John Harkin, Director
John is a former Divisional Commander with Strathclyde Police and previously held the posts of both Head of Training and Head of Leadership and Management Training at The Scottish Police College in Tulliallan. He is currently engaged as a consultant by Coatbridge College in the design, development and delivery of the Professional Development Award (PDA) in Resilience Management, inaugurated by the Scottish Government, through Scottish Resilience.
With vast experience in the international training arena, he worked with the FBI, RCMP and PSNI as a Course Director on the Leadership in Counter Terrorism programme. Also a former Emergencies Planning Officer, he was a career hostage negotiator and a Director of the national course at Tulliallan between 1994 and 2003. He has extensive experience as an author, player and umpire in the Home Office Counter Terrorist Exercise Training Programme and has developed numerous emergency exercises in both the civil contingencies and counter terrorist arenas.
He was instrumental in the design and application of the initial modelling for the Scottish Police Information and Coordination Centre (S-PICC) which coordinated the Scottish police response to the national fuel strikes in 2000. He was seconded to Central Scotland Police to conduct a review of the Emergency Management arrangements at Grangemouth petrochemical industries. In 2003, he was seconded to Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Service to conduct the joint services, strategic review of critical business change priorities for police and fire services.
Previous specialist roles include Support Unit, with responsibility for firearms, public order, security searches and response to bomb alerts. In 2004 he was lead author of the HMIC Scotland report ‘Local Connections – Policing with the Community’, which offered informed guidance and a number of recommendations to Chief Constables on the strategic development of community based policing in Scotland.
As Divisional Commander for the Renfrewshire and Inverclyde areas, he led the police submission to HMIe’s joint inspection arrangements for child protection with these two authorities achieving amongst the highest marks in Scotland.
Specialist training qualifications include Management of Disasters and Civil Emergencies (MODACE), Police Search Advisor (POLSA), Hostage Negotiator/Coordinator, CBRN Silver Commander and NPIA/ACPO accredited Gold/Strategic Firearms Commander. In 2003 he successfully completed the EU accredited CEPOL (European Police College) Civil Crisis Management course.
He has also completed the Scottish Leadership Foundation’s ‘Change Through People’ programme and Hay’s ‘Emotional Competence Inventory’ training. In 2006 he was invited to perform a Tutor role on the Police Executive Leadership Programme (PELP) delivered by the Australian Institute of Police Management (AIPM).
He has a BA degree in Social Sciences and a Diploma in Police Management. He also successfully completed the Strategic Management Development Programme at Tulliallan.