Elliott Peterson is a Special Agent with the Defence Criminal Intelligence Service. He was formerly a Cybercrime investigator for the FBI. He is responsible for investigating complex botnets, high dollar account takeover fraud, and Distributed Denial of Service attacks. Elliott speaks and teaches extensively on investigative best practices for Cybercrime and Nation State computer intrusions. Prior to joining the FBI, Elliott worked in Higher Education and served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from Dickinson College and a master’s degree in Crime Analysis from Tiffin University.

I am Associate Professor in Cybercrime and Gender in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice. I am the Chair of Hampshire Constabulary’s Force Strategic Independent Advisory Group. This is a group made up of members of the public, community groups and organisations across Hampshire, which  reviews and challenges policing practices across the Constabulary – for example, Stop and Search, among others. In addition, the SIAG provides advice to the Chief Constable on controversial or complex policing issues. In this role I also sit on the Force’s Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy Planning Group and have contributed to the National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC) Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy. I am also a member of the Force’s Domestic Abuse Oversight and Scrutiny Panel and have sat on various Gold Groups addressing issues of sexual violence and abuse. I am a Fellow of the Institute for Research on Male Supremacism, which brings together experts from both inside and outside of academia to analyse and expose the dangers of misogynist ideology and mobilisation. I am the Deputy Director of the Cyberawareness Clinic, a project in collaboration with Hampshire Constabulary supporting the local community to become more resilient to cyberthreats and researching the types of cybercrimes experienced. I was a Strategic Themes Research and Innovation Fellow (TRIF) for the research themes of Future and Emerging Technologies and Security and Risk, developing my interdisciplinary leadership and expertise in the area of cybercrime and gender – specifically online gender abuse and technology faciliated sexual violence. Currently I am researching misogyny online and communities and movements that propogate ideological hatred against marginalised groups

Kirstie Ball is Professor in Management and co-director and founder of CRISP, the Centre for Research into Information, Surveillance and Privacy. CRISP is a joint research centre between St Andrews, Edinburgh, Stirling and Coventry Universities. Kirstie is an authority on Electronic Monitoring and Surveillance in the Workplace and has advised the European Commission, The European Parliament and the UK’s Information Commissioners Office on these matters. Over the last 25 years Kirstie’s research has been funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), SSHRC (Canada), The Leverhulme Trust, The British Academy and the European Framework Programme.  Kirstie also co-founded and co-edited the journal Surveillance and Society and the charitable company Surveillance Studies Network, an educational charity which supports the journal.

Michael Joined Strathclyde Police in 2003. After initial uniformed deployment in Glasgow for a number of years he joined the Criminal Investigation Department for Glasgow South. Promoted to Detective Sergeant in 2012 he returned to reactive CID policing after a short period in Force Policy and Governance and remained in this post during merger to Police Scotland where he led reactive operations into the investigation of serious crime. Promoted to inspecting rank in 2018 he diversified holding posts in Serious Organised Crime Strategy, National Disruptions Unit, Cybercrime Capability Programme and Cyber Investigations Unit overseeing investigative leadership for serious cybercrime including ransomware. In 2021 he moved back to Uniform Policing in Lanarkshire where over the next 2 years he held response and community policing roles before promotion to Detective Chief Inspector, within Technical Collections Unit, Intelligence Support, overseeing communications data, Internet Investigations Unit and online child sexual abuse intelligence development, until his recent temporary promotion to Detective Superintendent, National Intelligence Support, Local Policing. In this role he has responsibility for the management of divisional intelligence assets which support Police Commanders in ensuring the safety of communities and the associated capture and response to intelligence across local policing in Scotland.

Dr Allison Kurpiel is a post-doctoral Research fellow in Criminology based in the School of Law at the University of Edinburgh (UK). She conducts research for the Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research with Professor Susan McVie. Her current work focuses on youth violence exposure and offending as well as police contact related to mental health distress. She received her PhD degree in criminology from the Pennsylvania State University (US) in May of 2024, where she conducted research primarily on youth victimization, school violence, discriminatory bullying, and the interplay between child welfare and juvenile justice systems involvement.

I began my career working for Merseyside Police (1994-2008), then moved into lecturing at a local university.  Early on in my teaching career I developed an interest in occupational police culture and police education which formed my PhD (2016). From 2016-2018 I was successful in the role of Head/Dean for Forensic and Applied Sciences, managing staff,1500 students and a substantial budget. From 2018 to 2020 I took on the role of Head of Business and Partnership for the School of Forensic and Applied Sciences, due to my expertise and research focus of the Police Education Qualification Framework (PEQF). During that time, I developed and won tender opportunities for both Cumbria and Lancashire Police forces for the PEQF, and led other business. In the summer of 2020 I returned to my roots of Liverpool and became the Head of LCAPS, the Liverpool Centre for Advanced Policing Studies. Over the last four years I have developed new programmes for policing and won tenders around Diversity in Firearms Teams, Policing Education and Police Now; my main research focus with OSCAR KILO (The National Police Well Being Service), and police well being. Nationally, I continue to promote policing and education and have set up a National Police Research Hub across the UK, with our first conference hosted with the College of Policing in 2023. In March 2024 I won with OSCAR KILO, a large Science, Technology, Analysis and Research (STAR) bid from the Home Office for my work on the use of wearable technology for police officers and later that year we were appointed the lead university for the Executive Leadership Programme for Senior Police Leaders.

Kate Wallace has been Chief Executive Officer at Victim Support Scotland since 2017. With twenty years of extensive leadership experience in executive and non-executive positions within the public and voluntary sectors, Kate previously led Visualise Scotland—a service delivery charity supporting individuals with disabilities and complex needs. Before her tenure at Visualise, she served as the UK Programme Director for Barnardo’s.

Dr Diana Miranda is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Stirling. Her interdisciplinary research aligns criminological and sociological approaches to exploring emerging biometric, and data driven technologies. Her most recent projects range from the use of facial and emotion recognition technologies to visual surveillance tools such as body-worn video. Empirically, Dr Miranda has been engaging with law enforcement in the UK and internationally and with various expert stakeholders and citizens to understand their perspectives on the use of novel technologies. She has published over 20 articles in leading peer-reviewed journals, several book chapters, and reports.

Dr Vicky Gorton is a Lecturer in Data and Society at the Science, Technology and Innovation Studies (STIS) department at the University of Edinburgh. Vicky is an interdisciplinary researcher, with expertise in the quantitative analysis of large-scale survey and administrative datasets. She has worked on linked police and healthcare data as part of the ESRC-funded ‘Policing the Pandemic’ project. Her latest work, ‘Data Benefits’, examines the attitudes of those in receipt of benefits in Scotland towards the sharing of their data for administrative and research purposes.

Professor Suzanne Shale is an independent ethics consultant with extensive experience advising organisations in health, policing, and international development on the ethical dimensions of their work. She has chaired the London Policing Ethics Panel (an independent panel advising the Metropolitan Police Service and the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime) since 2017, and in that time has authored 16 reports into issues including Live Facial Recognition, Policing London’s Schools, Re-vetting processes following the conviction of Wayne Couzens, and Searches Exposing Intimate Parts by the Metropolitan Police Service. The Panel has developed an ethics matrix for assessing policing policy development. She is a member of the National Policing Ethics Committee in England. In addition to her work in policing ethics Suzanne is Vice Chair of Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust and sits on the governing body of the General Medical Council. She is a Visiting Professor at Canterbury Christchurch University.

I am an accredited Financial Investigator and fully powered Investigations Officer within the National Crime Agency (NCA). I currently specialise in borders investigations involving OCGs attempting to smuggle drugs, criminal assets and trafficked individuals into or out of the UK. I have been with the NCA for two years where I have received an extensive list of accreditations and training. Before working for the NCA I spent over a decade within the banking sector in several investigatory roles conducting various types of investigations. This is including, but not limited to, money laundering, sanctions evasion, Russian oligarchs, KYC analysis, application fraud and SAR analysis. I have conducted financial crime investigations in the banking sector in both the UK and the USA.

Yanna Papadodimitraki is a Research Associate at the Cambridge Cybercrime Centre. She is part of the Interdisciplinary Cybercrime Project (iCrime) funded by the European Research Council. She has worked in criminal justice both as a researcher and a practitioner, involved in projects on cybercrime, cybersecurity, youth offending, and offender rehabilitation.

Stevie has been a police officer for 24 years starting his career in Strathclyde Police, before transferring to Lothian and Borders and thereafter Police Scotland when it amalgamated the 8 legacy police forces in 2013. Stevie has spent the majority of his service working as a detective within the Criminal Investigation Department. In 2015 he was promoted to Detective Inspector where he was worked as Senior Investigating Officer (SIO) in several major investigations, which included one of Police Scotland’s first human trafficking investigations that led to 4 members of a serious and organised crime group being convicted. In 2017, Stevie moved from CID into a Public Protection role. In 2022, Stevie moved as Detective Chief Inspector to the Scottish Crime Campus as deputy lead for Rape and Sexual Crime, Human Trafficking and Prostitution. In May the following year, he took over as Detective Superintendent and national lead which is his current role. He has oversight of the Violence Against Women and Girls strategic plan for police Scotland.

Phil has completed 26 years of service in policing, beginning his career with Fife Constabulary before transitioning to Police Scotland upon its establishment in 2013. His expertise spans operational and specialist policing, corporate services, and organisational change roles, and he has recently completed the College of Policing Executive Leadership Programme. Promoted to Chief Superintendent in 2020, Phil has provided leadership across a range of key initiatives, including delivering a new Contact Assessment Model, coordinating the local policing response to the Covid-19 pandemic including establishment of a revised operating model, and developing a National Volunteering Strategy. As Divisional Commander for Tayside from 2021 to 2024, he oversaw policing across Dundee, Angus, and Perth and Kinross, Local Authority areas. In 2024, Phil assumed leadership of a Service Delivery Review for Local Policing in Scotland and transformation efforts in modernising contact and engagement approaches. He is a Strategic Firearms and Public Order Commander, and has directed responses to major events, such as Edinburgh’s Hogmanay Celebrations and the 26^th Conference of the Parties (COP26).

Julia Zauner (she/her) is a doctoral researcher and lecturer in criminology and sociology at Glasgow Caledonian University. Her doctoral research focuses on image-based sexual abuse among Scottish adults where she investigates impacts on survivors, their experiences with the criminal justice system, and their understandings of justice. In addition to her doctoral work, Julia is engaged in a research project that seeks to explore how harm is understood, prevented, and responded to within virtual communities. Her wider research interests include gender-based abuse, cybercrime, media and crime, feminist theory, and queer theory.

Sofie De Kimpe is Full Professor of Criminology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), where she teaches and conducts research on police organisation and policing within the CRiS research group. She holds a PhD in Criminology and has extensive expertise in ethnographic police research. Her work focuses on frontline policing, police education, profiling, and the role of technology in policing. She co-leads the CRiS research line on Policing & Surveillance and co-promotes the SRP III project Policing the Other. She also served as chair of the EU COST Action on Police Stops and is Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Law and Criminology.

Emily Keaney, Deputy Commissioner Regulatory Policy, is responsible for overseeing the ICO’s policy work programme, both domestically and internationally, as well as leadership of legislative reform and the policy profession. Emily also provides ET support and oversight for the work of the ICO’s economic analysis directorate and research function, as well as overseeing the ICO’s children’s privacy strategy. Emily has had a long career in policy, strategy and research in a wide variety of regulatory and public policy contexts, including previous roles at the UK Regulators’ Network, Ofcom and the Institute for Public Policy Research. She has a strong interest in policy, current affairs and history and when not at work can generally be found reading history books and listening to history and current affairs podcasts.

With over 15 years of experience in the policing sector, Kate takes a ‘pracademic’ approach to community engagement and policing. As a company director for the UK SME VISAV, Kate has helped expand its reach across UK policing with the Neighbourhood Alert tool. This tool aids police in improving community engagement, neighbourhood policing, problem-solving, and public trust. Kate previously served as CEO for the Neighbourhood and Home Watch Network (England & Wales) and Coventry Citizens Advice. She also worked in local government roles within community safety and children’s services. Notably, she co-wrote the chapter “From Project to Practice: Utilising Research Evidence in the Prevention of Crime” in Reducing Burglary (2018), which applied statistical insights from the Crime Survey for England and Wales to create crime prevention strategies still in use today. Kate is undertaking a part-time Master’s in Applied Criminology and Police Management at the University of Cambridge, while continuing her work with VISAV.

Dr Estelle Clayton is a Lecturer in Criminology at Edinburgh Napier University. Her work focusses on police policy and practice, neurodiversity and policing, stop and search, and police use of technology.

Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Houston ​is the Police Scotland executive lead for Organised Crime, Counter Terrorism and Intelligence. ACC Houston’s portfolio consists of the following business areas: Organised Crime, Counter Terrorism, Border Policing, Intelligence Support, Specialist Crime Support including International Unit, Fraud, Cyber Crime and Digital Forensics, and Covert Policing. ACC Houston was appointed to his current portfolio in February 2025, having previously been the ACC for the Professionalism and Assurance portfolio since August 2023. He has previously performed command roles within Intelligence Support and Organised Crime and Counter Terrorism Unit within Specialist Crime Division. ACC Houston joined Lothian and Borders Police in May 1996 and has undertaken a number of investigative roles across Local Policing and Specialist Crime Division.

Sam Curran was appointed as Head of Function at Forensic Services in May 2024. Previously the Policy Lead at the Scottish Police Authority, Sam had responsibility for developing and overseeing policies and programmes that promote public safety while protecting civil liberties. Prior to this, he was the Senior Manager of International Development at the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and led on the development and delivery of the agency’s first international strategy. Sam has also worked as a Strategy Consultant specialising in operational risk management and growth strategies. Sam graduated with a PhD in immunology from the University of Glasgow and a BSc in Biotechnology from the University of Edinburgh. He is also a Trustee of the charity I Am Me Scotland.

Romance fraud is a growing cybercrime that exploits human emotion, often leading to significant financial and psychological harm. This talk explores how machine learning algorithms can detect patterns of deception in online interactions, whilst serious games are used to educate and empower users to recognise and avoid scams. By combining data-driven detection with interactive prevention strategies, the research highlights an engaging approach to tackling romance scams, with the aim of reducing victimisation.

Marie Eneman is Associate Professor in Informatics at the Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Gothenburg. Her research explores the intersection of technology and law, with a particular focus on emerging surveillance practices within Swedish law enforcement, where the police serve as a key actor. She specialises in qualitative research methods and also contributes to a long-running national survey capturing public perceptions of surveillance and privacy in the digital society. Marie leads several research projects that examine: the opportunities, challenges, and dilemmas with surveillance technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and biometrics; how the surveillance practices are organised, governed, and regulated; how ethical and legal challenges are addressed; the implications for privacy; how surveillance data is constructed into digital evidence used in the wider Justice system, i.e from criminal investigations and prosecutions to court proceedings.

Alistair Henry is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology in Edinburgh Law School. Between 2010-2018 he acted as an Associate Director of the Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR), where he chaired the Police Community Relations Network. He currently coordinates the Edinburgh/SIPR Brokering Group – connecting Edinburgh University colleagues with interests in policing..

Dr. Ciara Bracken-Roche is an Assistant Professor in the School of Law and Criminology at Maynooth University, and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa. She completed her PhD (Queen’s University), MA (Warwick), and BSc (Toronto). Dr. Bracken-Roche sits on the Inter/national FOI Research Council of the Centre for Access to Information and Justice at the University of Winnipeg. She is also a member of the advisory board for a new publication called The Study Up, “a peer-reviewed publication featuring critical, investigative research using freedom of information (FOI) and access to information (ATI) disclosures as data.” She is also a long standing member of the Surveillance Studies Network, the International Studies Association, and WIIS-Canada. An additional line of research that bridges advocacy and academic work draws on Bracken-Roche’s background with privacy and surveillance, looking at the way privacy legislation can be mobilised for social good. This includes the Unlocking Potential Project. Ciara’s current line of research explores the adoption and use of drones and other surveillance technologies in Canada and Ireland by policing and public safety agencies. The project will create new knowledge about the relationship between police use of these technologies/techniques of governance and existing legal, social and technological norms.

Dr Shane Horgan is Program Leader for the BSc in Policing and Criminology at Edinburgh Napier University, co-lead of the SCCJR Digital Lab and sits on the SIPR Police Community Relations Network brokering team.  Shane teaches on the topics of policing, cybercrime, security and criminological research methods. Over the past 10 years, his research has explored how people and organizations, both public and private, make sense of and respond to technologically enabled crime in their routine everyday lives and operations. Shane is  interested in further developing criminological and sociological perspectives on cybersecurity, the policing of technology-facilitated crime and disorder, and understanding the emerging ways technology is deployed in the pursuit of security, crime prevention, and social order.

Dr Ben Collier is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Science, Technology, and Innovation Studies at the University of Edinburgh, and the Chair of the Foundation for Information Policy Research. Ben’s work sits between Criminology and Infrastructure Studies, focusing on how emerging technologies and infrastructures become tangled up with new forms of harm – and the emerging ways that government and law enforcement are attempting to intervene.

As Head of Communications Specialist Services for Police Scotland Linda has responsibility for a team that includes Communications Strategy and Insight, Social Media, Channel Development and Graphic Design. She is responsible for setting and leading the corporate communications strategy, and communications policies as well as embedding a professional, engaging strategy and operating framework. Linda is the lead for marketing with overall responsibility for Police Scotland’s campaigns. She is also the lead for continuous improvement and continuous professional development of the Corporate Communications staff and function. Linda joined Strathclyde Police in 2009 as a Marketing Officer and has been promoted into Lead, Manager and Head roles within Corporate Communications for both Strathclyde Police and Police Scotland. Before a career in policing Linda graduated in 2002 with an honours degree in Marketing and Communication then started her Marketing career in the arts industry. She worked for a national touring orchestra and then an arts centre where her responsibilities included audience development, sales and programming. Marketing is Linda’s core skill and has been the constant in her career. Committed to her own professional development Linda is a member of the PRCA and Chartered Institute of Marketing with whom she achieved Chartered Marketer status in 2021. She has a strong interest in marketing insight and behaviour change marketing – and how this can positively impact policing outcomes. Linda is the Chair of the National Police Chiefs Council Campaigns and Marketing Professional Network.