PC Steve Loxton     played by Tom Butcher

First appearance    Police Powers (12/06/90)

When PC Steve Loxton came to Sun Hill from his home in Manchester, he was full of himself, confident that he could do anything the job required. At that time - when there was a recruitment drive on - to have the guts and the gift of the gab was more than enough. Loxton had more - brains, ambition and a soldier's toughness. Many of his colleagues soon thought of him as loathsome Loxton. He seemed to have no patience with people on the streets. Whether they were villains or victims, he seemed to think they had brought their troubles on themselves; they were probably to blame. If they happened to be black, they were certainly to blame.

Loxton joined the Army when he first left school. He liked the structure, the discipline, feeling he was part of a group - get apart from ordinary people, a group with special powers. But the Army was claustrophobic. He left at the end of his contract to join the police where he felt he'd have the status but also the independence. His wife preferred it, too, although Loxton didn't talk about her. He was so tightly buttoned up about his private life, neither Stamp nor Quinnan nor any of the others who spent hours with him dared to ask.

Loxton wasn't mad on macho heroic acts. When a suicidal man jumped into a river, he thought carefully about jumping in after him. He'd done that before and nearly drowned himself. Persistent and practical, Loxton worked hard and got results; that was why even Monroe had time for him. He took pride in being an excellent Area Car driver. He took pride in wearing the uniform, which was always clean and neat. His aim was to become a firearms officer, but after taking the Lippett's Hill course he changed his mind. Did he discover that he didn't, after all, have the killer instinct or did he reason that with a gun he would be asking to be put in dangerous situations - and only mugs do that?

Loxton performed an illegal search of an off-duty black police officer, after which he was seriously reprimanded. Disillusioned with the job and the limits of modern-day policing, he left the force, not before fitting up a bent solicitor. Returning for Dave Quinnan's wedding in 1999, he admitted that in hindsight it was the worst mistake of his life.