Dr. Paul Betts spent three decades as a police officer, retiring in March 2023 as Detective Chief Superintendent of police, seconded to Counter Terrorism Policing Headquarters, New Scotland Yard, London, UK. His final role was serving as the National Prevent Coordinator, leading the changes to UK policing required in response to learning from terrorist attacks occurring between 2017 and 2020.
Before moving into counter terrorism in 2017, Paul’s police work focused on leading partnership approaches to deliver effective interventions with children and families to improve outcomes, and the critical role policing can play in this. Paul was responsible for the delivery of Youth Justice and Integrated Offender Management in West Midlands Police from 2013-2016.
Between 2023 and 2025 Paul was a Senior Lecturer at Westminster Law School, University of Westminster, London, UK, developing transformational approaches to police education and research. He inaugurated the Westminster Policing Symposium and designed an accredited BA programme in Policing. Paul is a regular visiting lecturer at international universities and events, and has given expert evidence to inquiries such as the Bingham Commission on UK counter terrorism law, policy and practice.
In addition to his career at Rabdan Academy, UAE, Paul is a current member of the Policing Working Group of the European Society of Criminology, and an Honorary Professor of Criminal Justice at the Law School, University of Birmingham, UK.
2023 – Cranfield University, Management Development Centre, Project Leadership Programme (PLP).
2021 - University of Birmingham, PhD Political Science. Thesis: “Theorising Evidence-Based Policing: A Discourse Analysis”
2011 - University of Birmingham, Masters in Public Administration (MPA)
1994 - University of Manchester, BA Hons. Politics & Modern History
Theory and methods of post-structuralist discourse analysis
Policing, politics and power
Police-knowledge nexus
Monographs
Betts, P. (2024). Critiquing Evidence-Based Policing in Britain: A Genealogy. Springer Nature.
Papers
Larsson, G., Andersson Malmros, R., & Betts, P. (2025). Policing in a globalized world: Some practical implications for policing and police training. The Police Journal, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X251350879
Knudsen, R.A., Betts, P. (2024) UK Counter-Terrorism and Multiple and Complex Needs: A Policy-Informed Discourse Analysis. European Journal for Security Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41125-024-00103-y
Betts, P. R. (2022). Governing the silence: the institutionalisation of evidence-based policing in modern Britain. Justice, Power and Resistance, 5(1-2), 9-27.
https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journals/jpr/5/1-2/article-p9.xml
Book Chapters
“Evidence-Based Policing or Policy-Based Evidence-Making? The Case of British Policing” in “Emerging Voices: Critical Social Research by European Group Postgraduate and Early Career Researchers” (2017) edited by Samantha Fletcher and Holly White, London: EG Press, pp. 27-36
