Spotlight on Lisa Tompson
27 July 2012
This week the spotlight is on Lisa Tompson, Research Associate, UCL Department of Security and Crime Science.
What is your role and what does it involve?
The
UCL Department of Security and Crime Science always has so many projects and
activities going on, my role is really varied.
At the moment, most of my time is devoted to getting a project off the
ground, which is going to host an online repository of practice guides for
practitioners - called JDiBrief.
These
will act as digests - classifying, condensing and demystifying current research
findings (from academic and government sources), so that crime and security
professionals can assimilate the information and integrate it into their busy
lives.
We know that during this age of austerity there is an expectation for public agencies to do more with fewer resources. We see the practice guides as being able to contribute to well-informed decision-making, which will help deliver against these expectations.
Other key parts of my job include training crime analysts and researchers in key theoretical concepts and practical techniques that allow them to optimise their analytical outputs. I also enjoy being involved in research projects that focus on problem-solving and geographical crime analysis.
How long have you been at 911±¬ÁÏÍø and what was your previous role?
I've been at 911±¬ÁÏÍø for six years now as a researcher and my pathway in
was the Crime Science MSc. I spent my working
life before that with my local police force, first as an administrator in
various departments and then, for the last three years, as a crime analyst.
It's my practitioner background which impassions me to find new and better ways to communicate research findings to the professional world.
What working achievement or initiative are you most proud of?
I get a kick out of watching people have that 'light bulb' moment when
we're teaching them - whether it is our MSc students or practitioners at events
that we run.
Some of the principles we talk
about are so simple once you've been introduced to them, but they really
transform the way you go about analysing, understanding and responding to crime
problems.
That's why I'm really excited about the JDiBrief project - it will allow us to extend our reach to a truly international audience, and will hopefully benefit busy practitioners who are trying to reduce victimisation and improve policing tactics.
What is your life like outside UCL?
I'm doing a part-time PhD in addition to my full-time research job so my 'spare' time is very precious to me! I love indulging my food and wine passions - either cooking at home for friends or going out to new places to sample new things. To offset this, I swim regularly and am massively into yoga.