Faculty

Elliot B. Spector, Associate Professor

Elliot B. Spector, J.D. is an associate professor at the Center for Continuing Studies. He teaches undergraduate online classes in the Bachelor of General Studies' Public Safety/Criminal Justice focus and face-to-face classes at the State Police Academy in the Management Program for Public Safety Professionals developed by the Center for Continuing Studies in partnership with the School of Business.

Mr. Spector has over 30 years of law enforcement experience as a police officer, police instructor and an attorney representing the law enforcement community. To address the educational needs of public safety officers, he developed a curriculum for an online Public Safety/Criminal Justice focus in the Center's Bachelor of General Studies program. The online delivery allows him to recruit subject matter experts from across the country to teach specialized courses in the program.

From 1971 to 1980, he worked at the Hartford Police Department, where one of his assignments was as civil litigation officer. That position led him to enroll in the UConn School of Law, and a clerkship for Judge Milton A. Fishman, who asked him to teach a course for the Connecticut Criminal Law Foundation, Inc. (CCLF), a non-profit law enforcement training corporation. When Fishman died in 1985, Spector took over responsibility for that organization and continued teaching and expanding training programs for state and local public safety officers.

After he began practicing law full time, he continued to teach, working as an adjunct instructor at POST (Peace Officer Standards and Training Council), teaching for CCLF and lecturing at state and national law enforcement seminars across the U.S. “I just fell in love with teaching,” he explains.

Spector has addressed civil rights and legal issues at International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) conventions across the country since 1991. He is the past-Chair of the Legal Officers Section of the IACP, and a member of the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association, where he has served on its Legislative, Accreditation and Private Security Committees. He has acted in a legal advisory capacity for the Department of Justice, FBI, DEA and local law enforcement agencies, and has drafted numerous policies for police departments.

Spector has earned bachelor degrees from the University of Connecticut and University of Hartford, a J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law, and is a distinguished graduate of the United States Air Force School of Military Science.