OUR TEAM
One of the most experienced and trusted teams in data analytics and police strategy
Michael R. Smith
Partner
Dr. Michael R. Smith is an applied criminologist and police researcher with three decades of experience bridging academic research and law enforcement practice. He holds a J.D. from the University of South Carolina and a Ph.D. from Arizona State University, and has held tenured positions at Virginia Commonwealth University, Washington State University, the University of South Carolina, and the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), among others. He is a former municipal and county police officer.
His research focuses on police use of force, racial disparities in police-civilian encounters, and violent crime reduction. With former Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia and colleagues at UTSA, he developed an evidence-based strategic plan that has successfully reduced violent crime in Dallas, San Antonio, Tacoma, and Salt Lake City. He has served as a consultant on racial profiling to the United States Department of Justice and also advised numerous major cities and counties—including Chicago, Los Angeles, San Jose, CA, Miami-Dade County, FL, Fairfax County, VA and several highway patrol agencies—on racial disparities in policing practices.
Dr. Smith previously served on the Federal Law Enforcement Training Accreditation Board and currently chairs the Research Advisory Committee for the Major Cities Chiefs Association. His work has been funded by the U.S. Department of Justice (NIJ and BJA), the Department of Homeland Security, and numerous state and local governments, with publications spanning law, public policy, and policing.
John MacDonald
Partner
Dr. John MacDonald is a criminologist and policing researcher with extensive experience in examining strategies to reduce crime and disparities in law enforcement. He holds a Ph.D. in Criminology from the University of Maryland and is a professor of criminology and sociology in the Department of Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania. He formerly served as an analyst at the National Institute of Justice (U.S. Department of Justice) and the RAND Corporation. His research focuses on policing strategies to reduce crime, racial and ethnic disparities in policing, police use of force, community-police relations, and the impact of police reforms on officer behavior. With particular expertise in statistical analysis of policing disparities, he has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, 25 book chapters and reports, and four edited books in leading scientific journals, including the American Journal of Public Health, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, and Nature Human Behavior. Dr. MacDonald has served for 10 years as a member of the NYPD stop-and-frisk monitoring team, assessing departmental compliance with court-ordered reforms, and worked as a consultant for the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. He has worked with numerous law enforcement agencies to identify racial disparities in use of force, arrests, and pedestrian and traffic stops, including Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. He is the former co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Quantitative Criminology and vice-chair of the Committee on Law and Justice at the National Academy of Sciences. He is a fellow of the American Society of Criminology and the Academy of Experimental Criminology, and was awarded the Kershaw Award from Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management for his research on identifying and mitigating racial profiling patterns in policing.
Rob Tillyer
Senior Advisor
Rob Tillyer is a Professor in the Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice at the University of Texas at San Antonio and the Interim Dean of the College for Health, Community and Policy. His research interests include decision-making within the criminal justice system, with a particular focus on the use of discretion by police officers to warn, cite, arrest, search, and use force. He also studies charging decisions and sentencing practices at the federal level. Other areas of interest include situational factors associated with crime, victimology, and crime prevention. Recent journal articles have appeared in Journal of Research in Crime & Delinquency, Journal of Criminal Justice, Justice Quarterly, Criminal Justice & Behavior, and Crime & Delinquency. He is an applied researcher that engages in researcher-practitioner partnerships as a mechanism to promote scientific principles within policing and the broader criminal justice field. He has received funding from federal, state, and local governments to oversee numerous criminal justice related research projects. Most recently, he has worked with local police agencies in San Antonio, TX., Dallas, TX., Fairfax County, VA., San Jose, CA., and Tulsa, OK.
Brandon Tregle
Senior Consultant
Dr. Brandon Tregle is the Director of Research for the Excellence in Policing and Public Safety (EPPS) Program at the University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law and an affiliate assistant professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice. He has earned a J.D. from Louisiana State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska Omaha. Dr. Tregle brings more than a decade of policing experience to his academic and applied research.
His work focuses on implementing and evaluating evidence based policing strategies designed to reduce violent crime, property crime, and other public safety challenges. He co-leads a portfolio of multimillion dollar projects across several major U.S. cities.
Dr. Tregle serves as Chair of the Executive Board of the American Society for Evidence Based Policing. His recent scholarly work has appeared in the Journal of Crime and Justice, Justice Quarterly, and Police Quarterly.
Hunter Boehme
Consultant
Dr. Hunter Boehme is an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of South Carolina. He earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in criminology and criminal justice from the University of South Carolina. Before entering academia, he spent four years working for the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Tactical Diversion Squad.
He is an applied policing researcher with over six years of experience working with police agencies and criminal justice practitioners. His research largely focuses on implementing and evaluating evidence-based and novel crime prevention strategies, officer wellness, police use of force, and public perceptions of police. In collaboration with police agencies across the country, he has developed and evaluated several crime prevention strategies including focused deterrence, hot spot patrols, blight abatement and code enforcement, property crime interventions, among others.
He previously served as an Executive Counselor for the Division of Experimental Criminology for the American Society of Criminology, was awarded the Evidence-Based Policing Trailblazer token, and the Columbia Police Department's Outstanding Citizen of the Year Award. His research has been funded by the National Institute of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, totaling over $1.5 million in funding.