Peter Collins (psychiatrist)

For other people named Peter Collins, see Peter Collins (disambiguation).

Peter Ian Collins (born 1953) is a Canadian forensic psychiatrist. He is a Court recognized authority on violent crime and has worked with criminal justice agencies in Canada and throughout the world, including INTERPOL, the FBI and U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Australian Federal Police and Europol. He has testified as an expert witness on homicide, sexual homicide, paedophilia, child pornography, child abduction, stalking, sexual assault, paraphilias, the insanity defence, officer involved shootings, malingered mental illness, suicide by cop, police crisis negotiations, extremism, operational stress injury, resilience and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Life and career

Collins obtained his Bachelor’s degree in psychology from The University of Western Ontario in 1975 and his Masters degree in applied criminology from the University of Ottawa in 1978. He earned his Medical Degree from McMaster University in 1983. Collins completed his postgraduate medical training in Psychiatry at the University of Toronto in 1989. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (Canada) in Psychiatry and has a Royal College of Physicians (Canada) sub specialty in Forensic Psychiatry.

Collins took a position at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, now part of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in 1989. His clinical appointment is with CAMH's Complex Mental Illness Program. In 2004 he was promoted to Associate Professor at University of Toronto in the Division of Forensic Psychiatry - Faculty of Medicine. He also is an Associate Clinical Professor with the Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences at McMaster University.

Collins is a co-investigator with the Health Adaptation Research on Trauma (HART) Lab at the University of Toronto Mississauga. As well, Collins is a consultant to the International Performance Resilience and Efficiency Program (iPREP), the training wing of the HART lab. iPREP focuses on coaching and training use-of-force experts, and first responders, on methods that improve mental and physical readiness in high-stress situations.

When the Royal Canadian Mounted Police established their Violent Crimes Analysis Section (later named the Behavioural Analysis Branch), in June 1990, Collins became a consultant, in December 1990, and continued with this position until 2008. As a member of the Behavioural Analysis Branch he was involved in the project that developed the Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System (ViCLAS) with Inspectors Ron MacKay (retired), Keith Davidson (retired) and Greg Johnson.

Collins became an in-house consultant to the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), in 1995, and is currently the Forensic Psychiatrist with the Criminal Behaviour Analysis Unit of the OPP's Behavioural Sciences and Analysis Section. He is also serves as the consultant psychiatrist to "O" Division Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET) of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Behavioural Analysis Unit of the U.S. Marshal's Service, the Profiling Unit of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Investigative Psychology Unit of the South African Police, the Intelligence and Organized Crime Section of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary and the Behavioural Sciences Section of the Calgary Police Service. Collins has been a member of the Toronto Police Service Emergency Task Force (ETF) Crisis Negotiation Team since 1992. He is regularly consulted by the Homicide Squad, Sexual Assault Squad, Child Exploitation Section, Covert Operations and the Mobile Crisis Intervention Teams of the Toronto Police Service.

In 1997, Collins was elected a member of the International Criminal Investigative Analysis Fellowship. From 2000 to 2012, Collins was a member of the INTERPOL Specialist Group on Crimes against Children. In 2014 he was made a Senior Adviser to the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.

Collins retired, at the rank of Lieutenant-Commander, from the Royal Canadian Navy (Reserves). He is a veteran of two deployments to Southern Afghanistan.[1] In October 2012 Collins was awarded the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal for his contribution to the Canadian Forces. He was also awarded the Canadian Forces Decoration (CD) in 2016.

In his capacity as a forensic psychiatrist with the OPP Collins has been consulted, internationally, on numerous homicide investigations, including serial murder cases, sexual homicides and child abductions.[2][3][4] He has also written on suicide by cop.[5] At the request of the Department of Justice, Collins testified before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice, Human Rights, Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness – Bill C-2: An Act to Amend the Criminal Code (Protection of Children and Other Vulnerable Persons) and the Canada Evidence Act - Ottawa, Ontario, 2 May 2005. He has also been involved in two joint presentations, on the topic of Child Pornography, to Members of Parliament - House of Commons, Ottawa, in June 1999 and April 2002. In April 2006 he presented to the Counter Terrorism Training Working Group – Institute of Intergovernmental Research & U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. on the topic of Source Development and Recruitment.

Collins is on the Board of the Canadian Association of Threat Assessment Professionals and a contributing editor with the Journal of Threat Assessment and Management, published by the American Psychological Association.

In September 2015, Collins was the recipient of the of the World Association of Detectives Hal Lipset Memorial "Truth in Action Award" presented at their 90th annual conference. This award is presented for "specific deeds and accomplishments" and for exhibiting "the highest standards of conduct and services".

In the private sector Collins is an expert consultant with Park Dietz & Associates, in Newport Beach, California; Hennes Paynter Communications, in Cleveland, Ohio; L & S Threat Assessment Group in Pretoria, South Africa; Martin & Associates Investigations, in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Investigative Solutions Network, in Pickering, Ontario.

Professional Conduct Disposition

After receiving an individual's complaint about Dr. Collins conduct, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario’s (CPSO) INQUIRIES, COMPLAINTS AND REPORTS COMMITTEE met on 13 April 2015. The Committee determined that the appropriate disposition was to require Dr. Collins to attend before a panel of the Committee to be cautioned in person regarding his conduct during his interview with the complainant, including his lack of sensitivity, his confrontational approach, and his combining of roles as well as his self-disclosure during the interview. A caution in person arises when the Committee is concerned about an aspect of a physician's practice and believes that the physician world benefit from direction provided in person about the issues raised. Collins appeared before the panel on 5 October 2015 and the in camera committee accepted Collins' explanation that the complainant was feigning an anxiety attack, did not suffer from PTSD and the complainant's presentation was consistent with false memory syndrome but stated Collins should have exercised more empathy, regardless. The College of Physician and Surgeons of Newfoundland and Labrador dismissed the complainant's claims outright. The caution from CPSO is not reportable on Collins' standing, with the College, and he remains a member in good standing. Collins is still retained, by the College, as an expert in forensic psychiatry.

According to an article to this online article http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n1336/a09.html, Dr. Collins was banned from entering the Toronto Police Headquarters. As stated in the article, the ban was subsequently lifted and the Toronto Police Service apologized to both Collins and the University of Toronto for their actions.

Selected publications

Books
Book chapters
Articles
Manuals
Reports

References

  1. ↑ Fisher, Matthew (April 3, 2009). Canadian psychiatrist minding hearts and souls - of soldiers. National Post
  2. ↑ Michaud, S. G., & Hazelwood, R. (2001). The evil that men do: FBI profiler Roy Hazlewood's journey into the minds of sexual predators. Macmillan, ISBN 978-0-312-97060-4
  3. ↑ Clark, D. (2002). Dark paths, cold trails: How a Mountie led the quest to link serial killers to their victims. HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, ISBN 978-0-00-200078-9
  4. ↑ McCrary, G. O., & Ramsland, K. (2003). The unknown darkness: Profiling the predators among us. HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, ISBN 978-0-06-050957-6
  5. ↑ Mohandie K, Meloy JR, Collins PI (2009). Suicide by cop among officer-involved shooting cases. Journal of Forensic Sciences. 2009 Mar;54(2):456-62. Epub 2008 Feb 6.
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