About the author

Jerry Ratcliffe is a former British police officer, college professor, and host of the Reducing Crime podcast. He is a former police officer with London’s Metropolitan Police (UK) where he served for several years on patrol duties, in an intelligence unit, and as a member of the Diplomatic Protection Group. Due to a winter mountaineering accident while ice climbing in the Scottish Highlands, he left the police service after 11 years. He completed a first class B.Sc. with honors in Geography at the University of Nottingham (UK) and has a Ph.D. from the same institution. 

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As a lecturer in policing (intelligence) based at the New South Wales Police College he coordinated Australia’s National Strategic Intelligence Course. Dr Ratcliffe also worked as a senior research analyst with the Australian Institute of Criminology, where he conducted one of the first evaluations of an intelligence-led policing operation. Dr Ratcliffe is now Professor of Criminal Justice at Temple University, Philadelphia, and a scientific advisor to the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Ratcliffe was a member of the National Academies of Science Committee on Proactive Policing and currently sits on the FBI Law Enforcement Education and Training Council. In 2015 the US Attorney General appointed him to the Department of Justice’s OJP Science Advisory Board.​ 

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Since moving to the US in 2003, he has worked with numerous agencies and most closely the Philadelphia Police Department. He was the lead researcher on the Philadelphia Foot Patrol Experiment, a citywide study of foot patrol in violent crime hotspots which won awards from the ASC Division of Experimental Criminology and the International Association of Chiefs of Police. From 2015-17, he was the academic lead on the Philadelphia Predictive Policing Experiment, and he is currently running an experiment pairing transit police officers with social workers. He has been a research advisor to the Philadelphia Police Commissioner and the Criminal Investigative Division of the FBI, and for a number of years conducted intelligence-led policing training in El Salvador and across Central America on behalf of the US State Department.

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He has published over 100 research articles and numerous books, including "Intelligence-Led Policing", "Reducing Crime: A Companion for Police Leaders" and "Evidence-Based Policing: The Basics". He has twice received the Professional Service Award from the International Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts (IALEIA), has been awarded the LEIU Distinguished Service Award, and in 2014 he received the Ronald V. Clarke ECCA award for contributions to environmental criminology and crime analysis. He is a Fellow of both the Academy of Experimental Criminology and the Royal Geographical Society. In 2019 he received the Joan McCord award from the Academy of Experimental Criminology, and in 2023 was awarded the Sir Robert Peel medal.​

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Jerry was an officer in the British Army reserves (Royal Engineers), led an expedition down the Selenga river in Siberia, and was the first non-Iban tribesman to successfully navigate (with a traditional carved boat) the rapids of the Temburong river in Borneo. He has visited every continent (including Antarctica), is an instrument rated seaplane pilot, and also likes to scuba dive, ski, and drink bourbon…just not at the same time.