Fulbright Presentation: Kacper Gradon

Dr. Kacper Gradon, Director of the Centre for Forensic & Investigative Sciences (University of Warsaw)

Dr. Kacper Gradon is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Warsaw and the Director of the Centre for Forensic & Investigative Sciences (University of Warsaw). He is also an Associate Visiting Professor at UCL Department of Security and Crime Science (since 2010) as well as the University College London Honorary Senior Research Associate.

Both his Masters (2000) and Doctoral (2008, Magna cum Laude) dissertations address the issues of multiple homicide, crime prevention, criminal analysis and offender profiling. He has over 14 years of experience in research projects and teaching related to Homicide Investigation, Crime Scene Analysis, Forensic & Investigative Sciences and Criminology that he gained in Poland, UK, Canada and the USA. He has spoken at over 90 academic and Police conferences and seminars across Europe and North America.
Dr. Gradon worked for 3 years at the General Headquarters of the Polish National Police, where he participated in the creation of the Criminal Analysis and Criminal Intelligence Units. He also completed the London Metropolitan Police Specialist Operations Training of Hostage Negotiations, as well as several other Police courses in preventing and combating crime, led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Dutch Police, Guardia di Finanza, Bundeskriminalamt, Royal Ulster Constabulary and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

FP7 PRIME was a 3-year long (2014-2017) EU-funded project aimed to improve the understanding of lone actor terrorism and to inform the design of social and physical counter-measures for the prevention of lone-actor radicalization, the disruption of lone-actor terrorist plots and the mitigation of terrorist attacks carried out by lone extremists. PRIME research consortium (University College London, Kings College London, University of Warsaw, University of Leiden, Aarhus University and Hebrew University of Jerusalem) cooperated closely with subject matter experts and with counter-terrorism and counter-extremism merit.

The presentation will focus on the most practical observations and conclusions drawn by the PRIME team responsible for the analysis of existing and potential countermeasures against violent extremism and terrorism. University of Warsaw scholars interviewed and consulted over 130 frontline practitioners representing law-enforcement agencies and intelligence services from Europe, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, India, Georgia and Israel, gathering first-hand data on the operational constraints and limitations affecting the effectiveness of counter-terrorism operations, and preparing the comprehensive set of countermeasures that can be practically applied to disrupt extremist plots at all three stages of the PRIME-designed “RAPA” model (Radicalization – Attack Preparation – Attack).

The speaker will cover the PRIME recommendations presented to the European Commission and will go beyond the state of the art, describing the approaches both to the newly adapted "analogue" terrorist MOs (such as run-over attacks, arsons and stabbings – strategies endorsed both by ISIS and AQ), and to the digital frontiers of threats, analyzing the challenges that they pose to law-enforcement and security services.