I’m a Senior Lecturer in Criminology, and I am the current Programme Leader of the Degree Programme. I specialise in policing and criminal justice.

I’m a former Senior Police Officer, having retired from Strathclyde Police in 2010 after 30 years’ service. I held various positions including Deputy Manager of a multi-agency initiative designed to reduce gang violence across Glasgow. 

My research interests focus on policy transfer in international criminal justice - specifically violence prevention initiatives.  My PhD research was an in-depth case study of the policy transfer of the Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV) to Glasgow.

I’m interested in all aspects of policing research and have recently carried out work on the policing of parades and demonstrations, and citizen engagement in policing. 

I was a Co-Investigator with a multi-university team examining the impact of organised crime on Scottish Communities that reported to the Government in May 2018. I am also an academic advisor to the National Violence Prevention Board.

In July 2018 Northamptonshire Polcie employed me a Consultant to advise them on the establishment of a violence reduction programme for gangs, building on my previous experience in the police in Glasgow and my PhD research.

I carried out an evaluation of the effectiveness of Braveheart Industries (Street and Arrow Cafe) in Glasgow on behalf of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, a social enterprise venture that trains ex-offenders in the workplace, reporting in April 2020.

I have also completed a major project on behalf of Police Scotland and The Scottish Police Authority, evaluating the Mobile Working Project for the police, which evaluated the roll out of mobile devices to officers replacing the paper notebooks. The report was submitted in December 2020.

I’m also an Associate Member of the Scottish Centre for Criminal Justice Research, and a member of the Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR), sitting on its Education and Leadership Network.

William teaches on a variety of modules in the Criminology Degree

CRM201 - Introduction to Criminal Justice Processes

CRM302 - Police Policing and Policework

CRM303 - Penal Institutions

CRM404 - Policing in the 21st Century

William's area of PhD research is in international criminal justice policy transfer, in particular the transfer of a gang project from Cincinnati (USA) to Glasgow.

He is particulary interested in all aspects of police research, given his 30 years experience in Strathclyde Police, retiring in 2010.   

William is curently a Co-Investigator for the Community Impact of Organised Crime on Scottish Communities, funded by the Scottish Government, with colleagues from Stirling and Glasgow Universities.

William is part of a group who have been successful in bidding for a Scottish Government contract worth £152,000 to carry out an evaluation of the impact the Organsided Crime Gangs have on communities in Scotland. This evaluation will commence in August 2016 and will run for 18 months.

William is a member of the National Violence Prevention Board as an academic advisor.

William has established links with various universities in America, most notably the University of Cincinnati, Georeg Mason University (Washington DC) and Northern Kentucky University.

In May 2016, he hosted a group of Cincinnati students and staff who were visiting Scotland to learn more about Scottish Criminal Justice matters. They spent time at Abertay University, where they will be learning about Scots Law, policing and forensic science matters and visited the Police HQ in Dundee, as well as Glasgow Sheriff Court and Barlinnie Prison in Glasgow.

This will be the start of an exchange programme with the University of Cincinnati in the future.

William is a Consultant with Northamptonshire Police (from July 2018) working with them to establish a violence reduction programme for gangs, Northampton Community Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV).