Dr Spencer Chainey is an Associate Professor at UCL’s Jill Dando Institute of Security and Crime Science (JDI), is Director of the JDI Latin America and Caribbean Unit, and JDI Director of Continuing Professional Development. Spencer’s work places him at the interface between academic research and the practical world of policing, public safety, citizen security and criminal investigation. His activities involve: research and analysis collaborations to counter organised crime; the application of research evidence to police/public safety practice; support in the creation and implementation of strategies and activities that improve crime reduction, criminal investigation and citizen security, and; furthering the education and professional development of current and future generations of practitioners and researchers. All these activities draw from his 20 plus years of international experience. In addition to activities in the UK, Spencer has worked closely with police agencies (from local to federal level), ministries and secretariats of security in Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Belize, Jamaica, New Zealand, Australia, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, China, the USA, Canada, South Africa, and Abu Dhabi. Prior to joining UCL in 2003, Spencer worked in local authorities and the Metropolitan Police in London, and as head consultant for an international software and services company specializing in community safety, regeneration and infrastructure management.

His expertise has been called upon to support the Government of Jamaica in developing a new national Citizen Security Plan, to author the UK Home Office’s national guidance on Information Sharing for Community Safety, to author a practice guide on hot spot policing for police officers in Latin America and the Caribbean, act as a consultant to the Inter-American Development Bank to advise the Argentinian government and several state governments in Brazil on the approval and use of loans totalling over US$100 million for improving police effectiveness and violence reduction, work with the Federal Police of Brazil to combat illegal gold mining and deforestation in the Amazon, improve the use of problem-oriented policing in the UK and Uruguay, conduct research that has helped to underpin a more intelligence-led approach to UK police forces’ use of stop and search, and author the UK Association of Chief Police Officer and College of Policing ’Geographical Analysis Workbook’.

Spencer has particular expertise in hot spot policing, community and problem-oriented policing (POP), intelligence-led policing (ILP), and evidence-based policing with these skills regularly called upon by police agencies who seek to improve their use of these approaches. Spencer also leads the training and mentoring of detectives and intelligence analysts on a serial crime investigation course, partnered with the UK National Crime Agency and supported by EuroPol.