Christopher D. O’Connor is an Associate Professor of Criminology at Ontario Tech University. His primary research areas include policing, youth participation in crime, rapid growth communities, and emerging/disruptive technologies. He has researched public perceptions of a range of issues including crime, disruptive technologies, and attitudes toward the police. More recently, his research has examined police data quality and collection techniques, facial recognition technology and AI use by police, evidence-based policing, and police leadership.
Professor Ian Pepper is a professional educator, researcher, and leader within undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral, and work-based policing higher education. His research interests include policing and higher education, police leadership, evidence informed practice and volunteers. Ian provides advice and guidance nationally to policing on higher education, curriculum design and programme development.
Ian has successfully consulted, directed learning, taught programmes and formed policing partnerships nationally and internationally. In 2021/2022, Ian chaired the development of the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education/College of Policing national subject benchmark statement for policing.
Formerly a principal lecturer in policing at Teesside University, Ian has also been a senior lecturer in crime scene and forensic science, police crime scene investigator (CSI), fingerprint officer and volunteer special constable. Ian has been an instructor and team leader at the National Training Centre for Scientific Support to Crime Investigation.
Ian has authored over 50 peer reviewed books and journal articles; he is also Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Living in North East England, in his spare time, Ian volunteers with a youth organisation and enjoys hill walking.
Dr. Ross Wolf is Interim Dean of the College of Community Innovation and Education (CCIE) at the University of Central Florida. As CCIE’s interim chief academic, administrative and fiscal officer, he oversees nine academic units and 11 centers and institutes on the university’s main campus and the UCF Downtown campus. He is responsible for establishing public and private partnerships that help optimize the workforce pipeline in Central Florida by providing students with real-world experiences that position them for successful careers. In addition to this role, he also serves as a Professor in UCF’s Department of Criminal Justice, as a Visiting Scholar with the University of Virginia Center for Public Safety and Justice, Visiting Professor with the Institute for Public Safety, Crime, and Justice at the University of Northampton (United Kingdom), and Senior Research Associate and International Collaborative Partner at the Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (Malaysia). He has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles, professional articles, books, and book chapters on campus law enforcement, police administration and management, volunteer policing, police use of force, tourism policing, and international policing. He has worked with policing agencies throughout the United States, but also with the police in Aruba, Dubai, England, Estonia, Hong Kong, Hungary, Lithuania, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Singapore, St. Lucia, and Wales. Dr. Wolf was selected as a Fellow of the American Council on Education in 2022.