Biography
Simon left the Metropolitan Police (MPS) in Feb 2022 after having completed just over 30 years service. His last three posts were as the BCU Commander (Detective Chief Superintendent) for North West London, Temporary Commander Crime (Assistant Chief Constable) for the MPS and his last post before finishing was as the OCU Commander (Detective Chief Superintendent) for Met Intelligence. He is now finishing of his PhD whilst also now working for the Cambridge Centre for Evidence-Based Policing.
Simon’s first degree was in Chemistry at Essex University before joining the Metropolitan Police in 1992. He returned to education in 2009 undertaking an MBA (with distinction) at Warwick Business School. His dissertation was on a trial of e-engagement tactics to improve confidence in policing. Simon came to the Institute of Criminology in Cambridge in 2016 as a student on the Masters in Applied Criminology and Police management program. His thesis was on the solvability factors for anti-Semitic and Islamophobic hate crime in London. He presented the findings of his MSt research at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology and at the 11th Cambridge Evidence Based Policing conference. Until his research there had been no quantitative faith hate crime solvability work in the UK due to sample size issues. He graduated with a course and thesis distinction. Simon returned to the Institute of Criminology in 2018 to start his PhD.
His PhD research is: 'An analysis of the solvability factors across all volume crime types to fill the gaps in solvability factor research, resolve the contradictions between previous studies and address the challenges to external validity arising from different datasets'.
Research
Simon’s research interest has followed on from the learning from his MSt around 'solvability'. His MSt addressed a very narrow area of faith hate crime solvability with some environmental factors considered. His PhD is examining which crime circumstances, discretionary solvability factors and environmental factors are the best predictors of solvability for all volume crime types.
As a result of the current literature around volume crime solvability producing contradictory findings, and highly context specific findings by crime type, geography and jurisdiction a patchwork quilt of evidence with many holes exists. Simon’s research, using the very large Metropolitan Police dataset, seeks to test the external validity of findings from different geographies and jurisdictions. It will also do this simultaneously across all volume crime types. Simon is also introducing a far wider range of environmental factors and community factors to build a richer and more consistent picture of crime solvability factors.
Publications
- Rose, S., Coupe, R. T., & Arial, B. (2019) Solvability Factors and Investigative Stragety for Faith Hate Crime: Anti-Semitic and Islamophobic Assault, Criminal Damage and Public Order Offences in London. In R.T. Coupe, B. Ariel & K. Mueller-Johnson (eds), Crime Solvability Factors. Police Resources and Crime Detection , Chapter 5. Springer Link
Teaching and Supervisions
Simon has undertaken some ad hoc lecturing at London South Bank University and Middlesex University.
