Tara Dickens

Tara Dickens serves as a Senior Lecturer and Director of Policing at Canterbury Christ Church University, where she holds the dual role of Head of Policing and Professional Contracts, Apprenticeships and CPD. She oversees all national and international policing-related undergraduate, postgraduate, and partnership programmes within the School of Law, Policing and Social Sciences.

Her academic journey includes an MSc in Police Leadership and Management (awarded Best Dissertation for research on Police Culture) and a PhD in Forensic Psychology from the University of Kent. The PhD dissertation, 'An examination of the psychological pathways of male carers who seriously harm and murder their children,' received support from the National Homicide Working Group.

Dr. Dickens' research critically examines Police Culture through lenses of Professionalisation, Fast Track Detective Programmes, and Equality and Diversity within the PCDA/DHEP framework, alongside specialized expertise in Child Death Investigation. She actively shapes national policing standards through collaboration with the College of Policing and Police Education Consortium.

Her notable recognitions include:

• Best Dissertation Award for MSc in Police Leadership and Management
• Scholarship to attend University of Kent as associate lecturer

With 20 years of operational experience as a Kent Police officer, she brings practitioner insight to academia—having led investigations in child sexual harm, serious physical abuse, high-risk domestic abuse, and served as a nationally accredited child death investigator. She currently teaches policing curricula while guest lecturing externally and manages portfolios covering missing persons, mental health response, intelligence-led policing implementation, and gender progression initiatives.