Solution Oriented Policing Group

The Solution Oriented Policing Group (SOPG) at De Montfort University is an international research, consultancy, and professional development network that works with law enforcement agencies, governments, and communities to reduce crime through policy design rather than through tactical response. The SOPG is housed within Leicester Castle Business School (LCBS), a globally Highly Commended business school, where we draw on Business Management science to anticipate and dismantle contemporary criminal enterprise, develop police governing capacity, and build trust and confidence with stakeholders. Our network consists of over 40 world leading scholars, senior law enforcement officials, and pracademics across five continents.

Contemporary organised crime operates through an entrepreneurial mindset that reads markets, weighs risks, exploits gaps, and opens new business ventures by seizing emerging opportunities. Many criminal enterprises also run with executives, payroll, supply chains, market strategy, and legitimate front operations. Our approach thus focuses on the systemic conditions and gaps that allow crime to become feasible, and studying what future crime might look like to anticipate and prevent the conditions that make that crime profitable. Solution-Oriented Practice, our framework for this, starts from a co-created safety vision with stakeholders, then reverse engineers the methods needed to achieve that vision. We examine proposed technologies, tactics, or policies not against their performance, but rather against the conditions that allow criminals to evade, corrupt, or repurpose them.  

Our Leadership Model: Solution-Oriented Practice

Think Organised Crime Business

Crime is a symptom of conditions that were allowed to form. Those conditions can be identified, probed and removed, which requires police to develop capacity for lateral thinking, reflexive practice and collective intelligence. Our objective is to put crime out of business, so that prevention gradually replaces response and the long-term running costs of public safety are reduced.

Areas of Expertise

Our consultancy network delivers specialist capability across:

  • Organised Crime Business (OCB) Intelligence, Investigation and Disruption
  • Corruption, Illicit Finance, Money Laundering, Cryptoassets and Asset Recovery
  • Security Standards and National Policy Development
  • Violence Reduction, Public Health Approaches and Restorative Justice
  • Community Intelligence, Legitimacy and Collaborative Governance
  • Counter-Terrorism and Border Security
  • Leadership, Culture and Organisational Transformation

What we offer

Organised crime business disruption

Reverse-engineering of criminal enterprises using business analysis. We map operations, supply chains, financial flows and market dependencies to locate the commercial weaknesses that make an enterprise fail.

Systems diagnosis and operating model design

Diagnostic study of how work actually flows through a force. We analyse demand, measure capability against purpose, and redesign the operating model around outcomes.

Police economics and financial management

Econometric modelling, cost-benefit and cost-avoidance analysis, demand forecasting, investment appraisal and budget design.

Governance, administration and efficiency review

Our work addresses the structural causes of inefficiency rather than the symptoms visible in performance data, and is grounded in public sector governance research.

Standards, regulation and policy development

Drafting and review of professional standards, regulatory frameworks and national policy guidance. Our network includes the author of BSI PAS 5222:2024, a member of the ISO/TC 292 technical committee on security and resilience, and contributors to Home Office serious and organised crime strategy.

Analytical capability building

Capability design and training for analysts and intelligence functions, covering quantitative methods, business analytics, econometrics, financial investigation, intelligence analysis and data governance. Our members helped build the UK's National Intelligence Analysis Training Course and designed the first master's degree in criminal intelligence analysis in the world.

Executive education and CPD

Credited continuing professional development at Levels 6 and 7, including strategic (Gold) command and research-informed decision making, business analytics and quantitative methods for police analysts, financial and commercial literacy for command teams, and leadership development grounded in the Nolan Principles.


Doctoral training for police leaders

A forthcoming practice-based distance learning doctorate for senior officers and security executives who want doctoral-level strategic capability without stepping away from operational command, alongside structured PhD supervision that treats doctoral research as a vehicle for institutional change. Our candidates include officials from the Home Office, the Police Federation and serving forces.

Applied research

Commissioned and collaborative research across the areas above. We produce knowledge that is peer-reviewed, policy-relevant and operationally usable.

Strategic consultancy

Bespoke advisory work for police forces, government bodies and international organisations, drawing on the full depth of our pracademic network. Assignments range from force restructuring and strategy development to organised crime disruption and the design of stakeholder engagement.

Conferences and policy roundtables

We convene international events and closed-door sessions that bring scholars, senior practitioners and policymakers together to co-design research agendas against operational priorities.

Community engagement and co-production

Design and facilitation of stakeholder co-creation processes and collaborative toolkits that position local communities as architects of their own safety futures.

Our team

  1. Leadership team (co-founders)

    Dr Ahmad Al-Hiari (Director)

    Founder and Lead of the De Montfort University (DMU) Policy Unit. EMPAC Senior Research Fellow. Expert in Public Management, Policy Transfer, Anti-corruption Policy, Governance Reform, Collaborative Leadership, and Elite Interviewing. Visiting Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Corruption, University of Sussex. Consultant in Public Sector Governance, Risk and Compliance.

    Email: ahmad.al-hiari2@dmu.ac.uk

    Professor John Coxhead

    Head of Policy and Research at the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW), United Nations representative in Geneva for the International Police Executive Symposium (IPES) and a twice-recipient of the Queen’s Award for Innovation in Police Learning and Development. He developed the Organised Crime Business framework. He has undertaken research with the National Crime Agency and INTERPOL and has worked with the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

    Email: john.coxhead@dmu.ac.uk

    Professor Ruwan Uduwerage-Perera

    Visiting Professor (DMU & Staffordshire), and Emeritus Professor (Rashtriya Raksha University). First elected National Black Police Association General Secretary. Expert in Police Education Development and Community Cohesion. Former Policing Diverse Communities Manager for the College of Policing. Former Adviser on Equality, Diversity and Community Engagement for the National Centre for Policing Excellence. Previously Director of Policing, Criminology & Justice and the PIEL Centre for Policing, Innovation, Enterprise and Learning at the University of East London.

    Email: ruwan.uduwerage-perera@dmu.ac.uk

  2. Members

    Professor Garth den Heyer

    Adjunct Professor at Arizona State University. Senior Fellow of both the National Policing Institute in Washington DC and the Scottish Institute for Policing Research. He served thirty-eight years in policing, latterly as Principal Advisor for Strategic Development and Planning within the National Response and Operations Group at national headquarters (New Zealand), and spent more than twelve years as Manager for National Security with responsibility for counter-terrorism, border security, emergency management and national disaster response. He has delivered econometrics and strategic analytics training to United States police forces.

    garth.denheyer@dmu.ac.uk

    Professor Rob McCusker

    Transnational Crime Consultant. Retained expert on innovation and foresight in organised crime for INTERPOL, and a retained expert on anti-money laundering, combating organised crime and combating terrorism financing for the Economic Crime and Cooperation Division of the Council of Europe. He advises the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, sits on the Advisory Board of the Global Terrorism Trends and Analysis Centre in the United States, which supports the Bureau of Counterterrorism at the State Department, and formerly directed the Centre for Fraud and Financial Crime at Teesside University.

    rob.mccusker@dmu.ac.uk

    Professor Stan Gilmour KPM

    Former Professor of Practice at Keele University. Founder & CEO of Oxon Advisory. National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for Risk Technology and is directing development of a Common Data Platform for cross-sector information sharing. He previously served as Director of the Thames Valley Violence Reduction Unit. 30-year law enforcement career. King's Police Medal recipient. Expert in data-driven policing and violence reduction.

    stan.gilmour@dmu.ac.uk

    Professor Kelly Sundberg

    Professor at Mount Royal University. Adjunct Professor at Calgary, Adelaide and East London. Fellow of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. 15 years experience in border security, policy development and advisory roles with the Canada Border Services Agency. Expert advisor to the Calgary Police Service (CPS), the Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police (AACP), the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Played a leading role in the development of the ISO/TC 292 Security and Resilience, and sits on its technical committee.

    kelly.sundberg@dmu.ac.uk

    Professor Tom Ellis

    Visiting Professor (Public Security) in Japan and China. Principal Lecturer at University of Portsmouth Institute of Criminal Justice Studies. Consultant for Chinese police forces on criminal justice reform. Sits on the Ministry of Justice Race Statistics Advisory Board and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre research panel. He previously worked in the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate and at the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute in Rome.

    tom.ellis@dmu.ac.uk

    Professor Keith Cozine

    Chair, Criminal Justice and Homeland Security at St John's University New York. Regional Vice-President of the International Association for Intelligence Education. Former US Homeland Security intelligence officer. Holds the Defense Intelligence Agency Award and the McIntyre Homeland Security Educator Award.

    Terry O’Connell OAM

    Global pioneer of restorative policing. Recipient of the Medal of the Order of Australia. Awarded Doctor of the University from the Australian Catholic University and Professor (Hon.) in Restorative Justice from UEL. Former Real Justice Australia Director - International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP). Churchill Fellowship recipient with international experience in restorative justice methodologies.

    Dr Paul Betts

    Retired Detective Chief Superintendent, formerly National Prevent Coordinator at Counter Terrorism Policing Headquarters, New Scotland Yard. Honorary Professor at Birmingham Law School. Head of Policing at Rabdan Academy in Abu Dhabi.

    Chief Superintendent (retired) Niven Rennie

    Former Chief Superintendent, Director of Scottish Violence Reduction Unit. Recognized as "Scotland’s Top Cop". Global expert on violence reduction methodologies. Scotland reduced homicides 39% through holistic partnership approaches under his leadership.

    Detective Superintendent (retired) Shane Roberts

    Home Office Policy Lead. Architect of the Home Office Clear-Hold-Build national strategy for serious and organised crime. Retired Detective Superintendent with thirty years in the field. Contributed to the Participation in Organised Crime Offence and Unexplained Wealth Orders, wrote the National Lead Responsible Officer guidance. RUSI Senior Associate Fellow. Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Commendation Recipient. PhD Researcher at DMU (Extended Professional Practice).

    Dr Howard Atkin

    45 years in police complex investigation, intelligence and analysis. Helped develop the UK’s standard National Intelligence Analysis Training Course and the Organised Crime Group Mapping system, designed the world’s first Criminal Intelligence Analysis masters. International expert, United Nations Drug Control Programme and the Council of Europe. Former Senior Lecturer in Policing at University of Huddersfield.

    Dr Nathanael Webb

    20 years of financial investigation across HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the Serious Organised Crime Agency, the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the International Anti-Corruption Coordination Centre (IACCC), specialising in money laundering, kleptocracy and grand corruption involving politically exposed persons.

    Dr Gerald Doyle

    Founder and Director of Financial Pathways Consultancy, specialising in financial crime, fraud, and governance training. Former Lecturer at Nottingham Trent University and the University of Buckingham. Member of Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime. Delivered capacity building projects in Jordan, Dubai, Kosovo, as well as other countries in Africa and the Caribbean. Delivered interactive reform projects in Money Laundering, Asset Tracing, Corruption, Corporate Governance, Wildlife crime, and Human Trafficking.

    Detective Sergeant (retired) Abdul-Hye Miah

    30-year Metropolitan Police career including Counter Terrorism, Hostage Negotiation, Anti-Corruption, and Special Branch. Member of London Policing Ethics Panel and Advance HE Race Equality Charter Panel. Designed and delivered the UK National Advanced Counter Terrorism Interview Course. Panel Member on the European Network of Experts on Radicalisation. Independent Consultant in Counter Extremism and Strategic Communications.

    Dr Vineet Kapoor IPS

    Deputy Inspector General of Police, Madhya Pradesh, India. Regional Police Training Coordinator at the UN Mission in Kosovo-UNMIK. British Chevening Human Rights Fellow, FCDO. Visiting Professor in Global Security, Justice and Human Rights at the Democracy Lab of the University of Virginia. Recipient of the Leadership in Community Safety Award by the International Association of the Chiefs of Police (ICAP). Global expert in Community Policing.

    Dr Chris Allen

    Visiting Research Fellow at DMU. Director of Criminis Training and Consultancy. Member of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime Network of Experts. Learning and Instructional Design Consultant for the Metropolitan Police Service Former Senior Lecturer and Consultant at the London Policing College, where he has delivered training courses to law enforcement in Cambodia and Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and Brazil.

    Detective Sergeant (retired) Paul Matthews

    PFEW National Board Member with lead responsibilities for Leadership, Culture and Workloads, Non-Executive Director at College of Policing, and Deputy Secretary of National Detective Forum. Experienced Detective Sergeant with 20+ years Met Police experience. PhD candidate at DMU researching fractious leadership effects on police culture. PhD Researcher at DMU (Extended Professional Practice).

    Dr Martin Wright

    Honorary Professor at Bangor University. Former police officer for 30 years. Creator of Retail Radio Link and Virtual Police Volunteers Programme. Only police officer granted ABI Doctoral Scholarship. Series Editor for Routledge Advances in Police Practice and Knowledge. Former Director of the Central Institute for the Study of Public Protection and Head of Department of Uniformed Services at University of Wolverhampton.

    Dr Simon Fox

    Head of Department for Policing, Criminology and Forensics at University of Winchester. Over 25 years’ experience across criminology, policing, law, and forensic science. Chair of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary Ethics Committee. Author of BSI PAS 5222:2024 standards.

    Detective Superintendent (retired) Ian Davidson

    Former Detective Superintendent with Derbyshire Police. Former Programme Manager of the Regional Organised Crime Unit Development at the Association of Chief Police Officers. Independent Researcher in policing and criminal justice. Extensive operational experience in serious crime investigation and police leadership.

    Detective Superintendent (retired) Jim Holyoak

    Former Detective Superintendent and Service Improvement Manager at Leicestershire Police. MSc. Public Leadership and Management, Warwick Business School. Fromer Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship (PCDA) Programme Leader at De Montfort University. Independent Leadership Pracademic and Facilitator.

    Superintendent (retired) David Hill

    Senior Research Fellow and Programme Director of the East Midlands Police Academic Collaboration (EMPAC). Former Northamptonshire Police Superintendent and Ministry of Defence Police officer. 27 years policing experience. Visiting Fellow at University of Northampton. Expert in change management, organisational development, and emotional intelligence in policing.

    Dr Alex Paradise

    Former Senior Lecturer in Criminal Justice and Policing at the University of East London and Assistant Diocesan Safeguarding Officer at the Church of England Diocese of Derby. Former police investigator within the East Midlands. Expertise in safeguarding and criminal investigations. External Examiner for the Institute of Policing at the University of Staffordshire. DMU Policy Fellow.

    Detective Sergeant (retired) John Marriott

    Former Senior Lecturer and former detective sergeant with over 20 years’ policing experience, specialising in safeguarding vulnerable persons. Programme Lead for Degree Holder Entry Programme at the University of East London. Leads undergraduate modules in mental health and criminal investigations and was the lead for continuous professional development.

    Dr Keshav Kumar IPS

    Emeritus Professor at India’s Rashtriya Raksha University, Advisor to the Government of Assam. 35 years Indian Police Service. PhD in Forensic Psychology. Specialises in forensic applications in crime investigation, achieving 62 convictions. International expert in environmental and wildlife crime investigation. International trainer and consultant.

    Suraj Pratim Saikia

    Legal Operations Consultant at UNDP, and Conflict Prevention & Sustaining Peace Global Fellow at the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research in New York. Worked at the Department of Peace Operations, United Nations Development Programme, and the International Law Commission. Expertise in peace operations, peacebuilding, international organisations, and institutional accountability.

  3. Academic faculty

    Professor Edward Cartwright

    Professor of Economics and interim Associate Dean for Research and Innovation in the Faculty of Business and Law. Expert in game theory, public economics and behavioural economics, and has spent more than fifteen years on the economics of cybersecurity including ransomware and the human dimensions of cyber-security. Supported the East Midlands Chambers to establish a Regional Business Intelligence Unit and Collective Intelligence Skills Unit.

    edward.cartwright@dmu.ac.uk

    Dr Monty Mountford OBE

    DMU Post Doc Researcher. 34-year military career (Regular and Reserve) in Intelligence Corps (retired as Lieutenant Colonel). Joint Services Staff College graduate (2003). Extensive military experience spanning front-line operations to strategic assessment and policy development, including multiple roles working in partnership with law enforcement.

    monty.mountford@dmu.ac.uk

    Dr Ed Thompson

    Associate Professor Enterprise. Former Faculty Director of Apprenticeships (BAL). Lead author of the best-selling United Kingdom textbook on business context. Expert on police austerity governance and crisis management, a QAA reviewer, and a serving external examiner and validation panel member for United Kingdom higher education institutions.

    ethompson@dmu.ac.uk

    Professor Dave Walsh

    Professor in Criminal Investigation. Founding member of the International Investigative Interviewing Research Group and leads a major COST Action spanning more than three hundred researchers across fifty-six countries on implementation of the Méndez Principles. He is recognised as a Global Professor in Criminology at Leuven and has secured over £12 million in research funding from the ESRC, the Home Office and the European COST programme.

    dave.walsh@dmu.ac.uk

  4. Advisory board

    Professor Rob Nixon CBE QPM DL (Chair)

    Former Leicestershire Chief Constable (2022-2025), 32-year police career. NPCC Criminal Justice lead. Queen’s Police Medal 2020, Deputy Lieutenant. Created nationally-recognised Team Leicestershire Academy. Expert in police transformation and innovation. Led force through COVID-19 pandemic as strategic coordination lead, introduced cloud infrastructure and AI capabilities, established Prevention Directorate tackling root causes of crime.

    rob.nixon@dmu.ac.uk

    Sir Craig Mackey QPM

    Non-Executive Director of HM Revenue and Customs. Served as Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police for six years and previously as Chief Constable of Cumbria. He conducted the Independent Review of Serious and Organised Crime for the United Kingdom Government and sits on the British Transport Police Authority and the Civil Nuclear Police Authority.

    Craig Naylor

    His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary in Scotland under Royal Warrant, an independent appointment carrying powers to examine the state, effectiveness and efficiency of Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority. He previously served as Deputy Director of Investigations at the National Crime Agency, where he commanded Operation Stovewood, the largest law enforcement investigation into non-familial child sexual exploitation in the UK.

The East Midlands Policing-Academic Collaboration (EMPAC)

The SOPG works in close alignment with EMPAC, the regional infrastructure for police-academic knowledge exchange across the East Midlands. Our operations are interlinked strongly where we co-develop research priorities, jointly deliver programmes, and maintaining a shared pipeline that connects force-level needs with academic expertise and innovation.

Why Partner with Us?

  • A business school approach to crime, applying strategy, economics, systems design and organisational science to support police and security professionals
  • Frameworks that originate here, including Organised Crime Business, the Home Office Clear-Hold-Build strategy, BSI PAS 5222:2024 and the UK's national intelligence analysis training
  • Experts retained by INTERPOL, the United Nations, the National Crime Agency, the FBI, the Council of Europe, the Home Office, NATO and the OECD
  • Capability that stays after we leave, because our model builds internal capacity for analytical skills, financial literacy and strategic thinking inside your organisation
  • Academic rigour combined with command-level operational credentials, delivered by people who straddle both academia and professional practice
  • Access to a network of over 40 senior scholars and practitioners with reach into government, regulators and international bodies

Contact us

Solution Oriented Policing Group (SOPG)
Leicester Castle Business School
De Montfort University
The Gateway, Leicester, LE1 9BH
United Kingdom

Email: ahmad.al-hiari2@dmu.ac.uk