Reducing Crime podcast episodes 1-20
More episodes: 1-20 | 21-40 | 41-60 | 61-current
#20: Chris Magnus
Chris Magnus is the progressive police chief for Tucson, Arizona, where he and his department are pioneering a number of innovative approaches to social problems affecting the city. He talks about moving away from a reflexive arrest approach to all policing problems, the challenges of dealing with service providers in non-crime areas, and working with city politics.
Chris Magnus is the police chief for Tucson, Arizona. He has previously served as the chief in Fargo, North Dakota and Richmond California. He previously served with the Livingston County Sheriff’s Department and the Lansing Michigan police department.
Chris was the first openly gay police chief in the country to marry. He also achieved some notoriety - and support - when photographed with a Black Lives Matter sign at a local protest in Richmond. Chris is known for being a pioneer of innovative solutions to complicated social problems, and is an advocate for less draconian approaches to issues such as immigration and homelessness, arguing that they complicate the challenges of modern policing.
#19: Lorraine Mazerolle
Lorraine Mazerolle is a Professor of Criminology in the School of Social Science at Australia's University of Queensland and one of the world's leading experimental criminologists. We discuss her career in criminology, police and crime prevention partnerships, and her current randomized controlled trial working with police and schools.
Lorraine Mazerolle is an experimental criminologist. She has been an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow, a Chief Investigator with the Australian Research Council, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Experimental Criminology, and a past Chair of ASC’s Division of Experimental Criminology. She is a Fellow of ASC, and recipient of numerous awards, including the 2016 ASC Division of Policing Distinguished Scholar Award, and the 2013 Joan McCord Award. Her scholarship has covered third party policing, police engagement with high risk people and disadvantaged communities, community regulation, and problem-oriented policing.
#18: Thomas Abt
Thomas Abt is a Senior Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. We chat about his background in state and federal criminal justice policy-making, and the motivation and aims behind his recent book "Bleeding Out -The Devastating Consequences of Urban Violence and a Bold New Plan for Peace in the Streets".
Thomas Abt is a Senior Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Before joining Harvard, Abt served as Deputy Secretary for Public Safety to Governor Andrew Cuomo in New York, where he oversaw all criminal justice and homeland security agencies, and led the development of New York’s GIVE (Gun-Involved Violence Elimination) Initiative. Before that he served as Chief of Staff to the Office of Justice Programs at the U.S. Department of Justice. There he played a lead role in establishing the National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention, a network of federal agencies and local communities working together to reduce youth violence.
#17: Lawrence Sherman
Professor Lawrence Sherman is Director of the Cambridge Centre for Evidence-Based Policing at the University of Cambridge. We discuss the police constable apprentice program, the role of socializing in the pub as an executive learning tool, the crime harm index and victimization, and the role of algorithms in improving the criminal justice system.
Lawrence Sherman is Director of the Cambridge Centre for Evidence-Based Policing at the University of Cambridge and Director of the Jerry Lee Centre of Experimental Criminology. He directs the Cambridge Police Executive Programme. Professor Sherman has served as president of the American Society of Criminology, the Int. Society of Criminology, the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and the Academy of Experimental Criminology. He has published numerous books and over 100 book chapters. He's received the American Society of Criminology's Edwin Sutherland Award and the Academy of Experimental Criminology’s Joan McCord Award. He is the founding co-chair of the International Jury for the Stockholm Prize in Criminology.
#16: Marcus Felson
Professor Marcus Felson (Texas State University San Marcos) is the originator of routine activities theory and many other important criminological concepts. In this episode, he explains why the correct terminology is important in regard to routine activities theory, has some choice words for social disorganization and collective efficacy, explains the origins of the routine activities approach.
Dr. Marcus Felson originated the routine activity approach to crime rate analysis. He is one of he biggest names in criminology and an expert in how to think about crime in tangible terms and how to reduce it using such thinking. He is the author or co-author of over a dozen books, including Crime and Nature, and Crime and Everyday Life, which is now in its fifth edition. His work has been applied to understanding business crime, juvenile street gangs, co-offending, organized crime, the nighttime economy, and outdoor drug sales. He is a professor of criminal justice at Texas State University San Marcos.
#15: Ella Cockbain
Dr Ella Cockbain is an Associate Professor in the Department of Security and Crime Science at University College London and a visiting research fellow at Leiden University in the Netherlands.
We talk about trafficking, exploitative business policies, and legislation that makes things worse not better.
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For links to some of the important work Ella is doing see this short blog post, and follow her in twitter @DrEllaC
Side note: Liam Neeson is a multi-award winning actor and The Phantom Menace wasn't his fault.
Dr Ella Cockbain is an Associate Professor in the Department of Security and Crime Science at University College London and a visiting research fellow at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Her research focuses on human trafficking, child sexual exploitation and labour exploitation. Ella is interested in rigorous, outcome-oriented research and nuanced, evidence-informed responses to complex issues. She has worked closely with organisations across the public, private and third sectors and contributed to counter-trafficking interventions at national and international levels, including co-chairing the UK’s national working group on the prevention of modern slavery. Her new book is called Offender and Victim Networks in Human Trafficking.
#14: Sir Denis O'Connor
Sir Denis O'Connor, former Chief Constable of Surrey Police and now Radzinowicz Fellow at Cambridge University's Institute of Criminology has been a redoubtable member of British policing for over 50 years.
In his current role as a lecturer in the Police Executive Programme, he retains an unparalleled institutional knowledge, having been involved in the Scarman, Stephen Lawrence, and Leveson Inquiries. We discuss police careerists, the growth of oversight regimes, and the need for policing to have a plan to win.
Sir Denis O’Connor has been involved in British policing since the 1960s. He started as a copper with the Metropolitan Police in east London, rising to Assistant Commissioner where he led the development of strategy following the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry. He took over as Chief Constable of Surrey Police in 2000. A few years later he joined Her Majesty's Inspectors of Constabulary. In 1996, Sir Denis was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal and he was knighted by the Queen in 2010 for his services to policing. He has led numerous high profile inquiries, had leading roles in the Association of Chief Police Officers, and piloted the National Reassurance Policing Programme. Sir Denis is now a Fellow at the Institute of Criminology at Cambridge University.
#13: Renée Mitchell
Dr. Renée Mitchell is a sergeant in the Sacramento police department, California, and a co-founder and current president of the American Society of Evidence-Based Policing.
In a wide-ranging chat, we explore her Sacramento Hot Spots Experiment, the link between policing research and following the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, Critical Incident Stress Debriefing and its lack of evidence base, and the challenge of moving beyond "Make it stop" policing.
Renée Mitchell has served in the Sacramento PD for twenty-one years and is currently a Police Sergeant. As a Fulbright Police Research Fellow she studied juvenile gang violence with the Metropolitan Police in London. Renée holds multiple qualifications including a Ph.D. in Criminology from the University of Cambridge. Active in knowledge transfer, Dr. Mitchell has two TEDx talks advocating for evidence-based policing. She is a co-founder of the American Society of Evidence-Based Policing, a BetaGov Fellow, a member of the George Mason Evidence-Based Policing Hall of Fame, and a visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge. Sgt Mitchell recently co-edited a book with Dr. Laura Huey, Evidence Based Policing: An introduction.
#12: Ian Hesketh
Dr. Ian Hesketh was a British police officer for 30 years and is now the Wellbeing Lead at the UK's College of Policing and the key leadership figure for the National Police Wellbeing Service.
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As you will hear, leavism and the two reasons for it, are becoming a significant issue in policing, line managers are central to officer well-being, and there are leadership lessons to be learned from being slapped by a monkey (and yes I now remember it was Ben Stiller. Don't @ me)
Dr Ian Hesketh served as a British police officer for 30 years. He was also seconded to the United Nations, and worked on peacekeeping missions in Bosnia, post-war Kosovo, and Serbia. He is now the Wellbeing Lead at the UK's College of Policing and the Senior Responsible Owner for the National Police Wellbeing Service in the UK. His research interests are centered on Wellbeing, Resilience and Transformation in the context of Policing, and most notably he introduced the concept of Leaveism which we discuss in this episode. In 2012 his article on Transformational Leadership during Change was voted one of the Top 5 Management Articles by the Chartered Management Institute.
#11: Rob Briner
Rob Briner is Professor of Organizational Psychology in the School of Business and Management at Queen Mary University of London. He's also a guru in the field of evidence-based practice.
He tells me about the vital role of accountability in pushing evidence-based practice, the appeal of apparent simplicity and good intentions that can trap people in harmful responses, the three words managers can't seem to say, and the idea of watchful waiting.
Rob Briner is Professor of Organizational Psychology in the School of Business and Management at Queen Mary University of London. He conducts research into several areas of organizational psychology and HR such as work and well-being, the psychological contract, work-nonwork relationships and ethnicity. In addition, he is very active in developing evidence-based practice in management, HR and organizational psychology.
He is the Scientific Director of the Center for Evidence-Based Management, has a PhD from the University of Sheffield, and was named in 2015 the second Most Influential HR Thinker by HR Magazine.
#10: Geoff Barnes
Geoff Barnes is the Director of Criminology for the Western Australia Police Force. He has also worked in the US and at Cambridge University.
We talk about how not to do a literature review, the relationship between opinion-based policing and shoulder jewelry, and one way a police chief can make a huge difference in policing in just 90 seconds a year.
Geoff Barnes is the first-ever Director of Criminology for the Western Australia Police Force, where he leads the agency’s Office of Applied Criminology. He is also an Affiliated Lecturer in Evidence Based Policing at the University of Cambridge, supervising graduate students in the Police Executive Programme. He has led and participated in multiple policing randomized controlled trials. His research interests also include the use of restorative justice and cognitive behavioral therapy with criminal offenders, and the connections between criminal justice involvement and mortality. He earned his Ph.D. in Criminology from the University of Maryland, and was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Experimental Criminology in 2011.
#09: Charis Kubrin
Charis Kubrin is a professor at the University of California, Irvine.
We discuss her recent research on California Proposition 47, a law that reduces some nonviolent, non-serious crimes to misdemeanors has attracted quite a bit of attention.
In the podcast we discuss a recent radio interview she gave. The full interview can be found here.
Want to decide for yourself? Here is the full published research article on Prop 47.
Charis E. Kubrin is Professor of Criminology, Law and Society at the University of California, Irvine. Her research focuses on neighborhood correlates of crime, with an emphasis on race and violent crime. She also explored the impact of various criminal justice policies on crime rates. She has published extensively and is co-author of two books, "Researching Theories of Crime and Deviance" and ... "Privileged Places: Race, Residence, and the Structure of Opportunity" and has co-edited numerous other books. She has received numerous awards, most recently the W.E.B. DuBois Award from the Western Society of Criminology for significant contributions to racial and ethnic issues in the field of criminology.
#08: John Eck
John Eck is a professor at the University of Cincinnati and the originator of the SARA model of problem-oriented policing.
We cover investigation priorities, the value of detective work for crime prevention, and place-based crime. He also has some choice words for clearance rates and community policing...
John Eck is Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Cincinnati. He received his Ph.D. in criminology from the University of Maryland in 1994. From 1977 to 1995, John directed research for the Police Executive Research Forum – a police chief membership and research organization – where he studied criminal investigation management, problem-oriented policing, and drug control strategies. John has written numerous papers, books, and monographs for police practitioners and for academic researchers. He is the recipient of the 2016 Ronald V. Clarke ECCA Award for Fundamental Contributions to Environmental Criminology and Crime Analysis. John also dabbles in granite sculpting.
#07: Geoff Alpert
Geoff Alpert is a professor at the University of South Carolina and a bit of a legend in the policing research community.
We talk about getting research into the hands of the police, and what students need to know to become a policing scholar.
Geoff Alpert is a Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of South Carolina. He is also a Chief Research Advisor for the US National Institute of Justice. He has taught at the FBI National Academy, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center and The Senior Management Institute for Police and is currently a Federal Monitor for the New Orleans Police Department. He testified to the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, and is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police Research Advisory Committee and Policy Center Advisory Group. For the past thirty years, his research interests have included police use of force, emergency driving and the linkages between researchers and practitioners.
#06: Wendy Stiver
Major Wendy Stiver (Dayton, OH police department) has had a distinguished career in patrol and investigations, and she now is among the first members of the IACP/National Institute of Justice's LEADS scholar program.
We chat about overcoming resistance to evidence-based policing, and her new role as the first LEADS practitioner in residence for the NIJ/IACP program.
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More details about LEADS here.
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(Wendy is shown with one of the weird uncles. It will make sense once you hear the podcast...)
Major Wendy Stiver is the commander of the Central Patrol Division at the Dayton (Ohio) Police Department. She holds a master’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Cincinnati and is also a graduate of the Police Executive Leadership College.
As an active pracademic, she has researched police interventions in infant mortality cases, patrol officer exposure to secondary trauma, a volunteer hot spot patrol project, photo enforcement compliance, and led a foot patrol evaluation with the University of Cincinnati.
Wendy is one of the pioneers in the American evidence-based pracademic community, and recently started as a senior research advisor to the National Institute of Justice LEADS scholar program, acting as a practitioner in residence.
#05: Tamara Herold
Tamara Herold explains the award-winning PIVOT project and how Cincinnati has used it to reduce crime and shootings.
Dr. Tamara Herold (formerly Madensen) is an American crime scientist, an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice and the Graduate Director at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
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As well as her academic duties, Tamara is an affiliate scholar for the International Association of Chiefs of Police – Center for Police Research and Policy. She received her Ph.D. with an emphasis in Crime Prevention from the University of Cincinnati. She uses the crime science perspective to study the criminological impact of the design and management of places. Her publications propose, extend, or test crime science models and help translate research findings into practice and policy. She was a 2012 finalist (with the Las Vegas Metro PD) and 2017 recipient (with the Cincinnati PD) of the Herman Goldstein Award for Excellence in Problem-Oriented Policing.
#04: Kim Rossmo
Former police inspector Dr. Kim Rossmo discusses his latest work trying to better understand investigative failures and why solvable cases go cold. Kim is a member of the IACP Police Investigative Operations Committee, and he recently completed an NIJ project on deconstructing criminal investigative failures.
Kim has a PhD in Criminology and is currently a professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Texas State University. Before entering academic life, he spent 21 years with the Vancouver Police Department where he was the Detective Inspector in charge of their Geographic Profiling Section. He was awarded the Governor General of Canada Police Exemplary Service Medal. His research interests include environmental criminology, the geography of crime, and criminal investigations, and he is particularly interested in improving police investigations by studying wrongful convictions and how solvable cases go cold - the topic we discuss in the podcast.
#03: Jakob Lindergaard-Bentzen
Jakob Lindergaard-Bentzen is the programme manager and senior advisor for the ILP project within the Danish National Police.
The Danish National Police have been transitioning to a more intelligence-led approach to policing, and in this episode I get an update from Jakob on their successes and challenges to date.
Jakob and his team regularly host a popular crime analysis conference in Copenhagen.
Jakob started his policing career 15 years ago as a patrol officer on the streets of Copenhagen. After serving as an investigator, prevention officer, and in a tactical unit, he joined the Danish National Police as an operational analyst and as an instructor in operational intelligence analysis training (OIAT) in Europol and CEPOL. Later Jakob became the programme manager and senior advisor for the Danish Intelligence-led policing project. In this role he supports, coordinates and arranges analysis training activities across Denmark and he hosts several larger analysis seminars each year. He has a masters from Copenhagen University in history and political science.
#02: Mike Newman
Detective Inspector Mike Newman talks to me about his work introducing evidence-based policing to the Queensland Police Service in Australia, and the ways they have succeeded in embedding evidence-based practice into their agency.
Mike is one of the most well-known advocates of evidence-based policing, travelling widely to share his experiences working on the front-line of evidence-based practice and learning. I caught up with him at the Society of Evidence-Based Policing conference in Milton Keynes in the UK, in March 2018.
Mike has over 26 years’ service, having worked general duties; crime units; criminal investigation; and a tactical unit. He has also been seconded to the Australian Crime Commission. In 2013, he managed the Mobile Police Community Office evidence-based policing project. Mike was promoted to Inspector in 2015 and was recently appointed as Detective Inspector over the Investigations and Intelligence Training Unit. In 2016 Mike undertook a 15-month secondment as the Evidence Based Policing Visiting Fellow at the University of Queensland where he worked with the renowned Professor Lorraine Mazerolle. He is the secretariat of the Australia and New Zealand Society for Evidence Based Policing, and a well-known advocate for EBP.
#01: Tom Nestel
In this, the pilot episode of Reducing Crime, I talk with police chief Tom Nestel about the need for ongoing education, innovation in leadership, building trust, the value of working in different departments, and evidence-based policing. We cover quite a bit in half an hour. I caught up with him in April 2018.
Tom started as a Patrol Officer with the SEPTA transit police in 1982, and then served with the Philadelphia Police Department for 22 years. He reached the rank of Staff Inspector, before becoming Chief of Police for Upper Moreland Township, in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. He has a Bachelor's degree in criminal justice, as well as Masters degrees from Saint Joseph’s University, the United States Naval Postgraduate School, and the University of Pennsylvania. In 2012 he returned to the SEPTA Transit Police Department as chief.
More episodes: 1-20 | 21-40 | 41-60 | 61-current