of quite substantial standing in the world or the community.

And I still don't know to this day who that was, which is kind of annoying but also kind of cool.

And it blew my mind.

And it was for services to my country.

And I'm like, I haven't done anything.

I've just been a cop.

The whole of my life, I've just been a cop.

And that's the thing with cops.

We think that we're just cops.

And suddenly I was shortlisted as the Woman of the Year.

And yeah, even now, I mean, all these years I'm sat with this big beam on my face because I'm like, wow.

And I went to this awards and it was amazing, the people in that room.

And then I can say, I'm just a cop because the achievements that the people that were surrounding me had done and made, I was like, wow.

And I've been put into this.

Incredible.

But, yeah, amazing, amazing.

Well, the amount of bravery that you exhibited and the fact that you, you were, you would have been perceived as a rebel with a cause for, I'm sure by your peers at the time, because it was not something that would be done.

But you championed, you were a champion for women, you were a champion for the people who couldn't speak for themselves.

You were a champion for change and you were really exhibiting everything that, what you were trained to do, you were protecting people by making these changes and you knew that the risks to yourself were great.

Obviously you didn't.

It sounds like you didn't have a job after this all happened, but yet you were being honored as you should be as a UK Woman of the Year.

You were nominated for that.

That's something that had to validate.

You deserve that kind of validation for what you did.

And you made changes for the positive, which I would imagine are still going on today.

This is good.

And it takes that kind of risk, that kind of tenacity, that kind of moxie to make the kind of positive changes.

Did you go on to security, being security to high level people after this?

I mean, where did your career head?

Yeah, so I went through a phase of basically not really knowing where I was, was going with a career and security and protection is all I've ever known and still is, you know, 30 years on, but that was where I ended and we actually as a, as a family made a decision to move to Australia at the, at that point.

And again was not because I was chased out of England, although that's a way better story, and actually moved to Australia and I set up a security company and was quite happy at home working from the garage.

This was my security little business.

And fortunately for me, I received a phone call.

So I had worked very heavily in child protection while I was in the police for many years and became very, you know, that became my passion as well, protecting again, protecting, but protecting children.

And one day in Australia, it was midnight and I received a phone call from a gentleman who I'd never met.

And he said, hey, I have an issue and it's child protection related.

And I hear you are the person to call for anything to do with that.

And I was like, am I?

Anyway, very long story short, this gentleman was Australia's wealthiest gentleman, a billionaire.

And I helped him solve an issue with regards to a family friend of his.

And the next thing I was then working for him and I was protecting his family and then his business and my little garage business was no longer just me in a garage.

And I was suddenly protecting a billionaire and his family and his mining assets.

And we had a journey at the two of us and I worked undercover for him on various things and then I worked telling his, you know, his teenage daughter that they know they were not taking the alcoholic drink at one of their parents parties.

You know, it went from one to the other and yeah, then again the rest is history.

That's quite, I would say, a juxtaposition from what you have been doing.

I mean you've been all over and it makes it for a very interesting career and being able to work with some high power people.

Were you intimidated at all?

I would imagine that you had to prove yourself.

Women insecurity, do they have a different challenge than men?

Oh, absolutely they do.

I mean, and I'm the first to say that, but I'm also the first to say, you know, I'm good at my job because I'm good at my job, not because I'm female or not because I'm male.

And you know, the dynamic insecurity is different.

And sometimes as a female, I can't do the job and I have to not have an ego.

And I have to say, hey, I'm not the right person for this.

You are.

And it works back both ways.

You know, we have a standing joke.

You know, how, how are we protecting Taylor Swift when she's going in the bathroom because, you know, as the big guy outside, you can't go in the bathroom with them.

And I don't protect Taylor Swift, by the way, but if anyone's listening, I'd love to, but yeah.

So there's a time and a place for everything, for the big, the small.

And I talk about the Hollywood guys, you know, and the optics for the celebrity, but then the optics for a CEO are very different.

So I'm very much about somebody being good because they're good as opposed to gender.

However, you do have to work hard and that's again back to the company that I work for.

You look at who we are on paper and no government would be able to afford the skill set.

From ex Secret Service to ex fa, FBI, hostage negotiators.

It's crazy.

But we are good at what we do because a we understand the business and the clients.

We can leave our egos outside the door and.

But do I have to fight with the fact I'm female?

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

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Welcome back to Women Road warriors with Shelly Johnson and Kathy Tucaro.

What's so powerful about Nina Hubson's journey is how it has evolved.

She single handedly exposed systemic corruption in the British police force, putting her career and her personal safety on the line.

Her work and investigation led to the BBC documentary Undercover Copper and national recognition.

Her bravery changed how sexual assault victims were handled by the police as well as other systemic corruption victims were treated better.

After reaching the highest levels in undercover operations and becoming the only woman with her level of field experience to rise to head of security protecting public figures and a list celebrities.

She didn't stop there.

Today she's advising major platforms like hbo, Max, Netflix and Discovery, bringing authenticity to investigative storytelling.

But she's also on the ground doing real world work.

From tracking rhino poachers in Zimbabwe to helping recover survivors of sex trafficking, Nina has taken everything she's learned and turned it into purpose driven action.

She's an amazing lady.

Nina.

You've had to go through a lot of training to do what you do.

Pretty rigorous I imagine.

What kind of training does this Take it sounds like you have a combination of all kinds of things.

And if you're security, you also have to maybe even have a background in psychology.

You have to be able to analyze, you have to be able to scope out risks.

What is that process?

I mean, there's so many things that go into this that I don't think a lot of people think about.

And I think that's going back to, you know, how the police has made me who I am today.

You know, I was super privileged to have the career that I had and be exposed to the things I was exposed to.

And obviously it's never nice ever to be exposed to anything to do with crime and children and murder and rape and kidnap.

But those skills that I have learned along the way and now what makes me where I am in my profession and I think when I just gave the call sheet of the people I work with, you know, they are all.

Because they've been through their processes and the things that were taught along the way.

Sometimes we're not sat down and taught.

Sometimes it's an exposure, sometimes it's a character.

And my, my thing is I can't teach character.

I can teach you how to do something training wise, and I can teach you how to be better at getting through a door, and John can teach you how to be a firearms expert, and Chris can teach you how to do in advance.

We can teach things like that, but we can't teach character.

And it's such an important aspect of our job.

And so the training, I think, has been lifelong.

And it still is.

You know, as I say, I look at the people I'm working with who look at me, and we're on the same level.

But I'm just like, I'm so privileged to still be able to learn and still be able to learn off these amazing people that I'm now surrounded with.

Well, I imagine you have to think on your feet.

It's not a static situation.

You're always assessing security risk, all of that.

When you're working with your clients, you have to anticipate.

And today's gotta be so challenging because you never know what the heck is gonna be going on.

And all of the work that you're doing has been just amazing.

Especially you've been an advocate for the prevention of sex trafficking.

I mean, that is a terrible problem across the world.

So not only are you working for your clients in terms of security and doing all of that sort of thing, you're still an advocate.

You're trying to make change what exactly are you doing in terms of, like, the prevention of sex trafficking and how bad is it?

Cause I know that we've talked about this on our show.

It's a terrible travesty and a scourge on society.

And, Shelley, you know, I think there's a whole show right there on that topic.

And again, it's across the world and it's.

Let's put it this way, it's not getting any better.

And, you know, social media and Instagram has also changed the world of sex trafficking.

Access is different, but it's something that I was involved with as a charity and all of us that work in that area, it's because we are passionate about the cause and passionate about making the difference.

And the one thing that we lack, we have the skill set, but we do lack funding.

But it's interesting because when you talk to people who are.

Everybody is horrified by the word sex trafficking, as they should be, but it's kind of.

I've spoken to people who have the funding to provide, but they want to be part of the action.

And it's not fun under any circumstances.

It's not cool, it's dangerous, it's scary, it's very real.

And the people that make a lot of money out of sex trafficking children don't mess around because they don't want us to cut down their money tree.

So a fight becomes a fight.

And I've been, once again, I use the word privileged because it's privilege in order to go and physically remove children from the hands of these evil, deprived, horrendous.

I'm not gonna even use the word human beings.

But, you know, some of the things I've seen and, you know, I've had a situation where I've had to leave or the team has had to leave a child because our lives were so in danger.

And that's the hardest thing ever, you know, to.

To know that.

But you've got to make that decision.

Who we.

Who are we going to save at this point?

And it's a very difficult decision.

Working in that area made me probably realize that I was human, because I. I remember I came home one night and I. I came home to an empty house.

I'd been gone for, I think, three days working on an operation, and it was 4 in the morning, and I came home and I was just like, I have no one here right now, and all I need is somebody to give me a hug.

I don't need to tell them what I've seen.

I just felt like I needed some Human reassurance that the world wasn't all bad.

And that was a life changing moment for me.

But, yeah, it's a privilege, but it's a necessity and it's real and it's horrendous.

And the people I work with are amazing.

We rescue a child and we say well done for, oh, probably 10 seconds because we know there's another one and there's.

Because it's something we do and we do it as a passion.

It's not our everyday jobs, it's not the thing that's going to pay our mortgage.

And so you also have a fine ending to it.

You know, I can only work these two weeks or I can only work.

And that's also super hard because you know that those two weeks are every week and every day and every hour.

And the police, again, their resources are caught and tied.

And so, yeah, it's a privilege, but it's a very, very sad fact of life that we even have to talk about it and even more actually do.

It that it exists at all.

Absolutely.

The people that do this sort of thing, they're barbarians.

And it's gotta be so hard.

I mean, you see this sort of thing, it's a moral dilemma.

And like you said, you have to make some tough choices too.

But the fact that you're advocating and you're making change, it takes a village to make those changes.

And of course, create the awareness so that there is maybe more money allocated to stop this kind of trafficking, because there's so much money involved in it, it's really hard to tear down, because money means power and you've got that that you're fighting.

Nina, you do so many different things and you've been such a tremendous champion and an advocate to make the positive changes that are needed.

As one person, I'm really impressed with that.

How do people reach out to you?

You're currently doing private security.

Do people just reach out to you, to your company, or how do they do that?

Yeah, I mean, obviously we, as nature of what we do, we're not like social media, et cetera.

But yet, I mean, now it would be a case of reaching out to Torchstone Global.

And it's me, Nina, and an amazing company and, you know, we, we appreciate anybody reaching out to us in any way.

But if I can be a voice or I can make a change, I don't think I'll ever stop.

And if that means, you know, what I want to do, I'm getting old now.

So this bodyguarding thing, it's for the younger guys.

But I want to use every single experience I've had in my life, the good, the bad, the ugly, to continue to empower people, empower women, and to raise awareness to the issues that we should not be having to deal with.

And however I can do that, and thank you again for having me on the show because that means a lot.

However I can do it, anyone can ask and suggest.

Please do, because I never want to stop.

And I now want other people to be able to use my experiences to move forward with their own.

Well, I would imagine your knowledge could really make some serious changes.

If people are trying to do some of the things that you did many years ago, making changes in the police force, any of these things, we need people like you to make the positive changes.

People talk about it all the time, but they don't necessarily do something.

And a lot of times they don't know who to contact.

So you'd be a good person to ask, how do I make changes?

I saw this.

What do you think, Nina?

Is this something I should be concerned about and where can we make some changes?

This is going on in our backyard because that's how the changes are done.

And you're a good resource for people wanting to make that change.

Yeah, and I will help anyone wherever I can.

And a lady said to me yesterday, and I think I might start this as a campaign, what would Nina do?

And she actually sent me a post it note and said she was having a moment and what would Nina do?

And that.

That really resonated with me because hopefully I. I'll be able to help people moving forward with whatever changes are, whatever they are.

If you're passionate about something, do it.

Even if you.

Even if you can't make a change, try, please, because you never know.

For me, one person making a difference, rescuing one child, seeing a rapist go to court for one person because I had raised an issue about how evidence was collected.

That's making a change.

Yes, it is.

And if everybody does it, the change is huge.

It does.

It takes a village and it takes one person at a time to do it.

If we all advocate for that, it makes all the difference in the world.

Nina, I love what you're doing.

Is there a particular website people could reach out?

No, I'm.

Well, Torchstone Global, we have a website.

Obviously we're corporate security, but we look after everybody and it's the most amazing company of people, as you would see.

But anything through there.

AVG Management actually is my daughter, so she will always pass anything to her mum.

I drive her crazy, I think, at this point, because she was like, okay, I'll pass at you.

But yeah, I'm available if people want to reach me.

They certainly will be able to via you, obviously.

So, yeah, this has been wonderful talking to you, Nina.

You're a real inspiration and you've made a lot of change.

You really have made such impact on.

So many people, you know, I hope so.

I really, really hope so.

I'm passionate about everything that I believe is right.

And I'm not always right, obviously, but justice is my thing.

And it was instilled from a very young age by my mom, who sadly I lost.

And yeah, I just.

You used the word earlier.

And I kind of feel like I'm a warrior of justice.

And I actually, just a side note that no one knows, I actually have warrior in Morse code tattooed on my arm.

So.

How cool.

So, yeah, that's who I feel I am and that's who I'm going to continue to be.

So it's appropriate.

You're on this show.

Women Road Warriors.

Correct.

I don't know what Morse Code Warrior looks like, but that's pretty neat.

Thank you, Nina.

This has been terrific.

My pleasure.

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You've been listening to Women Road warriors with Shelly Johnson and Kathy Tucaro.

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