Shawn Hill

Commander Shawn Hill is a 20-year veteran of the Santa Barbara Police Department. He is currently assigned as a Watch Commander in the Field Operations Bureau, and as the assistant SWAT commander. Some of his previous roles include serving in the Chief's Office, the detective bureau, training and recruitment and professional standards. He earned a B.A. in English from Old Dominion University, an M.A. in criminal justice from Arizona State University and is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of California, Santa Barbara in the Department of Communication. His research interests include police culture, intergroup processes and their (us versus them) influence on police-public relationships, communication accommodation, intergroup interventions, and overcoming implementation barriers to evidence-based approaches in policing.

Commander Hill currently serves on the community policing committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, is a National Policing Institute Executive Fellow and a member of the Training, Education, and Standards (TES) Committee for the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE). He most recently co-authored VOICES: a theory driven intervention for improving relationships between police and the public, and co-edited the interdisciplinary, international Rowman & Littlefield Handbook of Policing, Communication, and Society.