Reducing Crime
A monthly podcast featuring conversations with influential thinkers in the police service and leading crime and policing researchers working to advance public safety. Often amusing, often enlightening, always informative. Jerry Ratcliffe (professor and former police officer) chats to a range of international guests covering police, policing, crime science, criminology, criminal justice, and public safety policy. Details and transcripts at reducingcrime.com/podcast.
Episodes
April 30, 2024 • 47 mins
Jerry Ratcliffe chats with Keith Humphreys, an influential figure in drug policy and a professor at Stanford University. They discuss the dangers of synthetic opioids, the role of academics in advising government, and the differences between drug policies in San Francisco and Portugal. Humphreys emphasizes the importance of a balanced approach to drug policy, combining public health and public safety measures. He highlights the nee...
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March 26, 2024 • 41 mins
Alex Piquero, a professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Miami, discusses his career in criminology, including his time as the director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics. He talks about the importance of mentors, the role of universities in challenging and provoking ideas, and the need for academics to engage in public intellectualism. Piquero also discusses challenges he faced in government ...
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February 28, 2024 • 38 mins
Did you see the movie BlacKkKlansman? If so you will love this episode. Host Jerry Ratcliffe chats with his mate Jim Rose, a former narcotics officer and senior advisor to the US State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. Rose was also the real-life white cop in BlacKkKlansman. He discusses his experience infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) as a young undercover officer and his subsequent work...
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January 29, 2024 • 42 mins
In this episode of the Reducing Crime podcast, host Jerry Ratcliffe interviews Beatriz Magaloni, a professor of international relations and political science at Stanford University. Magaloni discusses her work on community policing with a specific ‘pacifying police unit’ in Brazil's most dangerous favelas, focusing on the different types of control exerted by criminal organizations in these areas. She explains the challenges faced ...
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December 27, 2023 • 43 mins
In this episode of Reducing Crime, host Jerry Ratcliffe interviews criminologist David Weisburd. They discuss Weisburd's career, his work on hotspots policing and procedural justice, and his advice for young scholars. Weisburd emphasizes the importance of focusing on long-term research questions rather than being swayed by current trends or immediate concerns. He also discusses the misconceptions surrounding hotspots policing, incl...
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November 28, 2023 • 39 mins
In this episode of the Reducing Crime podcast, host Jerry Ratcliffe interviews Martin Bouchard, a professor of criminology at Simon Fraser University, about social network analysis and its application to understanding gangs and organized crime groups. Bouchard explains the concepts of social network analysis, including dyads and brokers, and discusses how police can use this understanding to strategically target and disrupt crimina...
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October 30, 2023 • 37 mins
In this episode of the Reducing Crime Podcast, host Jerry Ratcliffe interviews Detective Superintendent Dave Cowan of Australia's Victoria Police. They discuss Cowan's journey into evidence-based policing (EBP) and the experiments he has conducted, including a focused deterrence trial and a trial using behavioral science to reduce failure to appear at court. They also discuss the importance of rigorous testing and evaluation in pol...
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September 27, 2023 • 41 mins
In this episode of Reducing Crime, host Jerry Ratcliffe interviews Seth Williams, the former Philadelphia District Attorney who was convicted and incarcerated on charges related to the receipt of undisclosed gifts. Williams discusses his time in prison and the role of the District Attorney. He talks about his background and experiences as a prosecutor, as well as his efforts to implement community-based prosecution and reduce gun v...
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August 30, 2023 • 42 mins
In this episode of "Reducing Crime," host Jerry Ratcliffe sits down with criminology legend Ron Clarke to discuss his career and contributions to the field. Clarke is known for his development of situational crime prevention and the rational choice perspective on crime. He emphasizes the importance of practical application in criminology and the need for targeted interventions based on careful analysis of micro-environments associa...
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July 28, 2023 • 36 mins
In this episode of the ReducingCrime Podcast, host Jerry Ratcliffe interviews Terry Cherry, a recruiting officer with the Charleston South Carolina Police Department. Cherry discusses her evidence-based approach to police recruitment and retention, as well as her work with academic colleagues. She emphasizes the importance of treating recruitment like a business, understanding the competition, and systematizing the recruitment proc...
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June 29, 2023 • 39 mins
Andrew Lemieux manages the Problem-Oriented Wildlife Protection program for LEAD Ranger – an organization that supports wildlife park rangers around the world. Dr. Lemieux is also the editor-in-chief of the Wilderness Problems Resource Portal, an open-source collection of guides and manuals specifically written for field teams and hosted by the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing. We talk about poaching, wildlife crime, habitat ma...
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May 30, 2023 • 42 mins
Mark Evans, OBE is the Executive Lead for Future Policing with the New Zealand Police (NZP), and Vice President of the Australia and New Zealand Society of Evidence Based Policing. He is the chair of the independent advisory board at the Royal New Zealand Police College and has an operational portfolio focused on fair and equitable policing outcomes, evidence-based policing, and the future use of new technologies. In a previous car...
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April 26, 2023 • 39 mins
Dr. Steve James is now an assistant professor in the Department of Translational Medicine and Physiology at Washington State University, having previously served for over 20 years in the British military. He has since become one of the US’s foremost experts on the effects of fatigue and sleep deprivation on law enforcement. He outlines a range of practical ways police officers can manage their sleep, coffee and stimulant intake, ov...
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March 28, 2023 • 34 mins
Ken Pease, OBE is a British crime prevention legend, and the pioneer who directed the Kirkholt repeat burglary prevention project. He is currently a visiting professor at University College London, the University of Manchester, and Huddersfield University. We discuss the Kirkholt project, as well as his time teaching in Canada, having his class bombed by the provisional IRA, repeat victimization, and misleading government graphics.
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February 27, 2023 • 38 mins
Vera Bumpers is the police chief for the Houston Metro Transit Authority Police Department. She has served as the president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives and is this year’s winner of the Woman Law Enforcement Executive of the Year Award. We talk about mentorship, community outreach, and her role encouraging other women in policing.
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January 26, 2023 • 39 mins
Scott Payne served in law enforcement for 28 years, primarily with the FBI in a long-term undercover capacity. We discuss his role infiltrating outlaw motorcycle gangs, sacrificing goats to gain access to white supremacist, neo-Nazi groups, and playing Lynyrd Skynyrd songs at Ku Klux Klan rallies. He also talks honestly about the mental and physical toll it took on him and his personal relationships.
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December 17, 2022 • 37 mins
Jeff Asher is a nationally recognized crime data analyst and co-founder of the data analytics firm AH Datalytics. Jeff spent years as a crime analyst with both the City of New Orleans and Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, and prior to that he worked on spook street, as an analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency and Department of Defense. Jeff’s analyses have appeared nationally on data journalism website FiveThirtyEight, The N...
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November 29, 2022 • 41 mins
Art Acevedo is the interim police chief in Aurora, Colorado, and has been a chief with the California Highway Patrol, in Austin, Texas, Houston, Texas, and for a short tumultuous tenure, Miami, Florida. We talk about his career, his viral public address after the murder of George Floyd, and what needs to change in police leadership.
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October 27, 2022 • 35 mins
Stijn Ruiter is a Dutch sociologist who specializes in environmental criminology and why crime happens where it does. Since 2009, he has worked at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement. We chat about translating policing research across national boundaries, and in particular his role as research program leader for a new initiative – what works in policing – towards evidence-based policing in the Nethe...
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September 27, 2022 • 38 mins
A cop for over 45 years, Bill Brooks is the chief of the Norwood, Massachusetts police department. He is also an award-winning expert on eyewitness identification and has worked closely with the Innocence Project. We discuss the police pullback, generational change in policing, and the latest approaches to eyewitness identification.
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