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 Trudy Lowe

Trudy Lowe

Research Fellow

Email
lowet@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
(0)29 2087 5440
Campuses
5th Floor,

Overview

I am a Research Fellow in the Universities' Police Science Institute and Crime and Security Research Institute, where my interests centre of police science in a broad sense. 

I am currently the lead for UPSI's work with South Wales Police, where my research interests include the development and evaluation of policing interventions across a range of operational areas, from Neighbourhood Policing to Counter Terrorism.

I developed and lead the Institute's innovative Policing Future's Programme, a strategic joint venture with South Wales Police which aims to upskill its officers and staff in research methodologies and the importance of evidence-based policing.    

Biography

I spent 18 years working in clinical research in the pharmaceutical industry before moving into social science, studying for a master's degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Surrey.

I was a Research Fellow for the Signal Crimes Research team throughout the National Reassurance Policing Programme and contributed to the development of SENSOR, an operational methodology for the collection and analysis of signal crimes within communities. Over 17 years I have been involved in training police officers from over 15 different forces to use the methodolgy to understand better what matters to people in relation to crime and disorder in ther neighbourhoods.  

I have been a Research Fellow at UPSI since its inception in 2007, during which time I have contributed to police science projects in a number of operational areas, from Neighbourhood Policing to Counter Terrorisim. Notably I have been involved a number of evaluations of policing interventions, including the role of Police Community Support Officers and Independent Domestic Violence Advocates, the roll out of South Wales Police's Automated Facial Recognition and the development of their Joint Emergency Control Centre.

Professional memberships

I am a member of the Executive Committee of the Society of Evidence-Based Policing and Regional Co-ordinator for Wales.

Publications

2023

2020

2017

2015

2012

2011

2009

2008

My current research interests include the use of community intelligence to inform neighbourhood policing and the evaluation of policing interventions across a range of operational areas. I am currently contributing to projects involving:

  • The evaluation of Facial Recognition Technology in operational use by South Wales Police
  • The development of a Welsh Safeguarding Repository to house safeguarding reviews from across Wales in a single location and the development of machine learning techniques to enable learning across cases 

I am also the lead for UPSI's innovative Policing Futures programme. A strategic joint venture with South Wales Police, each year the programme takes several cohorts of police officers and staff though the process of designing, conducting and analysing a small research project in an area of operational importance to the force. under the guidence of an academic mentor.  

I am currently contributing to the CSRI's OSCAR Programme, a major international research programme to understand the causes and consequences of disinformation within digital communications.

Supervision

Past projects