Dr. Lorenzo M. Boyd, Prominent Leader in Police-Community Relations, to Join Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice & Forensic Sciences at the University of New Haven

The University of New Haven announced today that Lorenzo M. Boyd, Ph.D., a nationally-recognized expert on police-community relations, will join the Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences as associate professor of criminal justice and director of the Center for Advanced Policing at the University.

Dr. Boyd’s service as a former deputy sheriff in Boston informed his nearly 20-year career in higher education, where his teaching, training, and research focused on urban policing, race and crime, criminal justice systems, diversity issues, and criminological theory.

During eight years as the primary advisor and consultant for the Fayetteville, North Carolina Police Department, Dr. Boyd led efforts to build a community wellness plan for the city. As a senior researcher at the North Carolina Juvenile Justice Institute at North Carolina Central University, he conducted program evaluations on local community-based juvenile justice intervention programs.

Dr. Boyd has appeared on local, regional, and national media outlets to discuss policing in the aftermath of high-profile cases, including shootings in Dallas, Baton Rouge, and Ferguson, Missouri. This spring, he led a study addressing issues of racism, bias, and police and community relations at Yale University after a white graduate student called the police to report a black graduate student who was asleep in a common room.

A former chair of the Departments of Criminal Justice and Social Sciences at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Dr. Boyd is also the former president of the Academy of Criminal Justice Science and a life member of the National Organization for Blacks in Law Enforcement. He earned his doctorate from Northeastern University. He also holds a master’s degree from the University of Massachusetts Boston and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts.