Director – Centre of Excellence for Equity in Uniformed Public Services & Professor in Applied Research in Uniformed Public Services
Emma joined the Centre of Excellence for Equity in Uniformed Public Services at Anglia Ruskin University in 2024. Prior to joining ARU, Emma was the Academic Director of the Centre for Policing Research and Learning (CPRL) at the Open University.
Emma’s career as a policing academic started as a principal researcher at the Metropolitan Police Service where she undertook applied, operational, and strategic research on several policing related issues such as rape and serious sexual offending, trust and confidence in policing and neighborhood policing. Emma completed a two-year secondment with the Ministry of Justice and following that joined Canterbury Christ Church University as a senior lecturer where she was responsible for the design and delivery of a successful MSc programme for serving police officers. She was made principal lecturer in 2016 and in 2017 developed the Canterbury Centre of Police Research which she directed until she left to become the Research Director at CPRL in 2021.
Emma was awarded a PhD from London Southbank University in 2018 for a thesis that explored police officer perspectives on the challenges to reform focused on improving the police investigation of rape.
From 2021 whilst at CPRL Emma led one of the research pillars for Operation Soteria (Home Office funded project) exploring the investigation of rape and serious sexual offending. Emma and her team led the work on officer wellbeing, learning and development which has culminated in the specialist course for officers who investigate rape being redesigned and piloted in collaboration with the College of Policing. Emma’s work is influenced by policing scholarship, justice theory, organizational theories, criminology, and sociology. Emma is also committed to knowledge mobilization and Impact.
Research Interests
- Organizational legitimacy
- Violence against Women and Girls
- Collaboration and research co-design
- Organizational and procedural justice
