Staff Profile
Steve Colgan
Before joining Buckinghamshire New University in 2022, I had a 30 year career as a police officer. I had a variety of roles, including working as a training and curriculum designer at Hendon Police College. Following involvement in the police response to the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry I was asked, with three other colleagues, to form a new department at Scotland Yard to explore problem-oriented policing and behavioural science. This then formed the backbone of the National Reassurance Programme.
The final two years of my policing career also saw me part-seconded to the Home Office to develop these ideas further with the introduction of Neighbourhood Policing. Upon retirement I spent 10 years as a consultant to various national and international police forces (while also working as a writer for TV and radio shows such as QI, The Museum of Curiosity etc.). I also ran corporate training days in problem solving, crime prevention, community engagement and behavioural science for many different private and public sector organisations. I have been a keynote speaker at events including Nudgestock, the Safer London Awards, QEDCon, CreatED and many more.
I am also the author of ‘One Step Ahead: Notes from the Problem Solving Unit’ (Penguin/Unbound). I am currently studying for an MSc in Organisational Risk and Resilience and my specialist area of interest/research is behavioural science and its application to crime reduction. I do believe that this is an area that has not yet been explored in sufficient depth - it has the potential to divert people away from committing crime as well as preventing people becoming the victims of crime.
My specialist knowledge has led me to work with organisations such as the UK Home Office, US Homeland Security, London Fire and Rescue Service, the NHS, Ogilvy Change, Aegis, the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science, the BBC, and many local authorities and police forces in the UK and USA. Most recently I was invited to Belfast to work with the Police Service of Northern Ireland on a community engagement plan in the wake of the troubles.
My career highlights vary from sharing a stage with such people as Sir Ken Robinson and Dr Buzz Aldrin to Stephen Fry saying on national television that I was a ‘most gifted intellectual’. However, my absolute highlight has been seeing the positive difference made to people’s lives and living conditions by the smart application of criminal and behavioural science.
- Lecturer