Practice — 04
Advisory to industry
Technical and evidentiary review for organizations building public safety technology, and for their investors.
Public safety technology is bought by institutions that face oversight, litigation, and public records obligations, and is evaluated by researchers and courts on evidence its builders often have not assembled. Dr. Atherley advises companies and investors on whether a product does what it claims, whether the evidence would survive scrutiny, and how the agencies that buy it actually decide.
Advisory to industry and investors
Technical and evidentiary review for organizations building public safety technology, and for those funding them. This is commercial advisory work, distinct from the opinion domains set out under legal consulting.
Product and technical review
- Validation of analytic productsWhether a system does what it claims; error characteristics, failure modes, and the limits of the evidence offered in support.
- Machine learning and NLP in police operationsAssessment of models applied to police records, including training data provenance, label quality, and drift.
- Decision support systemsFitness for operational use; how a tool behaves in the hands of a dispatcher, analyst, or officer rather than in a demonstration.
- Data architecture for public safetyWarehousing and engineering considerations specific to police administrative data and its known defects.
Market and domain advisory
- Buyer diligenceHow police agencies actually procure, what they can integrate, and what claims they will and will not accept.
- Evidence and efficacy claimsWhether a product's published or marketed evidence base would withstand scrutiny by a researcher, an oversight body, or a court.
- Regulatory and oversight exposureHow a product is likely to be treated under consent decrees, public records law, and oversight review.
Organizational
- Workplace violence and threat managementProgramme design and review for organizations managing threat and targeted violence risk.
Initial contact
Please describe the organization, the question, and any timeline. Every engagement begins the same way: a short description of the matter, a conflicts check, then a scoping conversation.