Brian Roberts | University of Chester

Senior Lecturer

Brian joined Cheshire Police in 1986. He has worked as a Detective in local CID teams and in the Force Drug Squad. On promotion to Inspector he focused his work on Community Policing and Partnerships. In 2004 he worked in the USA as part of a Group Study Exchange where he worked with Law Enforcement Agencies and Communities in Chicago, Illinois. As a result of his work in Chicago he was named a Paul Harris Fellow for making a substantial contribution to humanitarian and educational programs.

After his promotion to Chief Inspector in 2006 he obtained a Foundation Degree in Policing. He later took over as the Detective Chief Inspector and was awarded a BSc Honours Degree in Criminology at The University of Portsmouth.

Brian was appointed as Deputy Director of Intelligence where he remained for five years. Brian’s team spear headed the law enforcement response to Serious and Organised Crime (Including Cyber Crime) in Cheshire. Brian was a qualified and experienced Tactical Firearms Commander in Cheshire where he led on numerous critical and firearms incidents.

In 2014 he took up a position to embed Evidence Led Policing with frontline staff and took responsibility to use those principles to drive embedding a culture of ‘crime science’ in numerous areas of policing including reducing re-victimisation. Brian has been part of a developing relationship between Cheshire Police and the University of Chester.

He has received numerous Commendations for his performance on tackling Drug Trafficking, Crime and Community Policing.

Brian retired from Cheshire Police in 2016 and he is now a lecturer at The Institute of Policing at The University. Brian manages the new Police Constable Apprenticeship Degree Programme (PCDA) and was involved in the early launch of the programme in partner across a variety of Departments across the University of Chester. He is in the process of writing a research paper with colleagues from the University on Police Use of Firearms. Brian has recently returned from The Hague for Global Justice in Holland where he lectured on a series of themes including the ethical issues affecting firearms officers with the challenges of an active shooter scenario.

Married with three children, he is a keen traveller and lover of football & music. He is currently undertaking research towards his PhD at The University of Chester.

I am a co author of some qualitative research that I carried out with colleagues from The Criminology and Psychology Departments at The University.

In 2004 I was awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship in Chicago for 'making a substantial contribution to humanitarian and educational programs'.

In 2016 I was also awarded The Fellowship of Higher Education Academy (FHEA) by The University of Chester.

Foundation Degree in Arts in Policing Studies that I obtained from the University of Portsmouth to go with my Criminology Undergraduate qualifications.