Reducing Crime podcast episodes 21-40
More episodes: 1-20 | 21-40 | 41-60 | 61-current
#40: Don Weatherburn
Don Weatherburn is now a Professor at Australia's National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, but for most of his career ran the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research in Sydney. There he played a pivotal role informing crime and policing policy at the highest levels of government. We talk about his experience and insights working with practitioners in such a high profile public capacity. He is on twitter @DonWeatherburn
Dr Weatherburn joined the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) in 1983, working as a Senior Research Officer for four years before being appointed Foundation Director of Research at the NSW Judicial Commission. He was appointed Executive Director in 1988 and was awarded the Public Service Medal in 1998. He is a former president of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology and a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. Among his many publications are two books, Delinquent-prone Communities, and Law and Order in Australia: Rhetoric and Reality.
#39: Natalie Hiltz
Inspector Natalie Hiltz is with the Peel Regional Police Service, in Ontario, Canada, where she is an advocate for evidence-based policing. We discuss the state of EBP in the country, working with police chiefs, and her journey via the University of Cambridge to a better understanding of EBP. She also discusses her co-authored research article, "Victim-Offender Overlap in Violent Crime: Targeting Crime Harm in a Canadian Suburb". Follow her on Twitter at @Hiltz1881
Natalie Hiltz has served in various uniform and gang unit capacities as well as conducted undercover operations for Vice, Drugs and Homicide.
She is a former member of the Canadian Society of Evidence Based Policing's executive and advisory boards. Natalie organized the first evidence-based policing conference in Canada in partnership with the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police and The Cambridge Centre for Evidence Based Policing. This, and for her work more widely in Evidence Based Policing in Canada, has earned her a nomination for the Governor General’s Meritorious Service Award. She has a degree from Carleton University and postgraduate qualifications from Dalhousie University and the University of Cambridge.
#38: Ian Stanier
Dr Ian Stanier was the head of the human intelligence unit at the UK’s National Counter-Terrorism Policing Headquarters. He now conducts research and training on the recruitment, management and elicitation from covert human intelligence sources. In the podcast, he discusses the FIREPLACES framework, and his work examining covert intelligence management and COVID-19. Follow him on Twitter at @HevershamIntel
Ian Stanier developed specialist intelligence in serious crime, prisons, domestic extremism and counter-terrorism. He was the head of the HUMINT unit at the UK’s National Counter-Terrorism Policing Headquarters and has been a covert source handler, controller and authorising officer. He helped develop the UK National Intelligence Model and the College of Policing’s Authorised Professional Practice on Intelligence Management. Ian is Chair of the National Police Chief’s Council’s Intelligence Practice Research Consortium, and an academic advisor on the National Crime Agency's HUMINT Academic Hub. He retired from policing as a Superintendent, and is now a Senior Lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University.
#37: Bill Bratton
Bill Bratton has been chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, chief of the New York City Transit Police, commissioner of the Boston Police Department, and New York City Police Department commissioner twice. For the last twenty-five years, he has been one of the most high profile police leaders in America.
We talk about his career and his new book (written with Peter Knobler); The Profession: A Memoir of Community, Race, and the Arc of Policing in America. He is on twitter @CommissBratton
Bratton served in the military police in Vietnam, before returning home to Boston where he joined the police department in 1970. He ultimately served as chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, chief of the New York City Transit Police, commissioner of the Boston Police Department, and served two three-year terms as New York City Police Department commissioner in 1994 and 2014.
Influenced by criminologist George Kelling, Bratton is a proponent of Broken Windows theory. He pioneered the use of Compstat as both a crime and disorder data management tool, and an accountability mechanism for mid and senior police leadership.
#36: Katy Barrow-Grint
Katy Barrow-Grint is a Superintendent with the UK's Thames Valley Police. She is currently the Head of Specialist Operations for Thames Valley, running covert policing for the force. We talk about her innovative approaches to domestic abuse, developing an internal evidence-based policing journal, becoming the inaugural Editor in Chief of the College of Policing Publication ‘Going Equipped’, and being a lead on #WeCops, a popular UK policing weekly twitter debate forum.
Superintendent Barrow-Grint has been with Thames Valley Police since 2000 during which time she has worked frontline response, CID, neighborhood policing, child abuse investigation, surveillance and strategic development. She is the force's Head of Specialist Operations. She has a degree in Sociology from the London School of Economics, and a Masters in Police Leadership and Management from Warwick Business School. She has specialized in the area of policing domestic abuse, manages Thames Valley Police's journal, is the editor in chief for the College of Policing's "Going Equipped" publication. Katy also is a marathon runner and black belt in karate. She is on twitter @ktbg1.
#35: Carmen Best
Police Chief (retd.) Carmen Best led the Seattle (WA) police department from 2018 to 2020 but resigned in protest when Seattle City Council voted to downsize the department by up to 100 officers in the wake of protests related to the death of George Floyd. We discuss the public perception of police-involved shootings, never-ending consent decrees, her departure from the chief's job, the challenges faced by black women police chiefs, the closure of the East Precinct police station, and the future of reform and community policing.
Carmen Best served with the Seattle police department for 28 years, rising through the ranks to take over as chief in August 2018. She led the department through the turbulence of the George Floyd protests culminating in the more-than-three-week occupation of the Capitol Hill neighborhood in what became the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.
Best was the first African American woman to lead the department. Her professional resume includes courses with the FBI National Executive Institute (NEI), the FBI National Academy, and the Major Cities Chiefs Association Police Executive Leadership Institute. Carmen is currently an NBC News and MSNBC contributor and a law enforcement analyst for NBC’s Seattle affiliate.
#34: Ed Maguire
Ed Maguire is a professor of criminology and criminal justice at Arizona State University. We chat about the challenges involved in policing protests and demonstrations, and balancing an appropriate response in highly dynamic situations. Maguire shares his knowledge and experiences working with police in the US, the United Kingdom, and Sweden, and we discuss demonstrations including the Occupy movement, Black Lives Matter, and the Jan. 6th Capitol riot.
Professor Ed Maguire directs the Public Safety Innovation Lab at Arizona State University in Phoenix, and is a recognized expert in the area of the policing of protests and demonstrations. Prior to moving to Arizona in 2016, he worked for the United Nations, the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services - the COPS office in the Department of Justice, and both George Mason and American universities. He has a PhD from SUNY Albany, and is the author of over 70 research articles and other publications, including a new co-authored book called "Policing Protests: Lessons from the Occupy Movement and Beyond". He also chairs the Research Advisory Board for the Police Executive Research Forum.
#33: Tanya Meisenholder
Deputy Commissioner Tanya Meisenholder heads the Office of Equity and Inclusion for the New York City Police Department. We talk about hiring and retaining a diverse workforce, engaging underrepresented groups within the police service, getting comfortable having uncomfortable conversations around policing and race, and what she learned about being black and blue in a post-George Floyd world.
Tanya Meisenholder is the Deputy Commissioner of Equity and Inclusion with the New York City Police Department. Prior to joining the NYPD in 2007, she worked with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and the New York/New Jersey High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. She has also worked with police departments in Birmingham, Alabama, and in New York state with the cities of Schenectady, Albany, and Troy. Her NYPD career has included stints in intelligence and analysis, project management, risk management, policy development, strategic planning, and research and evaluation. She has a PhD in criminal justice from the University of New York at Albany.
#32: Jennifer Wood
Jennifer Wood is a Professor of Criminal Justice at Temple University, and a criminologist with expertise in policing, regulation and public health. Our discussion covers the role law enforcement plays in the policing of mental health, addition and vulnerability, and the need to provide police with better structures, tools and options to help address these challenges. The detrimental impacts on officer health are also raised.
Dr Jennifer Wood received her doctorate in criminology at the University of Toronto, and previously served as a Fellow at the Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet) at the Australian National University. Her research focuses on the many intersections between policing, public health, and vulnerability. Her work describes and explains the ways in which police function as health interventionists, particularly during mental health-related events. She traces developments in innovative police intervention models and examines global debates about how best to align public health and public safety goals. She is an Associate Editor for Policing and Society: An International Journal of Research and Policy.
#31: Alex Murray
Alex Murray is the Met Police lead for trafficking, online child abuse, the flying squad, cyber crime, and major crime. In 2017 he was awarded an OBE in part for his contributions to evidence-based policing and founding the Society of Evidence-Based Policing. We discuss offender management opportunities during COVID-19, what to look for in an academic that can support policing advancement, and the important evidence-based policing lessons for police leadership.
Alex Murray is the Commander over Specialist Crime in London's Metropolitan Police. He is a firearms, counter-terrorism and public order commander, and has previously work in local policing, CID and counter-terrorism. Prior to joining the Met in 2020, he was temporary assistant chief constable for crime with West Midlands police. In 2008 Alex graduated from Cambridge University with a Masters thesis exploring police legitimacy within Muslim communities. He is the founder of the Society of Evidence Based Policing and is a visiting scholar at Cambridge University. In 2017 he was awarded an OBE for his contributions to evidence-based policing.
#30: Rod Brunson
Rod Brunson is the Professor of Public Life in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Northeastern University. At the height of the protests around the killing of George Floyd and discussions around over-policing, Dr. Brunson wrote an opinion piece in the Washington Post pointing out the dangers of "under-policing", adding some much needed nuance and perspective to the discussion.
Dr. Rod Brunson is the Thomas P. O’Neill Professor of Public Life in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (and the Department of Political Science) at Northeastern University. Professor Brunson co-directs the Racial Democracy Crime and Justice Network, a collective of social scientists conducting research on crime, inequality, and the criminal justice system. He has published widely and received numerous professional awards in recognition of his scholarly work, and was recently elected a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology.
In the episode, we discuss at length his op-ed article in the Washington Post. We also reference his co-authored article in Criminology and Public Policy.
#29: Bill Walsh
Bill Walsh is a lieutenant with the Voorhees police department in New Jersey. We chat about his work as their Health and Wellness Coordinator integrating police families into a comprehensive program geared towards officer wellness and resiliency. His work has led to the development and implementation of supervisory and agency health and wellness programs.
Lt Bill Walsh is the Patrol Bureau Commander and Health and Wellness Coordinator with the Voorhees Police Department in New Jersey. His work in areas of officer wellness programs, police family wellness, and early intervention systems has been published and presented through various organizations, and he serves as a consultant to the IACP and Department of Justice's CRI-TAC. Bill holds a master’s degree in administrative science and is currently working towards a second master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling. In 2019, he was named as one of the IACP’s 40 Under 40.
Here's a link to the IACP employee and wellness guide mentioned in the episode.
#28: Debra Piehl
Debra Piehl has been an innovator and leader in the development of crime analysis for over 20 years, and coordinated the hiring and training of nearly 100 new civilian crime analysts in the New York City Police Department. We chat about the value of crime analysis to police leaders, the importance of data quality, crime analysis in Compstat and DDACTS, and the emerging role of analysts in evidence-based policing.
Debra has worked in the crime analysis field at municipal, state and national levels. While with the NYPD she pioneered and led the development of a new civilian crime analysis role. She is a subject matter expert for Data-Driven Approaches for Crime & Traffic Safety, a partnership between the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the National Institute of Justice. Deb received the International Association of Crime Analysts 2017 President’s Award and was the first recipient of the Bryan Hill IACA Memorial Scholarship in 2019, in recognition of her efforts to support and mentor crime analysts around the world.
#27: Rachel Tuffin
Rachel Tuffin in the Director of Knowledge and Innovation at the College of Policing for England and Wales. The College is a unique and independent entity, whose purpose is to provide those working in policing with the skills and knowledge necessary to prevent crime, protect the public, and secure public trust. We discuss the unique national role that the college has across law enforcement policy and training.
Rachel Tuffin is on the senior management team at the College of Policing, where she is responsible for the College's strategic programmes that identify and share knowledge and good practice for policing across England and Wales and beyond. She is also the lead on the College's UK and International training delivery, and manages its responsibilities as a What Works Centre that houses one of the world's most useful repositories of knowledge about the effectiveness of police strategies and tactics. She previously worked in research for the UK's National Policing Improvement Agency and the Home Office. She was awarded an OBE in 2013 for services to policing, and specifically for championing evidence-based policing.
#26: Hans Menos
Hans Menos leads Philadelphia's Police Advisory Commission, the civilian oversight agency for the Philadelphia Police Department. They provide recommendations on how to improve policing in the city, by analyzing the policies, practices, and customs of the Philadelphia Police Department. In a wide-ranging discussion, we talk about the challenges of police oversight, Black Lives Matter, use of force, and different ways to move police accountability forward.
Hans Menos is the Executive Director of Philadelphia's Police Advisory Commission, tasked with enhancing the relationship between the police and the community. Hans has an exstensive background in social work, having been the program director for a Domestic Violence Awareness Project working with domestically violent men, a director of youth services in Brooklyn, and a senior director of the Safe Horizon Crime Victim Assistance Program in New York. He came to Philadelphia's Police Advisory Commission in 2017. He has a BA in Political Science, is a Master of Social Work and is working towards his PhD.
#25: Danny Murphy
Danny Murphy is the Deputy Commissioner over the Compliance Bureau at the Baltimore Police Department in Maryland, where he leads the implementation of Baltimore’s extensive consent decree which mandates comprehensive reforms to improve operations and build public trust in the wake of civic unrest and fractured police-community relations. We talk about what consent decrees are, how police departments get into them, get out of them, and the pros and cons of being in a consent decree.
Danny Murphy is the Deputy Commissioner over the Compliance Bureau at the Baltimore Police Department in Maryland. He was previously the Deputy Superintendent over the Compliance Bureau at the New Orleans police department where he led the implementation of sweeping criminal justice reforms as part of their extensive federal consent decree. Those reforms led to increased public trust and significant reductions in serious uses of force alongside substantial decreases in violent crime. He has received awards for his work from both the New Orleans city and police department. He has a degree in political economy and English, and an MBA from the University of New Orleans.
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#24: Kevin Bethel
Kevin Bethel is a former Deputy Commissioner with the Philadelphia Police Department, and now Chief of School Safety with the Philadelphia School District. The main topic of conversation is his diversion approach that has reduced arrests in schools by 71 percent. However, we start off discussing his 30 years with the police department, his time working with Charles Ramsey, data-driven policing, and the toll that senior police executive positions can take on committed leaders.
Kevin Bethel retired as Deputy Commissioner in the Philadelphia Police Department in 2016 where he commanded patrol operations. He then served as a Stoneleigh Foundation Fellow and Drexel University Senior Policy Advisor in the area of juvenile justice reform. He is now a Senior Advisor and Chief of School Safety for the Philadelphia School District. His School Diversion Program diverts first time, low-level juvenile offenders to other programs within the Department of Human Services and has reduced the number of school arrests by 71 percent. He testified before the President’s 21st Century Task Force, serves on the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency Disproportionate Minority Contact Subcommittee and is a former member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Law and Justice.
#23: Mo McGough
Mo McGough is chief of staff for the policing project at NYU Law. She has previously worked for the National Police Foundation, the National Institute of Justice, and the US Department of State. We discuss why the US lags other countries in the ratio of women in policing, the value that a diverse workforce brings to law enforcement, the barriers in achieving the goal of advocates in this area (and it is not 50 percent), and the ways forward in this area.
Maureen McGough recently joined the Policing Project at NYU Law as Chief of Staff. She previously served as Director of National Initiatives for the National Police Foundation, and served with the US Department of Justice and State Department. As senior policy advisor at the NIJ, Mo oversaw agency efforts to advance evidence-based policing, and improve the representation and experiences of women in policing. Mo also served as counsel on terrorism prevention in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. She is a member of the FBI's Law Enforcement Education and Training Council, and an executive board member for ASEBP. Mo is an attorney and earned her JD from the George Washington University Law School.
#22: Robert Schug
Robert Schug is a neurocriminologist, clinical psychologist, and professor at California State University Long Beach. Robert is also on the Los Angeles Superior Court's Approved Panel of Psychiatrists and Psychologists. His unique developmental timeline approach to the study of homicide offenders is the subject of this episode.
We talk about mind hunters, the media, and the real science behind serial killer research.
Robert's research focuses on understanding the relationship between extreme forms of psychopathology and antisocial, criminal, and violent behavior.
He has a Ph.D. in Psychology along with a doctoral respecialization in Clinical Psychology and extensive clinical training as a Forensic Psychologist. He was worked with jail inmates, sex offenders and forensic psychiatric inpatients.
He has a unique research study involving interviews and neurocognitive assessment of incarcerated serial killers.
Robert maintains a private practice that focuses on forensic assessment.
#21: Phil Goff
Phillip Atiba Goff is the inaugural Franklin A. Thomas Professor in Policing Equity at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and the co-founder and CEO of the Center for Policing Equity. I talk with Dr. Goff about implicit bias, the limitations of implicit bias training and potential backfire effects, and why science needs storytellers who can connect to communities.
Phil Goff is an expert in contemporary forms of racial bias and discrimination, as well as the intersections of race and gender.
Dr Goff's work has been supported by a host of prestigious grant and philanthropic organizations, he was a witness for the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, and he has presented before Members of Congress and Congressional Panels, Senate Press Briefings, and White House Advisory Councils. Phil is one of three Principal Investigators for the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice.
You can find out more about his work at the website of the Center for Policing Equity.
More episodes: 1-20 | 21-40 | 41-60 | 61-current