Tim Prenzler

Tim Prenzler "is a Chief Investigator in the Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security, and a Professor in the School of Crimnology and Criminal Justice, Griffith University, Brisbane. He joined the School when it was established in 1991. He completed a PhD, MA, BA and GradDipT in the areas of history, sociology and political science.

"In teaching, he has developed and taught courses in situational crime prevention, security management, criminal justice ethics, social justice, criminological theories, police studies, and introductory criminology. He has also contributed to a number of textbooks, and co-edited An Introduction to Crime (Pearson, 2007, with Hennessey Hayes).

"In service, Tim has been a long-term member of campus health and safety committees, faculty staff committees and school management committees. He has also been an active member of the National Tertiary Education Union, holding executive positions and representing the membership on University committees. He has also held teaching program coordination positions at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He has served on a range of industry committees including on promotion and advisory committees in the Queensland Police Service, and on other state government working groups including in Fair Trading, Transport, Corrective Services, Education, Technical and Further Education, and Housing. He has also worked on a range of collaborative research projects with the Victoria Police, the Australian Security Industry Association Limited (ASIAL), Queensland Department of Justice, Queensland Legal Aid, Crime Prevention Queensland, the Australian Attorney-General’s Department, and the New South Wales Police Service. He is a member of the editorial committees of Security Journal, Police Practice and Research: An International Journal, and The International Journal of Police Science and Management.

"Tim's research has a strong focus on the application of crime prevention principles to corruption and misconduct, especially misconduct amongst police and security providers. He also has a broader sociological interest in issues associated with the development of private security and specialist police agencies. In Australia he initiated consultative research on security industry regulation and has published numerous papers on trends in security, best practice models of regulation, and relations between police and security providers. He is the co-author of The Law of Private Security in Australia (Thomson Lawbook, 2005/2008, with Rick Sarre), which won a 2006 Award for Excellence from ASIAL.

"Tim’s work in policing is focused on innovative and practical strategies to prevent corruption, including complaint profiling, early intervention systems, drug and alcohol testing, integrity testing, and external investigations and oversight. His book Police Corruption: Preventing Misconduct and Maintaining Integrity is due to be published by CRC Press – Taylor and Francis in late 2008.

"Tim has also conducted extensive research on the history of women police and on strategies for improving gender equity within police departments. For this work he was awarded the 2002 Excellence in Policing Award for the Most Significant Contribution to Advancing the Status of Women in Policing by the Australasian Council of Women and Policing."