Simon is the founder of LEAP Scotland and a committee member of LEAP UK (The Law Enforcement Action Partnership) a global organization of police officers and other enforcement agencies, officials in our criminal justice system and many others campaigning for an end to the ‘War on Drugs’. They believe that decriminalization and regulation are the only way to tackle our drug problems and impact the organized crime gangs and cartels who profit currently through violence, and intimidation.
He also co hosts a podcast Crime Time Inc alongside former Depute Chief Constable Tom Wood, where they revisit major crimes and events of the past and interview a variety of guests across a wide spectrum in an effort to shed light on the very ethos of policing in the UK, always bringing first hand experience and knowledge to the subject.
Simon recently kicked off his own radio show on Sunny Govan Community Radio, Talking Walking Football with Simon McLean, and with weekly guests in the studio he explores the benefits of sport to the older generation, both physical and mentally, whilst gleaning their often untold and fascinating life stories. 103.5FM. Mondays at 1pm.
Simon is the best selling author of The Ten Percent, a memoir consisting of stories from the first part of his career as a police officer. From joining in 1978, being posted in Campbeltown in Argylll, becoming a detective on the Isle of Bute, through the Serious Crime Squad and working in the busy Glasgow station in Govan, this is a glimpse of the human side of policing, where everyone can imagine life behind the Thin Blue Line.
Simon is also a very active fundraiser and campaigner for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, having lost his beautiful daughter Louise to the disease in 2011. He organises and runs events regularly to raise funds for the charity.
Together with coaching WF with Glasgow Life and as the Referee Liaison for Walking Football Scotland keeping busy is the order of the day.