Lorna Ferguson
Biographic Data
| ID | 4198154 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lorna Ferguson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lorna |
| FAMILY NAME | Ferguson |
| SIGNATURE | FERGUSON L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Western University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4077-9501 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 6 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1981 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Losing sight of the threat: Police, risk, and artificial intelligence
Purpose Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly reshaping society, presenting both opportunities and challenges for law enforcement. Police organisations are cautiously adopting these technologies to improve operational efficiency. However, significant risks also emerge as criminals exploit AI for harmful activities. Threats such as deepfakes, advanced phishing, and AI-driven malware endanger communities. Understanding how police leaders evaluate…
“Cops Need Doxxed”: Releasing Personal Information of Police Officers as a Tool of Political Harassment
The present study explores the phenomenon of doxxing and, in particular, the use of doxxing as a form of harassment against police officers. This work relies on an analysis of in-depth interviews with 65 ( n = 65) police officers from across Canada, each of whom has had experiences of policing politically contested events. Drawing on our data, we outline specific examples of the doxxing of police officers, before exploring the political and other…
All These Crazies: Right-Wing Anti-Authoritarian Politics and the Targeting of Public Police
Drawing on a dataset comprised of 67 interviews with police personnel across Canada, as well as documents, videos and social media content, this paper examines five different types of "harms" perpetrated against police officers by individuals and groups espousing right-wing anti-authoritarian beliefs. The harms identified are: 1. actions intended to overwhelm and drain police, 2. cop-baiting, 3. doxing, 4. legal and pseudo-legal harassment and 5.…
Gender, Age and Victimization Risk Among Missing Persons
The purpose of this study was to examine the risk of victimization among missing persons and the ways in which gender and age shape this relationship. From a sample of 1,847 missing persons reports, multiple logistic regression was used to estimate victimization risk when missing, disaggregated by gender and age group and including vulnerability factors (i.e., the reasons for victimization risk). Results reveal that female missing persons compare…
“It’s all about covering your . . .”: The unintended consequences of police accountability measures
Policing faces increased accountability measures, influencing officers to engage in “covering your ass” and over-documentation. In this qualitative study of police officers across three Canadian provinces, we unpack the “covering your ass” mentality by exploring the paperwork burden as an unintended consequence of movements toward greater policing accountability. We find that covering your ass leads officers to complete paperwork to protect thems…
“You Don’t Need 55 Forms That Say the Same Thing”: The Burden on Police to Produce Extra-Institutional Knowledge
Central to the police role and function are the inter- and extra-institutional demands for “knowledge” on crime and frontline policing. However, this subject has failed to generate the required empirical attention. The current study thus draws on Ericson and Haggerty’s conceptualization of police as “knowledge workers” to reveal the extent to which knowledge production for other institutions remains salient and, as a latent function, burdens poli…
When you own the time, it’s seamless, but when you don’t, it’s horrific’: Critical, public order and major incident decision-making in policing
On 24 May 2022, a gunman entered an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas and fatally shot 19 victims. During the incident, local police were present at the site but did not enter the building to confront the gunman. It was subsequently reported that an Incident Commander mischaracterised the situation as a 'barricaded subject' rather than as an 'active shooter', and officers were ordered to stay out of the scene and to keep student families and bys…
No one wants to end up on YouTube’: Sousveillance and ‘cop-baiting’ in Canadian policing
Citizen recordings of police-public encounters are increasingly surfacing on social media, especially those in which individuals intentionally create confrontational situations to provoke a desired response from police officers. The latter is a form of, what we term, cop-baiting, driven mainly by the ubiquitous sousveillance of police by citizens. Although the literature has explored how media can impact public perceptions of police and police le…
Police responses to cold and long-term missing person cases: A Comparative Study
Cold/long-term missing person cases continue to be a matter of great concern for the public and police. Scholars have attempted to study the issue of missing persons more broadly, using research from across regions to understand this phenomenon. However, there has been little study of how relevant research from different regions is to other areas and little examination of cold/long-term missing person cases. Given these two considerations – these…
Examining the Connection Between Missing Persons and Victimization: An Application of Lifestyle Exposure Theory
Victimization has been anecdotally connected to missing persons within several reviews, inquiries, and media stories, particularly in consequence of missing-turned-serial murder cases. However, this has been paid little attention within the scholarship. To remedy this gap, this study empirically explores the link between missing persons and victimization through the perspective of lifestyle exposure theory. A qualitative thematic analysis of 1,92…
Risk factors and missing persons: Advancing an understanding of ‘risk’
This study seeks to advance an understanding of ‘risk’ for persons going missing—a phenomenon also known as missingness. There is a need to clarify terms used to describe correlations or statistical associations between variables that are identified as risk factors for missing person incidents to understand the mechanisms influencing this phenomenon. Without such research, policies and preventative strategies cannot be adequately offered to begin…
Wicked Problems of Police Reform in Canada
Going Missing' as a Maladaptive Coping Behavior for Adults Experiencing Strain
This study applied the Threat Appraisal and Coping Theory to explore the mechanisms influencing a person to go missing. We examined the negative emotions and stressors – proximate stressors/stressful events, underlying life stressors, emotional states, and other dysfunctional behaviors – of adults who were reported as missing from 2014–2018. Our results indicate that missing persons experience significant underlying life stressors, stressful situ…
Missing to #Found: Exploring police Twitter use for missing persons investigations
Thousands of people go missing each year in Canada, with recent figures noting over 70,000 reports generated in 2019. While missing person cases can place strains on police resources, the use of Internet technology can attenuate some of the demands by aiding with the investigations. As a result, this exploratory study examines one social media tool, Twitter, for missing person investigations by police in Canada. Through logistic regression, we an…
Training police search and rescue teams: Implications for missing persons work
Police search and rescue teams are crucial players in resolving missing person cases. Resultantly, police employ a host of training for search and rescue members in collaboration with institutions, organizations, and groups. Such training, however, has not been studied. This warrants attention as, in a time of police legitimacy crises and austerity policing, appropriate and quality police training for effective, efficient practices is imperative.…
The irrationalities of rationality in police data processes
This paper explores how police bureaucracies, in their pursuit of greater accountability and management efficiencies, create what are intended to be rational data collection and use processes. However, these processes often produce unintended consequences: namely, behaviours, practices, and policies that confound an organisation’s goals. Drawing on Ritzer’s McDonaldization thesis and qualitative data from two Canadian police organisations, we arg…
Repeat or chronic: Examining police data accuracy across the ‘history’ classifications of missing person cases
Going missing multiple times, which can render missing person cases as ‘repeat’ or ‘chronic,’ has been widely regarded as an issue that generates police resource strains. Within existing missing persons literature, the ambiguities surrounding what constitutes a missing individual as ‘repeat’ or ‘chronic’ have been discussed. The main issues being that there is no proper definition for, nor is there any research on, how many times an individual is…
City Money: Political Processes, Fiscal Strain, and Retrenchment
Preference and Profits in Urban Politics
City Money. Political Processes, Fiscal Strain, and Retrenchment
Explores the issue of fiscal strain in cities throughout America during the 1970s through a study of debts and expenditures on common services, education, welfare, housing, hospitals, and other municipal functions. It also evaluates the linkages between the economic base, political decision-making, and urban fiscal policies.
Change in Public Bureaucracies. Marshall W. Meyer
No one wants to end up on YouTube’: Sousveillance and ‘cop-baiting’ in Canadian policing
Citizen recordings of police-public encounters are increasingly surfacing on social media, especially those in which individuals intentionally create confrontational situations to provoke a desired response from police officers. The latter is a form of, what we term, cop-baiting, driven mainly by the ubiquitous sousveillance of police by citizens. Although the literature has explored how media can impact public perceptions of police and police le…
Police responses to cold and long-term missing person cases: A Comparative Study
Cold/long-term missing person cases continue to be a matter of great concern for the public and police. Scholars have attempted to study the issue of missing persons more broadly, using research from across regions to understand this phenomenon. However, there has been little study of how relevant research from different regions is to other areas and little examination of cold/long-term missing person cases. Given these two considerations – these…
Going Missing' as a Maladaptive Coping Behavior for Adults Experiencing Strain
This study applied the Threat Appraisal and Coping Theory to explore the mechanisms influencing a person to go missing. We examined the negative emotions and stressors – proximate stressors/stressful events, underlying life stressors, emotional states, and other dysfunctional behaviors – of adults who were reported as missing from 2014–2018. Our results indicate that missing persons experience significant underlying life stressors, stressful situ…
Training police search and rescue teams: Implications for missing persons work
Police search and rescue teams are crucial players in resolving missing person cases. Resultantly, police employ a host of training for search and rescue members in collaboration with institutions, organizations, and groups. Such training, however, has not been studied. This warrants attention as, in a time of police legitimacy crises and austerity policing, appropriate and quality police training for effective, efficient practices is imperative.…
The irrationalities of rationality in police data processes
This paper explores how police bureaucracies, in their pursuit of greater accountability and management efficiencies, create what are intended to be rational data collection and use processes. However, these processes often produce unintended consequences: namely, behaviours, practices, and policies that confound an organisation’s goals. Drawing on Ritzer’s McDonaldization thesis and qualitative data from two Canadian police organisations, we arg…
Repeat or chronic: Examining police data accuracy across the ‘history’ classifications of missing person cases
Going missing multiple times, which can render missing person cases as ‘repeat’ or ‘chronic,’ has been widely regarded as an issue that generates police resource strains. Within existing missing persons literature, the ambiguities surrounding what constitutes a missing individual as ‘repeat’ or ‘chronic’ have been discussed. The main issues being that there is no proper definition for, nor is there any research on, how many times an individual is…
Change in Public Bureaucracies. Marshall W. Meyer
City Money. Political Processes, Fiscal Strain, and Retrenchment
Explores the issue of fiscal strain in cities throughout America during the 1970s through a study of debts and expenditures on common services, education, welfare, housing, hospitals, and other municipal functions. It also evaluates the linkages between the economic base, political decision-making, and urban fiscal policies.
City Money: Political Processes, Fiscal Strain, and Retrenchment
Preference and Profits in Urban Politics
Missing to #Found: Exploring police Twitter use for missing persons investigations
Thousands of people go missing each year in Canada, with recent figures noting over 70,000 reports generated in 2019. While missing person cases can place strains on police resources, the use of Internet technology can attenuate some of the demands by aiding with the investigations. As a result, this exploratory study examines one social media tool, Twitter, for missing person investigations by police in Canada. Through logistic regression, we an…
Training police search and rescue teams: Implications for missing persons work
Police search and rescue teams are crucial players in resolving missing person cases. Resultantly, police employ a host of training for search and rescue members in collaboration with institutions, organizations, and groups. Such training, however, has not been studied. This warrants attention as, in a time of police legitimacy crises and austerity policing, appropriate and quality police training for effective, efficient practices is imperative.…
The irrationalities of rationality in police data processes
This paper explores how police bureaucracies, in their pursuit of greater accountability and management efficiencies, create what are intended to be rational data collection and use processes. However, these processes often produce unintended consequences: namely, behaviours, practices, and policies that confound an organisation’s goals. Drawing on Ritzer’s McDonaldization thesis and qualitative data from two Canadian police organisations, we arg…
Repeat or chronic: Examining police data accuracy across the ‘history’ classifications of missing person cases
Going missing multiple times, which can render missing person cases as ‘repeat’ or ‘chronic,’ has been widely regarded as an issue that generates police resource strains. Within existing missing persons literature, the ambiguities surrounding what constitutes a missing individual as ‘repeat’ or ‘chronic’ have been discussed. The main issues being that there is no proper definition for, nor is there any research on, how many times an individual is…
Risk factors and missing persons: Advancing an understanding of ‘risk’
This study seeks to advance an understanding of ‘risk’ for persons going missing—a phenomenon also known as missingness. There is a need to clarify terms used to describe correlations or statistical associations between variables that are identified as risk factors for missing person incidents to understand the mechanisms influencing this phenomenon. Without such research, policies and preventative strategies cannot be adequately offered to begin…
Wicked Problems of Police Reform in Canada
Going Missing' as a Maladaptive Coping Behavior for Adults Experiencing Strain
This study applied the Threat Appraisal and Coping Theory to explore the mechanisms influencing a person to go missing. We examined the negative emotions and stressors – proximate stressors/stressful events, underlying life stressors, emotional states, and other dysfunctional behaviors – of adults who were reported as missing from 2014–2018. Our results indicate that missing persons experience significant underlying life stressors, stressful situ…
Examining the Connection Between Missing Persons and Victimization: An Application of Lifestyle Exposure Theory
Victimization has been anecdotally connected to missing persons within several reviews, inquiries, and media stories, particularly in consequence of missing-turned-serial murder cases. However, this has been paid little attention within the scholarship. To remedy this gap, this study empirically explores the link between missing persons and victimization through the perspective of lifestyle exposure theory. A qualitative thematic analysis of 1,92…
Gender, Age and Victimization Risk Among Missing Persons
The purpose of this study was to examine the risk of victimization among missing persons and the ways in which gender and age shape this relationship. From a sample of 1,847 missing persons reports, multiple logistic regression was used to estimate victimization risk when missing, disaggregated by gender and age group and including vulnerability factors (i.e., the reasons for victimization risk). Results reveal that female missing persons compare…
“It’s all about covering your . . .”: The unintended consequences of police accountability measures
Policing faces increased accountability measures, influencing officers to engage in “covering your ass” and over-documentation. In this qualitative study of police officers across three Canadian provinces, we unpack the “covering your ass” mentality by exploring the paperwork burden as an unintended consequence of movements toward greater policing accountability. We find that covering your ass leads officers to complete paperwork to protect thems…
“You Don’t Need 55 Forms That Say the Same Thing”: The Burden on Police to Produce Extra-Institutional Knowledge
Central to the police role and function are the inter- and extra-institutional demands for “knowledge” on crime and frontline policing. However, this subject has failed to generate the required empirical attention. The current study thus draws on Ericson and Haggerty’s conceptualization of police as “knowledge workers” to reveal the extent to which knowledge production for other institutions remains salient and, as a latent function, burdens poli…
When you own the time, it’s seamless, but when you don’t, it’s horrific’: Critical, public order and major incident decision-making in policing
On 24 May 2022, a gunman entered an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas and fatally shot 19 victims. During the incident, local police were present at the site but did not enter the building to confront the gunman. It was subsequently reported that an Incident Commander mischaracterised the situation as a 'barricaded subject' rather than as an 'active shooter', and officers were ordered to stay out of the scene and to keep student families and bys…
No one wants to end up on YouTube’: Sousveillance and ‘cop-baiting’ in Canadian policing
Citizen recordings of police-public encounters are increasingly surfacing on social media, especially those in which individuals intentionally create confrontational situations to provoke a desired response from police officers. The latter is a form of, what we term, cop-baiting, driven mainly by the ubiquitous sousveillance of police by citizens. Although the literature has explored how media can impact public perceptions of police and police le…
Police responses to cold and long-term missing person cases: A Comparative Study
Cold/long-term missing person cases continue to be a matter of great concern for the public and police. Scholars have attempted to study the issue of missing persons more broadly, using research from across regions to understand this phenomenon. However, there has been little study of how relevant research from different regions is to other areas and little examination of cold/long-term missing person cases. Given these two considerations – these…
“Cops Need Doxxed”: Releasing Personal Information of Police Officers as a Tool of Political Harassment
The present study explores the phenomenon of doxxing and, in particular, the use of doxxing as a form of harassment against police officers. This work relies on an analysis of in-depth interviews with 65 ( n = 65) police officers from across Canada, each of whom has had experiences of policing politically contested events. Drawing on our data, we outline specific examples of the doxxing of police officers, before exploring the political and other…
All These Crazies: Right-Wing Anti-Authoritarian Politics and the Targeting of Public Police
Drawing on a dataset comprised of 67 interviews with police personnel across Canada, as well as documents, videos and social media content, this paper examines five different types of "harms" perpetrated against police officers by individuals and groups espousing right-wing anti-authoritarian beliefs. The harms identified are: 1. actions intended to overwhelm and drain police, 2. cop-baiting, 3. doxing, 4. legal and pseudo-legal harassment and 5.…
Losing sight of the threat: Police, risk, and artificial intelligence
Purpose Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly reshaping society, presenting both opportunities and challenges for law enforcement. Police organisations are cautiously adopting these technologies to improve operational efficiency. However, significant risks also emerge as criminals exploit AI for harmful activities. Threats such as deepfakes, advanced phishing, and AI-driven malware endanger communities. Understanding how police leaders evaluate…
Political science (16 works) · Psychology (14 works) · Law (12 works) · Computer Science (11 works) · Politics (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Homelessness and Social Issues (7 works) · Policing Practices and Perceptions (7 works) · Public relations (7 works) · Crime Patterns and Interventions (6 works)