I am a data scientist working full time for a number of Canadian government institutions and a PhD Candidate at the University of Toronto. I conduct research in the areas of organizational behavior, data science, structural inequality, transparency, and accountability, primarily in the context of criminal justice institutions like the police. My dissertation research leverages advances in natural language processing, machine learning, and high performance computing to conduct the first ever big data study of police criminal investigations in Canada. As a data scientist and strategic advisor, I have worked on projects for many different public and private sector agencies, from police agencies to human rights commissions, as well as international organizations like the OECD and the Public Law Project. My work has been profiled in national and international news outlets, including Nature, The Globe & Mail, The Toronto Star, The Washington Post, and BBC News.

I am the co-editor of two academic books. The first, Freedom of Information and Social Science Research Design (Routledge, 2019), examines how freedom of information laws across the globe are becoming an increasingly mainstream method of data collection among academic researchers. The second, Changing of the Guards: Private Influences, Privatization, and Criminal Justice in Canada (UBC Press, 2022), listed one of the Top 100 Best Books in 2022 by Hill Times, provides a comprehensive assessment of privatization and private influence across the 21st century Canadian criminal justice field.

From 2017-2021, I was a Junior Fellow at Massey College. Between 2018-2022, I was a member of the editorial board of the University of Toronto publication, Criminological Highlights. From April 2020-July 2021, I co-led the Policing the Pandemic Mapping Project in partnership with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

Beyond my research, I am an avid rock climber, mountain biker, and backcountry nordic skier.

Contact me

alex [dot] luscombe [at] utoronto [dot] ca