Dan Stork Banks has been a police officer ̽ for over seven years working within some of the most deprived communities in the south of England. During this period he has been on the front line of many controversial issues involving religious cohesion. These include faith-based social entrepreneurship, sexual orientation and religious ethics, domestic Islamist extremism, free faith-speech, honour based violence, and hate crime. He has also worked in a consultative capacity to senior police decision makers on issues such as religion and society, counter-terrorism, and religious consequences for employment. His entire career has been committed to building trust in the police amongst vulnerable indigenous and immigrant religious communities so that they can be better protected. Writing for the UK charity Faithworks in 2006 he was one of the first officers to advocate that the police adapt its then new neighbourhood policing strategy to support churches engaging social deprivation and the late night drinking economy. Many of the ideas contained within the article are today standard practice at the local policing level. He can occassionally be heard speaking on Premier Christian Radio discussing policing and Christianity.
Dan holds a degree in International Politics and Strategic Studies from Aberystwyth University, and an MBA from Henley Business School where he has specialised in strategic leadership, base of the pyramid economics, entrepreneurship, cross-cultural communication, and new media technologies.
Dan has been a committed Christian for nearly twenty years and sits loosely within the world of evangelicalism. He does not belong to any political party and is influenced by writers from the left and the right. Whilst strongly influenced by recent developments in Post-Chrsitendom theology, he differs in politics from most post-christiendom thinkers who lean heavily upon socialism and anarchism. Rather Dan would place himself strongly within the Red-Tory tradition. This seeks to devolve decision making to communities and front-line professionals whilst protecting their power from the controlling influences of both the state and the market. Dan is a husband, a father, and a social media geek when he is not at work.
*Important: 1. please note that Dan is not using the blog to represent or speak on behalf of the police in any way. His views are entirely his own, unless you happen to agree with them! 2. Dan does not make any money through this website.
