Dr Andrew Tatnell

Andrew was a police officer for thirty years and completed his MSc dissertation in 2011 which explored the experiences of transferees into Central Scotland Police.

In 2012, he undertook a SIPR Practitioner Fellowship exploring the potential influence of legacy police force and agencies’ culture on amalgamation into Police Scotland. In 2013, Andrew was seconded full-time to SIPR to study the early impact of police reform on senior police leaders. He retired in 2014 as a Superintendent and undertook further policing related studies with Professor  Nick Fyfe.

In 2017 Andrew secured a PhD studentship at University West of Scotland (UWS) which he completed in 2022. The title of his thesis was “A degree is not necessarily the answer: A comparative analysis of initial police learning in Scotland, Sweden, and Finland”. In his fourth year he took a nine-month break to undertake a full-time RA role at Edinburgh Napier University  working with Associate Professor Andrew Wooff and Dr Shane Horgan on policing the pandemic in rural Scotland. In his final PhD year, Andrew also undertook a part-time Co-Investigator role at Edinburgh Napier working with Professors Nadine Dougall, Inga Heyman and Andrew Wooff, evaluating tri-service collaboration in a deprived urban community in Scotland.

Recent Publications: 

Engelmann, L. and Tatnell, A. (forthcoming). Researching police professionalisation in Scotland, Sweden, and Finland. In: Tong, S., and Martin, D. (eds.). Introduction to policing research: Taking lessons from practice. 2nd ed. London: Routledge.

Tatnell, A. (2021). The role of Higher Education in initial police learning: A comparative analysis of Scotland, Sweden, and Finland. Available at www.//https.sipr.ac.uk

Tatnell, A. (2019). Reforming Police Recruit Education and Professionalising the Police: What to expect in the Case of Finland? In Vuorensyrjä, M., Poliiskoulutuksen vaikuttavuusarviointi 2019: vuosina 2016-2017 valmistuneiden poliisien tyollisyys ja arviot koulutuksen tyoelamavastaavuudesta [Evaluation of the effectiveness of police education 2019. Employment and occupational validity of the education as assessed by police officers who graduated during 2016-2017] (pp.127-140). Police University College of Finland, Tampere.