E-mail: kbturner@memphis.edu Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice Memphis, TN 38152  319 McCord Hall Office: Phone: (901) 678-3397 FAX: (901) 678-5279

Dr. K. B. Turner received a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His teaching interests are in the area of theory, race and crime, and police issues.  His research interests include crime and punishment, courts, police administration, and race and crime.

Dr. Turner is co-author with Dr. Samuel Walker of an early research project that analyzed hiring and promotion practices of the fifty largest American police departments; concluding that “modest gains” had been made in some of the sampled departments.  His work has appeared in Criminal Law Bulletin, Challenge, Journal of Criminal Justice, Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement Executive Forum.

His current research agenda includes judicial decision-making, capital punishment and issues relating to racial profiling. Dr. Turner holds a current law enforcement certification and is a certified law enforcement instructor.  His 20 years of law enforcement experience includes several years with the Omaha Police Department prior to joining the criminal justice faculty at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. He has also served in other law enforcement agencies assisting with their training programs. 

Most recently, Dr. Turner has been involved as an assistant trainer with the Memphis Police Department’s Crisis Intervention Team (CIT), a police based program that has become nationally known as the “Memphis Model” of pre-arrest jail diversion for those in a mental illness crisis.  Dr. Turner is a member of The Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS), The American Society of Criminology (ASC), and The National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE).