Bryan Vila, Ph.D., is a professor of criminal justice at Washington State University and founder/director of its Simulated Hazardous Operational Tasks (SHOT) laboratory.  His research interests include cross-cultural policing, police fatigue and work hours, and criminology theory.  He has published more than fifty articles on these topics as well as four books, including Tired Cops: the Importance of Managing Police Fatigue.

Since receiving his Ph.D. in 1990 from the University of California, Davis, Bryan has held tenured faculty positions at the University of California, Irvine and the University of Wyoming.  Prior to joining WSU in 2005, he directed crime control and prevention research at the U.S. Department of Justice.

Before he became an academic, Bryan served as a law enforcement officer for seventeen years—including nine years as a street cop and supervisor with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, six years as a police chief helping the emerging nations of Micronesia develop stable and culturally-appropriate law enforcement agencies, and two years as a federal law enforcement officer in Washington, D.C.

Cynthia Morris has been a writer and editor for more than twenty-five years.  She is the co-author (with Bryan) of two previous books, The Role of Police in American Society and Capital Punishment in the United States.  She and Bryan are currently working on the sequel to Bryan’s 2000 book, Tired Cops.

Cyn's solo writing projects (in progress) include a science-based thriller titled 73 Seconds and a series of American history-themed quotation puzzles titled American Acrostics. 

Prior to becoming a full-time author/editor in 1995, Cyn was an award-winning science writer/public information officer at the University of California, Irvine for ten years.