Reducing Crime

Wes Skogan is emeritus professor at Northwestern University and a leading authority on community policing. He sits down with host Jerry Ratcliffe to discuss the origins and development of community policing in Chicago, the importance of case workers alongside violence interrupters, and the core components that can reinvigorate community policing.

Scott Charles is the Trauma Outreach Manager for Temple University Hospital, director of the Cradle to Grave program, and coordinator of the hospital’s Trauma Victims Support Advocates program. We discuss how he came to be running these hospital-based violence interruption programs (HVIPs), how they work to change the lives of gunshot victims and young people at risk of gun crime, and what he has...

Dr. Jason Roach is a chartered psychologist, Professor of Psychology and Policing, and Director of the University of Huddersfield's Secure Societies Research Institute. In the podcast, we talk about some of his projects that have explored offender self-selection and trigger crimes, criminal decision-making, nudging and influencing crime prevention, and learning from offenders.

Walter Katz is the Vice President of Criminal Justice for Arnold Ventures. Walter received his law degree from the McGeorge School of Law at the University of the Pacific and his undergraduate degree from the University of Nevada, Reno. His conversation with Jerry Ratcliffe covers his background as a public defender, his work as Deputy Chief of Staff for Public Safety for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanue...

Dr. Justin Nix is a distinguished associate professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska Omaha, and this year's Outstanding Young Experimental Criminologist. We chat about his research on procedural justice, police legitimacy, and the use of deadly force.

Charles Ramsey is one of the most revered leaders in American policing. He joined the Chicago Police Department as a cadet in 1968 and rose to lead both the Washington DC Metro police department and the Philadelphia Police Department. He co-chaired President Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing. The discussion covers 1960s racism in policing, recruitment, leadership, dealing with bad news,...

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 ca...

Natalie Hiltz is an inspector with Peel Regional Police Service in Ontario Canada and an advocate for evidence-based policing across the country. Inspector Hiltz was instrumental in organizing 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. We talk about the emergence of evi...

Dr Ian Stanier was the head of the human intelligence unit at the UK’s National Counter-Terrorism Policing Headquarters. He is now an academic involved in research and training on the recruitment, management and elicitation of information from covert human intelligence sources. We chat about the challenges of informant recruitment and management during the pandemic, and the different motivations t...

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...

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 research on domestic abuse, her work developing an internal evidence-based policing journal, becoming the inaugural Editor in Chief of the College of Policing Publication ‘Going Equipped’, and being...

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 resigning in protest when Seattle City Council voted to...

Ed Maguire is a professor of criminology and criminal justice at Arizona State University, where he also serves as director of the Public Safety Innovation Lab. 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 Kingd...

Tanya Meisenholder is the Deputy Commissioner of Equity and Inclusion for the New York City Police Department (NYPD). We talk about hiring and retaining a diverse workforce, engaging underrepresented groups within the police service, and what she learned about being "black and blue" in a post-George Floyd world.

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 of...

Commander Alex Murray is the London Metropolitan Police lead for trafficking, online child abuse, the flying squad, cyber crime, and major crime. 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 201...

Rod Brunson is the Thomas P. O’Neill Professor of Public Life at Northeastern University. We discuss his op-ed in the Washington Post that, at the height of the protests around the killing of George Floyd and calls to defund policing, pointing out that under-policing could be just as deadly for high crime neighborhoods as over-policing.

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 a board-certified policy psychologist and police families into a comprehensive program geared towards officer wellness and resiliency.

Debra Piehl has been an innovator and leader in the development of crime analysis for over 20 years. 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.

Rachel Tuffin in the Director of Knowledge and Innovation at the College of Policing for England and Wales. We discuss the unique national role that the college has across law enforcement policy and training.

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...

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 departme...

Kevin Bethel is a retired Philadelphia Deputy Police Commissioner and now Chief of School Safety for the Philadelphia School District. We chat about the school-to-prison pipeline and his work rethinking the role of police in schools. His diversion program has reduced school arrests by 71 percent.

Jerry Ratcliffe interviews Mo McGough, Chief of Staff at The Policing Project at NYU Law, about the role, representation, and experiences of women in policing. They discuss the need for greater gender parity in law enforcement, the challenges faced by women officers, and the importance of changing the culture within police departments to support women. They also touch on the intersectionality of g...

Jerry Ratcliffe interviews Dr. Robert Schug, a neuro criminologist and clinical psychologist, about the real science behind serial killer research. They discuss the misconceptions surrounding serial killers, the difference between serial, spree, and mass killers, and the need for more scientific research in this field. Dr. Schug also talks about his work interviewing serial killers and the importa...