Dr. Tom Williamson is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Criminal Justice Studies at the University of Portsmouth in Portsmouth, England. Dr. Williamson retired in 2001after 37 years as a police officer in England. For thirty years he worked at Scotland Yard where his last posting was as Commander responsible for all crime operations in South West London. He transferred on promotion to Deputy Chief Constable of the Nottinghamshire Police in 1995. In 2001 he became the recipient of the Queen's Police Medal for services to policing.

Dr. Williamson is a psychology graduate and a chartered forensic psychologist. His Ph.D. examined changes in police interrogation and was based on an analysis of over four thousand tape-recorded interviews of suspects. He designed a national interview-training program, which is a mandatory five-day course that over 120,000 officers have taken. His research interests are miscarriages of justice and police interviewing, particularly the detection of deception. Dr. Williamson will draw particular attention to the impact of tape recording of interviews with suspects in England.

Last updated April 16, 2002