David earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and master’s in addiction at the University of Liverpool. He worked for 12 years as a substance misuse practitioner in collaboration with Greater Manchester Police on improving interventions access and engagement among drug-related offenders.

Returning to academia in 2016, he completed his PhD at the University of Huddersfield, exploring the application of narrative approaches to understanding criminological and addiction issues.

Since receiving his Doctorate, David has worked as a Post-Doctoral Researcher at Keele University, leading on research examining police disproportionality, and more recently, at the University of Hull evaluating interventions for domestic abuse. His research interests include understanding complex criminological drivers and identity processes in prosocial change.

David is working on the project Bradford mapping research: service provision for vulnerable groups in contact with the police. In this project, David will be working closely with the Centre’s Born in Bradford partners, to map and understand the distribution of vulnerabilities and services across the city. He is also working on the Centre’s current ‘public engagement’ research project Towards a minimum policing standard. This project will will explore what the public think the core functions of the police are, what they want from the police and what they think police should do.