Contact Hannah Allen

Background

Hannah graduated from the University of Liverpool, with a first-class honours degree in Psychology in 1999. In the same year she started working for the Metropolitan Police Service as a Crime Analyst, before later moving to West Mercia Police, where she spent the majority of her operational police career, as a supervisor and manager, within the Forensic Services Department.

On gaining promotion in 2004, Hannah was additionally trained as a Crime Scene Manager and Co-ordinator and performed these roles in both West Mercia and Warwickshire Policing areas, until she left operational policing in 2022. Her last role within West Mercia was as Crime Scene Investigation Technical Manager, responsible for accreditation processes of the Crime Scene Investigation (ISO/IEC 17020) and the DNA Laboratory (ISO/IEC 17025). She is a trained assessor and auditor in ISO/IEC 17020.

Hannah is still a Police Staff Volunteer for West Mercia Police, conducting Critical Incident Debriefs with Police Staff and Officers.

As well as working on current and historical major crime investigations, whilst at West Mercia Police, Hannah was a Crime Scene Examiner for the Forensic Science Service (2003-04) responsible for examining Serious and Organised Crime Scenes nationally for the then National Crime Squad.

Since leaving University, Hannah has always had a passion for academia and has balanced this alongside her successful police work. Early in her career Hannah was seconded to University College London and the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science as a Research Fellow, where she has a paper published in the International Journal of Police Science and Management. She completed additional projects, alongside her initial crime scene investigation training at Harperley Hall and was awarded a Diploma from Durham University. She then undertook part-time postgraduate studies at ¹û½´ÊÓƵ¹ÙÍø in Forensic Archaeology and Anthropology, as well as working as a sessional lecturer at the University of Worcester before starting her family.

In 2022 Hannah became a full time academic, initially at the University of Worcester teaching on the Forensic and Applied Biology Degree, before joining ¹û½´ÊÓƵ¹ÙÍø in September 2024, as the Course Director for the MSc in Forensic Investigation. Hannah has completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching for Higher Education and holds Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy.

Hannah maintains her operational knowledge and experience by being a Technical Assessor for the United Kingdom Accreditation Service for incident scene examination under ISO/IEC 17020 and being in regular touch with her previous colleagues.