Rate My Professor Vincent Hurley

Dr Vincent Hurley is a Lecturer in the School of International Studies at Macquarie University, specialising in the contemporary role of police and policing within criminology. He holds a PhD examining the financialisation of policing in the UK from 2010 to 2020, drawing on theoretical frameworks including Foucault, O'Malley, Freud, North, Dean, and neoliberalism. His other qualifications include a Master of Business Administration awarded in 2004, a Bachelor of Criminology and Psychology awarded in 2000, a Graduate Diploma in University Teaching and Learning awarded in 2004, and a Graduate Certificate in Emergency Management awarded in 2008. Prior to joining Macquarie University around 2010, Hurley served 29 years as an operational police officer with the New South Wales Police Force, retiring at the rank of Detective Superintendent. His policing career encompassed uniform street policing in high-crime areas such as Mount Druitt, Penrith, St Marys, and Blacktown; detective investigations into serious crimes including domestic homicide, sexual assault, home invasion, and drug distribution; five years investigating cocaine importation and trafficking; three years in the Child Abuse Squad; and eight years as a Police Hostage Negotiator. He was seconded for two years to the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet, developing and implementing statewide crime reduction policies with a focus on domestic violence, for which he received multiple national and state awards from the Australian Institute of Criminology and the NSW Parliament, including an Australian Institute of Criminology award in 2009. Hurley also served as Policy Director for NSW Police domestic and family violence policing practice and procedure.

Hurley's research interests include violence against women and girls, police shootings and pursuits, police use of force, hostage negotiation, organised and transnational crime, policing domestic violence and mental health, drugs and drug crime, suicide by cop, and defund the police movements. Key publications feature the chapter 'Giving shape to finance and the City of London: permissive regulation and minimalist governance' (2024, with A. Simpson and C. Sheerin) in Financial Crime, Law and Governance; Conversation articles such as 'After a spate of recent stabbings, is knife crime getting worse in Australia?' (2024, with A. Simpson) and 'Explainer: What are the protocols around the use of a firearm for NSW police?' (2024, with A. Simpson); 'The danger imperative: violence, death, and the soul of policing' (2025); and 'What's in a marking? Aerial identification numbering of fire appliances' (2016). He supervises higher degree research students on topics including domestic violence, organised crime, policing innovations, and environmental crime. Hurley has delivered over 200 media interviews, presented to over 3,000 high school students and at national conferences on violence against women, provided evidence to NSW Parliamentary and Federal inquiries, and appeared on ABC's Q&A in 2024, where his advocacy on domestic violence achieved 17 million views across platforms. Recent honours include the shared Faculty of Arts Learning and Teaching Educational Leader Award for pioneering AI-enhanced learning (2024), three student nominations for Outstanding Contributions to Education (2025), and nomination for Australian of the Year (2026).