Spotlight on Lisa Tompson

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 UCL and what was your previous role?

I've been at UCL 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.