Mike Arntfield isn’t your average University of Western Ontario lecturer; he leads a double life — lecturer by day and by night a detective constable for the London Police Criminal Investigation unit.
Faculty of Information and Media Studies lecturer Mike Arntfield is also a detective constable for the London Police Service.
When not fighting crime part-time, Arntfield teaches a course on police in the media and popular culture in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies. He’s also working on a PhD.
Keeping up with his busy schedule would make most people wince, but Arntfield finds parallels between the two professions. He says working as an academic has added a new perspective to his role as a police officer.
“I love the double life,” he says.
“The balance is a lot of work, but it is fun because it puts each element of my life in a different context.”
Shortly after Arntfield graduated with a three-year anthropology degree from Western, he was hired as a police officer. Although dedicated to the new job, Arntfield never ruled out returning to school.
“I’d always intended to return to school one day,” he says. “The under-stimulation of a large part of patrol work inspired me to come back and stay sharp.”
As a member of the criminal investigation division of London Police, Arntfield investigates commercial and residential burglaries with DNA or forensic evidence. He was never someone to work 9 to 5 and was attracted to making a difference as an officer of the law.
However, one of the side effects of shift work was insomnia. He channelled those sleepless days and nights into upgrading his undergraduate degree, then pursuing graduate studies.
Now as a PhD student, he is putting his investigative skills work in the examination of the rise of online police memorials and the use of myth revolving around the media coverage of the murder of the four Mounties in Mayerthorpe, Alta. in 2005.
Arntfield has been questioned endlessly about why he pursued both interests – and his answer is simple: “sometimes people like being varied in their pursuits.”
He feels he can offer a different perspective on the academic study of police work because of his experiences as an active officer. He is also able to dispel the academic and pop culture myths about policing.
“You read about surveillance and state control and I’ll work through the night in high-speed chases. I’m applying what people in the academic world are largely just theorizing about. I think each element gives me a unique point of view on the other,” he says.
He also hopes to give police officers a voice within the academic world.
The university atmosphere also offers Arntfield a break from the stress of police work.
“Going to some of the horrific places I have to go to and seeing some of the things I see, this is a great, healthy release.”
Arntfield’s students also benefit from his experiences.
Before Arntfield’s course, Kelsey Matthews, fourth-year Media, Information and Technoculture student, never considered the role of police in the media.
“Mike’s teaching style is really refreshing because he not only has a vast amount of knowledge about the law and the police world, but also he is able to apply his police experience and relate it to a lot of the course material.”
Fourth-year Media and the Public Interest student Neil Rimmer says Arntfield offers insight into police actions and how the police system works.
“Mike provides a unique learning environment in that he offers real life experience to tackle both academic literature and media products.”
As for what the future holds for Arntfield after his PhD, he says is certain only that somehow he will find a way to marry the two interests.
“I understand there is probably a limited shelf life to it so at some point I’ll have to make a decision,” he says. “I don’t have any plans of leaving either one of them anytime soon.”