Skip Navigation

Karen Cummings

Senior Lecturer in Policing

Law, Criminology & Policing

Karen Cummings, Senior Lecturer in Policing

Department: Law, Criminology & Policing

View full profile

Profile

Biography

Karen is a former Merseyside Police officer having retired from policing in January 2018 as the Head of the Merseyside Police Professional Standards and Anti-Corruption Department. Whilst operating for most of her career in the investigation and major crime strand of policing she has a diverse policing background having operated across the ranks up to Detective Chief Superintendent.

 

As a career detective, Karen has had a significant footprint across major crime, homicide and kidnap investigation and intelligence. Karen is accredited as a PIP 3 Senior Investigating Officer by the College and holds PIP 4 accreditation in Strategic Management of Complex cases.   

 

 As Head of Professional Standards and the Anti-Corruption Department, her role involved dealing with police misconduct, death after police contact issues, complaints against police and internal corruption.

 

 Karen is a Nationally trained Hostage Negotiator, negotiator coordinator and Counter Terrorism negotiator coordinator. Prior to retiring, Karen operated as the regional negotiator lead for negotiating in the Northwest of England, Northern Ireland, and the Isle of Mann.

 

She holds a master’s degree in Critical and Major Incident Psychology from Liverpool University and is also a graduate of the FBI National Academy Programme from Quantico in Virginia, United States.

 

Prior to joining the team at Edge Hill Karen was a senior lecturer in Policing at Liverpool John Moores University and oversaw the implementation of programmes under the Police Education Qualifications Framework, including the Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship, Degree Holders Entry programme and direct  Detective DHEP pathway. She is also the external examiner for the North Wales PCDA programme with Bangor University.