'I look to disprove them': Why West Midlands Police inspector believes officers make the best UFO witnesses

The 51-year-old West Midlands Police inspector has spent several years interviewing more than 250 serving and retired police officers who say they have witnessed UFOs or experienced unexplained phenomena.

Unlike many researchers, Teague says he does not begin by assuming every account is true. His approach is to investigate each report in the same way he would any other incident.

"I've not even seen a UFO, all I do is do my best to collect the accounts and investigate them," he explained. "I look to try and disprove them, and I've got about 50 or 60 things on a list like flares, meteors, planes, and if I can discount those maybe I've got something."

That process includes checking flight radar data, weather conditions, astronomical apps and other available information to rule out conventional explanations before considering whether an incident remains unexplained.

Teague believes the biggest difference between his research and many UFO investigations is the witnesses themselves.

"Police officers are trained to observe, to make statements and to report - that's their core function," he said. "They aren't prone to flights of fancy because that wouldn't do well for them in court and would harm their reputation.

"You can get the feel for someone when you meet them and talk to people face to face, that's the gold standard of interviewing. You can look into each other's eyes, you can read their body language.

"I'll happily drive 50 or 60 miles to interview someone face to face, and a mixture of those interview experiences and the profession of these people is what makes me believe them."

Crucially, not every account makes it into Close Encounters of the Police Kind.

Teague says he has rejected stories that failed to stand up to scrutiny, including claims supported by AI-generated images or from people whose backgrounds could not be verified.

"I've had it before where I've raised my eyebrows at the stories, and those ones aren't included in the book,” he revealed. “Two or three officers claimed things that were really ridiculous, in my opinion, and people have lied about roles they've claimed to have within the police."

For the Wolverhampton-born Inspector the book is not about asking readers to believe every story. Instead, he hopes they will consider whether trained police officers, whose careers depend on observation, accuracy and truthful reporting, deserve to have their testimony taken seriously.

"I do think the fact these sightings come from police officers does give them credibility because we are sworn to serve the Crown, we are guardians of law enforcement and we are there to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth."

Next: How years spent investigating more than 250 first-hand accounts transformed Roy Teague from a sceptic into someone convinced that intelligent life has visited Earth.