Dr. Eric Halford holds degrees in Terrorism and Security studies and Forensics and Applied Science. Prior to joining Rabdan Academy, he served a distinguished career of more than 20 years as a detective in UK policing where he received multiple commendations for leadership and investigative achievements. In his previous role as a senior detective, Dr. Halford led and managed departments responsible for intelligence and criminal investigations into organized crime, terrorism, murder and exploitation.
In addition to his operational functions he also served for a decade as Deputy Director, and later Co-Director of Strategy for academic research and collaboration. As part of this role he was an integral board member of several national and international industry/academic research forums, including the ‘N8 Policing Research Partnership’, which is an academic-police collaboration that champions, enables, and supports research, taking on the challenges of 21st century policing, and ‘The Centre for Policing Research and Learning (CPRL)’ at the Open University, responsible for creating high-quality impactful research to improve policing. Throughout his career he has combined his experience and academic knowledge to embed evidence-based practices into policing throughout the UK, ensuring that research findings effectively inform real-world policing strategies.
Head hunted to join Rabdan Academy in 2020, he has since proven himself as a highly accomplished academic. Currently, he serves as the lead researcher for Policing and Security at Rabdan Academy in the United Arab Emirates, overseeing studies across critical areas in policing, crime, and security. In the past 4 years he has authored nearly 40 Q1 Scopus publications and has received commendations for service to research at Rabdan for the past 3 years running. In 2023 he was awarded funding as the principal investigator to evaluate the Abu Dhabi Police Virtual Reality Training Centre (ADPVTC) and led an international team of researchers, producing multiple published studies on the application of VR in policing. He is also an internationally respected speaker and has contributed towards multiple leading policing and security conferences worldwide.
His current research contributions span a wide range of topics. This includes the impact of pandemics on policing and security, which is an area he is recognized as an international expert on as a result of his extensive work on the subject. He also places a strong focus on all aspects of criminal investigations and intelligence, an area he is widely published, with his articles heavily focusing on crime prevention and reduction strategies. He has also extensively published on the subject of missing people.
In 2024 Dr Halford introduced a new decision-making framework for policing which was widely praised amongst practitioners for its potential to improve police decision-making. More recently he has begun to explore the emergence of artificial intelligence and its influence on policing and security. As a result, he has published articles on the use of AI to assess police intelligence and detection of potential money laundering. Recognizing the need for consistency in this emergent field, in 2023 he introduced the seminal model on the issue, the transformer led policing (TLP) model, which is a framework for law enforcement agencies to devise, discuss and deploy general purpose AI. His model is underpinned by the TLP matrix, which provides law enforcement agencies a blueprint for practical implementation and evaluation of AI. He also holds a personal interest in geographical and criminological profiling, and his work in this area has enhanced the field's understanding of serial offender behavior and crime prevention methods to combat their offending.
As a result of his extensive experience and expertise, he is considered a leading expert among contemporaries on policing and security and is regularly called upon to advise government bodies in the UK and the Middle East and provide commentary on all issues related to policing.
Associate Professor - Associate Researcher