Research
My research tests one central argument: legitimacy runs on two tracks that move together. How officers experience fairness inside their own organisation shapes how they exercise discretion with the public (Bradford and Tankebe's twin-track model). I test this empirically, mostly through FOI-obtained data and complaints analysis.
ORCID | Google Scholar | ResearchGate
Current research
AI deployment and governance: a national Freedom of Information study of how police forces are deploying AI, and whether the governance, impact and safeguards around it are keeping pace.
AI in complaint handling: a study of how AI might be utilised in complaint handling and decision-making.
Police use of AI
Automated Suspicion: Algorithmic Workforce Surveillance and the Erosion of Internal Legitimacy in the Metropolitan Police Service
Tests the Met's Palantir workforce-monitoring pilot against procedural justice theory, using the Met's own impact assessments obtained under FOI. Also published in Policing Insight.
The Copilot Constable: Generative AI, Professional Judgement and Internal Legitimacy in Policing
Asks whether officers using generative AI to draft statements and reports still exercise judgement, or become operators of a system.
Legitimacy and culture
Beyond the Business Case: Reframing EDI as Legitimacy Infrastructure in Policing
Argues that fairness and inclusion are legitimacy infrastructure, not a reputational exercise, with a worked example from the Casey Review.
Building Legitimacy from the Inside: Ethnic Minority Familiarisation Programmes in Armed Policing (Benning and Ford, 2026)
Treats representativeness in armed specialisms as a legitimacy issue, not only a workforce one.
"It's not like you're delivering Amazon packages": older victims' perspectives on police response (West, Satchell, Ford and Serfaty, 2024), Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice
Shows how officer conduct in the moment shapes whether victims experience a response as fair.
Complaints and accountability
Legitimacy Under Two Roofs: Citizen Complaints Against Counter-Terrorism and Firearms Command Policing Compared
Tests the twin-track model against complaints data from two specialist commands.
Dialogue, Legitimacy, and the "Power Few": Citizen Complaints Against Counter-Terrorism Policing in London
Examines whether a small number of officers or incidents drive a disproportionate share of complaints.
Silenced by Design: Voice, Legitimacy and the Failure of the NHS Mental Health Complaints System
A comparative analysis with direct lessons for how police complaints systems build or erode trust.
Counter-terrorism
Collaborative Approaches to Countering Terrorism (Frumkin and Ford, 2023), in A Research Agenda for Terrorism Studies, Edward Elgar
Argues that CT policing fails where police, communities, academics and partners work in silos.
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