the orbit team
What defines the ORBIT team is an unwavering commitment to focus, study, and support real-world problems as they are experienced by those who face them in the real world.
Through our collaborations with practitioners, and unique access to training and data, we are able to conduct high quality rigorous research that has made a difference to practitioners ‘at the coal face’ and then transfer this knowledge into training.
Prof. laurence alison
ORBIT Creator & Lead Trainer
Professor Alison MBE, focuses on high profile critical and major incidents (from disaster management to terrorism). He has over 30 years of experience working on applied projects for Law enforcement and the security services.
He currently provides training to FBI/CIA/DoD, The UKs National CT interviewing cadre and the British Army in the ORBIT framework for rapport-based interrogation methods.
He was key psychological advisor on over 450 critical and major incidents debriefs including the 7/7 bombings, the Sharm El Sheik attacks, the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the preparations for the London Olympics.
He was key advisor and research on a child sexual exploitation project that resulted in the largest operation in UK police history and which, across a 6-month period, led to the arrest of over 1,200 offenders, the safeguarding of over 1,000 children and a cost saving to UK government of £15million. He has over 200 published articles, books, edited books and government and industry reports.
He was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours list 2020 for services to critical incident handling and to the NHS during COVID-19.
emily alison
ORBIT Creator & Lead Trainer
Emily Alison has worked as a behavioural consultant psychologist for the last 20 years, providing treatment in both the criminal justice sector and in the community.
She specialises in the assessment and treatment of violence and has worked with over 850 domestic violence perpetrators and designed therapeutic interventions for Domestic Abuse, Child to Parent Violence, Healthy Relationships for Children and Young People, Sexually Harmful Behaviour and Sexual Risk Taking in Adolescents, and Gang and Weapon linked offending.
For the last 10 years she has been involved in the development of the Preventing Violent Extremism Tool for profiling potential extremism and the ORBIT framework for Advanced High Value Detainee Interviewing. She has observed over 500 hours of UK police interviews with terrorists, covering a range of ideologies including Paramilitary, Al Qaeda, Right-wing, and ISIS.
Emily has provided training to a wide range of organisations including the FBI/CIA/DoD, The UKs National Counter Terrorism interviewing cadre and the British Army in the ORBIT framework for rapport-based interrogation methods.
FRANkie SURMON-BÖHR
ORBIT Researcher & Lead Trainer
Dr Frances Surmon-Böhr (PhD) is a research associate at the University of Liverpool and a consultant psychologist at Protagoras Forensic Services Ltd.
Her PhD, supervised by Prof. Laurence Alison, examined rapport-based interviewing approaches with High Value Suspects. She has worked on numerous research projects funded by U.K. Ministry of Defense and the U.S. High Value Detainee Interrogation Group where she was involved in the design, development, analysis, and write-up of research projects relating the application of ORBIT in various interviewing/ interrogation contexts.
As part of this work, she has observed and coded hundreds of hours of interviews with terrorist suspects, covering a range of ideologies including Al Qaeda, Extreme Right-Wing, and ISIS.
Frances has provided training in ORBIT to a wide range of organisations including the FBI/CIA/DoD, The UKs National Counter Terrorism interviewing cadre and the British Army in the ORBIT framework for rapport-based interrogation methods.
Frances has presented at Humanitarian, Human Rights and Law Enforcement and Security Conferences internationally.
neil shortland
Neil Shortland (PhD) is the Director for the Center for Terrorism and Security Studies (CTSS) at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice.
Neil has worked in a series of applied roles in both the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense and Police. For his experimental research on military and police decision-making he was the first ever international recipient of the American Psychological Associations’ (APA) Research Award.
Neil's work on decision-making and security has been funded by the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences, the Department of Defense Minerva Initiative, and the National Institute of Justice for his work on countering-violent extremism. He was also recently awarded the National Science Foundation's CAREER award. CAREER funding is the most prestigious award in support of early-career faculty.
michael humann
Michael Humann (PhD) designs, develops and delivers training using immersive simulated learning environments, aimed at improving critical incident decision making and developing expertise in policing and emergency response. He has developed various evaluation frameworks for a number of large-scale exercises to capture performance.
He is the educational director on the Pan-European Football Policing Training Project (PE-FPTP), designing and delivering training to police forces and partners across Europe within the context of international football matches and other sports events since 2012. As part of this, he was involved in preparations for the EURO 2020 as part of the EPIC (Event Policing & Internal Cooperation) Project and provides ongoing training. He also recently drafted the Handbook on International Police Cooperation, as part of Interpol's Project Stadia, in preparation for FIFA's World Cup Qatar 2022 and beyond.
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JORDAN NUNAN
Dr Jordan Nunan is an Associate Professor in Criminal Justice Studies at the University of Northampton and a consultant ORBIT researcher and trainer.
His PhD was examined by Professor Laurence Alison and funded by the Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST). His thesis developed an evidence-base for the elicitation of intelligence from Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS). He has published numerous peer reviewed academic articles on topics including the elicitation of intelligence, CHIS, rapport building, effective questioning, and interviewing methods. He has presented his work at international conferences and continues to work with numerous law enforcement agencies on research projects and policy development.
Jordan is the National Coordinator for the National Police Chief’s Council’s (NPCC) Intelligence Practice Research Consortium (IPRC) and is an academic advisor on the National Crime Agency’s HUMINT Academic Hub.
Alongside his academic profile, Jordan has served as a police officer for Hampshire Constabulary, the Metropolitan Police Service and Cambridgeshire Constabulary. In his time as a police officer, he was part of London’s West End Proactive Team and a Detective in serious and complex crime.
ORBIT Associates
Our team partners with leading practitioners in the fields of policing, defense, government and critical incident management to ensure our research, products and training remain true to the operating realities.
JIM SMYTH
Jim recently retired as a Superintendent with the Ontario Provincial Police. Much of his 35 year career was dedicated to the investigation and management of complex violent and serial crimes.
In addition to successfully managing hundreds of complex investigations, Jim was certified by the International Criminal Investigative Analysis Fellowship (ICIAF) as a criminal profiler. The ICIAF is an elite group of law enforcement professionals that include the FBI and several national and state police agencies that are called upon to provide support in the most challenging investigations. He was also certified as a forensic interviewer through the Canadian Police College.
Jim's passion in policing has been to refine and improve the process of forensic interviewing. His accomplishments in high profile investigations have earned him international recognition as an expert is rapport based, modern interview approaches.
He has spent much of the past twenty years providing support, innovative training and guidance to law enforcement agencies around the world. Examples of his interviews are routinely used in police academies, law schools and university programs to demonstrate how rapport based approaches to high stakes interviews can yield reliable, court admissible results without using outdated and unreliable coercive techniques.
For the last five years of his police career, Jim was the Superintendent, Director of Operations for the OPP’s Central Region, overseeing approximately one thousand uniform, crime unit, traffic, marine, and emergency response team personnel.
Jim's accomplishments in the area of forensic interviewing have earned him six OPP Accolade Awards, the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and he was inducted into the Order of Merit of the Police Forces by Canada's Governor General.
andy woodhead
Andy is a senior leader and interviewing specialist with over 20 years’ experience across UK Policing and the private sector. A practitioner of the ORBIT rapport‑based interviewing model since 2014, he has applied the approach in hundreds of interviews with suspects, vulnerable victims and witnesses across terrorism, serious violence and major safeguarding investigations.
As an accredited ORBIT facilitator, Andy is qualified in Specialist Suspect Interviewing, Op Alcyone (advanced ORBIT) and Strategic Interview Advising. He trains investigators and corporate leaders in ethical rapport‑building and interpersonal communication.
During his policing career, Andy served as a Detective Chief Inspector and gained extensive operational experience as a PIP 2 Detective and PIP 3 Senior Investigating Officer. He led major crime investigations involving terrorism, attempted murder, armed robbery, serious sexual offences (RASSO) and complex historical cases. Andy spent a decade within the UK Counter Terrorism network, interviewing suspects linked to a range of extremist ideologies. This work included high‑profile investigations with partners across the Middle East, Europe and North America.
At a strategic level, Andy led the Bradford Safeguarding Investigations Department, overseeing responses to RASSO and Violence Against Women & Girls (VAWG) - embedding trauma‑informed, victim‑focused practice. Nationally, he served as Strategy & Governance Manager for priority counter‑terrorism themes and represented the UK at Interpol and Europol.
After leaving policing, Andy became a Project Director in a major consultancy firm, delivering transformation programmes across public and private sector organisations. His work in UK Defence focused on behaviour and culture change, performance improvement, and strengthening stakeholder relationships - reinforcing the value of communication and human connection in driving meaningful change.
Bringing together operational interviewing expertise, strategic leadership and corporate transformation experience, Andy offers a unique perspective on how high‑quality engagement enhances trust and collaboration.