Chief Constable of Merseyside Police joins LJMU

Sir Jon Murphy, the Chief Constable of Merseyside Police, who retires this month after a career of more than 40 years as a serving police officer, is to join LJMU’s Centre for Advanced Policing Studies as Professor of Advanced Policing Studies.

The Centre, established with funding from the £10m Police Knowledge Fund, combines innovative research methods with traditional means of policing to counteract modern day criminal activity.

LJMU academics work closely with police forces to deal with issues such as human trafficking, terrorism, child exploitation, hate crimes and cybercrime. The Centre houses the latest research and policing related technology including geographic information systems, forensic computing, forensic science and forensic psychology. It also delivers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate taught degree programmes and professional training courses.

Sir Jon will join a highly specialised team developing and delivering an academic framework to drive policing studies to the highest standards not only in the UK but across the world.

Sir Jon commented: “I have spent the last 41 years in policing, and I am delighted to be able to put those four decades of front-line experience, training and knowledge into a Centre that will become an international benchmark for excellence for new generations of serving officers.  The Centre is enormously important and has the right combination of evidence-based practice, academic rigour and research innovation to drive policing studies to the highest standards not only here in the UK but across the world.”

LJMU Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nigel Weatherill added: “This is a great opportunity for us to take the profession of British policing to another level altogether. We have worked in partnership with Merseyside Police for over 10 years delivering degree programmes for serving officers and more recently making those programmes available for all. We have a great team at the Centre working across all disciplines in the University, and with Sir Jon Murphy, who has spent the last six years as Chief Constable, we have the potential to be at the forefront of an exciting new era for police studies.”    

In October 2013 the University introduced the annual ‘Chief Constable Lecture Series’ with the inaugural lecture presented by Sir Jon Murphy. The lecture was presented as a public event to explore contemporary issues and debate in policing and to share viewpoints, ideas and issues that address the current state of policing in Merseyside and future challenges within our communities.

Sir Jon Murphy was made an Honorary Fellow of LJMU in 2014 in recognition of his exceptional services to policing and community relations. He will deliver the next Roscoe Lecture on Tuesday 21 June.

The news of Sir Jon joining LJMU received coverage in the Liverpool Echo and on Radio Merseyside.