Brandon del Pozo is an assistant professor at Brown University. He conducts NIH-funded research about public health, public safety, and justice, focusing on the overdose crisis, and violence, looking for ways to protect and improve the lives of everyday people in precarious positions.
His research interests evolved from his upbringing. His first job in high school was pulling freight form the cargo warehouses at Kennedy Airport, his first job in college was working the short order grill at the campus dining hall, and the first job of his professional career was walking a beat as a rookie cop in Brooklyn. When he enrolled at Dartmouth on an Army ROTC scholarship, he was the first person in his family to attend a four year college. It took him 15 years to finish his PhD from the City University of New York because he pursued the degree while working full time.
Prior to research, del Pozo spent 19 years in the New York City Police Department, where he started on patrol in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, commanded patrol precincts in Manhattan and the Bronx, and led a unit in the police commissioner's office. After his experiences at Ground Zero on 9/11, he served as an intelligence liaison in Amman, Jordan from 2005 to 2007. After the NYPD, he spent four years as Chief of Police of Burlington, Vermont, where he directed the city's public health response to the opioid crisis, an effort associated with a substantial and sustained reduction in opioid overdose deaths. He was the 2016 recipient of the Police Executive Research Forum's Gary Hayes Award for excellence in police leadership, and is an elected member of the national Council on Criminal Justice. He also served for eight years as an infantry officer in the US Army National Guard in New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, and on active duty after 9/11.
Dr. del Pozo's popular writing has been featured in The New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, Chicago Tribune, Vital City, and the New York Daily News. His book, The Police and the State: Security, Social Cooperation, and the Public Good, was published in December of 2022 by Cambridge University Press.