Dr Michel Funicelli

Previously, Michel was a Lecturer in Police Studies at Teesside University (UK) and a Lecturer in Policing at Charles Sturt University in New South Wales (Australia).

He holds a BA in History from université de Montréal, a BA (Maj in Psychology) from Thompson Rivers University (British Columbia), a MA and PhD in Experimental Psychology from Concordia University, and a Graduate Certificate in Learning & Teaching in HE from Charles Sturt University.
Michel is a former military engineer with the Canadian Armed Forces with training in bridge building, minefields, explosives, and many other fields. Michel is a retired police officer from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) with over three decades of operational service in various investigative fields such as patrol, major crime, riot squad, close protection of VIPs, federal offences (drug and anti-smuggling enforcement), and organised crime, as well as being a supervisor of mixed teams made up of police investigators and civilian personnel. He has vast operational policing experience in the investigation of a wide spectrum of crimes against property, against the person, and organised crime at the domestic and international level, and has testified in court in approx. 100 criminal trials.

Michel is also a member of the International Investigative Interviewing Research Group (iIIRG) and the Society for Police and Criminal Psychology.

In the Fall 2023 semester, Michel will be teaching the module entitled Changes & Challenges: Local Policing in Global Context. In the Winter 2024 semester, Michel will be teaching the module Crime Science and Problem Solving. Michel has taught a variety of modules in Policing in Australia and at Teesside University. Michel also taught forensic psychology at Concordia University (Montreal, Canada).

Michel is an active researcher, and his research interests are in the areas of memory detection through brainwave analysis, lie detection, investigative interviewing, psychopathy, and violent extremism.  

His publications are:  

Funicelli, M., Salphati, S., Ungureanu, S., and Laurence, J.R. (submitted for publication). Examining Levels of Processing Using Verbal and Pictorial Stimuli with The Complex Trial Protocol in a Mock Theft Scenario.

Funicelli, M., White, L., Ungureanu, S., and Laurence, J.R. (2021). An Independent Validation of the EEG-Based Complex Trial Protocol with Autobiographical Data and Corroboration of its Resistance to a Cognitively Charged Countermeasure. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback 46(3), 287-299. doi: 10.1007/s10484-021-09506-2.

Funicelli, M., and Laurence, J.R. (2017). Personality factors, Interview Competencies and Communicative Suspiciousness of Canadian Police Interrogators of Criminal Suspects. Investigative Interviewing: Research & Practice, 8(1), 1-15.  

Mellor, L., Ramsland, K., and Funicelli, M. (2017). Psychopathic Homicide Offenders. In Swart, J, & Mellor, L. (eds), Homicide, A Forensic Psychology Casebook (pp. 165-186). New-York: Taylor and Francis.

Michel has been interviewed on a number of Podcasts and he has presented at several conferences:

M. Bekes, Life: The Battlefield, Podcast (available on YouTube), 8 July 2022  

D. Tolson, Accelerate and Multiply, Daniel and the Doctors, Podcast, (available on YouTube), 27 June 2022  

Dr. L. Mellor, Murder Was the Case, Podcast, Brain Prints (available on YouTube), 5 May 2022  

L. Wantenaar, Thinking Like a Genius, Podcast, 6 January 2022  

E. Weiss, True Stories & Science, Podcast, 16 October 2021  

R. Halbeisen, Rex Andrew Show, Podcast, episode #140    2021  

S. Duncan, Besides The Norm, BTN Podcast, episode #92    2021  

Dr. L. Mellor, Murder was the case, Podcast, episode #27    2018  

International Investigative Interviewing Research Group, 13th Annual conference, Winchester (UK). Presented on The Complex Trial Protocol, A Brainwave Analysis Technique to Draw Out Evidence from the Stored Memory of Suspects and Witnesses of Crime.    2022  

Society for Police & Criminal Psychology Annual Conference; Arlington (Tx), USA    2021

Presented on The Complex Trial Protocol, A Brainwave Analysis Technique to Draw Out Evidence from the Stored Memory of Suspects and Witnesses of Crime.  International Police Association, Forum on Global Anti-Terrorism; Macau, China    2016

Presented on The Role of Police Community Relations in the Prevention of Radicalization Towards Terrorism. Society for Police & Criminal Psychology 39th Annual conference; Ottawa, Canada    2013

Presented research on Personality, Competency and Communicative Suspiciousness Profiles of Canadian police interrogators.  4th International Symposium on Investigative Interviewing; Brussels, Belgium    2010

Presented research on Personality Characteristics of Police Interrogators in Montreal.